Rotary printing press
Prensa rotativa de imprenta
- Date
- 1843-1846 · confidence high
- Place
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Credited to
- Richard March Hoe (rotary press, 1843-1847); Friedrich Koenig (steam cylinder press, London, 1814)
- People
- 👤 Friedrich Koenig1774–1833👤 Richard March Hoe1812–1886
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A press whose type was mounted on a rotating cylinder fed with continuous paper, multiplying output to tens of thousands of copies an hour. Koenig had mechanised the press with steam power for The Times in 1814.
Koenig (a German working in London) built the first mechanical steam press (The Times, 29 November 1814); Hoe built the first type-revolving press in Philadelphia for the Public Ledger (1847); Applegath in London had a vertical rotary press in 1848.
What it led to
- The mass penny press and high-circulation newspapers
- National public opinion and commercial advertising
- Literacy and mass culture
- Bullock's (1863) and Walter's (1866) web-fed rotary presses
Built on
- Stereotyping1725
- Rotative steam engine (sun-and-planet gear, double acting)1781
- Fourdrinier continuous paper machine1799-1807
- Koenig's cylinder press
- Fourdrinier papermaking machine (1803-1807)
- Rotative steam engine
Made possible
- Linotype machine1884
- Offset printing1904
- Continuous web rotary press
- Curved stereotyping