Steam Rotary Printing Press--Steam Culture

Did you know that the first printed item in history was the Bible? On today's episode of Steam Culture, Brent will be looking at how the invention of the steam engine in 1775 created new printing press technology for the 1800s. Using the power of steam, they went from printing thousands of pages a day to millions.
Key Terms:
Printing Press
Gutenberg printing press
Johannes Gutenberg
Friedrich Koenig
Steam engine
Industrial Revolution
James Watt
Richard Hoe
Rotary Press
Steam-powered rotary press
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[@ralphedelbach]

The best way I found to describe the three basic press designs to my students when I was teaching was 1) a platen press had both a flat printing plate and a flat pressure surface in which the entire page of paper is printed at one time 2) flat-bed / cylinder press which had a flat printing plate and a curved pressure surface which rolls a sheet of paper across the plate and prints a narrow area instead of the full page and 3) a cylinder press which has both a curved printing plate and a curved pressure plate. This is also referred to as a rotary press and is naturally capable of the highest speeds since there is no reciprocating motion. Good video other than this point. Thank you for posting it.

[@lukejtmulder]

The first item printed was not the Bible but a German poem The Sibyl's Prophecy which predicts the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire. The second run was the Ars Minor of Aelius Donatus a latin grammar book. The third was a batch of indulgences ordered by the Catholic Church to help the Empire fund a private army to fend off the looming threat of Turkish invasion in Cyprus. It was quite a few years before Gutenberg felt confident enough to print the Bible to the standards he felt it deserved.

[@kenschwentker4446]

So while you're standing there telling us about the Rotary Press, which has the printing plate curved and wrapped around the cylinder, the video up in the corner is clearly a Flatbed Cylinder Press, rolling each sheet of paper over a flat type form. I spent nearly 40 years in the printing industry, so details like that are important to me. But thanks anyway for showing how important printing has been to our world.

[@kawtharmarhoon2481]

Interesting