| Early in the Industrial Revolution, the basic | | | | printing press that operated "much like a hand |
| mechanics of the hand-operated Gutenberg type | | | | press connected to a steam engine." His first |
| of printing press was relatively unchanged. | | | | production model was produced with the help of |
| Although new materials were used which | | | | German engineer Andreas Friedrich Bauer. |
| improved its printing efficiency, it was still based | | | | Koenig and Bauer sold their first two models to |
| upon the original Gutenberg press. | | | | The Times in London in 1814. These machines |
| By the year 1800, Lord Stanhope had built a | | | | were capable of producing 1,100 impressions per |
| printing press made from cast iron. This reduced | | | | hour. The first edition was printed on November |
| the hand-operated force required to operate the | | | | 28, 1814. They even went on to improve the |
| press by 90%. It also doubled the size of the | | | | models so that they were capable of printing on |
| printed area. It had a capacity of 480 pages per | | | | both sides of a sheet of paper at once. |
| hour which was double the output of the older | | | | Richard M. Hoe of the United States went on to |
| style presses. | | | | invent the steam powered rotary printing press in |
| Even so, the limitations of the older presses | | | | 1843. This invention allowed millions of copies of a |
| became obvious. Being manually operated, the | | | | page in a single day. Mass produced printed works |
| idea of using steam power for running the | | | | flourished with the invention coupled with the |
| machinery was devised. The second factor that | | | | transition to continuous feed rolled paper. This |
| needed improvement was the printing flatbed | | | | allowed the presses to run at an even faster rate. |
| itself. Instead of using the flatbed, the idea of | | | | By the late 1930's and early into the 1940's, |
| using a rotary motion of cylinders was thought | | | | printing presses improved substantially in |
| about. Both of these ideas were implemented | | | | efficiency. A model created by Platan Printing |
| successfully by the German printer Friedrich | | | | Press was able to peform 2,500 to 3,000 |
| Koenig in a series of designs devised between | | | | impressions per hour. These same style presses |
| 1802 and 1818. | | | | are continued to be in use today. |
| Patented in 1810, Koenig designed a new steam | | | | |