THE PRACTICE OF PRESSWORK BY CRAIG R. SPICHER ■ ■ *“■■••' - ... : CE N t'L—y Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Getty Research Institute https://archive.org/details/practiceofpresswOOspic The Practice of Presswork By Craig R. Spicher (CARD NO.36902) Instructor in Presswork Carnegie Institute of Technology Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1919 Copyright 1919 By Craig R. Spicher THE GETTY CENTER CONTENTS Platen Press Working Mechanism. 1 Platen Press Make-Ready. 14 Cylinder Press Working Mechanism. 38 Cylinder Press Make-Ready .. 61 Plate Process Printing. 95 Overlays. 109 The Manufacture of Printing Ink. 113 Practical Use of Printing Inks. 147 Composition Rollers. 163 Automatic Feeding. 170 Paper Making. 177 Hand Composition. 197 Linotype. 202 Monotype. 206 Photoengraving. 209 Electric Power. 222 Bibliography. 232 Contents. 233 PREFACE T HE object of this book is to give the shortest, best and most practical methods of Presswork, with the inter¬ est of the Pressman in view, and to burden his mind as little as possible with unnecessary technicalities, and with those details which do not bear directly upon every-day occurance. Inasmuch as the subject matter is to a large extent made up of hard facts, the task of remembering a string of these confronts the pressman, as soon as he has mastered the very rudiments of this intricate, mechanical process, and aspires to become more proficient. The pressman must not only be a mechanic, but an artist as well, and rise to the highest places in his calling. It is hoped this book will be of service to all who are inter¬ ested or engaged in the printing trades, as well as to the pressmen, for whom this is especially written. The want of such a book has long been felt. The mechan¬ ical details and mysterious methods of make-ready can not be readily acquired unless the pressman has had actual experience in many establishments under men who are proficient in their various specialties, due to the specializa¬ tion of particular kinds of work. As head of the press department of a laboratory of printing, where no expense is spared to secure results, and with the preparation of sixteen years practise of his trade in representative printing plants, the writer feels that he occu¬ pies a position of great practical advantage, in that the working out of new ideas and the perfecting of processes can proceed without the hindrance incidental to such work in actual practice in a productive and a busy pressroom. So far as he is aware, no treatise on presswork has yet appeared which explains, in clear, understandable language, the relation existing between the printing technical aspects of the craft and the demands of pressroom practice. This the author attempts to do in the following pages. Particular attention has been given to the important sub¬ ject of make-ready, the terminology of presswork and the various materials with which the pressman has to deal. In the preparation of this work, the writer acknowledges his indebtedness to the following gentlemen for much prac¬ tical advice and assistance, in what would otherwise have proved a very arduous task. To Clifford B. Connelley, A.M., Sc.D., Dean of the School of Applied Industries, Carnegie Institute of Tech¬ nology, for encouragement in the preparation of this book. To Harry L. Gage, Head of the Department of Printing, John C. Martin, Instructor in Typesetting Machinery, both of Carnegie Institute of Technology, for helpful suggestions, practical criticism, and hearty co-operation in the multitu¬ dinous details of planning, printing and binding. To William R. Work, M.A., M.E. in E.E.—Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Science School, Carne¬ gie Tech., for the contribution of electrical data. To Joseph T. Ailing, President of Ailing and Cory Co., for the material on paper and its manufacture. To James A. Ullman, Sec.-Treas., Sigmund Ullman Co., for the chapter on ink manufacture. To William Wunderlich, Graduate of the Department of Printing, Carnegie Tech., for “Hand Composition.” Craig R. Spicher Pittsburgh, Penna. INTRODUCTION G REAT inventions are necessary to keep the world up to the requirements which the ever-growing demands set. Demands always precede inventions. In no other relation was this more true than in printing. In the middle of the fifteenth century, about 1450, arose a great demand for more and cheaper books. The monks had been laboriously writing and copying manuscripts, but their work was necessarily slow, and the finished product was available to only a privileged few. It was this demand for more books that led to the invention of typography. There are different theories as to the first inventor of printing. It is generally considered that John Gutenberg (Gansfleisch) was the pioneer. The impression from the single carved block had long been used, and it was only a step to the idea of many char¬ acters cut separately so they could be put together in any combinations which the language required. Gutenberg used a simple bed and platen hand press which was made of wood. Two upright timbers were stayed to¬ gether at the top and bottom with cross-timbers. A third cross-timber supported the bed on which the type was placed Through a fourth timber a wooden screw worked. The lower end of the screw was connected with the center of a projecting lever; the screw was used to push the platen down to impression, and to raise it after impression. After first inking the form with a ball of leather stuffed with wool, the pressman (printer) spread the sheet of paper, previously dampened, over it, laid a piece of blanket upon the paper to make the impression both easier on the press and more legible, and finally grasped the lever and turned the screw until the platen squeezed the paper down on the form. By pushing the lever in the opposite direction the screw slowly raised the platen from the form, when the printed sheet was removed and the form inked again for another impression. The ordinary hours that a printer worked daily were from thirteen to fourteen. In Lyons a pressman must turn off 5350 impressions a day. In Paris the number was 2650. There are many kinds of modern presses, but they can be classified under three respective heads; namely, platen, on which the form and paper are both on flat surfaces; cylinder presses, characterized by a flat bed for the form, which reciprocates under a cylinder that carries the pack¬ ing for pressure in the printing; and rotary presses, which are presses where the paper travels at different angles through the machine, over angle bars; the forms are curved stereotype or electrotyped plates, mounted on cylinders. It is true that typography makes the message both legible and beautiful, but it is the Printing Press that gives general circulation to the message. The best pressmen are of the artisan type, part me¬ chanic, part artist, and owing to the exigencies of the mod¬ ern pressroom they must be men swift to think and act in their sphere of work. THE PRACTICE OF PRESSWORK PLATEN PRESSES T HERE are two different kinds of presses, by which it is possible to obtain impressions from type-forms, name¬ ly, cylinder presses and the platen presses. The latter style only is the one in which we are interested at present. It is the writer’s belief that one should thoroughly mas¬ ter the platen press before he aspires to become a cylinder pressman. It is the logical stepping-stone to the more complex cylinder press. I believe it assists one greatly to have this experience Definition. A platen press is one in which the form is locked up against a bed and the impression is delivered against a smooth, level plate called a platen. There are two distinct types, one known as the “clam¬ shell” type, in which the platen rocks up against the form; the other, known as the sliding platen, or universal type, is one in which the platen is first placed parallel with the bed and then drawn up against it. Examples of the rocker type are the Chandler & Price, and the Golding press; while the John Thompson Colt’s Armory press is representative of the other type. Placing Press. In placing a platen press, it is best located where the light can strike it from the left side. It should be level crosswise, in direction of the shafts; but it may be inclined either forward or back, as it will work under these conditions without detriment. The press should be placed upon and firmly bolted to a solid foundation. Bed. The bed of a printing press is the part on or 2 THE PLATEN PRESS against which the form is fastened or locked. It should at all times be kept free from rust and dirt. There are no adjust¬ ments to be made on a platen-press bed. Oiling the Press. Every oil-hole should be located and never neglected. The press should be oiled every morning and the most important oil-holes should receive oil at mid¬ day. Do not flood the press with oil. If oil runs over the part while oiling, wipe it off at once. If there are oil cups, give them careful attention; see that they feed properly— they are there for a purpose. To neglect oiling will ruin a machine. Never attempt to oil or clean a press while it is in motion. The friction-wheel which travels in the large gear cam¬ way should always receive careful oiling, as this is one of the most vital parts, and the one most likely to wear if the wheel does not rotate. This applies more especially to Chandler & Price presses. Wipe the slides and bearings and the gear and pinion teeth now and then; or, better yet, do it, or see that it is done, at regular intervals, and done well; rub hard and dry; after this apply a dose of clean oil. This advice is not mere theory, but based upon experience. Discs. Discs should always be kept clean and free from particles of dried ink. If there is a center disc, this should be removed when washing up, especially for a light color, as ink will accumulate in the opening between the two discs, and change the color. It will also become gummy and will not permit center to rotate. Grippers. Grippers are long steel fingers, attached by means of bolts, to the gripper frame, which, in turn, is moved by the mechanism of the press, causing the grippers to close or lie flat upon the platen, when the press closes. WORKING MECHANISM 3 When taking an impression they should always lie flat. The grippers hold the sheet firmly and flat against the tympan, and hold the sheet while form and sheet are being separated. The grippers should be moved as soon as the form is placed in the press, to clear form and bearers. Slurs and Grippers. If a slur is caused when the sheet leaves the form, it is probably because the grippers have not sufficient hold to pull the sheet away all at once and the sheet pulls or partly peels off with a dragging motion that brings the slur. Use sandpaper—glued sand side out—on the grippers, at the point where the grippers touch the sheet, which will increase their hold. Strings through the margins and pieces of card carrying a cork glued to the tympan, or strings extending into the open portions of the printing may be used. If a slur appears along the upper portion of a sheet only, it is generally an indication that the grippers or frisket fingers are biting the sheet too hard at the bottom and not hard enough at the top. This can be remedied by inserting cards to act as washers between the fingers and the face of the frisket frame, thus throwing out the heels of the fingers and equalizing the contact. Bend fingers accordingly. If a slur appears entirely across the face of the platen, showing downward, it may be caused by the wear of the bridge gibs. On a Colt’s Armory press only, this can be corrected by inserting packing between the gibs, which travel upon the slides, and their bearing. Test with folio paper for proper contact. Turn the press over by hand, allowing gibs to slide over a strip of folio, which will be held firmly if gibs are in proper adjustment. The Platen. A platen is the part on which the paper receives the impression when make-ready is complete. 4 THE PLATEN PRESS The platen has an adjustment for regulating and equal¬ izing the impression, which is accomplished by means of impression screws situated beneath the platen, as explained later in detail. Chases. Chases are made of steel, resembling a frame. When the size of a press is designated the inside measurements of the chase are given. For instance, 14 x 22 tells you the size of the press, denoting the maximum size of the forms the press will take. Chases are secured to the bed by a powerful hook, at the top, directly in center of bed. On Colt’s Armory the foot pedal controls the locking and unlocking. On Chandler & Price or Golding this is done by raising the hand-lever. Chases become sprung if too much pressure is used in locking up a form, which is needless. This makes the form springy and causes quads and furniture to work up to type- high, and print, thus spoiling numerous copies. Extra chases come with all new machines. Gripper Wrench. This wrench shouid have a proper place in which to be kept at all times when not in use, as nearly every time a form goes to press it becomes necessary to move the grippers one way or another. If you fail to use the proper wrench the nuts become rounded, and in time must be replaced with new ones. Roller Stocks. Two sets of roller stocks come with a new machine. A roller stock is the core upon which the composition is cast by the roller-maker. He knows the correct size to cast rollers without any instructions, as there are distinctive features whereby he knows the type of press from which the stocks have come. Stocks should always be handled carefully, so as WORKING MECHANISM 5 not to cause them to become at all bent or out of true. Roller Trucks. Roller trucks or carriages are attached to the ends of the roller stocks. They slip on over a small key and cause the roller to rotate properly. They act as a bearer also. Set trucks two points larger than rollers. To do this, take a straight-edge, lay across roller and bearers. If rollers are too large, note the difference and paste or glue strips of cardboard on the roller tracks or bearers. Number of Press. Each press has a serial number, which you must state when ordering new parts for a press. The serial number will be found in one of the upper corners of the bed. Tympan Bales. Tympan bales or clamps are attached to the lower and upper edges of the platen. These are de¬ signed to clamp your tympan upon the face of the platen. One should be careful not to spring them, as it is very necessary to have tympan stretched smooth and tight. Counters. Counters are attached in different places on platen presses, according to the style of counter. Counters are very necessary to read the number of impressions made. The counter will not register if the impression is thrown off. Counters should be kept well oiled. To set a counter, start at the far side and turn until the figure 9 appears, repeat this across the counter so as to read 99999. Then, after the first impression, the counter will register 00000. Fly-wheel. The fly-wheel may be used for turning the press over by hand. In fact, it is advisable for a beginner to turn over by hand before applying power, to see if grip¬ pers clear all of form and bearers. On the Chandler & Price and Golding presses, the fly¬ wheel rotates from you; on the Colt’s press, toward you. 6 THE PLATEN PRESS If the press has no brake, do not lay the palm of hand on fly-wheel to try to stop quickly. Take hold of rim with the fingers and let slide through hand. This will not burn the hands. Different Drives. There are various kinds of drives. The friction drive is the ideal drive in school classes, as there are no belts to catch the students’ wearing apparel, but such a drive involves a certain amount of lost power. The motor drive, which I believe is the most satisfac¬ tory, has the motor resting directly on the floor, or upon a stand the height of the pinion shaft. It is connected by means of a short belt. With the tight-and-loose pulleys, the press may be repeatedly stopped or started without opening or closing the electric circuit. The brake should be mounted on the belt-shifter fork, so that one motion of the hand removes the power and stops the press. Feed Table. The feed table carries the stock for feed¬ ing. It should be kept free from ink and oil and should never have too much stock placed upon it, as there is always a possibility that it may fall into the press causing breakage. The feed tables can be shifted to suit the operator. A receiving table is a table on which the stock is placed after being printed, and is stationary. It should be emptied frequently when running a job, for the same reason as previously stated. Impression Trip or Throw-off. On the universal type press, the throw-off, so as not to print, is accomplished by grasping the hand rod, which may be operated in almost any position the press is in, except when going over on the impression. The Chandler & Price has a lever at the left side to throw off impression. The Golding press has a han¬ dle at the left side of platen to trip, or take off impression. JOHN THOMPSON [PRESS WORKING MECHANISM 7 Guides. Guides may be quads, which I firmly believe are far superior to any other, for a number of reasons as explained later. The various makes of patent guides are permissible, such as Megill’s Spring-Tongue Guides, etc., for very short runs and non-register jobs. Guides are placed so sheets can be fed on platen in proper position and held there to receive impression. Impression Adjustments. On Universal type presses, for setting the platen, take five letters about 72-pt.—M’s or W’s preferred. 1. Measure with type-high gauge to ascertain if they are correct height. If not, underlay. 2. Lock one in each corner of chase three picas from inside edge, also one in the center. 3 . Place the impression clips down about six notches. 4 . Put on tympan consisting of three thin sheets of manila, one post-card tag. Do not print on this tympan at any time. Keep it perfectly clean. 5 . Loosen all five jam-nuts under platen. Screw them down to allow room to work. 6. Pull impression on a thin coated paper, and size up impression on back and face. 7 . Make the impression even on all letters except the center one. This you will find a trifle strong. Change the impression on the corners by turning rods to left to put on impression, to right to take off. Turn very little at a time. 8. After all letters have equal amount of impres¬ sion, turn back the steady screws just snug. Universal Type Fountain. The ductor roller re¬ ceives the ink from the fountain and deposits it on the steel 8 THE PLATEN PRESS distributor in a wide thin band rather than in a thick lumpy line. The flow is regulated from the fountain by thumb¬ screws. The ink-fountain cylinder is rotated by a ratchet and pawl, driven by the crank wheel. When the distributor changer is removed, it should be placed horizontally; if placed perpendicularly, the weight of the sleeve rests on the crescent and hollow screw, thus causing breakage. Forms. All forms should be set or so imposed that the center of pressure shall not be above the center of the platen shaft and the crank pins when the latter are on th impression. The advantage of this is that the torsional strain is transmitted downwardly and resisted by the solid mass of the frame. This strain is due to the fact that the cranks begin to pull before the dead center is reached. This is a general principle which applies equally well to all styles of platen presses. CHANDLER & PRICE PLATEN Adjustments. 1. Lock up letters as before. Put on tympan, three post-cards and two manilas. 2. Change screws to regulate the impression after loosening lock nuts as explained previously. 3. After it becomes level, be sure to turn up jam- nuts. Fountain. Fountain is placed after form is made ready. 1. Turn press by hand with impression lever on until the form rollers reach the highest point on disc. 2. Loosen bolts connecting fountain to press and CHANDLER & PRICE PRPISS WORKING MECHANISM 9 allow fountain to rest on rollers so that they leave a band of pressure about a quarter of an inch wide, then tighten. 3. When fountain is not in use, raise same so rollers do not touch. In setting fountain, begin at center and work both ways with thumb-screws and never cut ink entirely dry on steel roller. Tighten¬ ing screws pushes steel fountain blade against the steel fountain roller. Loosening enlarges the open¬ ing and allows a thicker line of ink to pass. Bearers. Bearers can be purchased or they may be made of small strips of tin and wood the width of the steel of chase. The wood strip should be thick enough to bring its face type-high when it rests upon the chase. A strip of tin should be cut wide enough to cover the face of the wood and to leave a side which can be bent at right angles and tacked to the wood, still leaving a projecting edge. This edge locks into the form against the edge of the chase. The Golding Fountain. The Golding fountain is called a brayer fountain. The ink supply is regulated by the thumb-screws on the clamp. The two small screws press the tank against the cylinder, reducing the supply. The one large screw draws the fountain from the cylinder, increasing the supply. To accumulate the greatest amount of ink on any par¬ ticular side of the disc, give the disc large or small movement. When working a small form requiring a very little ink, reduce the length of the stroke by changing position of collar on upper end of rod. To stop ink supply, turn up the pawl or take “dog” off. This fountain can be very readily taken apart, and the IO THE PLATEN PRESS brayer or small ductor roller can be thrown out of commis¬ sion by latching up. The Golding has an additional disc underneath for tint blocks, etc., which removes form marks from rollers. This can be easily be thrown in or out of gear. Golding Impression Adjustments. The Golding platen is actuated by a toggle movement. The impression is changed by the use of a wedge both top and bottom, the entire width of platen. Lock up in chase, letters as previously explained. 1. For tympan, two government post-card ma- nilas and two thin manila sheets. 2. The impression is regulated by the two thumb¬ screws at the right-hand side of platen. Turn them inward to put on, and outward to take off impres- ' sion. 3. Bring the platen to a perpendicular position when changing impression. The impression regu¬ lators control the impression at the top or bottom of platen from end to end. The check-nuts should be set firmly when perfectly level. Supplies. The supplies necessary in a platen press room are: Manila wrapping paper, 24 x 36—40 lbs. Government post-card manila, 22 x 28—140 lbs. The post-card should be cut various sizes to suit the different platens, also the manila wrapper which is placed in the tympan bales. Pressboard, 16-pt. A pair of scissors. Good oil-stone. Small paste-jar. GOLDING PRESS WORKING MECHANISM ii Rubber bands. Ball of wrapping twine. Screwdriver. Two- and three-em 10-pt. quads for guides. Several sheets No. 2 sandpaper. A Cold Glue. A cold glue is made by dissolving over night, brown pulverized glue in acetic acid. Then add a few drops of glycerine. This glue is always ready for use and will adhere to metal surfaces. Overlay Knife. 1 . Secure a piece of soft straight¬ grained wood five inches long, one inch wide, and one- half inch in thickness. 2. Saw a slot in the center of the one-half inch side, about two and one-half inches in length. 3. Use jack-knife to taper down the sides of end which contains the sawed grooves. 4 . Then round off the corners of the other end to make a handle. Use fine sandpaper to smooth off handle. 5 . Then procure an old hack-saw blade which is hardened on both edges. Place in slot and allow to extend beyond wood about one and one-half inches. Glue the blade. 6. Then take about nine feet of linen cord, double one end to the length of about eight inches. Lay the loop upon the handle end about two inches from end of slot and down, letting the short end extend beyond end of blade four inches. Now don’t allow a twist. Start to wind the long cord, very tightly, close together until you have reached the end of sawed slot. Place this end through the loop and grasp the other end of cord and pull until 12 THE PLATEN PRESS the loop is about half-way under the wrapped portion of knife. Cut off both ends of the cord. 7 . Put initials with lead pencil upon handle and then give two or three coats of shellac. 8. Grind upon emery wheel to a sharp point. Finish on emery cloth and fine oil-stone. Here you have an ideal knife, the most useful tool in the pressman’s equipment. Inking up a Platen Press. Before you place form in press, put the ink on the disc and distribute it thoroughly. After form is inked and you are running the job, place ink on the side of disc that is revolving up; this eliminates the possible chance of big “gobs” of ink being carried over type by rollers, thereby filling up the letters, and causing a dark spot to be printed for several impressions. Washing up Platen Presses. After removing form and cleaning same with a good stiff brush and gasoline, wipe thoroughly with cloth, as dirty furniture, leads, and type cause no end of trouble in time. Then distribute kerosene on press, clean the worst off with a soiled cloth, then finish cleaning with a clean cloth. This clean cloth is usually the soiled one to start with next time. Be sure to remove all tiny specks of scum and hard ink, as these cannot be removed at a later date if rollers are to stand long. Finally, give them a coat of machine oil. The proper way to wash rollers on a C. & P. or Golding after oiling with kerosene, is to start by bringing rollers up on disc. Then wash bottom roller having it clear of the disc. Clean thoroughly, then turn press. Clean second one in this position, and repeat on third one; then wash disc. On universal type press, start rollers down so that latch lifts rollers from cylinder. Wash all three in this position, WORKING MECHANISM 13 then wash distributing rollers. Next, turn press so rollers resume downward stroke, and wash the steel cylinder, as wide a band at a time as you can. Putting in Form. Exercise great care in placing form, so as not to strike it against some part of press. Always place quoins up. For a great many reasons, quoins should never be at guide edges. The stoneman always squares up from the guides. If form is removed for cor¬ rections or changes its position can very easily be changed unknowingly. Then, too, this is the safest rule. For special reasons, occasionally, the quoins may have to be at bottom. Grippers. See that they clear ALL of form, bearers, etc., before ever taking an impression. Tympans. Tympans should be hard and thin. A thick one soon becomes indented, forming a matrix and the sharp edges of type and cuts are rapidly worn away. Have thin manila tympan sheets cut proper size and handy to press. Put two thin manilas in tympan bales first. Then clamp same. Place a manila post-card (cut proper size) underneath. Next, stretch tympan tight and clamp under the upper bale. This is your tympan. DON’TS Don’t make ready with a press speeded too high. Don’t neglect to oil moving parts frequently. Don’t go away and leave the machine running. Don’t touch gripper fingers when press is in motion. Don’t put heavy impression out of center of platen. Don’t let the machine become covered with ink. Don’t run the machine faster than it can be fed. PLATEN PRESS MAKE-READ|Y TEN PLATEN PRESS RULES 1. If job is to be printed on bond paper, or ma¬ chine-finished paper, use a stiff ink, bond paper black. On cover stock use cover inks. On all enamels or coated paper use half-tone inks, or inks that are not too stiff, to avoid picking. 2. Place tympan on press, using two sheets man- ila wrapper, in tympan bales or clamps, and post¬ card manila for packing underneath. 3. Place form in carefully, quoins at top, unless otherwise informed. See if form will clear gripper (frisket) fingers, and that fingers clear bearers. 4. Print on tympan. Take a sheet, and measure up position. Also notice impression, and change if necessary. Place bottom guides rather close to corners of sheet, and side guide below center of sheet. 5. Don’t forget to make ready with post-card manila on top, even if you intend to use a draw sheet. 6. Use draw sheets only on big runs of color covers, and half-tone jobs. 7. Place strings when needed on grippers to clear all printed matter. After position is correct, then proceed to make ready. 8. On all billheads, envelopes, letterheads, cir¬ culars or cards, do all your patching on tympan under¬ neath post-card. When made ready paste this card on the tympan at the guide edges only. MAKE-READY 15 9. On all cover colors, half-tone jobs, large forms and register jobs, get proper impression; then print sheet on top post-card manila to allow for draw sheet. After position is correct, proceed to mark out and patch up. Print on bottom sheet and match overlay thereon. Cut out all leaders, if any on first sheet. If second sheet is necessary, put it on. Finish make- ready on top tympan sheet. Then put on tight draw and place guides. 10. SAFETY FIRST. Making Ready Business Card. 1 . Put on the tympan and ink up with bond paper black. 2. Place the form in, quoins up, see all clears, then print impression on the manila tympan. 3. Stop press; take card and mark out on tympan correct position to print the card, by laying edge of card along the longest line perfectly parallel with same, then sighting for the position sideways. Draw straight line along left-hand side of card. 4. Now crease card in center and have the crease come at the bottom of name. Make a dot on the tympan at the top edge of the card. Then place card over to left side parallel with your pencil mark. Using this for a square, draw bottom line. Now mark position of guides, have the bottom guides a half-inch or so in from the corners, side guide below the center of card sideways. 5. Secure small piece of manila Card, place into guides, put card on top and print one impression. 6. Measure to center sidewise and move guide if necessary. Measure up and down. Always on cards have center of type a trifle above center of 16 PLATEN PRESS card. If name only, have bottom of line on center of card. 7. On this same sheet examine for correct amount of impression. Don’t get position, then impression. Both should be done at once, to save stock and time. 8. If any letters need patching, lift card and patch on top of thin manila on which you have a printed impression. If one line or part of line needs a tissue, place it on, being very careful to use only a little paste on the outer edges only. 9. Get ink or color just right and submit for O.K. 10. If O.K., paste the manila card on top at the guide edges only, and only on the extreme edges, at two sides and one spot under the upper right- hand corner. Make-ready is complete. If you rub the manila card with an oily rag, stock will slide much more easily. Watch your color; keep it even. See that guides do not move from the card on top. In feeding, don’t leave finger marks on cards, and feed every card up to guides. Make-ready Letterhead. Usually bond paper. 1. Put on tympan, two thin manilas, card under. 2. Put form in, having it locked head down. See that grippers clear. 3. Pull impression on top manila. Take sheet of stock, center it on the longest line. Using bottom of the longest line for a straight-edge, draw line at left side. Then get an idea how far from top it is to be printed, say, for example, a half-inch. Then make a dot or short line here; then place sheet over MAKE-READY 17 to first line, which is straight with printed impres¬ sion and up to dot or small line. Then draw line en¬ tire width of sheet. 4. If inch width sheet is being printed place guides \ x /2 inches in from each corner, side guide about 3 inches up from bottom guides. 5. Guides may be either spring-tongue or quads. If quads, cut tongues of small lengths of pressboard say an inch and a half long, three-eighths of an inch wide. Cut slits about one pica below the guide edge and close up to quads. Put a bit of paste or glue on the strips and insert one in each slit with an end extending up, but not far enough to interfere with print. 6. Cut another manila card just one and one-half inches shorter than letterhead stock the long way, a little wider than the width of stock. 7 . Put card up to guides with sheet of stock upon same, pull an impression. 8. Measure up for position. Make guide moves as desired, but be sure you move guides in the correct direction. By raising or lowering card the amount you wish to move, you can then move guides to edge of sheet. This eliminates guesswork. 9. Now examine the impression; if it needs another card, put it on. If it requires less, do not remove top card, but remove the one under the two thin manilas. 10 . If necessary, reduce the amount of ink, or add more, as the need may be. 11 . Tie strings across from gripper to gripper to hold sheet. Use care not to let cord touch form. i8 PLATEN PRESS 12. Pull another impression on other end of first sheet used, if clean. Examine same as before. Patch letters if needed, with folio; don’t allow patch to extend over on another letter. If certain portions need a tissue, add it. Do all this patching on impression under loose card. Then get a good clean print and submit to proper person for O.K. If O.K., paste card only on the two guide edges and right-hand top corner. Now you are ready to run. Make-ready Two Type Pages. 1 . Use tympan of two thin sheets of manila, post-card underneath. 2. Distribute proper ink on press. If bond paper is used, bond-paper black ink is required; if machine- finished paper, an ordinary job black may be used. If coated or enameled paper is specified on this particular job, half-tone ink should be used, since any other heavy-bodied ink would pick the surface of the coated stock, showing white specks here and there, especially on large black letters. 3. Place form in press, quoins up. See that grip¬ pers clear all. 4- Pull an impression on tympan. Take sheet, place on edge at the extreme left side of printed im¬ pression; make a lead-pencil mark on the bottom edge of sheet at the extreme right-hand corner of sheet; fold over edge so as to be in direct line with your lead-pencil mark, then crease. This gives you half of the outside margin—or, in other words, the two outside margins of both pages. 5. Place this folded crease at the outer right-hand side of printed impression, making it parallel with MAKE-READY 19 the bottom of the two top lines of the page. Draw a line at the left-hand side of sheet on tympan the entire length of sheet. Then, placing sheet so as to secure correct position, top and bottom, make a line or dot. Now lay sheet parallel with the lead- pencil mark on left-hand side and up to the dot or line at top, using the lead-pencil line to square it, and draw a line on tympan the full width of sheet at the top. 6. Place guides up to the pencil line near the outer corners of the top of sheet, and below the center of sheet for side guide. 7. Place an additional post-card manila on top up to guides. Put in sheet; pull one impression. If there is not space enough to make use of grippers to separate sheet from form, and not allow it to get on rollers, use string between grippers stretched tight and tied securely. It must be in margins or clear the outer edges of printed matter. 8. Now measure up for correct position. If nec¬ essary, make moves on the guides. 9. Examine the sheet to see if it requires additional or less impression; act accordingly. Pull another impression, and if possible put a sheet of the stock the job is to be printed on underneath the top card. 10 . After position is O.K., if it requires some patching, mark it out from back, by holding up to light. Draw your lead-pencil lines to the very edge of where the impression begins to show weak. Draw big patches first and so on down, using great care not to overdo it. Patch up on back of sheet, 20 PLATEN PRESS using tissue only; make your patches come to the lines. Be careful to use very little paste; too much causes the packing to swell, thereby causing it to print much heavier in such a spot. 11. If you are using spring-tongue guides, raise top tympan clamp and insert this make-ready sheet between the two thin manilas. Be careful to get up exact to all guides. It needs no paste. Then clamp in tympan again. 12. Put card back on; pull another impression on sheet of stock. If any letter, or a line or a corner, here or there, needs a patch, put these patches right underneath the card. 13 . When all is O. K., paste down the card, on guide edges only, and one spot under the right top corner. 14 . Proceed with job. Keep hands clean; coloreven; watch for offset on back of sheet. Letters may break off, or pull out. If you have very little room to grasp sheet to take out, take small strip of sand¬ paper and fasten with a rubber band on middle finger of left hand. This will not smudge the print. If the stock can be kept straight, do so by all means. If a long run keep in ream lots. If you have a number of forms of same size on same job, you can have all forms locked up alike, meaning with same furniture on guide edges. This will eliminate securing position each time, and all that is necessary is to withdraw the make- ready sheet you spotted up with patches, substi- stute a blank, print one for position O.K., then print one for make-ready, mark out as before, re- MAKE-READY 21 move the blank sheet between the thin manilas, and put in your make-ready sheet. All should be O.K. then. If not, put your small patches on printed side of mark-out sheet. Make-ready of Envelope Corner. On long runs we usually make ready an envelope corner with the flap closed. On good work and short runs, make ready with the flap open. Envelopes are usually made of bond paper or rag paper. Both require bond black or equally stiff ink. 1. Put on two thin sheets of manila, with card underneath. 2. Pull an impression on tympan. Measure up position so the printed matter comes as specified. 3. Put on an additional card after guides are placed. Pull an impression, move the guides, and get pro¬ per amount of squeeze. 4. After position is O.K., and not until then, can you make ready. Take envelope to a light, a window or overlay table containing light so as to show the seams or lapped edge of the envelope. If impression is just right on the flap and too heavy on the double seam, cut down the seam on envelope with overlay knife, and cut around edge of flap where the printed matter runs off from same. 5. Paste this piece on the tympan in exact register, so the edge of flap and this piece will meet exactly. 6. The idea is to have an even and uniform impress¬ ion over the entire form on envelope. Therefore, you must cut out for seams, etc. 7. Then paste on card, guide edges only, and pro¬ ceed with the job, after oiling card on tympan. 22 PLATEN PRESS The Manila on Top. This manila is very important for these ordinary jobs. It should never be forgotten that it buries your make-ready. It shows you plainly if the guides have moved. If they have, move them back to edge of card. It is easier to feed on the surface of the card. If quads are used, sheets can not cut under. If you dent the card with a piece of wood, or small particles of dirt, only change the card. If you must back up a job soon, oil and change the card often or when necessary. It also gives you a hard packing. Always use the same kind of packing. This saves val¬ uable time, and you become accustomed to working with these required thicknesses of paper, and know just what they will do. They are not expensive, and the make-ready always looks neat, which is a requisite to good workmanship. Make-ready of Type and Rule Borders. 1 . Put on tympan of two thin manilas, with card underneath. 2. Distribute the proper ink on press. 3. Place form in press; see that grippers are clear. 4- Pull an impression on top tympan, and take sheet of stock and proceed to measure up for posi¬ tion, using method previously described. 5. Put card on top, cut a little larger than sheet. Pull an impression. Move grippers or tie string across so you can separate the sheet from form. 6. Measure up to secure proper position and make moves on guides, but be sure and move card proper distance up, if guide comes up, so as to avoid mov¬ ing too far; if guides go down, hold card flush with guide and then lower guide proper distance from card. This eliminates guessing. 7 . Examine this same sheet for impression. Alter MAKE-READY 23 same if need be. Try to have a sheet of the stock under this top card, for make-ready. Then pull another impression on stock, and get a position O.K. 8. If O.K., pull another impression on stock or the same stock you have underneath card and proceed to mark out on the back. 9. Make your lead-pencil line come to the very edge where the impression starts to slope off lighter. Turn sheet to get rules so you can look at a rule impression broadside. Mark low spots, then patch up with tissue. Be careful about too much paste. 10. If you are using spring-tongue guides, place this make-ready sheet up to guides between the two thin manilas. Be careful to take out this blank sheet which equals the sheet you are inserting in thickness. 11. Pull another impression, and if any low letters appear, patch up underneath the card, where you took first impression. If necessary, also add little patches here and there. 12. See that all is printing even and clear and clean. Paste card on the guide edges only, and oil card. Then go ahead with run. 13. Now, if the corners don’t come up, cut a very thin strip off your thin manila sheet the width of the joint which is not printing, and paste the same directly in the opening under card. If this does not cause same to print, the fault is possibly in the rule. Make-ready Type Pages with Leaders. Make-ready on the same principle except to cut out all the leaders on first sheet that you patch up. This makes the leaders print 24 PLATEN PRESS very clean and does not allow them to punch through the sheet. This should be done on all jobs containing leaders. Feeding a Job. One of the first requisites is clean hands, and if hands are dry, a little glycerine can be rubbed on the fingers, except for enameled paper or other glazed surfaces. Do not wet the fingers in the mouth, as dust, particles of paper, pigment, sizing, etc., are detrimental to one’s health. Feed every sheet up to the guides. When placing stock on feed-board, be absolutely certain that stock is right side up. There is a right and wrong side to all paper except coated or enamel. You can see the fine screen, or wire side of paper if you look at it in a strong light. This is the wrong side and should be the blank on all jobs that are printed on one side, and the least important on jobs that print two sides. This is particularly important when running cover stock. Watching a Job. Watch the color. If possible have a sheet laid aside with “color O.K.” marked thereon and compare frequently. Watch for spaces; letters may pull out, etc. Also see that sheets do not offset. A job should always be kept piled up straight if it will permit. Otherwise lay sheets around as delivered from press, and not too many on one stack. If they offset still, reduce the amount of color, or if absolutely necessary, slipsheet; but remember that slipsheeting runs the cost of the job up. Make-ready of Zinc Etching. Begin as previously stated, as all type, rules, and zinc etchings are marked out from the back to even up the impression. If you can not see the printed impression well, put on more impression so you can see a faint impression on back of sheet, when you hold it up to light, or over mark-out board. Make-ready Two-color Forms. Always print the key MAKE-READY 25 form first if possible. The key form is the one containing the most type or design. Then after this is run, it is easy to register in the color with the aid of the guides, outlines of the design, etc. Make-ready Form of Type Containing Perforating Rule. Take form before putting in press; cut a four-ply card and paste on back of form on each side of the perfor¬ ating rule, covering all type to be printed. Lay form on a stone, unlock slightly, and plane down. This allows the type to come up and the rule to be lowered, and you can make up for this difference by putting an overlay of very narrow card on tympan where the perforating rules strike. This will save rollers from being ruined by the steel rule. But if possible, perforate alone with rollers out of press. Cutting on Platen Press. Cutting rule should be locked up, preferably for universal type of press. Rollers should be removed. Lower the impression clips, as the im¬ pression is regulated entirely and with perfect evenness by the amount of tympan carried and by the latches or clips, which hold the throw-off lever. These latches have tongues fitting in groves in the arcs on the bridge, making a slip impossible—even if the lock-nuts work loose. By the use of these latches you can raise or lower the platen, one notch being equal to one post-card manila. Lower the platen considerably and glue on an old copper half-tone face down under a tight heavy manila. Turn over by hand, and pull an impression. Then cut the draw sheet beside cutting rule, so as to allow one pica of bare copper to show. Set the guides and proceed to run. If necessary to increase im¬ pression to make a clear cut, add folio as needed on back of form. Copper is soft and will not injure or dull the steel cutting rule so quickly as other harder metals. 26 PLATEN PRESS Gold Bronzing. The job is made ready same as in¬ structed on type or rule forms. But if for a close-register job, don’t fail to use quads for guides. Instead of ordinary ink, use gold size. The proper way to tell if you have enough ink on is this: if the bronze will sparkle very brightly after it is dusted on, you can rest assured enough ink is being carried. The bronze should be put on the print with the aid of a tuft of cotton, or bronzing brush. Do not leave too much bronze powder on the sheet. Final cleaning should remove all powder except on printed impression. Scoring. To score means to crease or crush a line on the sheet, so that it may be folded more readily and without breaking on back of folded crease. For all dance programs and cover stocks, lock up two brass rules with a 2-pt. lead between, using rules a half-inch longer than the sheet you intend to score. Take rollers out of press, and put on a regular tympan. Take a brayer or finger and ink up these rules; then take an impression on tympan. Secure a linen string and glue with cold glue, then put it upon tympan exactly between the impression of the rules. Paste a folio an inch wide over the string. Pull several impressions on any waste stock. Set your guides and run. Feed stock in with outside of cover up. The heavier the stock the wider you place the rules apart. This method of scoring is far superior to any other, since it allows the stock to lie per¬ fectly flat after scoring, and the amount of impression never changes. Make-ready Imitation Typewriter Form. The form should be locked up and a stone proof pulled to ascertain if there are any corrections. If not, unlock, and place a piece of china silk across form, rather loosely. Do not stretch. Lock up with the ends of silk fastened by placing MAKE-READY 27 the wood furniture up against silk and type. Use the proper ink. If none can be had, take a good purple and thin with tint base or thin varnish and distribute carefully before putting form in press. Then put form in and put the regular tympan on. Pull an impression and proceed to get position on tympan. Then place guides, and get impression on sheet for position O.K. Then pull sheet for mark-out on back. Pull this a sheet heavy so you can see impression better. Mark out and patch carefully. Put this in between the two thin sheets, and if necessary, put a few tissues under top card. After impression is even, take a piece of 80-lb., 25 x 38 stock, cut a very narrow strip, say, nonpareil wide, and paste a small piece on all periods only. Be sure and not to get this on other letters. This is to imitate the typewriter, as a typewriter always punches the periods. No impression should show on the type. Keep color sheet handy for comparison. If they are to be filled in by typewriter, get a sample for color from the typewriter to be used for filling in. Half-tone Make-ready on Universal. 1. Put half-tone black ink on press. Distribute thoroughly. 2. Put on a tympan of two thin manilas and a post-card tag underneath. 3. Pull an impression and set guides temporarily and secure position O.K. This is done to see if form is made up properly. See if all half-tones are square on pages, and if all corrections have been made. 4. Remove guides, and place a sheet or two of stock to be run on top of tympan. Lower the im¬ pression clips if need be. 5. Then put a card on top and pull an impression 28 PLATEN PRESS on a sheet of stock. See if cuts are all type-high. If not, lock rollers up and lean form front. If any cut is low on one side, put a strip of paper down the back of that particular cut. If any cuts are a sheet low, put a sheet in back of same. 6. Print another sheet and mark out all type from back. But all half-tone cuts mark out from the face. Put on patches only where the screen looks broken. Draw your big patches first, taking all your weak spots in one big patch, and then on inside the large mark, bearing in mind all the time not to put any more tissues on highlights than is necessary as the highlights are the white lights and will wear. The dark portions or solids will not show any wear. In marking out this sheet, use the standard marks, so that any feeder can readily patch up your sheets. These marks include a ring or a series of circles without any other marks or letters, meaning tissue paper. Patch marks with the letter “ F ” signify folio, which is twice as thick as tissue. If there is a series of patch marks within a circle marked “all F,” this signifies all folios within these marks and including outside mark. If a circle is marked with a “P” it means a piece of paper equal to two folios. If a circle is marked with a “ P” and the word “own, ” it means this requires a piece of its own stock. If a circle has the letter “S” inside, it means scrape the inside of the mark. If a small circle has the letter “X’’ therein, this means cut out. If a circle has the word “See” inside, it means the pressman desires to see what is wrong here, MAKE-READY 29 possibly a piece of dirt or something in the pack¬ ing. All marks should follow irregularities in im- ression to be cut easily (quickly) on back of sheet. 7 . After this sheet is patched, raise the bottom tympan bale. Lay it open; put bale down on the second sheet, and pull an impression on same. 8. Match your overlay on and paste in the margins securely, register the same to printed impression. 9. Put the top thin sheet back in bale and open the bale nearest you and remove one blank sheet to make up for the sheet you just put in and also put the bottom card on top of patched-up sheet, to bury 30 PLATEN PRESS make-ready, between the two thin tympan sheets. 10. Pull another impression and mark out if nec¬ essary. If there are only a few patches, put them on top of top thin sheet. Never patch up bad or low letters on the first sheet, because evening up the impression may cause them to print improperly. 11. After all is clean and even, take a regular manila draw sheet, and put around outside of lower tympan bale. Put bale down; raise the manila draw sheet and tear off edge inside bottom bale, which may protrude beyond clamp or bale. Then stretch the draw sheet very tight, especially in center, down over the top bale and crease along the top edge. 12. Then bring top sheet back and tear off all but about one inch from this prominent crease just made. Raise bale and wrap the top sheet around outside, allowing the crease to go beyond top cor¬ ner of bale one pica; have same distance entire width of bale. Hold firmly and lower bale; then clamp down very tight. You will then have a snug, firm hard surface. 13. Print on a soiled sheet, and latch the rollers up, and then do not run rollers over form again. But print on top sheet; this will give you a faint im¬ pression. 14. Take sheet you have O.K. for position; mark position of sheet on tympan, put guides near outer corners an inch, or inch and a half in; with side guide below the center of sheet. 15. Pull an impression. See if position is O.K. Then see if you can use grippers or cord across the MAKE-READY 3i grippers to hold sheet. Use quads and small strips of press board close to guides for tongues, cut one pica back below the edge so they won’t interfere with feeding. Then cut a V-shaped pressboard and put in slit in front of guide and up to the quad so sheet can not cut under same. This is a flat make-ready; if it is necessary to use either hand-cut, chalk, or metallic overlays (see “Overlays” as to how to make them), they can be attached to first mark-out sheet. Closing Press at Night. If a long run is on the press, it is best to put a sheet of machine-finished stock up to the guides, with impression on and turn up by hand so it will just touch. Then put quads behind rollers to force out from cylinders. This will prevent the atmosphere from having any effect upon your make-ready. To Print on Parchment. First secure a good grade of heavy black ink, that dries by oxidation. When job is ready to run, rub powdered magnesia over the entire surface of the parchment, using cotton. Rub rather hard, then wipe off with clean cotton and immediately print before the grease comes to the surface. You can not powder any sheets ahead; it must be done just before putting the sheet in the press. On all Register Jobs. Do not fail to mark the pos¬ ition of the guides on one sheet, also the number of copies run, to enable you to tell how many extra copies there are; keep this sheet in a safe place. Friskets. If you are proofing up a job, say for ex¬ ample a half-tone, and you desire to show the customer a proof in colors, without the cost of extra plates, print this same design on any thin paper. Cut out on this thin sheet 32 PLATEN PRESS the parts you wish to print in color. Now mix up your transparent tints, which are by far the best laying tints for coated paper. Now lock up a tint block; ink up press with the tint; and lay a good printed sheet down to guide. Lay on top this thin sheet, which has previously been cut to allow open spaces where you desire color. Now pull an impression. This will print through where the places have been cut away, and bear off where you don’t want the color. This gives you an opportunity to switch your colors, until you arrive at the proof you most desire, without any additional cost for plates. Make-ready Tint Blocks. Solid tint blocks require considerable pressure, especially in center of print, which causes the edges to show a heavy outline on the reverse side of sheet. Do not try to bring this to print properly with too many tissue patches; it is better to pull an impression on a coated sheet equal to 80 lb., 25 x 38, and cut in from the edge .028" and paste on in exact register. This will eliminate over make-ready for coated stock. For machine laid, or antique paper, it will be necessary to use a heavier overlay. Color Post-cards. When printing post-cards in more than one color, print the black or key plates first. Then use transparent colors, and you can keep them in register with the black at all times, thus saving a lot of grief and woe. If you first get position of black or key plates, then run color, you can not change black if for some reason they vary in register. Very frequently you can not move black without being under the necessity of moving the overlay. Run transparent colors and be repaid with a good clean job, and exact register wherever it is possible. MAKE-READY 33 Printing Cover Paper. The most desirable thing is to prevent the ink piling up on the edges; especially if an¬ other color prints over same, or if another color is to register to the same. On very soft cover paper cut an overlay, keeping in the thickness of one card (about .021 inch) from the edge; that is to say, cut it off of the design. This makes the edges print clean, and you can not see the impression on the back of paper. On medium hard stock, which contains many small pores, print on a manila card (post-card), and cut in from the edge. On very small letters and spots, this can not be done, but on heavy or large letters these should all be cut out, in from the edge. With stock which is very hard, thick and full of deep pores, cut out the design on possibly 4-ply manila. You can run less ink, and it will lay more smoothly and produce a much more satisfactory job. Embossing. The Universal type of press is the most powerful printing press and very rigid for embossing. You can also regulate your impression with more satisfaction by raising or lowering the impression clips, even after all is ready to run, without in any way interfering with the re¬ gister. The die is possibly mounted on metal, or should be, or with a patented electric embossing base which has an electric coil and supplies heat to the brass die. This is an excellent asset to any firm that does a great deal of em- bssing work. 1. Glue on the platen a piece of strawboard, and allow it to dry. It is good practice to put your die on the press just before going home at night, espe- 34 PLATEN PRESS dally if it is a large die; this gives it sufficient time to dry. 2* Now we have the female die locked up in a chase, or placed on a patent base. 3. If there are two dies to emboss at once, it be¬ comes necessary to register them in properly before getting ready to run. This is done by inking them up and printing the outline over the designs to be embossed, making moves until they are in perfect register. 4. Mark on your strawboard, which is glued on press, about where the die will come. 5. Now take two parts of Alabastine, which can be purchased at almost any hardware or paint store; mix with one part dextrine, which can be procured at any drug store. Mix these two thoroughly, then add a little water until you have a good thick putty. 6. Spread this putty over surface of strawboard inside your outline, to the thickness of about one- eighth of an inch. 7. Lower your impression clips five or six notches. Then take two sheets of tissue; lay them over the composition and turn the press over on the impres¬ sion several times. 8. Open wide and remove the top tissue, and cut with sharp overlay knife all the surplus compo¬ sition that has sqeezed out around the design. 9. Take another tissue; place on top of composition and raise up the impression one clip or notch and run over on the impression. If it breaks through on the tissue you possibly have too much water in the composition. Use two tissues, keep cutting away MAKE-READY 35 the compound that squashes out from under the die, and adding a clean tissue each time. Of course, the first tissue remains over composition all the time; this can not be removed. But the second one can be removed each time. Add an¬ other notch of impression until you get all the detail you possible can out of the die. 10. Now let it set for 15 or 20 minutes, then return and if it seems quite stiff, and you do not want the stock to be ironed out between the letters or inside of border, take overlay knife, which must be very sharp, and cut close to design, exercising great care not to injure the design or remove the inside com¬ position. This requires the removal of composition around large letters, but a small line of type you can cut around close to the outer edge only. When the composition is hard, set the guides and register same and proceed to run. If it is an electric base, turn on the current about fifteen minutes before you start to run. Watch the hair-lines, etc., and also register, as off-register spoils the job. This is the best com¬ pound possible to use. Strawboard Embossing. This kind of embossing can be done with safety on a clamshell type of press. 1. Lock up your die, and make an outline on the platen where die will come with pencil. 2. Cut three pieces of strawboard and glue them one on top of each other on the platen. 3. Now pull several impressions and if you need additional squeeze add it behind the form. 4 . Cut away the strawboard around the die. 36 PLATEN PRESS 5. Put the impression on and print a number of impressions on strawboard. This forces it up into the die, and also hardens the male die. Keep cut¬ ting away the outside, and printing until you have out of the die all you can get. 6. Let the press run; this will continue to harden the male die. By this method you can start to run any time you wish, and you will find one can be¬ come quite expert at this and do very beautiful work. On small and also large dies this is an excel¬ lent method. To Emboss a Rule Border. 1. Make up a rectangular frame to the size de¬ sired, using parallel 3-pt. rules, separated by a pica or less, as desired. 2. Lock this up in a chase; put a heavy manila on for a tympan. 3. Ink up the rules with a brayer and print on the tympan. 4. Ink up form again and pull an impression on a four-ply manila, and mark the guide edge on bottom. 5. Take overlay knife and cut out the inside strip between the rules, exactly along the inside edges and paste on, in exact register on the tympan ac¬ cording to your printed impression. 6. After you have the entire rectangle pasted on, set your guides and proceed to run. This gives you an embossed border, without the cost of a brass die. All brass dies are cut by hand, which is fine work. To Sink a Panel. 1. Take a block of metal, or wood about 1-16 inch. MAKE-READY below type-high; place around this a nonpareil brass border. 2. Lock in chase and put on regular tympan. 3. Ink this up with a brayer and print an impres¬ sion on the tympan. Take a piece of blotting paper and paste the inside center of printed impression on platen, being careful not to get paste any nearer than two picas from the inside of rule border. 5. Pull several impressions on this blotter, and take a piece of thin zinc and put under the blotter, between blotter and manila. Use a straight-edge with a sharp overlay knife to cut just on the very inside of rule marks on blotter. This removes the outside and allows the rules to come down outside of the rectangular piece of blotter. 6. Set the guides and feed sheets face down to sink the panel. This method can be used on either platen or cylinder presses. 37 CYLINDER PRESSES WORKING MECHANISM I T IS the author’s intention to write this chapter having in mind the Miehle press throughout. It is his claim, in good faith, that when a pressman is familiar with and understands the possibilities of a Miehle press, he can very readily see if a like operation or “stunt” can be done on the press he hopes to apply it to. A Miehle press will do any¬ thing possible to be done on a two-revolution press. The most desirable thing is to know what can be done; then if one can apply it to a different make of machine he can readily see for himself how to apply his knowledge to the presses. But a pressman having very little or no experience on a Miehle does not begin to know what this wonderfully constructed machine will do, unless he is instructed by another; yet he can readily get the same results as before on other makes as far as his ability and knowledge go. Description. A cylinder press is a press where the form is locked on a perfectly flat bed, and the impression is de¬ livered against a large cylinder. The bed travels forward and backward in correct unison, or time, with the large steel cylinder, which makes two revolutions for every impression, and is commonly known as a two-revolution press. Placing a Cylinder Press. It is best located where you have the best light, which should fall upon the front end, or the end where the sheet is delivered. It is desirable to see that sunlight does not fall directly in feeder’s face. WORKING MECHANISM 39 Foundation for Cylinder Press. Every press should be provided with a solid foundation; wherever it is practicable, constructed of brick, concrete or stone. Such a foundation will insure the most satisfactory results; but where this is not feasible, the nearest approach to it will have to be ar¬ ranged for according to circumstances. If necessary, the press may be placed on floor, if it is certain that it is amply strong and rigid. An ordinary floor may be strengthened by providing strong, heavy planks for the press to stand on; in the majority of cases this is advisable. The planks should be at right angles with the floor beams and should be secure¬ ly bolted through the floor to every beam that they pass over. If the floor beams run in the same direction as the press is to stand, planks should be placed transversely under each end of the press, and at least two more should be used, equally spaced between these. If the beams run in the opposite direction, the planks should be placed lengthwise under each side frame. They should be at least one foot wide, 2 y 2 inches thick, and about one foot longer than the press measures. It is a good idea to cover the floor underneath the press with sheet zinc or galvanized iron, so as to prevent the oil drippings, etc., from soaking into the floor. To Level a Cylinder Press. In order to get the best results, see that the press is leveled up with a good level and properly packed up under each corner, with the greatest amount of weight bearing on the ends of the press. The proper place to find the level is on the tracks of the press. Lay the level on the tracks both ways. Then pack up under the center of the side frames. To avoid rocking, it is essen¬ tial to have a good foundation. Your press will then run much smoother, on account of the bearings being lined up 40 CYLINDER PRESS as they were made in the factory. One can level up the press by laying the level upon the bed in rear, then turn press until bed is near fountain end and repeat. It is necessary to level the press carefully, both length¬ wise and crosswise, using a good spirit level on the steel face of the track, for the lengthwise test; and on a straight¬ edge placed across the track for the crosswise test. A vibrator roll makes a very satisfactory straight-edge. The level should never be turned end for end. It is a good plan to mark one end of the level; and bear in mind, during the entire process of leveling, that the marked end must always point towards the same end or side of the press. When leveling the press, use heavy paper or cardboard, under the frames, one single on top of the other, thus acting as par¬ allel wedges. It is particularly important that the bearing should not be too heavy under the middle sections of the frames, as this would cause the press to rock. Cylinder Press Register Adjustments. To register press, adjustment should be made in the order following: 1. Adjust type bed. 2. Adjust cylinder to bearers. 3. Adjust grippers. 4- Adjust feed guides. 5. Adjust shoofly fingers. 6. Adjust stripper fingers. 7. Adjust drop guides. 8. Adjust bands and brush. 9. Adjust register rack. To Adjust Type Bed. The only adjustment that a pressman can make on the type bed is the slide gibs, which are located on each corner of the type bed. The purpose of these gibs is to take up any play that may develop between WORKING MECHANISM 41 the outer steels on the bottom of the bed and the upright guides on the way frames. The proper adjustment of the gibs will aid in obtaining good register. Each gib is held in position by a cap-screw. To set the gib, loosen the screw and move the gib up to the outer face of the guide on the way frame. Do not set the gib so tight that it binds, but allow a nice sliding fit. Then set the screw up very tight. The gibs should be oiled regularly, also the inner face of the upright guides on the way frames. To Adjust Type-bed Bearers. The type-bed bearers, one on each side of the bed, gauge .918" and should never have any paper liner put under them unless they have worn down enough to warrant such shimmering. This should not be resorted to unless the bearers have been calipered with a micrometer guage. See that there is no dirt under these bearers and that the screws are kept tight. In case oil collects on the bearers, make it a point to wipe them off and keep them comparatively dry. Do not put rosin on the bearers. Cylinder to Bearers. Take the bearers off the bed and clean them well. Then lay them upon the bed, but do not put the bolts in. Always keep the bolts in a position so you can place them in the same place from which you took them. Turn the press ahead so that the cylinder is down; then loosen top jam-nuts on all four impression rods. Move them enough to allow you to have play; then move both steady-screws which are directly under cylinder boxes, on both sides of press down considerably. Take long pin wrench and move both rods down until you can just push the loose bearers in and out and also feel the contact; repeat this operation on the other side, but be absolutely sure the numbers near the pin wrench holes on the rods on the side are pointing in exactly the same position or direction. 42 CYLINDER PRESS Then step in rear of press and grasp each bearer and move sideways to ascertain if both have same contact. If O.K., then, in order to give the cylinder sufficient contact on the bearers, pull all four rods down equal to one hole on all four nuts. To illustrate: if the figure “2” was facing out on all four nuts, turn the nuts so that the figure “3” would be facing out. In order to pull them down this last hole, it may be necessary to turn the press so the cylinder will be up, to receive the impression on the bearers. The turning down of one hole is equal to ten one-thousandths of an inch, or the distance between one hole equals this much: Pony bring down.006" No. 3. .008" No. 1 and 2.010" Two-color.010" Then turn the press so cylinder is down on the bearers again, and set the steady screws up just so they touch the cylinder boxes, or with a piece of book paper between the screw and the box, and tighten the locknut well. It is good practice to turn the press over by hand once or twice to make sure that your work is all right before applying power. Then be sure and tighten jam-nuts. Note. Make sure you do not set the steady-screws up with the cylinder, up off the bearers, as it will surely break something. Now, if the impression is not even, take the press board off the cylinder, and pack up with manila paper and try it again, as it is almost impossible to get press boards that do not vary in thickness. If at any time with an extry heavy label, or plate form, the cylinder does not ride the bearers, pull it down a little harder, the same as before. In no case should the packing exceed a light manila WORKING MECHANISM 43 sheet above the bearers, as it would have a tendency to pull the packing away from the tympan clamp and would also wear the back edge of the plates. And the packing should never be less than the height of the bearers on the cylinder. Underlay or plane down the plates to get an even impression as near as possible to type-high, which is the same height as the bearers. Take Notice. See that the cylinder rises up on both sides of the press so the block touches the guide-rod frames. If not, tighten the cylinder springs by means of adjusting screws located in the bottom side of cylinder spring blocks. Turn to the left, each about one turn, and see if the cylinder lifts to the proper place; if not, give them another turn and try again. Be careful not to compress the springs more than just enough to lift the cylinder the proper amount, and be sure that the spring blocks are level; then tighten set-screws on side of spring blocks. The springs are simply to over¬ come the weight of the cylinder in rising. To Adjust the Grippers. After the form has been made ready, the grippers should be re-set, especially if close register is desired. Loosen all the grippers, after marking their position on both sides of each gripper with pencil, and then note that the cylinder gripper-tumbler rests on the stop. Cut a number of strips, one inch wide, from the stock for the run, and place two strips between the tumbler and the stop. To set the grippers, start at the center and work toward the edge. Place a strip of the stock under the gripper and press reasonably hard on the end; then tighten up on the set screw, but not hard. Then pull the strip of paper under the gripper to determine if the gripper is holding; also see that the tumbler is still holding strips. In like manner set each gripper, after which try each strip of paper 44 CYLINDER PRESS and note that each gripper has the same hold on each strip, likewise the tumbler. Then tighten each set screw, a little at a time, going over them several times until they are securely clamped. Good register is jeopardized if the clearance between the tumbler and the stop exceeds the thickness of a manila sheet. It is most essential that the bearings which support the gripper rod be oiled frequently, so that the rod will not cut and seize in the bearings, thereby causing serious accident. To Adjust Feed Guides. Set stop on left, or feeder side, end of front feed-guide shaft, so that it rests on pin. Adjust the feed-board by means of thumb-screws under each front corner of feed board so that the top of the feed- board is about 1-16 inch below top of cylinder just after the grippers have closed on a sheet. You can determine this by means of a straight-edge placed on top of board so that the end rests on cylinder. Now bend the feed-guide rests same shape as cylinder, so that they just clear the packing 1-32 inch or less. One very important feature is applied here. The cam gear is constructed with a double lift, which allows the cylinder to rise part of the way and then travel part of a revolution, a sufficient distance to allow the sheet to travel clear of the feed board and guides, so as not to smut the print; then the cylinder makes the second lift in time to grip the next sheet. By this construction it is possible to get the guide rests close down to the cylinder and the sheet lies down flat when taken by the grippers. This assists the register and has a tendency to prevent wrinkles. Now set the front guides down upon the rests and have the grippers open about to take a sheet. This is the position press is in MIEHLE PRESS WORKING MECHANISM 45 to take sheet. All should be perfect at this point, one hand on guide rod stop, to make sure all weight of guides is on pin under stop. Tighten the thumb-screws securely. In this position they should just touch the guide rests and not spring them when raising and lowering. The feed-board should be a good fit sideways between guide-rod frames. Timing Guides. Now turn the press back so that the closing pin is in the tumbler and the grippers are about one-half inch up from the cylinder. At this point set the front guide lifting finger, which is located on the extreme end of the guide rod, right or gear side of the press, down on small pin that blade works in and out on front guide lever. Now, if you turn the press ahead, the guides will lift and clear the sheet when the grippers take it. The guides can be adjusted to lift faster or slower by altering the distance that the points of grippers are away from packing when setting the lifting finger. See that blades on front feed guides are bent slightly back so they lift away from the edge of the sheet, or they may kick the sheet away from position when the guides raise. To Adjust the Shoofly Fingers. The shoofly finger rod can be taken out or replaced by pressing down on spring or center bearing, and pushing to right or rear side of press until the end is clear of the socket in the end of shoofly crank. When in position see that the key in end of shoofly rod fits the socket good, so that there is no play. Then divide up the shooflys and tighten screws. Care should be used not to spring the rod. Have the fingers all lie down even on the packing and not too close to the grippers. When open at the highest point, they should be about 5-16 inch from packing when passing ends of the stripper fingers. 46 CYLINDER PRESS A recent change has been made on this equipment which eliminates the flat spring necessary to keep shoofly rod in center bearing. The new center bearing is so designed that all spring and vibration are eliminated. The rod is removed similar to the old style, the only difference being that it is essential to have the flat place on the rod come opposite the center bearing before the rod can be removed. To Adjust the Stripping Fingers. Divide them up on the shaft, so that they will clear the shoofly fingers and the grippers as the cylinder turns around. Tighten the screws, with the stripper fingers resting on the upper tape pulley rod. Now, on right, or gear side of rod where the stripper lever is located, loosen the screw and push it as far toward the cylinder as it will go, and tighten the screw. On the other end of the rod, just inside of the tape frame, is the shoofly cam stop. Set it so that the point rests on point of shoofly cam as sheet is leaving cylinder. To Adjust the Drop Guides. The drop guides are put on the press to assist the register. Without them, there is one point after the sheet is fed to the guides, and then when the grippers are closing on the sheet and the guides raising, that there is nothing to hold the sheet from moving out of register. If properly adjusted, they will hold the sheet firmly to feed board while the grippers are taking the sheet. To adjust, set stop on left or feeder end of rod down on pin. Now set each drop guide down so they rest on feed board. The cylinder should be in a position with the grippers just closed on the sheet. The wire drop guides should just straddle the front guides. The old kind may be set to suit the operator. On the right or gear end of drop guide rod is located the WORKING MECHANISM 47 drop guide lever. Loosen this and allow the connecting link to rest in notch on gripper lever that works the tumbler pin, and tighten the set screw. In order to have the guides lift soon after the grippers have taken the sheet, there is located a long set screw through end of guide lever. Adjust this down to and just touching the front guide lever directly after the grippers close on the sheet. The drop guides will now lift when the cylinder has traveled ahead about two inches, after taking the sheet. To Adjust Cylinder Bands. Set the bands on rods so they clear the shoofly fingers and grippers, with the lower ends touching the packing, but not hard enough to streak the paper. This should be done when the cylinder is down as the sheet is just starting to print. It is best to have job made ready, so as to have correct packing on, then feed sheet in and put trip on as if to print; then tighten each band starting in center, and leave the end bands just a trifle loose. Setting Brush. Presses with brushes should have the brush set up just snug to cylinder when cylinder is down on impression. The brush should be slighlty full in the center. Underlay if necessary; this will have a tendency to press the air and wrinkles out at the side of the sheet. It is best to set brush when the form is on and made ready. Feed in the sheet, put trip on same as to print, run press around slowly until the cylinder is directly over a gutter in the form; then release sheet from grippers by raising tumbler and test sheet from the rear, so as to feel the brush smoothing the sheet out, slightly fuller in center. The brush is intended to make the sheet hug cylinder, but not tight enough to pull sheet out of grippers or stretch same. If set too tight, it will do more harm than good. Be sure it has equal contact across cylinder. 48 CYLINDER PRESS To Set Register Rack. 1. The register rack is fastened to the side of the type bed at rear of feeder side. See that all dirt and burrs that may be on the side and ledge of re¬ gister rack, also on the bed where the rack is locat¬ ed, are removed. 2. With the cylinder down on the type-bed bearers, turn the press ahead until the bed is to the rear of the press. Place the rack in position and tighten the screws just enough so there will be no side play, but free enough so that the rack can be moved, by hand, back and forth along the bed. Then back the press by hand until two teeth come into mesh. When a form is on the press, it is essential that it does not interfere with the setting of the register rack. Now move the register rack, if possible, to determine if there is any play between the teeth. If any play is found here, then it will be necessary to put a strip of metal of suitable thickness under the ledge on the register rack to take up this play. Care must be exercised in order that the rack is not built up too high, for that would cause the cylin¬ der to be raised off the type-bed bearers. For close-register work, it is essential that the rack be set to a nicety; but where hair-line register is not required, then two or three thousandths play in teeth will allow very satisfactory results. 3. After adjusting the rack to the proper height, move the press ahead until the bed is to the rear, and tighten the cap screws with a wrench, just tight enough so the rack can not move out of posi¬ tion when power is applied to press. WORKING MECHANISM 49 4 . Turn the press over a couple of times with power, but very slowly—-the cylinder still running on the impression. This will allow the cylinder to adjust the rack to suit running conditions. Then stop the press to the rear and tighten the screws a little more, but not too hard. Then run the press up to normal speed, or the speed at which the press is usually operated. After half-dozen impressions, stop the press (but do not make the last impression slower), then tighten the screws hard. After adjust¬ ing the register rack, pull several impressions on the top draw sheet as a test for register between bed and cylinder. If register is out, re-set the regis¬ ter rack. 5. In case the rack and segment bump when mesh¬ ing, one or several of the following may be the cause: (a) When putting a new segment or register rack on, the first, second or third of the leading teeth on cylinder segment or register rack may be too full, in which case it will be necessary to remove the segment from cylinder or the register rack from bed, and file these teeth. In no case touch the teeth that extend into the printing surface of cylinder or bed. It may be nec¬ essary to remove segment several times to get results. If a knock still exists, note the marking or polish on the register rack and then file same off the leading teeth. (b) The knock may be eliminated by loosening the screws and tapping the rack back or forth, a very small amount, as the case may be, depending on 50 CYLINDER PRESS whether the marking is on the front or back of the tooth on rack. (c) The air may need adjusting, in order that the bed reverses without jarring the press. (d) In case the press has been operatd for a con¬ siderable time, there may be too much lost motion in some of the gears, or in the bed motion rack or shoes, or in the cylinder boxes. In such cases, it may be impossible to entirely eliminate all the knock unless some of this lost motion is taken up. How to Set Rollers. Turn the press until the ink plate is directly under the form rollers. Loosen the cap screws in the composition roller blocks and move rollers away from the steel vibrator roller, commencing with the roller nearest the cylinder. Tighten the screw on each side of the press. Now adjust the roller down to the ink plate, even on both ends, by means of the thumb-screws in the bottom of roller blocks until the roller stocks are about one lead higher than the roller socket, or in other words, until there is an open space, about one lead wide between the stock and socket, on all rollers, both sides of press. Then tighten the jam-nuts on the thumb-screw, and again loosen the cap-screws. With a man on each side of press, turn the press so the bed is directly under the form rollers, lock down the steel vibrators and one man should count three so both can move rollers together, and have same amount of contact on each end. These operations must be repeated on each roller. Set them to ink table first, then to vibrators. Repeat the same oper- tion on the angle or distributing rollers. Setting Rollers. The most scientific way to set all rollers, eliminating all guesswork, is to place form rollers in press, after removing steel rollers; then turn press until WORKING MECHANISM 5i ink table is directly underneath them. Now cut two pieces of French folio paper about four or five inches wide, eight inches long, with a third piece placed between the four-inch pieces, but not nearly so wide. Using this as a tongue, lower or raise roller, as case may be, until you feel a tension between roller and ink table, then give screw a little turn lower, to allow for paper; repeat this on each end of roller and on all rollers, including “duck” or fountain roller. After a few trials you will discover how very valuable this method is, especially for plate process printing. The other method previously stated is suitable for the general run of work. After setting rollers, cut nicks in composition, on end of roller on the feeder side of press. This will enable one to tell immediately where the roller rightly belongs. For ex¬ ample, the roller containing one nick goes nearest the cyl¬ inder. Two nicks signifies it is the second roller from cylinder; three nicks, third roller; four nicks, fourth roller. Repeat the same, on the angle or distributing rollers, counting from cylinder as before. The “duck” or feed roller, should have the composition on the end which travels over starter “strap” cut straight down to stock. To set duck or feed roller, turn the press so the bed is as far to the front as it will go; place the feed roller in bearings with the slide key in place. Now adjust this roller to the ink plate, even on both ends. This can be done by loosening the set-screws on left, or feeder side, end of feed roller shaft. Also loosen the nut on stud that works in the slot on lever on right or gear side end of shaft. Then back up long set-screw in lever and allow the feed roller to lie down even on the plate, with about the same contact as the angle rollers. Then tighten up the set-screw 5 2 CYLINDER PRESS on the saddle key in left feed roller lever; also the nut on stud in right side feed roller lever. Now screw the long set¬ screw so it touches the last-named stud and tighten jam nut. To set feed roller to ink fountain, turn press bed to rear end of press, so feed roller is as far down as it will go. Then loosen cap screws in each end of fountain, and move the fountain in so it touches the feed roller with the same con¬ tact as the other rollers. Then turn the press so the feed roller is away from the fountain about two inches. Now see that the roller end bears on roller starter located on right end of feed roller by the frictional contact between the roller end and the leather strap on roller starter. If not, pack by underlaying with manila paper or pressboard; this will avoid chipping the fountain roller when it strikes the ink plate, causing it to revolve and not strike in the same place on the steel fountain roller each time. This is highly necessary. The test for this is to chalk the roller stock, as the press is running, and ascertain if the chalk mark appears in same direction each time when returning to fountain; if so, it is not revolving properly, which will cause color to vary. A tape fastened to an angle roller socket and placed over end of duck roller with wrench attached to end will act as a temporary remedy until roller starter can be underlayed. Keep the angle roller belt tight. It will save undue wear on roller gears caused by rollers not getting full speed before ink plate strikes them. To Set the Fly. Tighten the fly cam located on feeder side of press on end of cam shaft, and turn the press so roller on fly cam lever is on high part of cam. Now set the fly sticks down on fly stop rod, and divide them evenly as possible across the press, and tighten the set-screw in each stick so they rest on the top rod, for height and evenness. WORKING MECHANISM 53 Loosen the ^-inch set-screw in feeder’s side end of fly rod and press the sticks down firmly on stop rod all together, and then tighten set-screw again. Put just sufficient com¬ pression on the spring on feeder side to allow the fly cam roller to follow the fly cam when the sticks are delivering the sheet to the jogger or fly board. On the auxiliary spring, on gear side of press, the crank should be set to the the mark, and not too much compression on spring, or it will necessitate more compression on the feeder side of fly spring, which means more wear on the different parts and no better results. The fly sticks can be adjusted to go closer or stop further away from the jogger or fly board, which works in slot in top end of fly cam lever. To adjust the sticks, lower the fly board, loosen the nut, and raise or lower stud towards top or bottom of slot the required distance to suit the fly, then tighten nut. Now, to set the fly for sheet, feed sheet through the press and let it run out on tapes. Set the fly cam so the sticks start to raise when sheets hang over ends of sticks from two to three inches. This can be regulated to suit the operator by setting the cam faster or slower. To Adjust the Face-up Delivery. Put the way-bars or tracks for the carriage down in position with the two screws that go in delivery in on both sides of press. Lock the fly with sticks resting on stop rod by means of the fly lock arm located on left side frame just above the fly cam. Now put the delivery carriage in place and connect them up with the delivery arms. This is done by taking the split pins out of the slotted bearings in carriage and placing the studs in ends of the delivery arm connecting bars in the slotted bearings and replacing the split pins. Then set the upper delivery crank to mark on end of delivery crank 54 CYLINDER PRESS shaft; also lower crank on end of cam shaft; connect these together with the delivery connecting rod. Now take the set screws out of the fly rod couplings and move the com¬ plete set of sticks and the attached rod to the delivery and put in the screws. The sticks should be so adjusted that it would not be necessary to change them to clear the tape pulleys for either the fly or the delivery. See that the press is turned ahead so the delivery is as far forward as it will go when connected up. Put the pusher finger device in place. Now place a sheet on the board with the front edge against the sheet stop fingers, and adjust the pusher device so it is about one-half inch away from the rear end of the sheet, and square with the sheet. Put the split pins, that are attached to the small chains, in place to hold device in position, then put pusher finger rod on, and tighten, hav¬ ing fingers down on rod. Now place the stick guard pan in position on fly rod bracket. This is to protect the sticks from dropping down and breaking, provided any of them should become loose. Then place the sheet guard sticks in position. The rod rests in the sheet guard stick brackets, which are located on tape frame brace rod over cylinder, and have a slotted bearing to receive rod, which is held in position with a set-screw. These sticks are placed over the tapes, and should be set high enough to clear the sheet. To time the delivery, feed the sheet through press and let it run out on the tapes until it is about six inches from the stop fingers when the arms are thrown back as far as they will go towards the cylinder. Now tighten the screw good and tight in lower crank on end of cam shaft. On high speed, if the sheet comes down and strikes the stop fingers too hard, loosen screw in lower crank and move the carriage a little faster. In fact, in this manner the delivery can be set WORKING MECHANISM 55 faster or slower to suit the operator. To set the sheet stop fingers, move the press so the delivery is at the farthest position towards the cylinder when connected up with the cam on feeder side end of stop finger rod resting on roller on side of way bar. At this point set the stop fingers so they rest down on ends of delivery stick sockets, and tighten set screws. New Style. The pusher finger mechanism has been changed somewhat, as follows: A tumbler is provided for controlling the fall of the pusher fingers. This tumbler is fastened to the small rod which carries the pusher fingers, and is held in position by a set-screw. The proper place for this tumbler is on the feeder side near the end of the pusher finger rod. The tumbler should be set so that it engages the rod carrying the delivery sticks, as it moves to the rear. In setting the tumbler, make sure that the delivery stick rod clears the top of the tumbler when the delivery moves to the front. Attached to the end of the pusher finger rod, feeder side, is a small lever containing a swivel stud; also, there is attached to the front end of the feeder side pusher way (the bar with notches which supports the pusher finger bracket) a stud with a hole near the end. A small L- shaped trigger, with a set screw, is fastened to the end of a long wire connecting rod. The rod passes through the hole in the L-shaped bracket and through the hole in the stud on pusher way, and on through the hole in the swivel stud. To adjust: Loosen the set-screw in the swivel stud and move the pusher fingers up to the sheet, with pusher fingers in raised position. Before tightening the set screw in the swivel stud, move the wire rod to the front until the trigger CYLINDER PRESS 56 comes up against the stud on the pusher way. The above adjustments must be made with the delivery connected to the press by means of the delivery connecting rod, operated from the cam shaft, in order that the correct full throw of the delivery is obtained. Unless the pressman is familiar with the new pusher finger device, the press should be turned over by hand after the above adjustments have been made, thus averting a possible accident. Oiling the Press. It is essential to the life of the press that it be carefully oiled at every point where there is frictional contact, and the pressman should make himself familiar with the working of the press and see that it is at all times thoroughly oiled. It is good practice to oil the press at every point twice a day, once in the morning and again at noon, especially the most important parts such as cylin¬ der boxes, tracks, roller sockets. There are about 255 oil holes on the Miehle press. Air Heads. It is essential that the air cushion heads receive attention from time to time, in order that the proper air pressure shall be maintained to balance the combined moving weight, and the momentum, when the type bed is reversing. If the aid heads are neglected, the cup leathers contract and harden so that part of the air passes by them as they enter the chambers. As a result, the press does not run smoothly as the bed reverses, which in turn causes undue wear on the gears, cutting of bed motion roller and the steel shoes. To obtain the best results, the cup leathers should be reasonably soft, in order that the air pressure can force the beveled edge of the leather out against the sides of the chamber and prevent the air from escaping. If the leather has become hard, the same can be rejuvenated by placing WORKING MECHANISM 57 the heads in a shallow pan containing about one-half inch of neatsfoot oil, and allowing the leathers to soak a day or two as the case may be. Machine oil, being a mineral oil, is not good for the leather. Before adjusting the cup leather to the chamber, take a cloth saturated with benzine and wipe any oil or grease from the leather, also wipe the chamber clean, as neatsfoot oil is likely to gum up in time. Take the connecting rod stud, which supports the de¬ livery arm when the fly is in use, from the feeder side of the press, and use this as a handle, by screwing same into the head. The head can then be moved back and forth in the clean chamber and tried for a nice running fit. After ad¬ justing the leather to the chamber, oil the chamber and try the head again, and see that it is then not too free. With a little practice, one can fit these heads to a nicety. Care and Adjustments of Air Heads. The air cushion heads are equipped with expansion springs, by means of which the leather can be forced out to fit the chamber. The new style heads have three expansion segments which are fastened by button head screws. The three segments are adjusted concentrically by loosening the screws and turning the air cushion head expanding nut in or out as the case may be, depending on whether the leather is too large or too small. The expanding nut has a beveled edge so that it forces each segment out equally. After adjusting the segments, the screws should be tightened, as well as the set screws on the expanding nut. When the heads are too tight in the chambers, it not only causes undue friction, thus requiring more motor power, but is likely to cause the seg¬ ments to become crystallized and break. The valve springs are more stable, and, after being once CYLINDER PRESS 58 adjusted, will require comparatively no adjusting. Of course, after a time, the springs weaken and will allow the valve to close too early, thereby developing excessive pressure. As was stated above, if the air is not adjusted properly, the bed-motion roller will cut the steel shoes. If there is not enough air, the large shoes will become cut, and if too much air is carried, then the small shoes will become cut. In order to overcome leaks, several points should be investigated. See that the heads fit the chambers, and that no segments are broken. Note that no dirt is under valves. Also see that all bolts and nuts are tight, and that there are no loose pipe connections. The old style air head can be adjusted to the chamber to the same degree of nicety as the new style head, but the tendency is to fit this style head too tight, especially when putting in an expansion spring. At times, the spring will raise the collar so high that it is not possible to get a full nut and the tendency is to force the spring down, which in turn expands the cup leather so that it is too tight for the chamber. The air heads should be adjusted for the normal speed of the press with one of the usual heavy forms on the bed. In case the press is not operated at the normal speed, then the heads should be moved back in order to decrease the air ■ pressure. A good rule to follow for lower speed is to move the heads back about pjMnch with each decrease of speed amounting to 300 impressions per hour. On the newer machines this changing is taken care of- by a new release valve, and needs no air head changing. Starting a Press. The control system that the author believes best, is the push button system, instant start and WORKING MECHANISM 59 instant stop, with a slow speed button, also an incher, which allows the press to be moved slowly, or, in other words, an inch at a time, for packing, make-ready, etc. For “hair” register work it is absolutely necessary to keep the press at one speed throughout the entire run, so the idea of instant starting eliminates the “off” register sheets that are printed, during the time the operator gets the re-start in proper position after each and every stop. Stopping Cylinder Press. The press should be stopped with the “gripper edge” of cylinder at the very end of stripper fingers; this places the form exactly in the rear of machine. The pressman will no doubt desire to have the feeder stop “at once,” for some reason, possibly something wrong, either with machine or the prints. He should make a hissing sound which the feeder should heed at once, and stop, first putting on the trip, shutting off power, and putting on brake. This may avoid bad breaks. The pressman knows by the sound of his machine if all is well, and as the short hiss would not possibly be caused by the machine, it makes an excellent stop signal, instead of unusual gestures or yells. Trip Impression. The pressman may order the feeder to “trip her up. ” This means: do not print, allow the cylin¬ der to stay up, for reasons that will be explained later. “The trip on” means to print, “trip off,” machine will not print. Feeding Cylinder Press. There are two different ways, namely, draw feed, and push feed. As the paper which comes to cylinder press is not trimmed, it is absolutely necessary to retain the same guide edges, and this necessi¬ tates the draw and push method. Draw feeding is to draw the sheet to you for the side guide; push feeding, push from you to side guide. For very close register work or not, a feeder should feed every job to the guides accurately; then 6o CYLINDER PRESS all jobs look alike to him, no worry about “will they regis¬ ter?” which causes woe and grief. There is no telling if the sheets may for some reason be run through again, whether a letter may not have pulled out, etc. The proper way to feed is grasp the upper right corner of sheet with right hand, being careful not to break corners, fly sheet, which means allow air to come between sheets, lower to bottom guides, with the assistance of left hand, just as they come down on guide tongues, then grasp sheet between thumb and forefinger of left-hand, with the middle finger nail resting against edge of sheet and push the sheet up to side guide with this finger. It is impossible to crowd the guide this way, and it is very easy to feed. This allows’the palm of hand to rest on feed board. The right receives a rest when grasping the corner of sheet, thus feeding is made easier, and does not tire your arms by continuous feeding with arms raised. Impressions Per Hour. Every press has been tested for maximum number of impressions the press will stand per hour—it is not proper to expect more. The smaller sizes of cylinders will run nearly 3,500 im¬ pressions. The larger machines run a less number of impressions per hour. Kind of Work Press is Suited For. There are a num¬ ber of specially constructed presses for ticket printers, bread wrappers, imprinting, printing and making of envel¬ opes, and so on. The Miehle will handle with entire satis¬ faction all kinds of work, from the cheap dodger to the finest color process printing. To Clean Bed. To clean the bed of press and fountain of all dried ink, etc., use a piece of pumice stone, as this will not cut like emery cloth; or clean the bed with lye solution. CYLINDER PRESS MAKE-READY CYLINDER PRESSWORK RULES 1. Packing, including sheet to be printed on, should be only one sheet (or .004") above cylinder bearers. 2. Placing form, be sure it is safely back of head line. Even up quoins on gripper edge, also back edge after loosening them, then loosen side quoins a trifle and lock bed clamps just snug. If any new cuts, be sure that they are not more than type-high. Then tighten quoins, starting at corners, just snug; plane down the whole form well, lifting planer on all cuts. Next finish locking quoins, but not too tight, as this causes work-ups. 3. On first sheet, get proper gripper hold, then move form as needed for correct position on sheet. 4. Underlay, to make cuts type-high, except vig¬ nettes—make these one sheet (.004") lower than type- high. 5. Press Adjustments. See that guides are in position, with tongues one lead (.027") above packing when cylinder is up. See that all grippers and shoofly fingers clear all cylinder bands and strippers. Then put sheet in grippers, with cylinder down as if to print. Now set all cylinder bands; be sure cylinder is down. 6. Print sheet for position O.K. After this is O.K., proceed to mark out first sheet. Just even up the form, or impression, and paste overlays, if any, on 62 CYLINDER PRESS first sheet. Cut out extra high places, patch up the low ones and leave patches off middles and be sure to place overlays exactly on cylinder. Build up by steps, and make your marks go to the very edge of low SPOTS. Do not try to patch up when cuts need under¬ lays, or your make-ready will be soggy and form a matrix, a sure source of undue wear. 7. Second Sheet. Continue to even up impression same as on the first. Patch up bad letters here. 8. Third Sheet. If necessary, finish evening up, also patch letters. 9. Fountain. In setting, start at center and work both ways. Never cut ink entirely dry; always leave a thin film of ink on all places between gutters. Mark fountain with chalk, where you desire ink; this will assist greatly in case one spot demands more or less ink. From three to six notches are best. 10. SAFETY FIRST! Correct Packing of Cylinder Press. The writer has seen many a pressman hunting up the other man who packed such and such a machine, to learn from him the correct amount of packing. This is so ridiculous, for if one claims to be a mechanic, he should, by all means, know how much packing a press takes. All presses are not cut alike, some are cut deeper than others—but the Meihle is cut .068" from cylinder bearer to the bare cylinder. The packing, including the sheet to be printed, should be only one thin sheet (.004") above cylinder bearers. This can easily be ascertained with small pieces of manila and other sheets you intend to pack with by laying same on bare cylinder, using a straight-edge to test for correct height. MAKE-READY 6 3 Packing Press. 1 . The press will take two or three loose manila hangers. They should extend the entire width of cylinder from bearer to bearer. 2 . Fold over about two inches, and be absolutely sure the crease is square with the sides, and very prominent. For length they should extend to the reel rods only. 3. Run press around so grippers are open; raise the shoofly fingers; open the cylinder clamp and paste only along the ledge of cylinder where the clamps rest. Do not get paste over the edge on cylinder. 4. Put on sheet No. 1 and be careful to get it on smooth. Paste the edge again; put on sheet No. 2 . 5. Now you are ready to put on bottom draw. This is cut and creased the same way, with the ex¬ ception that it is about one foot longer to allow you to wrap it around the reel rod. Fit it snug and tight. After you have pasted the ledge on cylinder, place sheet in position, then tighten clamps on feeder end of cylinder, and lower the shoofly fingers. Turn press around slowly, resting one hand on the cylinder to smooth out wrinkles as cylinder turns. Wrap around reel rod and tighten with pin wrench, and then lock the rod with the latch on feeder side. 6 . Turn cylinder until grippers are open, raise shoofly fingers and put in about five loose hangers the same length and width as the short manilas, using a “wood cut” enamel equal to about 70 lb. basis. This enamel paper is coated on stock made almost entirely of wood pulp. Then add the top 6 4 CYLINDER PRESS draw of the same kind of manila and same length as the bottom draw. This is all creased and pasted carefully. 7 . Proceed to tighten the cylinder clamps and lower shoofly fingers. Smooth out packing carefully as cylinder revolves. Inspect your pack¬ ing by examining the gripper edge. 8 . It is assumed that the pressman has properly dressed the cylinder; that the packing lies firmly and flat on the metal; that the sheets are the right number and even and smooth; that the draw sheet and tympan are uniformly tight, without buckle or wrinkle, but lying flat and smooth on the cylin¬ der. These conditions must prevail before any attempt is made to make ready. The pressman should never forget that he is working on a machine whose every motion is cal¬ culated to a nicety, so accurate that a thickness of a paper makes a marked difference in adjustment, and that this same difference may change the relative motions of the bed and cylinder, or change the form and tympan surfaces, which must travel together with absolute precision. Laying the Form. 1 . If the form is large, filling the entire width of the bed, we have no choice as to placing it endwise. But if the form is small, take a sheet of stock the correct size and run press so the grippers are up. Lay sheet down to gripper edge and in such posi¬ tion that you will not be under the necessity of having to move a gripper. This is done for a num¬ ber of reasons: (a) the sheet should not be too far MAKE-READY 65 from the feeder, or he will have to reach, or lay over the board, which is difficult; (b) all grippers should be distributed evenly across the cylinder and very rarely changed, as this requires a lot of time, and is absolutely unnecessary. The changing of grippers means changing the cylinder bands and stripper fingers. 2 . Place sheet so the end grippers nearest the out¬ side corners of sheet are about one inch in from corner. Never run with a gripper on the very cor¬ ner of a sheet. 3. When sheet is in good position, set the side guide to be one pica above the iron on the feed board. Make this a standing rule. 4 . Run press so the grippers are closed and the very edge of cylinder is even with stripper fingers. This places the bed at the very back. I wish to impress on your mind the importance of laying forms. If it is a small form and does not fill the width of the bed, set side guide first; if form fills bed, you have no choice. A Type Form. Wipe off the bed. Ascertain which is the gripper edge, and put form on so that the gripper edge of form is nearest you. Take half the center margin, which contains chase bar, running parallel with cylinder, and measure from the outside edge of type nearest you so the paper will extend two picas beyond the headline. When you have correct position on sheet (never allow any part of form to extend beyond the headline) fill in back with fur¬ niture or press locks, whichever you have. If you have guides set and can move form endwise, place sheet of stock up to side guides and measure from the cylinder bearer to 66 CYLINDER PRESS the feeder end of sheet. Take this measurement back to the form. Secure the half of center margin at the bottom of pages, add this to the measurement you secured from sheet to cylinder bearer, and move form so the bottom page near feeder side is this entire measurement from the bed bearer. Now you have correct position of form on bed. Always remember that paper extending beyond the headline is gripper hold, and if any part of form extends beyond the headline it will be smashed by the grippers. Locking on Form. Unlock the quoins and make them all even front and back, also on the ends if you intend to lock on endwise (if not the quoins on ends should be opened only a trifle). After quoins are even, place furniture between the chase and bed locks and lock the form on snug, using pin wrench. Tighten the quions a trifle, starting at the corners, so the quoins drive towards the cross bars. Plane down the form, always lifting the planer on cuts. Then finish tightening the quoins—not too tight, but snug. The Use of Planer. Get into the habit of laying the planer down on its side Occasionally the face of a planer becomes slightly sticky, so that grains of grit and even small pieces of type metal will adhere to it. If laid on the side, there is less likelihood of anything being jammed into the face of a form when the planer is used. As an extra precau¬ tion, also, wipe the planer’s face with the hand before using it. Such little things as these, costing nothing and requiring no extra time, are sure signs of a printer’s pro¬ ficiency. First Impression. Run palm of hand over form quickly to ascertain if any leads or other foreign matter are laying on its surface, or in gutters. Now you are ready to ink up the press. After this is done and ink distributed evenly, MAKE-READY 6 7 print a sheet. Then mark the side guide and gripper edge with an X. Measure up the gripper edge, see if it is just half the measure of the gutter running parallel with the cylinder. If not, first look at gripper hold; if you can get proper position by raising or lowering the guides, do so, but do not change guides if you have just two picas gripper hold. In that case move the form. Now check up the margin at the side guide, which should equal half the gutter running parallel with the bearers. Correct it either by moving guide or form. If it is necessary to move form, it is not necessary to unlock quoins; just unlock the bed locks, move form, then tighten these again. Take this same sheet and examine the impression which may be O.K. for impression. You must insert two or three sheets of its own stock for make-ready. Open the top draw and put number of sheets desired of its own stock under¬ neath the loose enamel hangers or on top of bottom draw, then remove enough of packing to equal thickness of sheets. Place them in loose; do not paste at this time. Reel in top sheet and lower board and pull another im¬ pression. Mark the guide edges and if position and impres¬ sion are O.K., submit this sheet for position O.K., for the correct imposition, margins, etc. Then back up a sheet: first feed it to side guide for first impression, then place a pin in the feed board for temporary opposite guide for backing up. To make it register, merely move pin, as the side guide is O.K. according to margins, and must not be moved. The writer has known of pressmen who pull impressions, one after another, to try to strike one the proper size, to back up squarely. This shows inefficiency and wastes stock. The best method is to use the pin. Since the sheet is usually too long to lie between the side guide and the temporary pin, it 68 CYLINDER PRESS is necessary to cut a narrow strip off the opposite side guide end. This is done for the reason that stock for a cylinder press is rarely trimmed and the sheets vary in length. We must square up a form before we make ready. If sheets all run long, the center margin can be increased, and the guide likewise; but if they run short, the margins should be made smaller. Assuming that the position and impression are O.K., remove the pin and pull an impression. Mark the sections “one F,” “two F,” “one” and “two.” “One and two F” means feeder side of press. “One” signifies nearest the gripper edge, “one and two” the opposite side or gear side. Cut up into marked sections to facilitate easier handling. Take to mark-out board and proceed to mark out on the back. I advise using a carbon sheet underneath, to keep from making marks on face to conflict with those on back of sheet, also to show you what has been done on back of sheet, when you examine the face of print. When marking out type, or zinc etchings, mark these out on back of sheet according to the amount of impression. We should be able to see a faint amount of squeeze or im¬ pression when held up to light, or laid on mark-out board in a slanting position. Standard Marks. We have a series of marks to use when marking out, so we can do it intelligently, also so another can patch up our sheets correctly. All marks or a series of circles without a letter therein signifying that they require heavier paper than tissue, mean to use tissue. It is understood so. All marks or circles with the letter “F” therein mean “Folio” paper, which is twice as thick as tissue. All marks, circles, or enclosed circles with the words MAKE-READY 69 Diagram showing proper way to cut printed make-ready sheet into sections before marking out. The dotted lines show where one should cut. On the gripper edge you should remove the narrow strip which projects over edge of cylinder. In center margins remove a narrow strip jto permit one to match on the patch-up make-ready sheets to better advantage. 70 CYLINDER PRESS “All F” means these patches are to be patched with all folio. All marks with the “X” marked therein, mean cut out or “exit.” All marks or circles with the letter “S” therein mean to scrape. On coated or enameled paper we peel the coating to reduce the amount of pressure slightly; on machine finish we dampen the spot and rub—this reduces the im¬ pression. All marks or circles marked with the letter “P” mean a piece of paper. All marks or circles marked with the letter “P” with the word “Own” following, mean a piece of its own stock. All marks or circles marked “See” mean there is some¬ thing for the pressman to examine at press, maybe letter to be planed down, or a little dirt, or bit of wood in packing causing it to punch through. Proceed with marking out; examine the back of sheet carefully. It is your purpose to make the impression of each page even. Make the big patches first; that is to say, don’t start at the lowest spot and by a series of circles build out. For instance, if one side of page is low, give it a big patch first, by making your lead pencil come to the very edge of where it starts to slope down to a lighter impression. Don’t get the habit of making your marks represent a saw edge; this is positively wrong and exceedingly hard to patch up. Do not guess: make the impression on the back show you where to make your marks, and if you can not see any more and, on turning over the sheet, it shows a patch needed here, your carbon sheet will prove to you if you have one marked on the back of sheet. As you mark out, section by section, the feeder will patch them up carefully. See that he uses very little paste. MAKE-READY 7i Merely paste in spots here and there, particularly on outer edges. Patch small ones first, otherwise you can not see small patch marks when you have the large ones on. Never patch up bad letters on first sheet. Wait and see when the impression is even; they may print. Otherwise it would be necessary be remove those patches. After all sheets are patched up, print on a sheet and leave fastened in grippers, or print on packing to punch. If you have half-tone over¬ lays, it is always best to print on packing: it insures the exact placing of sheet on cylinder. Punch two places with a darning needle, for each in¬ dividual section, at the very end of hyphens, corners of “W, ” or anywhere you find a good point. After all four sections are punched, it is the feeder’s duty to wash off the packing with benzine and a clean cloth. Open up packing paste each section as you put it on, on the gripper edge only; and register same according to punch marks, or the needle holes, allowing a point towards the gripper edge. Now, as you have three sheets of its own stock in the packing, and you are putting in another, to have the im¬ pression remain the same, remove one of these blank sheets. Now reel in your packing. Print on another sheet and see if it needs another mark-out sheet. If it does, mark out in same manner as you did the first, by marking each sec¬ tion, “one F,” “two F,” “one” and “two.” Cut in sections mark out on the board all low spots. Make the impression tell you where to make the marks. Patch it up. Open the packing and match on to the first sheet, “ no need to punch.” Patch all bad letters on second sheet. But supposing it needs just a few small patches, open up the packing, and put these few patches on the printed side of first sheet. Paste the gripper edge of blank sheet, then you are nearly ready. 72 CYLINDER PRESS Now print a sheet, tear off a corner on the end the side guide is on, and use this piece to measure from bottom of type page. Put a small brad or tack in furniture so it will just make a faint mark on the extreme guide edge of sheet. This should be the same height as type—you can readily test for height with a piece of furniture. This tack mark is to show at all times the side guide edge, and shows the feeder the guide edge when backing up a sheet. The tack must be removed when backing up a sheet. It is used only on one side. It also avoids the possibility of folding to the wrong edge. Book Forms. If you have a number of these forms, it is best, after you secure position O.K., to make a guide from press board, showing the distance of printed matter from gripper edge of sheet, also the side guide, and make them uniform on each form. This enables the folding to be uniform throughout the entire run. Delivery. The fly delivery puts the sheets face down on board, and, on ordinary type work, saves turning the stock over when ready to back it up. The other delivers the sheet face up. It requires only a few minutes to set the delivery for the sheet to be run, and also the jogger boards which “jog” and keep sheets straight when delivered on delivery board. All work should be kept straight. Setting Fountain. Mark the position of form and of all its gutters on the fountain, and have the duck or fountain roller up against the steel fountain roller when turning to set. Start in the center to turn the screws to regulate the flow, and do not cut the ink entirely dry on any part of the steel fountain roller; then set it at about four or five nicks. On black work, the writer prefers only about two or MAKE-READY 73 three nicks on the fountain, as this allows a certain amount of dirt, dust, etc., to work off gradually. The rollers hold the same and when washed up we therefore rid ourselves of so much dirt. Then when this particular job is off we haven’t a fountain full of dirty ink, which would never be put back into the fountain again. This is especially true of dusty stock—so open the screws and work it off gradually. Watching Work. A pressman should keep the right amount of color, and keep it even, throughout the entire run. To eliminate guessing, rub finger across the entire sheet over wet print and see if it is all evenly smudged. Pressmen must watch carefully for “workups,” that is, quads or leads coming up. Letters may pull out or break off. He must not attempt to read each page over. He must familiarize himself with the appearance of the printed sheet, and be watching con¬ stantly to see if anything is wrong. He should empty the delivery board, and see that feeder feeds all sheets up to guides; at the same time listen to the sound of his press. One can readily tell by experience if all is running smoothly. To Avoid Trouble from Work-ups. The use of accu¬ rate chases is very necessary to avoid work-ups. Electrically welded steel chases are best. Cross-bars should be used with heavy forms. The quoins should be placed to drive towards the cross-bars. The stamp on the chase shows which side should be up. The chase is not accurate if used with bottom side up. Nothing can take the place of justification or make up for faulty justification. After planing down and locking up form on the stone, the key (small end in) should be placed under the chase. The form may then be tested for loose lines, plates, etc. Each loose spot is marked with a CYLINDER PRESS 74 bit of pasteboard or paper. The chase is laid flat on stone; then form is unlocked, and the loose spots marked by bits of paper are made secure. This work is done by the stone- man. After the chase and form have been placed on the bed of the press, the form should be unlocked and planed down again and the chase tested to see that it is not sprung. If not sprung too much, a good remedy is to place strips of cardboard between the chase’s lower edge and the bed of clamps and furniture. Strips of damp strawboard placed along the edges of pages in which the work-ups occur will often help in short runs. When time for justification is lacking, the same strips along column rules are helpful. If the bed of your press is not down on the bedways, some of the work-ups may be traced to this faulty adjustment. Sometimes the work-ups may be stopped by placing strips of cardboard one-quarter inch wide along the inside of the upper edge of the chase. Sometimes cardboard so used along the lower edge of form will stop the work-ups. It is necessary to watch for the cause, and when once located the remedy is not hard to apply. A prolific cause of work-ups is a cut that is on a warped base or a base not square. Cuts not properly underlaid also cause work-ups. These cuts work up under the impression and lift the adjacent parts of the form. The quads and spaces gradually work up until inked by the rollers, when they print. The remedies are to re-mount cuts with warped bases, or bases not square, and to improve the underlay where needed. Chases. Imperfect chases cause loss of register as much as badly trimmed cuts. See that patent quoins on register MAKE-READY 75 work do not lock against the steel of the chase, or against metal furniture. Interpose a bit of cardboard or reglet. *For close work a straightaway quoin is best; that is, a quoin with a screw in the center that pushes directly outwards. Quoins on the wedge principle, like the Hempel, have a forward and backward thrust, and it requires great care to lock these twice alike without more or less twist. If it is necessary to unlock a form so locked, keep the run following separate, so that guides may be changed on the next color, or on the turn, if necessary. Various Forms. We have what is called a “sheetwise” form, where the first form is printed and then backed up by another form. The stoneman should mark the gripper edge of chase with chalk, and also the side guides, whether a “push” feed or a “draw” feed. A “work and turn” form is printed on the one side and backed up on the other side with the same form, when dry. The stoneman should mark the gripper edge, and on a work-and-turn, the center bar running across the chase. By this method a pressman can discern the proper guide edges. Otherwise, we may experience trouble on the folder, as we have “inside” forms and “outside” forms; these are “sheetwise.” A work-and-turn form has two complete copies on the printed sheet. Wash-up. Run kerosene on press, then remove rollers, composition only, and, using a soiled rag, remove most of the ink. Then go over the roller again with a clean rag and wipe roller thoroughly. This second rag will be the soiled rag for the next wash-up. Wash out form with benzine and a brush, then dry off with a rag containing no buttons or pins. Never use a brush to wash out a type form if you intend to print im- 76 CYLINDER PRESS mediately afterwards; take cloth saturated with benzine. Quick Make-ready of Type Forms. This method is for use only where you have short runs and the job doesn’t warrant the consuming of much time for make-ready. Pack the press, using a bottom draw-sheet. Instead of wood-cut enamel paper for loose hangers, use about six sheets of egg-shell book, or offset book, then a top sheet. The position of form is secured as previously stated, measuring the gutters, etc.; after which we find that where the impression is a trifle weak, the soft packing will cause it to print O.K. on the face. We further find it requires very little make-ready in the way of spotting up, possibly one “spot-up” sheet. You can run off a number of forms using this same packing, and it is a vast time-saver, particularly on short runs. Deckle-edge Stock. When running deckle-edge stock, to secure register on back-up or on a two-color job, take a sheet and mark the position of guides by placing on the press in exact position. Then, just before you put up a lift of stock, lay this sheet with guide marks thereon and hold the paper firmly with one hand. Use a coarse file or a rasp and smooth up the deckle between the marks, where the guides come. This will never be noticed when sheets are bound or when they are separate. Type and Rules for Two-color Form. The packing of press should be a hard packing, consisting of a bottom bottom draw sheet, tight, about five loose hangers above this draw, of wood-cut enamel, about equal to 70-lb. stock, then the top sheet. Take a sheet and get the proper position of guides, and lay the form as set forth in the Cylinder Press rules. Run MAKE-READY 77 the black form first; or, if the rules surround every page of type, run the rules first. But we assume that this form con¬ tains only initial letters, a few brass rules, etc. After the black is made ready, we examine our press to discover any fault in register. First, the guide tongues must be only 1-32" off the packing when the cylinder is all the way up. Then see if the board can be moved sidewise. Put a wedge in between board and frame if it has any play, as the feeder may lean against same for one hundred impressions and the next hundred he may not, allowing board to move back. So be careful that board can not move sideways. Now put sheet in with impression on and reset the cylinder bands, so that they merely touch the sheet. Then turn press ahead, until the center gutter is parallel with the cylinder and directly under the printing surface. Open the gripper tum¬ bler and allow sheet to lay flat on form, and in this manner you can test the contact between brush and cylinder. But the cylinder must be down on the bearers and the gutter of form astride the printing surface of cylinder; this is the most accurate way of setting brush. The brush should only cause the sheet to hug the cylin¬ der, not so tightly as to cause it to pull the sheet from grippers. If your press has not a brush attached, use a tape or two, which will act in the same way. Tie the tape to the band rod, in direct line with the open gutters, then under¬ neath cylinder and on out to the top edge of feed board. Here place a staple and run the tape through, tying a weight or wrench on the end of tape. You can run two or three tapes around cylinder, according to the number of gutters to place same. They must travel in gutters. The principle of the weight is this: if the tape should wear, it will wear just at the spot where the gripper edge of cylinder CYLINDER PRESS 78 strikes it on the down stroke; and consequently, when it breaks here, it is apt to fall directly on form, smashing same. So, by having the staple, allowing the tape to slide to and fro, the weight on end gives it an even contact on sheet, causing it to hug cylinder; and when it breaks, the weight will drop out beyond the bed, pulling the broken or torn tape to the floor, saving a bad smash. The use of rubber bands is very bad. When you use tapes on a two-color job, be sure to use them on both forms. After the black is printed, re-pack the press the same as for the black, possibly a sheet of its own less, owing to an open form. Be sure the packing is correct. Now lay the form same as any form, or as previously taught, and having the red on, pull an impression. The press should register as you went over it when the black was on, same tapes, etc. Before you start to register, be sure the guides are exactly square before you make a move; for if you intend to use the slitter on press, it will not cut the sheet square if one end of the sheet is faster, or ahead of the other end. Now pro¬ ceed to register in, make the big moves first, and don’t attempt to get the ones that are out only a pica or so, in register the very first time. By moving a pica and a card, you lose time. Make the big moves first and then every time you unlock the form don’t fail to make chalk marks across the quoins. This will enable you to lock up nearly the same again. After you are almost through, ink up for make-ready, because there is always a point here and there you must change just before you start to run. Don’t^run all four form rollers on a few initials or small ornaments. Two form rollers are sufficient. Changing Time of Cylinder. There are cases where MAKE-READY 79 it is necessary to have more space behind the headline, so we change the time of the cylinder. The later makes of Miehle presses are very easily changed by withdrawing three bolts from large gear drive on gear side of cylinder. Then jerk the flywheel to move the press ahead and place bolts into the second or third hole. You can not go wrong on these presses. This changes the spaces, or rather ex¬ tends the head-line to the extent of about ^ of an inch for each hole. But on other styles of presses it is necessary to change the intermediate gear, throwing it ahead one or more teeth. This can be done by removing two screws holding cap on intermediate gear, then mark two teeth on small gear and the tooth on the other gear that rests in between. Pull gear out of mesh and turn press ahead, using flywheel. Just turn ahead one tooth. Push interme¬ diate gear in mesh and replace cap. The writer recalls a press where it was necessary to run a certain size form on this particular press monthly, and it was a trifle large— or, in other words, the cylinder was still on the last lines of the form just as the bed was reversing—and consequently before the run was off, the back edge of the form was nearly always worn out. So we changed the time of the cylinder and eliminated this evil. But great care must always be used when moving, not to move back instead of for¬ ward, especially if form is near the head line. Springing the Grippers. When you either change the time of cylinder or have a form that fills the entire bed, and very close and snug up to the head line, there is no cause for worry. Simply remove the shoofly fingers and turn the press by hand till the grippers close, then take pin wrench or screw driver and open up the gripper tumbler and back the press by hand. There the grippers are open; put trip on 8o CYLINDER PRESS and print on the packing, but before gripper tumbler closes, or hits the opening pin, close them by hand same as you did when opening them, and look all along the line to see if the entire form clears all the grippers. This is the safe way. How satisfying it is to know these various stunts, and how much more efficient you are if you practice them! Make-ready of Square Half-tones and Type. The packing for half-tones should be very hard. 1. Put on a bottom draw sheet of manila; reel it in. 2. Take six sheets of preferably wood-cut enamel, basis, 25 x 38—70, three sheets of its own stock, meaning the stock you intend to print on, unless it be card board; then the top draw sheet of manila. Now the packing is complete. 3. Turn the press over so the bed is in the rear, or in other words, the gripper edge of cylinder, with grippers open, is flush with the stripper fingers. 4 . Take a rag; wipe off the bed carefully. 5 . Get the form from the form rack. Take off all paper from the back of cuts and wipe off the back of form so it is free of particles of metal and dirt. Notice which is the gripper edge, and lay the form on the bed. 6. Measure half the center margin, where center chase bar runs parallel with the cylinder. This measurement should be the distance from gripper edge of type to edge of sheet, allowing the sheet to extend two picas beyond the headline, on bed of press. This determines the position of the form on the bed of the press with respect to the headline. This is called the gripper hold. Take center of form endwise to get the proper MAKE-READY 81 position on sheet from the bottom of pages. If the form is a small one, get the position of guides first, then move the form endwise between bed bearers, to conform with the guides, having previously placed furniture between form and ink table. 7 . Proceed to lock on press. Loosen all the quoins so that each pair is identically the same. Loosen all side quoins. Then turn up bed clamps, with furniture between clamps and chase extending beyond the bed two or three picas. 8. If there are any new cuts or half-tones in the form, they should be measured with a type-high gauge to discover if they are more than type-high. If they are, and you take an impression, this will necessitate the putting on of a new packing, owing to the indentation which would be made by these high cuts. Such high cuts must be planed down to type-high. 9 . Proceed to lock up form, starting at the corners working both ways, squeezing form towards the crossbars of chase. Turn the quoins up just snug; plane down carefully, lifting the planer on all half¬ tones. Then finish locking up, not too tight, but snug. 10. Now ink up press with half-tone ink. Pull an impression on the stock, measure it up carefully for position, according to make-up, disregarding the size of sheet for the present. Then notice the impression, especially the type. Do this on the first sheet. If there is too much impression, open up the packing and tear out one or two of the loose hangers (wood-cuts) but never remove the three 82 CYLINDER PRESS sheets of its own, as we figure three make-ready sheets to a form. Reel up packing; pull another impression. Presumably the impression is now O.K. Some of the half-tones may be a sheet low, some one side low. 11. Wash off form. Unlock one section at a time and remove the cuts that need underlaying. Test them to discover if they rock. If they do, remedy the same by putting small pieces of paper under the low corners, in most cases diagonally across the back of cut. Then measure with type-high guage. Put the proper thickness of paper on bottom, and only paste the two opposite edges on bottom of cut. Never put paste over the entire surface on bottom of the same. Treat each section of form the same, assuring yourself that no cut rocks, and underlay¬ ing, using type-high gauge and sizing up the first impression, using this as a guide. Be careful to return each cut to its original position. It will be of great assistance if each cut is marked with a pen¬ cil on the end of the block facing feeder side of press when it is removed. 12 . Lock up form carefully, and plane down as in beginning. Pull another impression, backing up the same to ascertain if form is square and all pages back up square. Do this by using a pin opposite the side guide, then turning sheet over and feeding to pin. The side guide is supposed to be accurate according to make-up. If there is any variation in back-up, move the pin, printing on two sheets to keep the packing clean. Now submit a sheet for position O.K. MAKE-READY 83 Never submit a sheet for position O.K. without first marking the guide edges, and never submit a sheet for position O.K. before you complete under¬ laying the cuts. You may by mistake turn a cut around or “pi” a couple lines of type, and the O.K. man would see if correct. 13 . When sheet is returned O.K., pull an impres¬ sion with ink a mere trifle lighter than you would run the job. Mark the four sections or more if need be, “one F,” “two F,” “one” and “two.” (See diagram.) Proceed to mark out all type from back, zinc etchings, if there are any, from back. The half-tones must be marked out from the face using carbon paper face up against the back of sheet to repeat the marks on the face. In marking out, use standard marks, as printed in forepart of this book. Mark out the half-tones with great care. Make the large patches first, taking in as much of the weak spots, or broken screen, as you can; then the smaller ones inside. Use very few patches on the high lights, just enough to make them print clean and clear, and not cause any wear. All that you intend to do is to even up the impression, by building up with tissue. After sheets are all patched, being careful not to use too much paste, if you have any overlays, whether mechanical^or hand cut, they can be attached to this sheet^in perfect register. ^ 14 . Now print on the packing, or top sheet,^one impression. Punch twice for each section you have with a needle, cutting punch marks on make- ready sheet, the exact corners where you punched 84 CYLINDER PRESS to enable you to match them on readily. Wash off packing with benzine and rag; open the packing, but not the bottom draw. Paste make-ready sheets, along the gripper edge only, and matching them on one at a time, be careful to get them on very accurately, or the overlays will show a black streak in the high lights and cause wear. 15 . After sheets are all matched on, remove one of the blank sheets. You still have two blank sheets in packing. Reel in the top sheet and pull another impression; proceed to mark out the type from the back, the weak spots on the cuts on the face. Patch up bad letters on this second sheet. After all is patched up, open up packing, match this second make-ready sheet on to the first make-ready sheet. Remove another blank sheet from packing. Reel in the top sheet. Pull another impression. If there are only a few patches to be placed to com¬ plete the make-ready, open up and paste these on the printed sheet you just put on. Paste this other blank sheet in on gripper edge only. Never start to run without pasting this sheet. Reel in top sheet, and the make-ready is complete. Put a tack in form near where the side guide comes on sheet so that it prints faintly on extreme edge of sheet. 16. Put ink in fountain; set it carefully. Start in center, working both ways with the thumb screws. Run about five or six nicks on fountain, so if it becomes necessary to add a nick or take one off, it doesn’t make such a vast difference. This method applies to all half-tone make-readies except for vignettes and process color printing. MAKE-READY 85 Scratches on Cuts. If a scratch be in a solid or dark portion of a cut, this can be removed by the pressman, by wetting the part, and rubbing carefully with scotch-stone, or better still, with charcoal, which will not cut so rapidly. Never do this on a highlight or middle tone. If the scratch be in a highlight, or middl etone, the engraver will have to repair same, by “picking up” the broken down dots with proper tools. What is Type-high? Careful tests prove that, from one cause or another, considerable divergence exists in the height of half-tones and electrotypes. All are supposed to be sent out exactly “type-high.” This is a very elastic term. If it fits the varying heights one meets with, inquiry seems to show that there is some uncertainty as to what is type- high. Therefore all those engaged in supplying blocks and kindred supplies to the printer should remember that type- high is .918”. This is obtained from the standard agreed upon between the Associated Type Founders. Every press¬ man should own and use a standard type-high gauge. Slur in Printing. Not only does faulty make-ready too often cause loss of register, but it is quite as frequently the source of slur. We enumerate some of the causes of slur: Loose, springy, and poorly underlaid plates. Too much make-ready under plate or on cylinder; in other words, over-packing the cylinder. Make-ready too high above bearers. Failure to reduce packing for very thick stock. Last roller not in contact with vibrator. Cylinder not hard enough on bearers. Bands not tight enough to cylinder. Form locked too tightly with bed clamps, causing spring. 86 CYLINDER PRESS Form locked with imperfect furniture or quoins, causing spring. Feed tongues too high above packing. This will some¬ times cause sheet to buckle. Poor justification and make-up. Badly sprung chases. Too much paste on overlays, or overlays slovenly attach¬ ed to gripper edge of packing, or carelessly cut and at¬ tached underlays. Loose or buckled tympan sheet, or spongy, springy packing. Loose register rack or segment. Form too large for press, or set too near front edge of bed, thus printing after bed has commenced to stop. Knowing the cause, one should easily overcome the trouble. Examine your own work first, then the compositor’s work. Then examine the press. Some forms give trouble because spaces and quads, leads and so forth work up. Look for a cut that is warped or improperly underlaid. Such a cut will rock up and down as it passes under the impression. This action lifts the surrounding matter which the cylinder forces down. A “pumping” is thus established, during which quads, etc., are forced to the surface, become inked and mar the work. Correcting the cut until it lies upon the bed is usually the remedy. Wrinkles. If there is a border or rule around the job or cut or a page with an open center, unevenness in making ready not only makes register impossible, but it produces a disfiguring wrinkle on the edge of the sheet farthest from the grippers. The only remedy is proper make-ready. This MAKE-READY 8; defect is very noticeable on map work. To prevent the wrinkle or buckle, see that the plates are absolutely type- high and so nearly uniform that a thin overlay is all that is necessary. Slip-sheeting Methods. The best half-tone jobs re¬ quire slip-sheeting or the use of a gas-flame attachment. Otherwise we have an inferior job due to offset. Use the gas flame on the end of delivery and have L-shaped tins surround the entire sheet. Place 250 or 300 sheets only to a rack. This procedure should do away with all offset. If it is necessary to slip-sheet, run one entire day with slip-sheets. Then the next day rig up an extra stand in addition to the one you have for slip-sheets, and have another girl or boy remove the printed sheet as the other slip-sheet is put in again. This is a wonderful time-saver, as the press keeps them going, and the main reason is that the pressman has full charge of these sheets and he can see that they are handled with care. Otherwise, it becomes necessary to have several people taking slip-sheets out. Be¬ tween telling stories, and various other things, they may remove or handle about 5000 sheets, where at the press one will be compelled to remove at least 9,000 or 10,000, according to the speed of the press. All doubletone inks must be slip-sheeted on account of the stain and slow-drying qualities. Never use the gas flame for doubletone ink. Straddle a Cut with the Grippers. If a form comes to press with a very narrow margin, and you have a half-tone or two extending beyond the type, you can straddle the cut, by spreading the grippers apart and seeing to it that the cut will come directly in between. Turn press around with cylinder up off impression and grippers down near the 88 CYLINDER PRESS head line—then you can see if all grippers clear the cuts. Make-ready Two-color Electrotypes. 1. Pack the press and lay the form same as you do a half-tone form, and figure on three sheets for marking out, and be sure they are included in the packing. The electrotypes must all be measured for type-high, and also tested for rocking. 2. Proceed to make ready and put make-ready on cylinder same as previously done. 3. To save a lot of valuable time in registering in the color, don’t have the color mounted, but lock up the blocks, the same time you do the black, and have them the same size, and the same space around, also at least a nonpareil on the four sides. 4 - As soon as the black is lined up and ready to run, print on a sheet, then lay it into the guides again, a clean sheet on top. Print on this. This gives you an offset. 5. Take this offset and put the entire sheet upon the form of blocks you have locked up for the red. Nail the red plates on according to the position of the black offset sheet. When all are nailed, cut with a knife around each cut and remove the over¬ hanging paper. This thin sheet will make little difference in increased impression. Depth of Half-tones. Half-tones are etched by en¬ gravers to varying depths, say, from two one-thousandths to three or four one-thousandths of an inch deep. This depth can be measured with a half-tone meter, made by Howard Spencer Levy, Philadelphia, Pa. Repairing Electrotypes. To bring a low letter, char¬ acter or spot back up to type-high, remove the plate from MAKE-READY 89 block. Then, by using a caliper, locate the exact spot on back of metal plate. Now, with the aid of a punch and hammer, tap this spot—which will cause it to become type-high. Have the plate lying on bed of press, or other flat surface, with piece of paper, say folio, between. . To Replace Bad Letter. After removing plate from block, drill a hole in open space near bad letter. Now, with the aid of a jeweller’s saw (which is very small) saw an open space. If the size of type is small, it sometimes is necessary to take two characters out. Now procure the desired letter or characters, and, with the aid of small spaces, place the letters in this opening and in line; wedge them in this posi¬ tion. Now have a soldering iron very hot; then take muri¬ atic acid (which has zinc dissolved therein), put a few drops on back. This causes the metals to adhere. Now with your hot soldering iron, simply melt off the projecting type body to a level with base. Split Packing. When we have a large machine, to better enable us to get on a packing smooth and neat, we put the loose hangers on in two sections, so the split or open crease will come directly in a gutter on the form. This is necessary on all large machines. The same paper and amount are used as if put on in one piece. Testing a Half-tone Make-ready. To know when a half-tone has been properly made ready is one of the first points of presswork. Comparatively few pressmen, it would appear, are able to determine accurately whether the half¬ tone they have prepared for printing will stand up during the entire run, and high-lights print clear and clean. So important in fact does the writer consider this feature, that he believes that if the pressman learns nothing more from reading this book, it will have been time profitably spent. 9 o CYLINDER PRESS This method is also one of the most valuable assets for the proper handling of process printing and is valuable for the things it will reveal. A superintendent or foreman formerly had to take the pressman’s word for it as to how a form was made ready. But those days are past, and now an executive can say, “ I shall see when it is ready to run.” After a form of half-tones is made ready to run, and a sheet is submitted for final O.K., if there is any doubt about the make-ready, or if you want to test it out, have the pressman print one impression on a good grade of news¬ print paper, on top of the sheet you made ready for, and intend to run the job on. Notice the highlights or white portions on this news stock. See if they are muddy or cloudy in spots. If they are, too much impression exists there. If they print clear, clean and white, all is O.K.; if This drawing shows an enlarged cross section of a half-tone, 150-line screen. Section A shows the small shallow dots occuring in dark or solid portions. Section B shows width and depth of dots in middle tones. Section C shows highlight dots. MAKE-READY 91 they appear broken, give it the additional impression. This will never fail you. Just for a moment, think how valuable it is for process printing, with the imposing of one color upon another. If one or two of them have too much pres¬ sure in the highlights, an inferior print is the result, as the highlights either make or spoil the print. The pressman can test after he has completed the underlaying or after his first sheet, or overlay is on. Cardboard Printing. Printing on cardboard, especial¬ ly register work, is difficult for some pressmen. First, they forget to reduce the packing to allow for such a heavy board. Second, if the board is not cut square, which is very often the case, the side guide is moved, causing no end of trouble. When you get position to run cardboard, have some of the kind of sheets (presumably the 70-lb. wood-cut) you packed the press with, cut to the size of cards to be run. Pull your try sheets and make-ready sheets by laying one of these on top of a cardboard every time you take an impression. When getting position, lower the bottom guide farthest from the side guide two leads, and if necessary put two leads in back of chase, to square up form. This will cause the sheet to gradually walk away from side guides as it passes. Mark out your make-ready on thin sheets, using the same card¬ board every time. After the last mark-out sheet, don’t take any out, as this makes your packing correct. Delivering Cardboard on a Cylinder. It keeps a pressman busy, emptying the jogger board. A good method is to turn two or three fly sticks out, so when delivery is all the way to the end of delivery board these sticks are beyond the delivery board the full length. Now raise them so one card coming out on sticks will tend to shove another out, that is already on sticks, to the farthest end. Now have a 92 CYLINDER PRESS truck at the end of delivery. With a few boards, make a bottomless box the size of the cards, and place on the truck, and, as each sheet comes out, have a boy tip the end down into this box. As the box fills up, stick two pica reglets into each side of stock for the box to rest on, and continue to raise same, until truck has been loaded. This saves hand¬ ling, which is so awkward. Vignette Half-tones. The proper make-ready of vig¬ nette half-tones seems perplexing to many, but if they will adopt the proper procedure it is not difficult. 1 . The packing should be a hard one, including a bottom draw sheet of manila, reeled in carefully, leaving no wrinkles, then about five sheets of enamel, basis 25 x 38-70, then about three sheets of its own stock and a top draw sheet. This must be a good, smooth, hard packing. 2 . Lay the form and get the correct position. 3. Proceed with the underlaying, making all cuts at least one sheet below type-high. Try to start without any of the vignette edge printing; then you can rest assured it will not come back while running. I have seen many a job start off O.K., but after running awhile the packing gets soggy, due to too much patching and cutting. Then the vignette edge comes back. But if it isn’t there when you are through underlaying and innerlaying, it cannot come up. So have the cuts a thin sheet lower than type-high, and if any are hollow in the center, innerlay them with folio. Never use tissue for innerlaying. (See Fig. 1,2). Remount on same same block in same position. Do an excellent job underlaying and innerlaying. MAKE-READY 93 4. Submit a sheet for position O.K. While the proper authority is going over the sheet, print another, and over every cut that has a vignette edge paste a cardboard, equal to a post-card ma- nila. This you place under a sheet and print one, and here you have a good outline of every edge, good and strong, for tracing the edges. 5. As soon as all is O.K., proceed to mark out. Of course it is understood that the impression and all are correct before you do this. Print your sheet, cut it up into sections; mark each section, and mark all the type out from the back of sheet. 6. Take the sheet which was printed very heavy and shows the edges so plainly, and cut in several places to enable you to match this on top of your mark-out sheets. When it has been exactly located, slip a piece of carbon paper face down between the two. Be careful not to move either sheet. Now trace the vignette edge; the blue carbon paper will show you the extreme edge. Repeat this on every cut until they are all traced. Save these same heavy sheets, for each additional sheet you mark out. Now proceed to mark out the half-tone to even up the impression, and draw your first line one nonpariel inside the blue carbon line along the vignette edge, being careful to get all the little curves, etc. that the edge contains. For each tissue the entire cut takes, keep in an additional nonpa¬ riel, each time representing a step; and after it is all patched up, cut in two leads from the blue line and cut the line entirely out. Repeat this on all three mark-out sheets unless the edges do not show 94 CYLINDER PRESS at all (when there will be no need to cut it off), but trace it in case you might want to make a change after it is on the press. Before tracing edge with carbon, mark places where the vignette edge prints faintly and cut this off after all is patched. After all is made ready if the extreme edges print faintly in spots, this can be removed with the aid of a vig¬ nette punch, which has the dots on end of steel punch, or with a small chisel, called a liner, which has grooves; the number of grooves or lines to the inch should correspond to the fineness of the screen, 100, 120, 133, 150 lines, etc., to the inch. The illustrations on the next four pages show progressive steps in the make-ready of a vignetted half-tone. Figure 1. Showing the first impression of a vignetted half-tone, which requires an innerlay, between block and the metal, to bring it up to printing surface. Figure 2. Showing the proper way to mark out an innerlay, to be patched with folio on the back of the print. The dotted line shows the amount to be cut entirely off from print before pasting on the back of the metal. Figure 3. Showing print after innerlaying is finished, and overlay is on. The make-ready is to be finished with a tissue overlay. Notice how the patch marks represent steps, thus causing the vignetted edges to gradually fade away. If the edge prints faintly in spots, cut away the edge of the overlay to the extent of four points. Figure 4. Showing the complete and proper make- eady of vignetted half-tone. FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2 FIGURE 3 4 PLATE PROCESS PRINTING PROCESS COLOR WORK T HE first requisite for the production of color printing consists of the original plates, the preparation of which is explained under Half-Tones, Where only one or two subjects are concerned, and a limited quantity of a few thousand prints is required, it is customary to print from the original plates, after suitable make-ready. Standards have been adopted by printers for the thick¬ ness of printing plates employed in color printing. An original half-tone engraved upon thin metal must be increased in thickness or “backed” to conform with a standard thickness. The plates ordered for patent bases are eleven points high, or .152 of an inch. The patent base or block referred to is a device invented for the purpose of holding the printing plate securely while it is in the printing press. It must be obvious that in multicolor printing (where two or more plates are required to print in different colors in absolute register on the same sheet of paper) the mere holding of a plate will not fulfill all requirements. A plate must be moved at times the smallest fraction of an inch in order to effect register with a color previously printed. The clamps holding the plate are provided with a gear enabling the pressman, with the aid of a specially constructed key, to move the plate at will in any direction. 9 6 CYLINDER PRESS For some time it was customary to nail process printing plates upon a wooden block, planed to the proper thickness. While this practice still continues in isolated cases, it has been found that a metal base is much to be preferred for the printing of large editions. Its rigidity insures uniform impression from the first to the last sheets. It will not shrink, expand or vary in changes of atmosphere, and finally, it furnishes a means of firmly grasping and holding the printing plate throughout the entire run. There are a number of bases on the market—sectional base, which the stone man makes up in sections to the required size for each plate, and other bases in large sec¬ tions, with which you can cover the entire bed of press and place plates at any angle if need be. These bases are all standard height so that, when plates are fastened to the base, the printing surface is type-high. Laying Form. The form or base, having been placed upon the bed of the press, is then fastened by the use of clamps with which the press is provided. The pressman places his plates on the base as nearly in position as he can according to the sheet to be printed. He must bear in mind the proper placing of plates. If it is possible to do so, for instance, place all heavy plates in a direct line; or, in other words, do not make the mistake of running a plate which takes very little red in direct line with one that requires a great lot, because one or the other will have to be sacrificed. This can always be done if the prints are to be cut up separately. Assume that individual plates have been placed in position so that each will print upon the proper place on the sheet, square and with correct margins, etc. The operation known as “innerlaying” involves the MAKE-READY 97 adjustments of variations in the thickness of the electro¬ type by measuring with a type-high gauge. You will find plates usually take about two thin sheets of enamel paper to .make them exactly type-high, which is purposely done to enable a pressman to innerlay. After all plates have been made type-high by laying these loose sheets (the exact size of plate) underneath, then see that all plates lie perfectly flat. If one should be bent, straighten it by striking the back of plate against the edge of stone or some solid ledge. When this is completed, then we dress the cylinder. Packing the Press for Plate Make-ready. 1. Usually two loose hangers, of manila on the bare cylinder; a bottom draw sheet, reeled in tight and smooth, without wrinkles; then, say, six loose hangers of enamel, 70-lb. basis. These must be folded over to paste on the ledge of the cylin¬ der, and be clamped in. Put one sheet of newsprint over them, folded in the same way. Add one top sheet, pasted in, then one top sheet not pasted, but in the clamps. Reel both of these in on the same rod good and tight, and keep very clean. 2. After guides are placed, as explained in a pre¬ vious chapter, in good position to feed, etc., ink up the press with the proper ink. If it is the yellow form, add some blue to the yellow, to make a light green, as one can not make ready with yellow, and, by using the light green, it is not necessary to wash up more than once to get a bright, clean yellow. 3. Now put a sheet of the enamel used for packing down to the guides (remember you packed with 9 8 CYLINDER PRESS this paper, also innerlayed with the same), and one sheet of the proper stock on top. Print an impression. Mark the guides—that is, the gripper edge and the side guide—before you remove it from the press, to avoid making a mistake. Now place a sheet of the stock down to the guides and on top a sheet of enamel as used for packing. Pull another impression. With this sheet proceed to mark out for an innerlay to bring up the low spots. This is to even up, or make up for the varying of the thickness in the electrotype. Turn these over to the feeder for him to “spot up’’—or patch up, as it is called—with folio. 4. The pressman should take the first sheet printed on the proper paper, and measure it up for position. Mark the direction each plate should be moved, to secure position or register. 5. As the feeder finishes patching up a print, he should hand this to the pressman. Remove this plate, register on the innerlay, exercising great care to get it on perfect, having the printed side out. Remove one of the loose innerlays first put in to make plate type high, as it is replaced by one with an equal thickness. Move this plate the direc¬ tion it is to be moved for position, as per marks. Continue this until the whole form has received its first innerlay, and the first moves toward register have been made. On the Wesel Final Base one complete turn of the key equals two leads, one-half turn equals one lead, and one-quarter turn equals one card. This will assist you to secure register with more rapidity. MAKE-READY 99 When you loosen hooks of any kind to register in a set of plates, make a practice of loosening the hooks facing the cylinder and the feeder side of press. Then there is never a doubt as to which ones you did loosen, and you can readily replace your plates in the same order. In registering on innerlays, if the printing sur¬ face is not square, or does not extend to the outer edges of the plate, just register the printed side to the plate, by cutting one or two distinctive places, and then crease the outer edges of two corners (opposite corners); this will assist you to register it on the back correctly, according to these creases. 6. Now print on its own stock again, with a sheet of enamel underneath. Mark the guide edges. Then print one impression on a sheet of enamel with the same sheet of its own stock under, same as before. Mark out the innerlay to finish evening up the surface, and have the feeder patch up. Re¬ turn to the other sheet and mark it for register. We generally draw a (caret A) pointing the direc¬ tion the plate should be moved, and how much. This will enable another to read your marks. As the feeder finishes patching up one print, on plate, register this on the back, and remove a like blank sheet. Also make the moves at the same time; repeat this until the entire form is gone over. This should finish your innerlaying, or nearly so, and put your plates nearly in register. Notice how this method keeps the pressman doing the most important work and at the same same time keeps the feeder occupied. The old way IOO CYLINDER PRESS of innerlaying was to remove the plates to inner- lay them, then go over all this work again to regis¬ ter in with the feeder loafing all the time. The method described is far more satisfactory and reduces the time one-half. 7. Now we have the innerlaying complete, and our position is O.K. Take a sheet of its own stock, place to the guides and on top a sheet of enamel. Pull an impression, mark out what we call a “marked-out overlay.’’ This is marked out ac¬ cording to the color gradations, in each particular half-tone. First give the light grays one sheet of folio, then the darker gradations. Outline these with a pencil, using carbon, as they must be patch¬ ed up on the back with folio. Mark out the solids. Of course, all the white or highlights must not receive this additional squeeze at all. This is only to increase the impression on the dark values, and solids. Technically speaking, an “overlay” is a film of varying thickness corresponding to the shading or intensity of the color in the picture or engraving. This marked-out overlay is only used if you have no mechanical overlays of any kind for this particular job. To make an overlay more clearly understood— an overlay is thick where the picture is darkest (solid), thin where there is little or no color, and it varies in thickness as the tone of the picture is lighter or darker. The purpose of an overlay is to increase the impression in the dark portions of a half-tone print, and reduce impression in the deli¬ cate and highlight portions. It may be a patch-up MAKE-READY IOI overlay of folio, hand-cut, or made mechanically. The feeder will patch up this mark-out overlay, with folio, on the back of the print, being careful not to let any extend over into the highlights, as one should never sacrifice a highlight to increase the impression on a solid. 8. The pressman, in the meantime, opens the packing, and puts in one sheet of enamel, and one sheet of its own stock—just loose, next to the bottom draw sheet. Now reel up the draw sheets, good and tight. Then print an impression on the top draw, only one print. Take your knife and punch as many L-shaped register punch marks as you will need for the number of sections into which the sheet will be cut, two for each section. 9. Run press around and open the packing, having the grippers open. Open the clamps and remove the top sheet which you did not paste. Close the clamp again, but do not reel in the other top sheet as yet. Leave the packing open, and remove the two sheets you placed in to get the proper amount of impression. Be sure brake is on press. 10. The manila top sheet should be cut up as per sections punched. Be careful not to cut off any of the punch marks. This manila will show you a few weak spots that can be marked out and patch¬ ed up with tissue. By this time the feeder should have the overlays all patched up. If you have mechanical overlays as previously explained, they should be attached to this manila sheet, in correct register. This method insures getting the overlays on exactly. 102 CYLINDER PRESS 11. Proceed to attach your make-ready to the bottom draw sheet in correct register with the punch marks. On the gripper edge have the sheet of manila come to the very edge of cylinder. In attaching overlays to the manila draw, register the manila on first, then the overlay sheet. Paste only the edge facing the gripper edge. Reel in your packing and if the previous instructions have been carried out properly, you will have a hard and lasting make-ready. This is one of the most scien¬ tific methods of make-ready for plates on patent base. 12. To test out the make-ready, before you start to run, place a sheet of its own stock to the guides, and on top of this, a sheet of newsprint paper. Print one impression, and notice the highlights. If they are clean and clear, all is well and you can rest assured that you will get all that it is possible to get out of the wear of these plates. But if some spots appear cloudy in the highlights, there is too much impression, and it should be reduced before you print very many sheets. This newsprint is a never-failing test and should be used at all times, as it proves to you that your job has the correct amount of impression, and you know the highlights are printing clean, without the worry of wear. The highlights are the most impor¬ tant, and one should not squash or enlarge the dots by excessive impression, otherwise you have an inferior product. When plates or cuts are more than type-high, they will show wear on the extreme back edge. MAKE-READY 103 If cylinder is overpacked, the packing will have a tendency to creep or tear out of the clamps at the gripper edge. When a form demands a great deal of pressure, divide this pressure, placing one half on the cylin¬ der and the other half under the plates. Good register should be possible even on ordinary presses if all the adjustments were properly made. How¬ ever, the condition of the stock not infrequently is respon¬ sible for bad register, and the only way to overcome this is to properly season the paper in the pressroom before printing, and keep it there until all the printing is finally completed. The first essential in the process of securing register is proper make-ready. The units of the form should be brought up to type-high, and a perfectly level surface secured, which will afterwards necessitate very little overlaying. Bear in mind that any disturbance of the pitch line, by overlaying, even though it be in spots, will disastrously effect the register. Guide rests, and the guides themselves, should bear a proper relation to the surface to the cylinder packing, which should have a snug and smoothly drawn top sheet. The guides should lift at the latest possible moment, and have smooth surfaces. There should be no roughened, or cut places on the face of the guides that would tend to lift the sheet, or throw it back while the grippers are taking hold. If the guides are rough, make them smooth by the use of a piece of No. 1 emery cloth tacked to an inch strip of cigar- box wood, and used as a file up and down rather than across the guide. Several drops of oil applied directly to the emery will improve the result. 104 CYLINDER PRESS See to it that the feeder (if the human agent is employed) does not switch the under sheet just at the time the guides are lifting and the grippers are taking hold of a sheet ahead. There is a moment at this point when the sheet has no support at the guide edge. The grippers should take the sheet with a uniform pressure and should not extend over the sheet more than two-eighths of an inch—preferably not more than one pica. Sometimes the spring actuating the gripper rod, if set unnecessarily strong, will throw the cylinder forward irregularly when the grippers are closing and be the cause of a mysterious uncertainty of register. Use the “drop fingers” when the press is so equipped. When there are no drop fingers, cut two pieces of coarse emery cloth an inch square and insert one between each guide rest and the feed board, allowing a quarter-inch to project to touch the sheet and prevent it from being forced back by the lifting of the guides. Use a guide rest, or perhaps two, to support the sheet between the ones on which the guides operate. Have the register rack so adjusted that the bed will be carrying the cylinder rather than the cylinder carrying the bed along, otherwise the register will be perfect at the head line and defective in the center and back end of the sheet. Be sure that the springs that lift the cylinder are set strong enough to do that work efficiently, otherwise there will be a variation in the amount of gripper-edge margin all through the run. Have the feed board fastened tightly in place so the feeder will not move it by leaning against it. Ink. The ink should be put in the fountain and the fountain carefully marked, as to where the gutters are on the form, also to facilitate the setting of same by the thumb- MAKE-READY 105 screws. Be sure to start in the center of fountain to set, but never cut ink entirely dry where gutters come. Leave a thin film of ink on there. The steel fountain roller, by a rotary motion, transfers ink by the ductor roller, or conveyor, to the plate and angle rollers. The angle rollers rotating upon the ink plate by mechanical means are provided with a lateral movement, which causes the ink to be distributed upon the plate in a perfectly even film. The form rollers take the ink from the plate and distribute it upon the form or engravings. Ex¬ perience has shown that four form rollers are required to properly ink a form by passing over it in both directions. When the form is properly inked, it is ready for the im¬ pression. Perfect printing depends to a large extent upon the proper amount of ink being used, the correct consistency of same, together with a uniform impression on the printing surface. When the ink used is too condensed or heavy, proper distribution and inking of form is difficult; ‘ ‘ picking ’ ’ or tearing particles of coating from the surface of paper will be the result when this is removed from the form after the impression. When ink is too thin, it will not only be deposit¬ ed upon the surface of the form, but run into it, thereby causing lines and dots in the engraving to show larger than their natural size. During the impression, ink which is too thin will run and produce an irregular print, and a full strength of color can not be obtained. A pressman, in watching process color work, should watch the highlights and middletones, picture the subject as it will be when finished—the heavies or solids will take care of themselves. It is a conceded fact that the rolling impression on a cylinder press is preferable to the flat impression of the platen or job press; and as matter of fact, large plates, io6 CYLINDER PRESS intense in color, can only be printed successfully on the cylinder press. For long runs of many thousands, or millions, the modern two-revolution cylinder press has proven super¬ ior, both in speed and in the uniform quality of the product. Presses for color work must meet demands which are most exacting. The first and most important is register, which means that the form must meet the impression on the cylinder in exactly the same place during every im¬ pression. The second, third and fourth colors must be printed in absolute register with the first in order to produce satisfactory work; and if the press is not mechanically perfect this is impossible. In the course of time it was found expedient to improve the single-cylinder machines by adding another cylinder, so that two colors might be printed on the sheet in one operation. The advantage of such a machine is apparent, for it is not only a time saver, but, owing to its peculiar construction, the two colors may be printed in register with greater accuracy than is possible on the single color presses. Another point in favor of the two-color press is the reduc¬ tion in waste. In working three-color processes on a two-color press, it is best to run blue on the first cylinder and red on the second cylinder. If the yellow is strong, it is best to run the yellow first on a single-cylinder press, then follow with the blue and red. But if yellow is light, run a transparent yellow last after the blue and red, on a single cylinder. In four-color process work on a two-color press, always run black on the first cylinder, as it should print sharp and clean; it will print so on the first cylinder, as a stiff ink is required for the red to print over on the second cylinder. When ordering inks for a two-color press, be sure to MIEHLE TWO-COLOR MAKE-READY 107 state which cylinder you intend to run the colors on, as the first cylinder requires a good stiff ink, the second cylinder requires a softer ink, to print over this stiff wet ink. To get the best results on a four-color job, if possible, run the yellow on a single cylinder, then run black and red together on two-color, then run the blue on a single cylinder. Here you have the main colors in perfect register: always prepare the job with yellow and put the finishing touches to it with blue. If necessary to run the entire job on a two- color press, run black and red together first, then run blue and yellow together. The rotation of printing may be changed if the inks of the same shade are used, without affecting the result. If yellow is printed last, a transparent ink must be used. Indian lake is a transparent ink. In registering color process plates in order to obtain the proper results, the dots must print as nearly as possible on the paper which has been left uncovered by the pre¬ viously printed color. A form for close register should not be locked or spaced with wood furniture, beyond a nonpareil reglet or such matter. Every change in temperature affects wood, either shrinking or swelling it. In the same manner, atmospheric conditions affect paper. Damp weather enlarges the sheet and dry weather contracts it. A thunderstorm may cause loss of register on next color, and waste of such stock as may be printed during the storm. Register may be lost over night because the weather has changed. All stock printed and unprinted should be carefully protected from humid air. It will even then be found that a few of the top sheets on a pile, on a register job will be out of register. Paper should always be piled evenly and squarely, io8 CYLINDER PRESS to guard against atmospheric changes. Roughly piled stock is more exposed to the air. Keep printed stock covered. On a register job, in the morning when coming to run, if you find the guides out, up from the guide rests, change the height of the board, not the guides—while the atmos- sphere does not change the steel guide rod, it does the feed board. To run two shades of a color at one time on Miehle, put washers on composition vibrators to stop vibration of rollers. On form rollers push nut back in slide as far as it will go on Miehle press. This will stop vibration of steel vibrators. Use fountain dividers as needed. To connect up governor rods on a two-color press, place the bed of press at the extreme end of machine (either end); put a piece of cardboard between the cam and governor to allow for play, to be taken up by the air, then close both chambers and tighten nuts on both rods. OVERLAYS W HETHER zinc, or hand-cut, or other overlays are used, painstaking accuracy is ever the greatest secret of any form of make-ready that is good, and it should be insisted upon by the foreman who is responsible for fine results in the pressroom. A careless, happy-go-lucky indi¬ vidual has no business in a pressroom. A pressman must be a careful and painstaking man at all times. Hand-cut Overlays. Every pressman should know how to make perfect hand-cut overlays without spending too much time on same, or overdoing it. After the under¬ laying is all done, and while the sheet is being inspected for a position O.K., print an impression with full color and squeeze on a sheet of S. and S. C. 32 x 44—100 lbs.; also on a sheet of enamel 32 x 44—120 lbs., which is equal to 25 x 38—70 lbs. Take the S. and S. C. and cut in from the outer edge of the print about two points; that is to say, cut two points off the outer edges of the print of each individual half-tone. This causes the extreme edges to print clean, and also relieves the impression on the outer edges. Now it must be done very carefully; if you cut in more than two points, you will have to bring back the impression with tissue, and if you do not cut in exactly two points, you can not get the results you are striving for. After this is done, take the enamel sheet, and if there are a very few highlights or white lights in this particular half-tone, cut out the high¬ lights and paste the dark portions (with all light or white spots cut out) on this other sheet of S. and S. C. which is I IO CYLINDER PRESS the ground sheet in exact register, and in cutting, cut directly on the outline. But if the cuts contain nearly all white spots, and less dark gradations, cut out the dark parts or solids and paste them on the S. and S. C. Register on ground sheet and paste them on this S. and S. C. Put on ground sheet carefully. After you have the solids cut from the enamel, and pasted on the S. and S. C. sheet or individual prints, cut out the real white or highlights from the S. and S. C. This gives you a three-ply overlay by using only two sheets. If you cut out the dark middle tones, paste them on the S. and S. C. sheet, and take another enamel and cut out the real darks or solids, and paste on over the solids you previously pasted on with the middle tones. This will give you a heavier overlay, more suitable for dull coated stock. Learn to cut on the line. Where the solids or middle gradations gradually fade off into highlights, the paper should gradually be made thinner. The principle of the overlay is to secure more impression on the middle tones and solids, as they require more pressure to print black, sharp, and clean, otherwise we must make up the deficiencies with additional ink, causing the filling up of the highlights, making them cloudy and dirty, and thereby causing offset, on the next sheet to be delivered on top, and inferior prints. Furniture Half-tones. There are no gradations to speak of, so we print an impression on enamel, and cut in two points from the outer edge. On bureau or dresser half-tones, containing mirrors, cut out the white portions of mirror, but leave in the shadows and gradually slope the edge of shadow off into the white lights, instead of breaking it off abrupt; otherwise, this would show the outline where you have cut and pasted on the patch. All hand-cut over- MAKE-READY hi lays can be matched on the first mark-out sheet in correct register, before placing on press. Mechanical Overlays. These should be matched on a manila sheet to insure getting on exactly, and also fastening them on to stay. Avoid lumps in the paste or glue. The metallic or chalk overlay should be pasted or glued on manila. In packing cylinder press, put on two top manilas, paste the first one in the clamps, but do not paste the top one; fasten clamps. Then, with proper packing, and the usual three sheets of its own stock in packing loose, reel these two top sheets in together on same reel rod. After underlaying is done, position and impression are O.K. for marking out. Print on a sheet to mark out, then put a sheet of stock job is to be printed on, in packing; then print on this top manila, and punch or stab with a knife or needle each section in two places. Now open reel, and back up press, open the packing clamp at gripper edge, remove this unpasted top sheet; cut it into sections, and glue on the mechanical overlays. This top sheet will place the overlays in correct position, as the sheet was on top, when printed, with correct packing, thereby giving it the correct circum¬ ference, and will place the overlays correctly. The manila being good and strong will not yield a particle, and you can leave -press open until you are ready to put the first mark-out sheet on when patched up, thereby saving the time to open packing again. Zinc Overlays. The zinc overlay is one of the very best of mechanical overlays. It is easily and quickly made; the overlay is indestructible when in use; it is an overlay that is subject to no distortion, either that of shrinkage or stretching, and for half-tones that are run time and time again, commonly called “stock cuts,” it cannot be excelled. I 12 CYLINDER PRESS This metallic overlay was patented by James R. Gilbert, but The Typolith Co., of Battle Creek, Mich., are the sole owners of all machinery and rights connected with the process. They prepare the zinc and furnish same in various sizes and thicknesses, also other articles which enter into the making and granting of license for making of same. Mechanical Chalk Relief Overlay. Is an etchable coated board, furnished in different thickness. A specially prepared ink, for the printing on board, after which it is placed in etching bath. The developed overlay is exposed to dry, and when thoroughly dry is ready for use. This chalk overlay was formerly sold by Watzelhan & Speyer, 183 William St., New York. The A. M. Collins Mfg. Company, Philadelphia, have a similar process. THE MANUFACTURE OF PRINTING INK BY James A. Ullman P RINTING ink is the medium through which the printer expresses himself. Printing is the “Art pre¬ servative,” and through Printing Ink the visible result is carried to the eye. Alter all the time, thought and labor entering into the planning and execution of the work, after the type and paper have been selected, the cuts made— after all this labor and thought have been expended, the proofs read, the form made ready, ’tis Printing Ink that finally proves the result, and shows it in permanent and visible form. This is the age of specialization and specialists; a devel¬ opment which has both its advantages and its disadvan¬ tages. While it leads to progress and perfection, and the working out in infinite detail of the art or subject to which it is applied, the limit of the human brain naturally gives specialization a tendency towards one-sidedness or narrow¬ mindedness. The art of printing, today is specialized in many directions, not only in the execution of various pro¬ cesses and methods, but in its contributive arts and manu¬ factures. Therefore, it is eminently necessary that its votaries have at least an intelligent comprehension of the materials with which they work, and one of the most im¬ portant of these is Printing Ink. If we reduce the process of printing to its simplest form, we find that it consists primarily of a design from which to THE MANUFACTURE 1 14 print, and a surface upon which to print. This design may simply be impressed upon the given surface, as, for instance, a foot-print in the sand. This is our starting point. If the foot-print be made, instead of on sand, upon a harder and more permanent surface, and if instead of being impressed, it is made visible, by means, we shall say, of muddy feet, we get the germ of that kind of printing which we are consider¬ ing, whose three factors are therefore a design or form from which to print, a surface upon which to print, and a medium to make that impression visible. The medium that we are considering is Ink, and it is, therefore, one of the three fundamentals with which the printer has to do, and becomes, as it were, one of the principal tools of his art. We can therefore define Printing Ink as a colored medium to make the impression visible, which is easy enough to say, but the questions arise: How does it do it; and, why does it do it? It is one of those phenomena which we see so constantly that it perhaps never occurs to us to inquire into the principles upon which it is based. We see painting done. We see the painter dip his brush into the paint, and spread it upon a given surface. A little consideration shows us that there is a certain adhesion between the paint and the bristles or fibres of the brush; that there is also some capillary attraction of the spaces between the brush for the paint, so the brush will take up, or absorb, a quantity of the paint. In greater part, however, it is but very loosely held, and as soon as the brush is applied with some pressure to any surface, the attraction or adhesion for that surface to the paint is greater than the adhesion of the brush for the paint, and greater indeed than the cohesion of the particles of the paint among themselves, so that by far the greater part of the paint will leave the brush and adhere to the sur- OF PRINTING INK nS face to be painted. A certain amount of pressure must be used in applying the paint, but this is no doubt merely necessary in order to bring the paint on the brush into intimate contact with the surface upon which it is applied, as the adhesion can act only at very close range. If we now take, say a cut, and apply Printing Ink to it with a roller, a given amount of it will leave the roller and cover the cut on exactly the same principle as the paint leaves the brush for the surface to be painted. If you touch a painted surface with your hands or clothing, you will find, often to your great displeasure and annoyance, that the paint will again transfer itself, and again the reason is that the adhesion of the paint to your clothing is greater than its adhesion for the wood, and also greater than its own cohesion. Let us go back now to the cut which we have inked. If we lay a piece of paper on a table, and upon that the form with its inked surface downwards, perhaps a little of the ink will leave the form (if the quantity be considerable) and adhere to the paper. If, however, we apply sufficient pressure to bring the form into intimate contact with the paper, the greater part of the ink will leave the form for the paper. If the form be an absolute plane, and the pressure be applied absolutely uniformly over the entire surface, no doubt all the ink would leave the form for the paper, and we therefore deduce the principle that the adhesion of ink to paper is greater than the adhesion of ink to metal, and great¬ er than its own cohesion. On these fortunate facts the entire process of printing is based. We must bear them con¬ stantly in mind, and keep them plainly before us, and they will enable us to solve many of the difficulties that arise daily in printing. We can readily see, for instance, that if the 116 THE MANUFACTURE paper be very absorbent, in other words, if it has a great capillary attraction, that this will facilitate the transference of the ink to itself from the form; that the harder the surface and the less absorbent, the more difficult becomes this transference, and that in that case we must count more upon the simple division of the film of ink into two films, the thicker one of which will remain upon the paper, and the thinner one upon the form. Having now described the function of the ink, let us try to give a simple description or definition as broadly as may be of what Printing Ink is. We might say that it is a pig¬ ment ground into a vehicle or varnish. The use of the word “vehicle” is in itself already a further explanation, the var¬ nish being simply as the word “vehicle” expresses a carrier for the pigment. It is the varnish which carries the color or pigment during the process of the manufacture of the ink, that is to say the grinding. It is the varnish which carries the color or pigment from the fountain to the rollers, from the roller to the form, and the form to the paper. It is the varnish which is transferred from one surface to the other in the desired sequence. The varnish it is which really does the printing, or is printed. As the varnish, however, has no color of itself, it hardly becomes evident or visible, though sometimes, for instance, a glossy varnish is printed over other colors to add to their gloss or brilliancy. It therefore becomes necessary to combine with the varnish various colors or pigments, to make the impression visible, and by our choice of the colors and qualities of these pig¬ ments, we are enabled to produce printing ink in all the multitudinous shades that we see before us today. While it is not within my province to enter into a discussion of the various processes of printing, it may still be wise to pause OF PRINTING INK ii 7 for a moment to view them with reference to the question of ink. There are three distinct methods of printing: Intaglio Printing, where the design is sunken into the form: the impression is, as it were, a cast from that design. In this category comes steel and copperplate printing, etching, etc. Next we come to Surface Printing, which is based. upon a design upon a plane surface, which design is so made or chemically treated, that it has an affinity for the ink, the rest of the surface repels the ink. Such processes in- clud Lithography, Metal-Lithography and the Gelatin process. Finally we come to the printing which is done from a surface in relief, or Typographic Printing. This is the class of printing we have specially in view, and in regard to which we shall principally contemplate the question of Printing Ink. Having now a general idea of what Printing Ink must do, and why it does it, and how it does it, let us examine into the various properties of Printing Ink that concern the printer. These properties may be divided into primary and secondary, also, in each case, into physical and chemical properties. The primary physical properties are consis¬ tency, drying and permanency, their importance being in the order in which they are mentioned. Among secon¬ dary physical properties might be mentioned such com¬ paratively unimportant characteristics as specific gravity, opacity in some cases, finish or lustre, etc. On the chemical properties are based the keeping quali¬ ties of ink, to some extent its drying, and indeed the phy¬ sical properties are often dependent upon chemical causes. We are, however, interested principally in what I have 118 THE MANUFACTURE termed the primary physical properties, and shall merely refer to the less important ones as occasion requires. Printing Ink, which, as we have said, consists of a pigment ground into a vehicle, varies according to its in¬ tended requirements from a syrupy liquid to a thick pasty mass with intermediate consistencies according to its intended purpose. Its consistency is its most important quality, and must be regulated according to the press and paper upon which it is to be used. We shall find that the consistency of Printing Ink is intimately involved and con¬ nected with many of its other properties, notably its drying. The physical properties of a material like Printing Ink become fused and combined one with the other in such a way as to make recognition at times very difficult; so the factor of the consistency of ink, particularly the stickiness or tackiness of the ink, combined with what is termed its “flow.” Take vaseline, for instance: here we have a sub¬ stance which is very thick, but not sticky. On the other hand, mucilage is thin and watery, but very sticky, and the proper consistency of Printing Ink is such as to provide for the correct viscosity and the correct stickiness or tack. Some pigments ground into varnish in a given proportion simply give a thick pasty mass, while others, due to their nature, increase the stickiness or tackiness. We must there¬ fore have means, and those means we have, to increase or de¬ crease the fluidity, or to increase or decrease the tack. The thickness as well as the fluidity are in a measure due to the heaviness or stickiness of the varnish itself, and to the nature or quantity of the pigment ground into it. The consistency of the ink is, we repeat once more, one of its most important characteristics, and must be necessarily to the greatest possible degree adapted to the work required; it is here that OF PRINTING INK 1 19 the highest art of the ink-maker comes into play, so that, as has well been said, the ink at times seems to exert almost human intelligence in accomplishing what is wanted. The ink must be soft enough and fluid enough to flow properly in the press and to distribute itself over the rollers and form. It must not be too sticky, lest it tear the surface of the stock, nor, on the other hand, too soft, lest it soak away into the paper instead of leaving a due proportion upon the surface. If it be too heavy, it will not distribute properly, conse¬ quently too much ink will be carried, the type and cuts will be filled up, while the thicker layer of ink on the paper will also retard the drying. Again, upon the other hand, if the ink be too thin, it will run into the crevices of the type, cuts and halftones, producing a muddy result. The varnish will soak away into the surface of the paper, giving a mottled effect, while at the same time failing to fulfill one of its principal duties, which is to cement the pigment to the paper. If the ink be too thin, it is because the varnish is too thin. The capillary attraction of the paper will entirely overcome the adhesion between the pigment and the varnish, the latter will be absorbed by the paper, the pigment will remain stranded upon the surface, not properly combined or cemented to the paper, and will consequently readily be rubbed off. This is the principle on which inks for carbon papers are made. To understand this point properly, it is necessary to conceive that in every case the varnish in the ink must act like the size used in bronze printing. It must remain to a certain extent on the surface of the paper, and hold the pigment there. When it is too thin, it cannot fulfill this function, and the result will be as above described. Taken all in all, we cannot too strongly dwell upon the importance of the consistency of Printing Ink, and almost 120 THE MANUFACTURE every trouble that occurs in printing, as far as it is due to, and can be remedied by, the proper adjustment of ink results from the improper consistency of the ink in a given case. The remedy is then found in correcting the consis¬ tency, and it must be determined whether the ink is too soft or too heavy, but symptoms in such cases being fre¬ quently very similar, and often confusing, the proper solu¬ tion of the problem must be based upon careful observation at the press. To tell the ink-maker that the ink does not work pro¬ perly is such vague information that it may be impossible for him to provide the proper remedy. But we might safely say that it is always better for the printer to purchase his inks rather too heavy than too soft, because it is compara¬ tively simple to soften the ink by the use of varnishes, while it is practically impossible for him to increase the consistency, or to make the ink stiffer or heavier. Practically never do ideal conditions prevail in printing. They would really arise only through accident, and there¬ fore as a rule such a compromise must be effected as will most nearly produce correct results. For instance, in a job or platen press the construction of the press requires a heavy ink, but the tackiness of such an ink is too great for use on coated paper, on which it would most probably pick. Therefore in printing a form on coated paper on a job press, the press dictates a heavy ink, the paper dictates a soft ink—two diametrically opposing factors which can not both be catered to at the same time. Therefore such a comprom¬ ise between the two must be made which will do the max¬ imum justice to both, while, of course, not doing full justice to either. Differences in temperature, weather, and stock, play OF PRINTING INK 121 a most important role in the production of printing, and have a powerful influence upon the consistency of ink. Each one of these factors is much more changeable and subject to variations than the product of any reputable ink manufacturer; but temperature, weather variations, and differences in stock are often not recognized, lost sight of or forgotten, while the ink is something tangible, and appears fractious, though simply obeying definite fundamental and unalterable physical laws, upon whose very unalterableness the entire process of printing is based. The consistency of the ink is changed by the temperature; it becomes softer as the temperature rises, and heavier as it falls. Humidity in the atmosphere opens the pores of the paper so that it will become more absorbent. A still greater degree of humidity will make the paper repellent to the oily ink, and in some cases where the paper is coated or enamelled, the humidity disintegrates the coating, so that it easily leaves the body of the paper. It must not be forgotten that the ink can not automatically regulate itself to ever-changing conditions. Sad it is, indeed, but it must be recorded that the ink does exactly the opposite of what would be necessary, for, when lower temperature would require a softer ink, the ink becomes heavier, and when rising temperature dictates a heavier ink, the ink becomes softer. The printer must therefore either select his ink according to conditions, regulate the ink as occasion dictates, or, at least, must supply his ink maker with the results of intelli¬ gent observation in such a form as to enable his requirements to be understood. Let us not forget that the consistency of the ink, to a great extent dictates its proper working on the press, the proper appearance of the work when finished, and has a 122 THE MANUFACTURE great influence upon the drying of the ink upon the paper. Keeping in mind the paramount importance of the consis¬ tency, we are thus led directly to the second most important characteristic of Printing Ink, namely Drying. We all think we know what drying is. It is, again, one of those phenomena which we see so frequently that it never occurs to us to investigate its why and wherefore. It is one of those loose and vague expressions that have many meanings, for when we analyze the meaning of the verb “to dry” we see that it has many phases. When the sun comes out after a rainfall, the water will soon disappear from a stone pavement, and the streets will be dry. The heat of the sun has simply converted the water into invisible vapor, which disappears from view. This is one kind of drying, evaporation, or volatilization. On a good dirt road the water will have disappeared more rapidly than on the stone pavement; part of it will have evaporated, but the greater part will merely have soaked away. This is a second kind of drying, absorption. Now let us take a piece of some hard non-absorbent material, as, for instance, glass or sheet iron. Let us paint it with paint containing no turpentine, benzine, or other volatile material: say a paint made by grinding a pigment into linseed oil, which is practically non-volatile at ordinary temperatures. In the course of time we will find that the coat of paint has become perfectly dry, having been con¬ verted into a hard film or skin. Now, how did this dry? Not by evaporation, because by definition there was nothing in the paint to evaporate; not by absorption, because we selected a non-absorbent surface for our experiment. The apint itself has become converted into a solid film or skin by the chemical action of the atmosphere. The oil has be- OF PRINTING INK 123 come oxidized or polymerized, and has become changed in its nature from a liquid into a solid. This is the third kind of drying, oxidation or polymerization, and one which is very important to the printer; in fact, it is with the last two kinds of drying that the printer has to do. The first kind, evaporation, plays little or no role in printing, as printing inks in general contain little or no volatile ingre¬ dients, but oxidation and absorption are the two kinds of drying, which either alone or in conjunction, are the ones upon which the drying of printing ink in almost every case entirely depend. According to the class of work for which inks are in¬ tended, they must be made to dry either by absorption or oxidation, or by the two combined. In the case of printing on newspaper, or on other very absorbent stocks, it is solely upon absorption that we rely. In fact, it requires but a moment’s consideration to show that no ink could actually dry in the almost infinitesimal period of time that elapses while the paper travels through one of our swiftly-moving modern perfecting presses. The drying is therefore based simply upon the absorption of the ink by the paper. When an ink for such a press therefore does not dry rapidly enough, or when it smuts the type or angle bars, the printer will know that the cause is either in the improper consis¬ tency of the ink, or injudicious selection of its ingredients, and will not commit the barbarism of trying to remedy the defect by the addition of dryer. When it comes to super¬ sized or calendered stocks and coated papers, the drying is partly due to absorption and partly to oxidation. Here, however, we must take in especial consideration the con¬ clusions that we have arrived at regarding the consistency of the ink, and also not let ourselves be misled, by adding 124 THE MANUFACTURE dryer to an ink when it is simply a question of consistency. It is always wise to run the ink as stiff as the stock will possibly allow. This will give a sharper and clearer result and cause a minimum of trouble as far as drying is concerned. This question of drying in one of its most important phases becomes that of offsetting which means simply that a second impression is produced where it is not wanted. This causes a great deal of trouble, and can frequently be obviated by the judicious adjustment of the consistency of the ink to the paper, but there are sometimes antagonistic factors that it is almost impossible to overcome, as for instance electricity in the paper. By the action of electricity the sheets are drawn together with unusual force, the air between the sheets being expelled. This air is necessary to fulfill a two¬ fold function; first, to act as a cushion separating the sheets, and second, to furnish the oxygen necessary for drying the ink. Such offsets may spoil the work entirely in some cases, but where the cause is electricity, or some other factor outside of the ink, it can naturally only be remedied by eliminating that cause, whatever it may be. Again, there are cases where presses are old or of poor construction, where distribution is bad, where rollers are poor, where atmospheric conditions are inimical to proper results, and yet the printer expects that the ink-maker can furnish an ink to obviate all these difficulties. He can sometimes partially succeed, but not always, and surely if Printing Ink could overcome all the defects of machinery, cuts, and type, deficiencies in the stock, or adverse atmospheric con¬ ditions, then progress in the perfection of machinery, repro¬ ductive processes and paper would have been entirely unnecessary. Another point that we must take up in connection with OF PRINTING INK 125 the question of drying is that of the quality or intensity of ink. It is self-evident that the smaller the quantity of ink necessarily applied to achieve a satisfactorily intense effect, the quicker that ink will dry, no matter whether the drying in any given case be based upon absorption or upon oxida¬ tion. When, however, too poor a grade of ink is selected, more ink will have to be carried, a thicker film must be applied to the paper, and consequently that ink will not dry properly. There is therefore no economy in the use of too low a grade of ink; not only will the loss of time be greater than would be balanced by the difference in the cost per pound of ink, but more ink will be used on the job. The actual sum of money paid for the ink to do a given quantity of work will thus practically be the same in the case of a lower grade as in that of a higher grade of ink, while the difficulties ensuing as regards drying will still further de¬ tract from any apparent economy. As the third important physical characteristic of Print¬ ing Ink, we have taken Permanency. That we should have placed the importance of permanency so low in our scale may be surprising, especially as we have said that it is the object of the ink to produce a permanent record. This question of permanency is a muph mooted one, and a great deal of misapprehension obtains regarding it in the minds of printers. Let us, however, recognize that permanency plays a role only in a very small percentage of all printing. The vast majority of all printing is done with black inks, which are all permanent, and where this question conse¬ quently does not apply. Of the small percentage that then remains, it is only in such printing as is exposed to the direct and continuous action of the sunlight that perma¬ nency is of real importance. A color that would fade out in a 126 THE MANUFACTURE day or two when exposed directly to the sun, retains its hue and brilliancy for years when hung up in a room, and prac¬ tically indefinitely in the pages of a book. After deducting all this, but a very small percentage remains, and today the question of permanency refers principally to reds and violets, as permanent colors can be produced in nearly every other shade, and indeed in the last few years consid¬ erable progress has even been made in regard to reds. In considering the question of permanency, we must first thoroughly comprehend this: That permanency is not given to an ink by adding an ingredient that makes the color permanent—that colors are not made permanent, as for instance, cloth may be made water-proof by a coating of water-proof material, or subjecting it to a chemical process. Such is not the case. A permanent ink can be made only by selecting a pigment which is of itself permanent by its own intrinsic nature. It therefore naturally follows that while we may have at the present time a large and varied selec¬ tion of permanent colors, yet still it is possible only to make permanent inks of such shades as exist in those permanent pigments, and in addition such shades as can be produced by combining or mixing those pigments. It must therefore be understood that it may not always be possible to pro¬ duce any given shade of ink in a permanent color, unless there exist permanent colors out of which we make it, and a permanent ink cannot be obtained simply by specifying that it must be permanent. Permanency is not a question of price, as the cheapest pigments we have are absolutely per¬ manent, while some of the most expensive are fugitive, though again there are expensive pigments that are per¬ manent and cheap ones that are fugitive. There are pig¬ ments which are permanent and others which are not, OF PRINTING INK 127 simply because it has been so ordained by physical and chemical laws, which cannot be juggled with or interfered with simply to suit individual whims or requirements. As a rule, it is true that the most brilliant and handsome colors are more fugitive than those which are dull and less bril¬ liant. It is therefore a special desideratum to obtain colors that are at one and at the same time intense, brilliant and permanent. As science advances in its onward path this is gradually being more and more accomplished. Let us, however, remember that if the ink-maker could make every possible shade of color intense, brilliant, permanent, and at the same time cheaply, that he would hardly be so foolish as to make any other inks whatever, because there would be no reason for him to produce high-priced fugitive inks in dull shades, when he could make more desirable ones to cost him less. I have deemed it wise to view the subject of Printing Ink analytically. We have therefore first tried to define what the functions of printing ink are, secondly to give a concise definition of what printing ink is, thirdly, what the proper¬ ties are on which its functions are based. The next step will therefore be to take a bird’s-eye view of its manufacture, to show the methods, process, machinery and appliances used to produce printing inks having the required qualifications, so that having started at the apex of our pyramid, we gradually work down to its base, and after then having as comprehensive a view as can be compressed within a few hours’ study, we are ready to discuss in detail such points as may arise, and which it will then be easy to understand. We will therefore now examine into the manufacture of Printing Ink, which will be more interesting and more readily understandable from what has gone before. 128 THE MANUFACTURE We have previously said that Printing Ink consists of a pigment ground into a vehicle. Consequently the last step in the manufacture is this process of grinding, and we shall therefore go back step by step until we reach the very foun¬ dation of the entire industry. This grinding is preceded by the mixing of the pigment with the varnish, which is accom¬ plished in mixers of various types. The mixing done, we find we now have a material consisting of varnish with which the pigment is more or less intimately mingled, the whole being in a coarse or grainy state. This mixture of unground ink is now transferred to the mills, which usually consist of three horizontal rollers, which we will call the middle roller, the rear roller, and the front roller. The middle roller and the rear roller revolve towards each other, so that the unground ink passes down between the two, is carried up again by the middle roller to the front roller, whence it is scraped off by a knife and falls into a receptacle. This process is repeated time and time again until the proper stage of fineness of grinding is reached. In a modern plant, these rollers are made of steel, accurately turned, with highly polished surfaces, and capable of being ad¬ justed relatively to each other, in accordance with the consistency of the ink and the stage of fineness which it has reached. The rollers being hollow, are so arranged that water is allowed to flow through them to keep them cool, which increases the output of the mill, at the same time preventing the ink from becoming overheated, the deleter¬ ious effect of which is frequently the cause of livery or gummy inks. Of course, primarily the quality of an ink depends upon the use of suitable pigments and suitable varnishes, whose proper proportions have been definitely adjusted. OF PRINTING INK 129 The real ink-maker therefore is the one who not only- grinds inks on the mill, but who manufactures the varnishes and pigments, as only in such a case can he be fully conver¬ sant with their ingredients and qualifications. This con¬ stitutes the distinction between the ink manufacturer and the ink grinder. Thus we see that the real manufacturer of Printing Ink begins with the production of the varnishes and pigments, and a complete ink factory consequently consists of three distinct plants, one for the production of varnishes, one for the manufacture of the pigments, and finally the grinding plant for making the finished article. In accordance with the short description given pre¬ viously of the manufacture of Printing Ink, and the ma¬ terials of which it is composed, we will now take up the manufacture of the varnishes used. For the raw materials in his varnishes, the printing ink manufacturer draws principally upon the products of the vegetable and mineral kingdom, that is to say, vegetable and mineral oils, rosins, and gums of various kinds, as well as a number of mineral salts, such as compounds of lead, manganese, and zinc—these latter being used in the pro¬ duction of dryers. For the higher grades of inks we have principally the linseed oil varnishes, made, as the name implies, from linseed oil, which has a number of properties that make it peculiarly suitable for this purpose. Linseed oil is expersed from linseed or flaxseed. Like other products of nature, its quality varies with its geographical origin—the seed from which it is produced, the temperature and weather con¬ ditions existing during the growth of the seeds, and methods of its manufacture. Linseed oil is converted into varnishes for use in printing ink by the following method: 130 THE MANUFACTURE A copper kettle large enough to contain some 700 or 800 pounds of this oil is filled to about two-thirds of its capacity. This kettle rests upon a five-wheeled iron truck, by means of which it is rolled over a furnace or fireplace, where the oil is heated to about 600 degrees. An action then takes place, which though it has been studied for many years is not thoroughly understood. The net result is, however, that to some extent the oil is volatilized; some of the complex organic compounds are split up; some oxygen is absorbed from the air itself; acrid elements pass off in vapor, and the oil becomes gradually thicker and thicker, as well as stickier, while at the same time its drying proper¬ ties increase. According to the length of time during which the process is carried on, the thickness or heaviness of the resulting product is controlled, and gives the various degrees or “numbers” of consistency required for the different kinds of printing inks, ranging from a very thin varnish, usually known in the trade as “OO” which is but very slightly thicker than raw oil, up to an extremely viscous consistency, that is perhaps as heavy as the softer grades of tar. The manufacture of varnish of this class is tedious and difficult, and requires constant supervision. Should the oil become too hot, it will catch fire spontaneously, while at the same time a large quantity of highly obnoxious odors are evolved, requiring a building with a high chimney, and arrangements in general of such a nature as to carry on the process properly. For some kinds of inks, as, for instance, Steel-plate Engraving Inks, the oil, when at the right temperature, is purposely ignited, and allowed to burn for some length of time to deprive it of some of its greasy elements. Simple as OF PRINTING INK 131 this process is, the manufacture of linseed oil varnishes is of the utmost importance for the production of good inks; the quality, working properties, keeping properties and drying properties, are largely dependent upon the selection of suitable grades of linseed oil, and upon a careful execution of the boiling, while another important feature is the aging or storing of the raw oil, for at least a year, to obtain suitable clarification. If during the process of boiling the oil, metallic salts or oxides, such as borate of manganese, litharge, or red lead be added to the oil, the drying properties of the oil are in¬ creased. In the case of the borate of manganese, that acts as a carrier for the oxygen of the air to the oil. In the case of oxide of manganese or of lead, the oxides are dissociated, giving up their oxygen to the oil, the metallic bases them¬ selves combining with the linoleic acid of the oil to form linoleates. When these additions are comparatively large, the resulting product is called a “Dryer,” because the addi¬ tion of some of this rapidly drying oil or varnish, to a var¬ nish not so treated, or to a printing ink, will make them dry more rapidly. As in the case of the process of making varnish itself, so the theory of the manufacture of dryers and the action of dryers on varnishes and on printing ink is somewhat obscure. Therefore, the chemist intead of giving an explanation falls back upon a definition, and says the action is largley “catalytic,” by which is meant that the mere presence of these oxides or their metallic com¬ pounds, appears to make the varnish or ink dry more rapidly, the probability being that they act as carriers or brokers for the oxygen of the air, which they rapidly absorb, and again give up to the varnish itself, or the varnish of the ink, as the case may be. i 3 2 THE MANUFACTURE In addition to linseed varnishes, there is occasionally use for varnishes made of other vegetable oils, such as poppy seed oil, rape seed oil, and of late years a number of new oils which come from China and Japan, known as wood oils. These oils are either used alone, or some times in combination with rosins or gums, such as copal, damar, or even amber. The second important class of varnishes are the resin or rosin varnishes, made from the common rosin of com¬ merce, obtained from the trees of the pine family, which is too well known to require any description. The rosin is placed in enormous cast-iron stills, having a capacity ranging from five to ten tons, encased in a brick furnace, where it is subjected to the heat, resulting in a process of destructive or fractional distillation. The volatile products pass through a condenser, which is a copper worm or spiral pipe inside of a large tank filled with water. Some of the gases or vapors cannot be recondensed, and are led away in the form of gas; the other vapors are condensed or liquefied in the worm and caught in suitable receptacles, the products continuously varying as the process proceeds, and as the temperature of the material even in the still increases. The first fractions received consist of water; then water mixed with rosin acids, or naphthas, and finally come the rosin oils them¬ selves— the products used in the manufacture of Printing Inks. As one distillation, however, is not sufficient to separate the evil-smelling and deleterious naphthas and acids, the process must be repeated again and again, until the proper degree of rectification or refinement is attained. The cheapest grades of inks of some manufacturers are made from crude oil not suitably refined, they therefore possess an OF PRINTING INK 133 obnoxious odor, are deleterious to the rollers, type and plates, do not work freely, are apt to clog up on the press, and are easily rubbed from the surface of the paper. Here again the quality of the resulting inks is dependent upon the selection of suitable grades of rosin, and a careful and proper supervision of the process of distillation. The rosin varnishes are not only cheaper to manufacture than the linseed oil varnishes, but are used in some grades of printing inks because they are better for the inks required for certain purposes. Inks produced from rosin varnishes dry more by absorption than by oxidation, and are therefore suitable for such classes of inks, the drying of which depends upon a combination of the two kinds of drying. There is a third class of varnishes, which are combin¬ ations of rosin and rosin oils, with various grades of mineral oils, which are very suitable for some grades of work. The drying of such varnishes is dependent entirely upon the absorption. We next come to the pigments or colors, which are com¬ bined or ground into the varnishes or vehicles, to form our ultimate product—Printing Ink. The first or more important color or pigment is black, used for the manufacture of black inks. As a rule, blacks are not made today by the ink manufacturer, but in special factories, for obvious reasons, which will be seen later. In black Printing Inks the finish or lustre depends largely upon the origin and the grade of dry black used. Though all blacks are the element of carbon itself in a more or less pure form, they vary greatly according to their origin, and are distinguished in commerce as carbon blacks, lamp blacks, bone blacks, ivory blacks, vine blacks, etc. The principal black used at the present time is the so-called carbon black, 134 THE MANUFACTURE which is made by the imperfect combustion of natural gas by means of special apparatus. The gas, burning with a smoky flame, deposits its soot upon a revolving roller or plate, as the case may be, whence it is scraped off in the form of the required product. It is claimed that about 2,000 cubic feet of gas are required to produce a pound of black. The very lowest grades of these blacks are sold today in the neighborhood of seven or eight cents a pound, so that it will be readily seen that it is only possible to manufacture this black where the natural gas is obtained in sufficient quantities at a geo¬ graphical location which will not permit of its use for any other purposes. It is, furthermore, claimed that natural gas is becoming scarcer, and that in the course of time the Printing Ink industry will be unable to obtain carbon black at such a price as to make it possible to use it commercially. The carbon blacks vary in blackness, in their intensity, in their shade, and in their working properties, when com¬ bined with varnishes to produce printing inks, and careful selection and tests are necessary in order to produce a printing ink having the desired qualifications for any given purpose. Lamp blacks are made by burning various oils or other materials containing a high percentage of carbon in tunnel¬ like buildings, called black houses. The other blacks, such as ivory blacks, vine blacks, etc. mentioned above are man¬ ufactured by converting the raw materials—grape vines, ivory, etc.—into a fine or high grade of charcoal. These blacks are used in the manufacture of Plate Inks. For Colored Inks a large range of various pigments is required. We draw upon the mineral kingdom, the vege¬ table kingdom, and even the animal kingdom. OF PRINTING INK 135 Taking the least important first we have such colors as carmines, made from the cochineal bug, indian yellow, made from camels’ dung, sepia from the ink sac of the ink-fish, and various colors from the extracts of plants and woods. All these we can pass over, as they are of comparatively little significance today. A rather important group are colors of direct mineral origin, such as various earths, siennas, umbers and ochres, which are mined, roasted, ground, lixiviated, and otherwise prepared in suitable form. These colors are very permanent, and comparatively cheap, but have not very good printing properties. This brings us directly to a very important point, and you would no doubt very much like to be in¬ formed upon what the printing properties of a color are based, and greatly as I would like to give you this informa¬ tion, I am unable to do so. It is not based upon any phy¬ sical or chemical properties that we can discover; it is not upon the specific gravity of the color, though as a rule very heavy colors do not print well. To this vermilion is, how¬ ever, an important exception. It is not dependent upon the lightness of a color; in fact, not, indeed, as stated above, upon any physical or chemical property that we can grasp, and in this respect we must simply be guided by experience. Colors of an amorphous nature, each particle of which we can consider a little sphere or ball (such colors being gen¬ erally produced by precipitation out of a solution), are as a rule better printing, while colors of a crystalline structure, as, for instance, minerals ground or crushed, do not, in general, print as well. In some colors the chemical nature must be given consideration. Vermilion, for instance, a sulphide of mercury, is readily decomposed by copper plates, or the metal of type. The sulphur combines with these THE MANUFACTURE 136 metals, producing a black sulphide, spoiling the appearance of the color, and having a corrosive and destructive action upon the type and plates. Yet when vermilion is added in not too great a proportion, it produces an excellent ink and good covering ink. The same holds true of ultramarine. With the exception of the earth colors, all other pig¬ ments fall into two general divisions, which I call chemical colors, and the so-called lakes. The chemical colors are produced by the action of one chemical upon another, that is to say, two or more chemicals are dissolved separately, and when the solutions are mixed, an insoluble precipitate is formed. In this group, we have such colors as chrome yellows, ferro-cyanide blues, like Milori blue, Prussian blue, Bronze blue, Chinese blue, Antwerp blue, Paris blue, Berlin blue, etc. The process is somewhat as follows: For instance, in the case of chrome yellow, a solution of a lead salt—in general sugar of lead, chemically known as acetate of lead, is pre¬ pared in a wooden tank. In a separate tank there is made a solution of bichromate of potash and sulphuric acid. The bichromate solution is allowed to run into the lead solution, and forms a precipitate consisting of chromate and sulphate of lead, or the chrome yellow of commerce, whose shade is dependent upon the relative proportions of bichromate of potash, sulphuric acid, and sugar of lead. All the other chemical colors referred to are made in a somewhat similar manner. The making of ultramarine is a distinct manufacture by itself, by means of which there is artificially produced a blue similar in every respect to the blue coloring matter of the lapis lazuli. Ultramarine blue has many important properties making it valuable for printing inks, being abso- OF PRINTING INK 137 lutely permanent and alkali-proof, but in general it does not print very well, and is rapidly being supplanted by other permanent blue colors. The principal colors used today in the manufacture of printing inks are lakes, mostly made from coal tar deriva¬ tives, usually incorrectly grouped as anilines. In this class we now have an enormous range of excellent products. Through the great progress made in chemistry in recent years, it is possible to make lakes of the greatest possible strength and permanency, together with a brilliancy of shade, which was for many years an ideal earnestly striven for, but apparently impossible to accomplish. The term “lake” is one which is very loosely used, and no two authorities agree upon its proper definition. I apply it here to pigments made by precipitating water-soluble dyes upon a suitable substratum or base. The quality of the resulting pigment depends upon the nature of that base, the nature and quality of the dye used, and the percentage of dye in proportion to the base. Generally speaking the manufacture is carried on as follows: Taking a typical geranium lake, for instance: into a large wooden vat is run a solution of either alum or sulphate of alumina; into this solution is run another one of carbonate of soda. Through double decomposition, they form the insoluble hydrate of alumina with the escape of carbonic acid gas, while in the solution remain sulphate of soda and any excess that may have been present of one or the other chemicals used. In view of subsequent operations, it is necessary to remove the sulphate of soda remaining in the mother-liquid, which is done by allowing the precipitate to settle to the bottom, the supernatant fluid being drawn off, and the tank refilled. This settling and washing is repeated THE MANUFACTURE 138 until all the sulphate of soda has been removed. We now have in the tank the clean and washed hydrate of alumina, into which is now poured a solution of eosine in water, followed by a solution of acetate of lead, whose quantity is so calculated as just exactly to precipitate the eosine. We thus fix insolubly upon the alumina base the eosine salt of lead, forming an insoluble red pigment, known in the trade as geranium lake. This precipated lake is then washed and rewashed, as in the case of the base itself, and finally there is left in the tank a thickish liquid consisting perhaps of 15% to 20% of the lake, and the remainder water. This liquid is then pumped through a filter press, an arrangement which expresses a large proportion of water, leaving behind the wet pulp, consisting of perhaps 50% of the dry color, and 50% of water. This wet pulp, or rather cake, is now placed upon trays, and removed to a drying room or kiln, where it is allowed to dry gradually at a temperature of 135 to 150 degrees. When thoroughly dry, the “geranium lake,” after being pulverized, is ready to grind into varnish to form printing ink. Had the sulphate of soda formed in the first operation not been eliminated, the finished color would have also contained sulphate of lead, diluting its intensity and im¬ pairing its quality. Other dyes are precipitated by means of other metallic salts, as for instance, scarlets may be precipitated either by lead or by barium, basic dyes by means of tannic acid, etc. In fact, the various groups of artificial coloring matters are each precipitated by their proper agent. Of late there are a number of new dye stuffs which appear in the market in an undeveloped form, i. e., colorless, and which in the manufacture of lakes are developed or diazotized into color OF PRINTING INK 139 producing bodies. To this group, for instance, belong the paranitraniline colors, a very permanent and important series. Other bases may also be used, as, for instance, blanc fixe, or sulphate of barium, also a combination of blanc fixe and alumina hydrate, known as gloss white. Indeed, as is readily seen, there is a wide range for choice in various directions, and as the artificial dye stuffs are found in a wide range of reds, blues, browns, greens, violets, etc., there is practically an endless variety of shades and qualities. We have now practically exhausted the manufacture of the principal ingredients used in Printing Inks, i. e., var¬ nishes and pigments, and have already seen how by grinding the pigment in the varnish on mills, the ultimate product, Printing Ink, is produced. We shall now concisely describe and explain some of the characteristics of inks used for various purposes and their necessary qualifications. The question of permanency we have already taken up. Black Inks range in quality from the cheapest grade—News Ink, up to the highest grade of Black Ink, such as is used by engravers in proving their cuts and plates while in between these two grades are those known as Book Inks, Cut Inks, Half-tone Inks, etc. These grades are not sharply defined, but gradually merge into each other, for each ink must be made in accordance with its intended purpose. Its necessary qualifications include the proper adjustment of its consistency and drying pro¬ perties, the intensity or depth of color suitable for its work, and the fineness of grinding in accordance therewith. According to the class of work, the ink must dry within a definite period of time, and then must not rub off. For fine half-tone work it must be of an intense black shade, and show every detail of the half-tone, with its numberless 140 THE MANUFACTURE dots to the square inch, while its consistency must be such as not to tear or pick the delicate surface of the coated paper on which it is usually used; at the same time it must print all the type work and solids clearly and sharply. Both in Black and Colored Inks we have considered especially only such as are intended for typographic use, but another large class are the inks for lithographic work. These inks are of much heavier consistency, and must be made in con¬ formity with the lithographic process, which, in distinction to typographic work, is not done from a raised surface, but from a practically plane surface. On this plane surface of stone or metal is a design which has been so treated that it has an affinity for the greasy ink, while the rest of the surface is kept wetted with water during the printing pro¬ cess, and repels the greasy ink. But we will not go into the lithographic inks in detail, our attention being concen¬ trated principally on printing inks proper, or typographic inks; nor do we go into the various other processes of printing. Black inks are also to some extent classified according to the papers on which they are used, as for instance, inks for bond paper, inks for glazed papers, inks for parchment papers; while, again the inks intended to be used for com¬ paratively small jobs on job or platen presses, are of a heavier consistency than those used on cylinder presses, and are classed as Job Inks. The inks for Rotary Presses are of the softest consistency of all, and go under the name of Rotary Press Inks. In Colored Inks, as will have been seen from the refer¬ ence to the endless variety of pigments, the choice is almost infinite. The cheapest grade of colored inks are Poster Inks. To fulfill their purpose properly, they should have a great OF PRINTING INK 141 degree of permanency; often, indeed, be absolutely perma¬ nent and they must be very water-proof to stand the results of wet weather. For general work in colors where perma¬ nency is not the first consideration, there is a wide choice in shades, and a large selection of qualities according to requirements. Then there are such specialties as metallic inks, the basis of which is metal in impalpably fine powder, used as a pigment. These are used to produce gold and silver effects in one impression to obviate the necessary use of bronze and size. Copyable Inks are produced by dissolv¬ ing aniline dyes in a water-soluble varnish, if it may be so called, and are used to print forms or blanks which can be copied the same as writing done with copyable writing ink. Safety and Fugitive Inks and Sympathetic Inks are spec¬ ialties of various kinds to safeguard ticket forms, etc., from forgery and alteration, used also on bank checks and work of that class. Frequently, the use to which the resulting printed matter is put dictates the nature of the ink neces¬ sarily used, as for instance unless the inks used on soap wrappers were alkali-proof, the printing would quickly disappear, or the soap might be stained. On paper used for wrapping butter, the ink must be of such a nature as not to be attacked by brine or to discolor the butter. On paper used for wrapping silverware the ink (and also the paper) must contain no ingredients which would tarnish the silverware. Every day there are new demands for printing inks for all kinds of purposes: to print on metal, to print on glass, to print on celluloid, on leather, and, in short, there is apparently no limit to the materials upon which it is de¬ sired to print, and it is the ink-maker’s constant study to fulfill such requirements satisfactorily. 142 THE MANUFACTURE In this country inks were originally imported from Europe. Today American inks are exported to every quar¬ ter of the globe, and it is therefore in the American ink- maker’s province to study the varying requirements in the various countries, whose climates and temperatures dictate important differences in consistency and drying qualities. As an illustration of the problems presented to the ink- maker, there was recently a demand for a black ink that could be printed on a cheap grade of paper, and which would entirely fade out within a few weeks. It seems that a certain concern publishes reports of legal decisions which it issues in a cheap edition from week to week, and at the end of each year, the subscriber receives a duplicate on better paper in bound form. The cheaper edition is to some extent gathered up by other parties, and resold, although this is contrary to the contracts with the subscribers. To prevent this interference with their business, the firm in question was desirous of getting an ink, as just stated, which would fade out within a few weeks, thus making their cheap edition valueless after being read by their subscribers. This one of the few cases where it has been so far impos¬ sible to supply the demand. In a former part of this chapter, it was stated that the varnish acts solely as a carrier for the pigment, while the pigment is there for the purpose of making the impression visible. This was entirely true until a few years ago, and to the greater part is true today, but within recent years an entirely new class of inks has been produced known as Doubletone Inks, which are quite revolutionary in their nature, in so far as the varnish itself is also colored. By means of these Doubletone Inks many beautiful effects are produced, giving the same result as can otherwise be ob- OF PRINTING INK 143 tained only in two or three impressions, as the secondary or doubletone of the ink produces a secondary shade in juxta¬ position to the shade of the pigment itself. While for all interested in the subject of printing it is necessary and desirable to have an insight into the manu¬ facture and nature of printing inks, the practical printer as a rule is little interested in chemical formulae or methods of manufacture. From his standpoint, inks—black and colored —might better be classified according to their advantages and drawbacks. Not every pigment is fit to print with. It is not a question of the intrinsic value, for ground dia¬ monds would make just as poor an ink as coal dust. We have seen before it is not a question of specific gravity. A printer can not judge the quality of ink by its comparative weight, by looking at it, or by smelling it. As far as the quality of a color is concerned, there is no way of telling it except to try it practically, and thus in the course of years the ink-maker enriches his collection of colors which have been tried and proven good. In addition, as has been shown, various classes of work require diametrically opposite qualities in an ink, and what is exactly suitable in one case, is just what would be useless in the other. We therefore require a wide range of pigments, some of which have one salient characteristic and some another. What a certain pigment lacks in one direction it may make up for by some important advantage in another. Absolute perfection no more exists in pigments, nor can be expected in them, than anything else in this world of ours. Therefore, it is readily foreseen that not all colors work equally well, and at the same time possess every valuable or desirable property. Roughly speaking, colors may be divided into body 144 THE MANUFACTURE colors and lakes, but better designations would be opaque colors and transparent colors, as I have defined the term “lake” differently. By an opaque color, I mean one which, when printed, shows practically the same shade no matter what the color of the paper on which it is used, as, for in¬ stance, vermilion is orange-red on white paper, and also on green or on blue papers, that is to say vermillion is opaque. The extensive use of dark colored cover papers in recent years has drawn greatly upon the ingenuity of the ink-maker for inks in every possible shade belonging to these classes. If, however, we print a geranium lake on a blue paper, the blue shade of the paper will shine through and mingle with the red color of the ink, and appear violet. The ger¬ anium lake is transparent, and transparent colors therefore have their use where we wish to obtain certain effects by the mingling of colors, where they overlap each other, as for instance, in three-color process work. A lake would be use¬ less for printing on dark colored cover paper, and a body color would be useless in three-color work. Of course, there are many pigments whose character lies somewhere between the two extremes of opacity and transparency, and these in general are the most useful ones. As a rule, opaque colors are heavy, and transparent colors light, but this does not always hold true, for dry black, which is practically the most opaque of all pigments, in some cases weighs as little as 15 to 20 pounds to a flour barrel; the same container filled with vermillion, or with cremnitz white, which are also very opaque would weigh 600 to 700 pounds. Some pigments are used on account of their perman¬ ency, even though they may have slight defects in some other directions, as for instance, dullness; others, even though they be lacking in permanency, may be used be- OF PRINTING INK 145 cause of their brilliancy, which can not be duplicated by other pigments. Thus it is seen that we are limited to the materials at our command, whose character can not be changed because someone would like to have it done. If a certain shade exists only in a fugitive color, it can not be made permanent because someone would like to have it so. Then, of course, prices come into consideration. Printers have been heard to say that they require inks to do thus and so, but can not afford to pay more than so much. A man afflicted with a mortal illness, whose only cure, let us say, would consist in a certain drug worth $12.00 an ounce might just as well say he can not afford anything more expensive than Seidlitz Powders. He will either have to get the right medicine or die. What the printer really means when he tries to explain the kind of inks he wants is often difficult to comprehend. I have heard a printer say, “I want a red exactly like the blue I had last week.” He may have known what he wanted, but nobody else did. In European countries the methods of buying and selling inks are different than those which obtain here. Abroad, the ink-maker has his catalogs and specimen books, and the printer orders according to his own judgment. Should he perchance complain that the ink is too soft or too slow- drying, or what not, he will simply be told that he has made a mistake in his selection. Here, on the other hand, the printer states his requirements and expects to get his ink accordingly. It is true that this system has greatly induced progress in ink manufacture, and I would not for a moment decry it, yet, on the other hand, it has made the printer more and more dependent upon the ink-maker, has THE MANUFACTURE 146 led him to neglect the study of inks as entirely superfluous, and is apt to render him quite helpless in the numerous emergencies that may arise. Where a printer knows enough about inks (we refer here to practical press-room knowledge), he can frequently manipulate a refractory ink so as to make it work to perfection, and save much time and stock other¬ wise wasted. It should not be forgotten that it is not always a question of the intrinsic value of the materials or even their quality that makes an ink good or bad, but its adapt¬ ability to its intended purpose. A mere trifle of reducer or varnish of the proper kind may often work wonders. Neither must it be thought that simply by paying a high enough price for ink can it be made to do impossibilities. Sometimes a printer imagines that he can use a cheaper paper and make his job come up to the required standard by paying more for his ink, but alas, nature has so arranged it that cheap papers require low-grade inks, and good stock high-grade inks. Fine job black is just as bad for newspapers as news ink is for bond papers. All those whose vocation requires the use of Printing Ink, and especially those who have to use it practically, should study their printing inks on the press, and in case they can not learn to overcome those difficulties that may arise, they should at least learn to explain their troubles intelligently, so that the ink-maker can find the proper remedy, and thus let every difficulty that arises help them to overcome others in the future. It is by overcoming difficulties that we advance towards perfection, and this is true of the printer in the use of Printing Ink, and the printing ink maker in the making of ink. PRACTICAL USE OF PRINTING INKS Explanation of Terms. As many of the technical terms used to describe the properties of pigments and inks are frequently used in a confusing and indefinite way, the following explanation of terms may be of assistance. Hue. As the normal spectrum colors merge into each other, we have a condition in which one color has a slight mixture of the other in it, and this slight mixture gives to the predominating color what is called a hue. Thus, if we have red slightly tinged with violet, this is called red of violet hue. On the other hand—that is, if a slight amount of red tinges the violet—the result is a violet of red hue. Green in passing into blue gives us, first, a green of blue hue, and then a blue of green hue, as first the one and then the other predominates. In speaking of pigments, this can be carried further to mean that when two pigments are mixed to produce a new color, and the color of one pigment predominates in the mixture, the resultant color will have the hue of the pre¬ dominating pigment. Thus, when yellow predominates in a mixture of yellow and blue, we get a green of yellow hue, and if the blue predominates we get a green of blue hue. Tint. When a normal spectrum color or hue of that color is mixed with white, we get a gradation of that color lighter in appearance, and this is called a tint of the original color. In speaking of pigments, a tint means a pigment lightened by the mixture of white. The white may be PRACTICAL USE 148 added as a pigment, or if the tint is found by use of trans¬ parent pigments and vehicle, the white is reflected through from the paper upon which the tint is laid. Shade. When a normal spectrum color, or one of its hues, is mixed with a small amount of black or other neutral dark color, we get a gradation of that color darker in ap¬ pearance than the original. This is called a shade of the color. The term shade is frequently misused to convey the idea of hue. In the following pages the word shade will be used to convey the idea of a pigment darkened by black or another pigment. Color Strength. The term color strength of a pigment means the actual amount of color it contains. It is measured by its tinting power, when mixed with white. This of course is a measure of the relative power a pigment has to impart its hue or color to another pigment. The color strength of a pigment varies with its crystalline character. The more amorphous or finely divided a pigment is, the greater will be its color strength. Yellow is a brightening color. Red is the color of warmth and warms all mixtures. Blue is the color of coldness and cools all mixtures. To illustrate the coldness of blue and the warmth of red, take a medium purple, inclining neither to blue nor to red. Add enough red to make it a decidedly reddish purple, and note the warming effect of red. Next add enough blue to make it a decidedly bluish-purple, and you can feel the temperature drop, as it were. Choosing Combinations of Color. Usually it is pre¬ ferable to use a shade of one color with a tint of its con¬ trasting or complementary color. If a pure color is used with two others, then the two should be a tint and a shade. OF PRINTING INK 149 Colors that harmonize given in order of most pleasing appearance: BLACK Red-orange Orange Red (not purplish) Light blue Light green (warm) Violet BLUE Orange Gray Orange-yellow Red-orange Yellow-orange Yellow VIOLET Yellow-green Yellow Green-yellow Green Blue-green Green-blue RED (vermilion or scarlet) Black Blue-green Green Green-blue Green-yellow Blue YELLOW Violet Blue-violet Brown (yellow hue) Violet blue Blue GREEN Red Black Violet-red Orange Violet BROWN (red hue) Tint of same color Buff (gray orange) Red BROWN (yellow hue) Tint of same color Buff (gray yellow) Yellow ORANGE Black Blue Green-blue Blue-green Violet-blue Green This table should be used with discretion. Contrasting quantities or area of color, contrasting shades and tints, color related by slight intermixture, all effect color harmony. See bibliography for books on color. PRACTICAL USE 150 How to Mix Inks. Amber. Chrome yellow and carmine. Brown (rich). Carmine, yellow and black. Bronze Green. Yellow and black. Bright or Light Green. Yellow and blue. Deep Green. Yellow, blue and black. Chestnut. White and brown. Grass Green. Lemon yellow and bronze blue. Rose. Geranium lake and white. Lead Color. White and black. Magenta. Geranium lake and purple. Maroon. Red, black and medium yellow. Olive. Red and green. Olive Green. Medium yellow and purple. Pearl. Blue and lead color. Pink. White and carmine. Scarlet. Yellow, carmine and deep red. Sky Blue. White and ultramarine blue. Turkey Red. Vermilion and black. Russet. Orange and lake purple. Violet or Deep Lilac. Carmine and blue. Umber. White, yellow, red and black. Light Brown. Is made from burnt sienna and yellow and shaded with lake or ultramarine for warmth or cold quality. Salmon. White, burnt sienna and a little orange chrome. Adding blue to brown kills the reddish effect, and the further addition of yellow removes the purplish tone. Adding Bismark brown to gray green or blue warms these colors. Mixing Transparent Tints. Start with the tint base OF PRINTING INK 151 whether it is magnesia or mixing white ink, and very little of the color you intend to lighten into the tint. Add enough color only to cover nicely. Do not flood a job to secure proper value of color. In mixing a tint, mix a very little to try out, especially if it is a transparent tint, because it will be about four shades lighter in value when printed. It is much easier to match ink with ink, than ink with printed sample. In making two light values for a job of printing, after your colors are mixed, take the colors you intend to use, mix just a little of the lighter value color into the darker; this will tend to bring them together and blend nicely. In mixing tints, depart as much as possible from the primary colors. It shows bad taste, merely to reduce a color by adding varnish or white ink, because there are so many attractive combinations made possible by intermixing. Never use black for darkening tints. The moment black is added, except in grays, the beauty of the tint is destroyed, its transparency is lost and it becomes dirty and dull. Add a little darker blue, a very dark green or brown, etc. Covering Capacity. Figure two-thirds of a pound of tint to a thousand impressions of sixteen pages carrying a heavy border. But remember that the amount will vary with the paper and area to be printed. Opaque Tints. Opaque tints are mostly for cover stock, hand-made paper, linen paper, machine-finish book, antique paper, etc. Make your opaque tints by using cover-white ink, and adding the color you desire, until you have the proper value. Colors. To lessen the brilliancy of a color add its com¬ plementary color. To diminish red, add blue-green; to dimin¬ ish yellow, add purple; to diminish blue, add burnt sienna. 152 PRACTICAL USE White pales all colors, but does not brighten or increase their intensity. Yellow is the brightening color. It adds light to all colors and mixtures. A Good Gray. If the color to be matched is a dark gray, inclining to the blue shade, begin by adding pure blue to the mixing white until when a touch is tapped out on paper it appears to be about equal in strength to that of copy, only blue, instead of gray. Now add sufficient burnt sienna to bring the color around to a greenish shade; fin¬ ally add crimson lake very carefully until correct shade of gray is obtained. A Good Brown. Ten parts of Y-5 yellow (which is standard opaque process yellow), 6 parts of Bismark brown, and 1 part half-tone black. If yellow is too stiff or strong, use Indian lake, but use more of this, as it is transparent. Gold Bronze Imitation. Yellow, orange and burnt sienna. Silver Imitation. Gray will make good silver imitation. Purple. A bluish red, and a reddish blue will mix a bright pure purple. A Good Orange. Yellow and vermilion. Bright Orange. Scarlet, and a true yellow (without greenish quality) give brightest orange. Green. Greenish yellow and greenish blue give a pure green. The most brilliant green can not be mixed. Inks. Printed over black, Indian yellow lake (which is transparent) will imitate brass. By adding Persian orange to Indian yellow lake and printing over black, the effect of gold is produced. Tack and Softness. Tack is that property of cohesion between particles of ink that can best be described as the pulling power of the ink against another surface. When OF PRINTING INK 153 there is very little cohesion and the property of tack is almost absent we have what we may designate as softness. Transparency. This will be used in the general sense of the word; namely, that quality of a pigment or ink that allows color or light from another source to pass through it. Opacity. This is the property which absolutely stops the transmission of light or color from another source. A transparent color can be rendered more or less opaque by the addition of a base; while many opaque pigments can be made to some extent transparent if they are laid on or printed in a thin film, and some few can be made to appear transparent to a slight degree by the addition of some other materials. The opacity or covering power varies, as does the color strength, with the crystalline character of the pigment. Impossible Combinations. This means that, for some reason, physical or chemical, a pigment can not be used with another pigment, or with certain vehicles, or under certain circumstances. The fact that we can not use lead colors with those containing sulphur is a well-known ex¬ ample of this. Another example is the fact that colors affected by alkalies should not be used to print labels for soap or lye cans. Varnishes. The “tack” of the ink is due principally to the grade of varnish. Heavy varnishes make a tacky ink for use on hard papers, celluloid, etc. Heavy varnish is also used to keep an ink from soaking into absorbent paper. Medium and thin varnishes have less tack. The average job and half-tone inks are ground in No. 1 varnish. If heavy varnishes were used in half-tone inks, which are used princi¬ pally on coated paper, it would pick the coating. The thin varnishes are reducers. Linseed-oil varnishes are grouped as 154 PRACTICAL USE in the following table, which shows the classification of varnishes. Thin Varnishes Medium Varnishes Heavy Varnishes 00000 1 4 0000 2 5 000 3 6 00 7 0 8 Most inks are ground in No. 1 varnish and will work properly at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold increases the tack of a varnish and heat decreases it. If the temperature is 70 degrees, No. 1 varnish will have as much tack as No. 0 var¬ nish at 60 degrees, No. 2 varnish at 80 degrees, or No. 3 var¬ nish at 90 degrees. By watching the thermometer you can gauge the required viscosity of your inks. Cutting Quality. If a pigment contains any hard ma¬ terial, it is apt to exert an abrasive action on plates, forms and cuts, and to wear down the fine lines so that sharp¬ ness and definition will be lacking. This not only destroys the effectiveness of the work, but also shortens the life of the plate or half-tones. Livering. When an ink, on standing, thickens to a spongy rubber-like mass, it is said to “liver.” This is due to a chemical action between the pigment and the vehicle, such as the rapid oxidation of the oil, or the formation of a soap. When a pigment shows a tendency to liver, it can not be regarded as a good ink-making pigment. Shortness. If a pigment when mixed with a large quantity of oil still remains stiff or can not be drawn out into a string between the fingers, but breaks, it is said to be short. While there are some classes of work that require an OF PRINTING INK 155 ink of a certain degree of shortness, yet, as a general rule, pigments that show this property are not suited for making inks. Flow and Length. Flow is the property of a pigment to combine with a good body and give it the ability to run and feed well on the press. An ink that flows well must also have the property of being drawn out into a string between the fingers, and this is called length. Thus, each one of these terms suggests or includes the other; they are both some¬ times spoken of as short and long inks. Permanency in Light. This is used in the ordinary sense of the word; that is, it means the degree of resistance the color has to the changing action of ordinary light. Test Permanency of Ink. Cover for one week a print of the ink (solid) with a very dark paper, except one inch, at the left leaving it exposed to sunshine or bright daylight. Expose another inch for another week, another inch for the third week, then compare with the part left covered. Doubletone Inks. The doubletone inks are so com¬ pounded that a secondary tone or tint is developed on the paper under the film of the color proper, producing that richness and brilliancy heretofore only obtained by addi¬ tional impressions. The extraordinary covering capacity, intensity and opacity of the pigments used is such that on all solid parts of the work, i. e., type matter, solids, etc., this secondary tone (called the “doubletone”) is entirely hidden and in¬ visible, only coming to view where the solids are broken, and hence is observable to the greatest degree on half-tone work. The artistic result, giving that atmospheric effect so much desired, is due to the gradation in the development of the doubletone, from the more or less solid portion of a PRACTICAL USE 156 half-tone down to the very finest and most open screen work, resulting in the blending and softening of the cut. It should be borne in mind that the doubletone develops not only under the solid, and exactly under each fine line and each dot of the half-tone, but also develops sideways, forming as it were a halo or aureole, so that each little dot of the half-tone is a center from which the doubletone develops in all directions. This development takes place to a certain distance in every direction without much refer¬ ence to the size of the solid. It therefore follows that the halo will be greater in proportion to the solid surface, the smaller that solid is, reaching its greatest proportionate size where the solid is a half-tone dot. The doubletone halo also fills to a certain extent the blank spaces between the dots, according to their size, number and closeness to each other, and thus the actual doubletone effect is achieved. This is particularly apparent where the neighboring solids or dots (as the case may be) are so close together that their aureoles combine and form a continuous tint or field of doubletone. Therefore, such half-tone cuts will give the best doubletone effect, where the surface consists of solids, dots and blank spaces suitably interspersed; for the greatest contrast between solid and doubletone is only produced where it already exists to a certain extent in the cut. The doubletone inks can not change the nature or quality of the cut itself, nor can it be expected that the inks will make up for any deficiencies in the cut, such as shallowness, lack of detail, etc. The screen must also be in accordance with the nature of the subject, and the quality of the paper. From the above remarks, it naturally follows that the more absorbent the paper used, the more ink can be carried and the more easily the doubletone will spread in every OF PRINTING INK 157 direction, and give the best doubletone result. Hence, papers with hard surfaces, or very highly calendered, and especially strongly sized papers, are antagonistic to the desired results; whereas the best effect is produced on ab¬ sorbent papers with soft surfaces. This development of the doubletone begins as soon as the impression is made, and is gradually completed during the drying of the ink. The doubletone inks are so made that when the sheets are piled one on top of the other, as is done in the ordinary course of printing, the inks will dry in the proper time for all practical purposes, but not so fast that the doubletone development will be arrested before it reaches its greatest limits. As now made, the doubletone inks require slip-sheeting only where it would be also necessary with any other kind of ink for the same work. The doubletone effect can be increased by somewhat retarding the drying of the ink, which can be done by add¬ ing some vaseline. The correct proportion is about one- half ounce up to an ounce of the vaseline to one pound of ink. The amount varies with the quality of the paper used, and great care should be used not to go too far in this direc¬ tion. Furthermore, when the sheets are piled one on top of another, the doubletone effect can spread only sideways, and this adds to the doubletone. We find that where the inks are proved in a small way, it often leads to misconceptions regarding their merits. This occurs only when a small number of proofs are made, and they are spread out singly to dry; the doubletone de¬ velopment is prematurely stopped, besides which it does not develop sideways, as it will do when the sheets are piled up, as above explained. Again, on a hand press, when the paper remains too PRACTICAL USE US long in contact with the form, too much of the varnish soaks away into the paper, while the pigment remains on the form. Thus, proofs made in this manner furnish no cri¬ terion of the results obtained when printing in a regular way. Furthermore, to obtain the best results it is, of course, necessary that all cuts be made ready with the utmost care, and that, of course, the strength of the impression be suit¬ ably regulated. Again, as stated above, the doubletone effect develops as the ink dries. The time required for drying naturally varies with the paper and quality of the cut, and consequently with the amount of ink necessarily carried, as dictated by the above factors. The inks should therefore not to be judged until they are dry, and suitable attention,should be given to all the points stated above. Parafined or Heavily Oiled Stock. Add to a strong ink the following mixture in proportion of eight drops to a cubic inch of ink: Copal or Damar varnish, and Venice turpentine in equal proportions well shaken. Printing Solids. When printing over more than two solids, make the ink greasy by using a reducer. Crystallized Inks. In process printing, if the inks have crystallized, so you that can not make the next color “ take, ” use five ounces equal parts of parafine wax, beeswax and gloss varnish to five pounds of ink. Mix in ink when warm. Reduce Process Inks. To reduce color process inks, never use boiled linseed oil, for it dries out glossy and crys¬ tallizes. To reduce, if necessary use vaseline or parafine oil half and half. For brown and blue inks which have a tendency to fill up the cuts, use a heavy litho varnish, No. 3. Chalky Inks. For inks that chalk or rub off, one ounce of parafine oil, to about two pounds of ink; if too thin, add i59 ' * / * OF PRINTIh^ INK magnesia. This mixture will not gloss the ink or change the color. Put in dryer, run a few sheets and examine in the morning. The blues and browns are the chief offenders in chalking. Balsam Copaiba will also eliminate this chalkiness when mixed into ink, especially on highly glazed surfaces. Gold Ink. To run gold ink from fountain, mix the powder, using kerosene and Japan drier, to a consistency to work well. Bronze Base. A useful base for bronze powder is litho varnish with beeswax melted into it. Fir balsam, with yellow, makes a good bronze size. Varnish Labels. The gloss varnish, if used alone, would be liable to prove too thin. If so, thoroughly work into it finely powdered magnesia, which, being transparent, will give body to the varnish. For Ordinary Colored Inks. The following will not only reduce poster inks, etc., but also act as a good dryer. To one quart of spirits of turpentine add six ounces of Balsam of Copaiba. Use sufficient quantity to make the ink suitable to work off the job in hand. Dryers. Balsam of Copaiba, Damar or Copal varnish, will act as a dryer without injuring the quality of the ink. A little vaseline or lard will decrease the strength of the varnish used in the ink. Dryer and Reducer Combined. 2 gills boiled oil. 1 gill Damar varnish. 4 drams oil of cloves. When thoroughly shaken, it is ready for use. It will act as a mild dryer and a reducer. Reducers. Kerosene oil with dryer added. Vaseline with dryer added. 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