Ever Wondered How George Clymer’s Columbian Letterpress Worked?

A Guest Blog by Mike Haigh, Printroom Custodian at the Beck Isle Museum, in Pickering, Yorkshire, tells us how.

The Columbian Letterpress Double Demi Revealed

This hand printing press was invented by George Clymer, an engineer from Philadelphia, USA, in 1813. The design was the first all metal lever operated machine in America.  Before this type of machine, printing presses were made of wood and operated like a cider press with a large screw. It cost around $500 – more than double the price of printing presses previously. He supposedly sold 67 in America before deciding to try his luck in Europe in 1817. It was priced in England in 1817 at between £100 and £150 dependent on size of platen. 

By 1820 its manufacture in Europe succeeded through a clever marketing strategy of giving the Columbian to influential monarchs on the continent such as William I of the Netherlands. The Columbian was very efficient due to its counterbalanced principle. The main counterbalance is the American Bald Eagle, the Eagle was changed for a Globe (the world), Vulture, Lion or the German double headed eagle dependent on which country the manufacture was carried out. The machine is highly decorated, purportedly to differentiate the press from other British metal presses of the time.

How The Machine Works

In the 1800s this machine was supposedly able to be operated by two children as young as 12 years old. To operate the press, the forme containing the type would be laid on the bed, inked by hand with a roller (the ink was oil based, not water based as nowadays and needed to be worked up on an ink table first), then the paper was placed on the forme, the tympan was then lowered to hold the paper in position, then driven by a handle which turned a canvas belt, the bed was turned underneath the platen, the lever was then pulled across which pressed the platen against the forme using the counterbalanced weights, levers and fulcrums, transferring the ink from the type to the paper, the bed was then wound out, the tympan lifted and the printed copy peeled off the forme. Phew! Recovered? Because once the copy had been removed the procedure was all ready to go again and make the next copy. It supposedly could print 250 copies per hour but we think that 50 copies per hour is more believable.

George Clymer’s Columbian Letterpress at the Beck Isle Museum

Our Colombian was made in 1854 in Finsbury Street, London, under licence and weighs one and a half tons. It was still being used by a Pickering printer up to 45 years ago when as a true Yorkshireman he retired and allowed us to purchase the said machine. The machine had been owned by four printers in Pickering over the years as their businesses developed or changed hands.

The decorations on the Colombian actually tell a story but more of than another time…

For further information and to see this machine in its full glory visit the Beck Isle Museum in Pickering, Yorkshire where we are open seven days a week.