Rotary Printing Press and Autographic Printing History
Video below with some historical insights into the invention of the rotary printing press and autographic printing or the mimeograph…
Patrick Marchese and Ronald Crandall, founders of Markzware, have a patent on the process of preflighting, also used in our flagship product FlightCheck for helping newspaper publishers, among others in graphic arts, to stop problems before going to press. Preflighting has been and is, of course, still very important in the graphic design, publishing and printing workflow, just like some of these inventions we recently came across in France. (Inventor of the rotary press, cobalt blue, mimeograph or autographic printing – aka the electric pen by Edison and printing by monks before Gutenberg), the least of which was the rotary printing press:
A rotary printing press is a printing press in which the images to be printed are curved around a cylinder. … Printing presses that use continuous rolls are sometimes referred to as “web presses”. Rotary drum printing was invented by Richard March Hoe in 1843, perfected in 1846,[1] and patented in 1847. (Note – Some sources describe Parisian ‘Hippolyte Auguste Marinoni‘, (1823, 7 January 1904) as the inventor of the Rotary printing press.[2])[clarification needed]
SOURCE: Rotary printing press – Wikipedia
Marinoni's rotary press printing the 'Le Petit Journal' in France - 1890
The trail upon which we stumbled was that of Mr. Marinoni, the inventor and publisher himself. One lazy morning on vacation this summer, in the state, or department, of Saône-et-Loire, located in the region of Bourgogne (Burgundy), France, with the temperature getting too hot and muggy to remain by the tent, we ventured out by car, driving freely through small road after small dirt road, absorbing a landscape that has missed the march of modern time. An hour or so later, after several “petite,” scenic farming villages were experienced, we came across a sprawling castle, or chateau, up on a hill … (story continues below embedded video)
Hippolyte Marinoni (1823 – 1904), Inventor of the Rotary Press (disputed) – Interview with his surviving family (Family THENARD at their castle, Le Chateau de la Ferté) about this printing invention and monks engraving images at their chateau, long before Gutenberg’s press made the scene…
That castle at which we arrived, totally by accident, is called Le Chateau de la Ferté (Saint-Ambreuil), also known as Abbaye de la Ferté, and we got a chance to tour this wonderful step back into time. We were shown fully functional 18th century rooms by a family member, who was residing on the grounds and helping to maintain this once Catholic monastery. The castle was obtained from the state by Louis Jacques THENARD (1777-1857), indirectly through the French Revolution and the graces of Napoleon, but primarily due to Louis’ hard work and God-gifted smarts. Touring the largest room was like being in a museum, with scientific instruments, astronomy tools and printing inventions from hundreds of years ago. (His great grandfather and his grandfather were amateur astronomers, as clearly seen in the pictures here of Castle de la Ferté in Burgundy, France!)
Yet it was the rounded printing plates that caught my attention, after the initial awe of the room and its amazing contents slowly wore off. There had to be a reason why these plates were in this room, and I just knew it would be interesting, like everything else in this castle and the family’s rich history. We soon discovered that the printing plates were there as evidence that the rotation printing press for large journals and newspaper publishers was invented by the grandfather of the very man we interviewed.
You can see in this video, and in a forthcoming video, that there is also an antique mimeograph from Thomas A. Edison (made back in the day by A.B. Dick Company and now owned by PRESSTEK). A.B. Dick actually termed the word, “mimeograph,” expanding on Edison’s “autographic printing” patent!
Hippolyte Michaud-Marinoni (1823 – 1904), aka Hippolyte Auguste Marinon, “also” invented the rotary press, as it was independent of Mr. Hoe’s work, although likely a year later in 1845 (Source). The Thenard family has no doubt who still today owns many regional newspapers (publishing house Le Bien Public), tied to this invention, through interesting circumstances of that age, as you can hear and see in the video above.
Hoe's 6-cylinder Rotary Printing Press
Yet, contemporary history names Mr. Richard March Hoe as the one who invented the rotary press in 1843 and patented it in 1847. There was more likely a simultaneous development by the two, merging into what we know today as the rotary press or offset web press. Or is there more to this story?
It should also be noted that L.J. THENARD, who made a new invention to help sugar extraction for Napoleon, was a judge, a farmer and the inventor of cobalt blue, the pigment and color that is popularly used today for painting, ceramics, and such. This is what Napoleon used to restore many of the works that you can now see in Paris. The Thenard invention also made blue ink affordable in those days. Before that, it was only possible with an expensive stone out of Afghanistan. (It is interesting to note that it was the blue LED lights which were the challenge for full color display boards in our age.)
Talk about going to press! It was great to visit Le Chateau de la Ferté and to learn more about printing press history. Just like it is great for modern printers to use Markzware products, such as FlightCheck for print file quality assurance before going to press.
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