Rotary Printing Press

A rotary press is, in its principle, a printing press with two cylinders. One carries the type or the printing shapes while the other drives the paper and applies the necessary pressure. The continuous rotary movement allows for greater speed than the alternating movements of a flatbed press.

In 1812, Friedrich König designed a printing press equipped with a pressure cylinder, which allowed to ink and print at the same time as well as to combine the press with a steam engine. In 1847, Richard Hoe patented a printing press with a rotary movement, but Hoe’s machine didn’t use continuous rolls of paper. Those came only with the later improvements brought by William A. Bullock, in 1865.

The first Marinoni rotary press was built in 1866 and could print pages on both sides. In 1872, a press was introduced which used continuous rolls of paper and, in 1884, it mechanically folded the printed pages.

The caption reads in the original French: Machine rotative.