The offset part of the lithography process is belived to have come about by a happy accident as opposed to intelligent design. American printer Ira Washington Rubel was running his litho press in 1903, when a mis-feed resulted in the image from his stone plate transferring to the rubber impression cylinder. When he fed the next sheet through, there were two images, one on the front and one on the back, but to his astonishment the print on the back was much sharper and clearer than the one from the hard stone; enter the first rubber blanket and offset print.
Mr Rubel then went on to create his own offset press, but it took two entrepreneurial brothers, Charles and Albert Harris to take the idea further. The brother’s speciality was feeding systems for individual uses, and they had soon built an offset press with an automatic feeder, and before long produced what died in the wool printers would all recognise now as the first commercially successful offset lithographic press. The brothers even very quickly produced the first two colour version of the press, and formed the Harris Automatic Press Company, which became a major force in offset printing machine manufacture in the 1900s.
Work carried on worldwide on the offset process itself, with many other manufacturers catching on to the idea that offset lithography was going to dominate the world of printing and by the 1950s, it was pushing the letterpress process out. By the 1960s there were multi-colour offset litho installations all over the world, an especially in the UK. In fact, to quote from the trade magazine Paper and Print published in the spring of 1963, the agents of MAN Roland at the time, Price Service & Co Limited, reported that ‘in the nine months ending April 1963 it has installed £1 million worth of multi-colour Roland machines in British printing works’. The news piece went on to say that there were 19 Roland Ultra Four Colour offset presses, one five colour and one six colour press installed early that year, but there was also many more ‘single and two colour presses, as well as the smaller four colour Roland Rekords also being installed’.
In that same publication, an idea of what was ‘hot’ in 1963 on the sheetfed litho front was also highlighted. Royal Zenith had just launched its RZ30 offset machine, which claimed many ‘important improvements on its latest machine that included an increase in speed from 6000 to 7000 sheets per hour, as well as redesigned inking system that came four instead of three plate rollers. It also boasted of its ‘good register at all speeds due to good side and front lays which can be adjusted on the run’.
To be continued…
Peter Harrison is Joint Managing Director of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK.
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