American Lithographic Company Article

[mkdltn]

I found an interesting article about the American Lithographic Company from Electrical Engineer magazine printed Dec. 30 1897 This is five years after the consolidation and formation of the American Lithographic Company in 1892. The electrical stuff is interesting but what is revealed about ALC historically speaking is the real interesting part.

http://books.google.com/books?id=G4B...any%22&f=false

One exciting thing in the article is evidence that points to a specific lithographic press used by ALC. Three floors were devoted to lithographic Presses. The floor plan of the sixth floor and the electrical diagram in the article indicate the use of Hoe number 5 1/2 presses and Hoe number 4 lithographic presses. At the time this article was written these presses were newly installed. I think it is very likely, though there is a little more than a decade between this article and T206 production that these same presses were used to produce the T206 cards and other lithographic items like cigar labels.

This following link is a site with specs of Hoe presses 6 and above but these appear to be letterpress designs so for Hoe maybe presses designated as 5 1/5 and lower are stop cylinder lithographic models.

http://letterpressprinting.com.au/page101.htm

This is clipped from an article about another electrical installation for the Houghton Mifflin company in 1911 that contains some specs on the Hoe presses.

I've been doing a bit of research into chromolithography and I thought I would share.

Thank you

[Leon]

Thanks for the research and thanks for sharing. That is some information I don't think I have seen before....best regards

[slantycouch]

Great research. Those presses were beasts! And I certainly don't think you're making a stretch assuming the same presses were used a decade (or even several decades!) later. They were quality machines that were built to last years. I know plenty of printers using Heidelberg, etc. presses that are 50+ years old.