Hand presses - United States - history

Overview The Acorn Handpress is believed to have been manufactured by the Cincinnati Type Foundry in 1825-1830. As Cincinnati Type Foundry was founded in the early 1820s, this Acorn press is one of their earlier pieces. Unlike other iron hand presses that sought to imitate the wooden common presses that came before them, the Acorn press is a squat press shaped somewhat like an acorn, thus the name. The acorn design most often made by Cincinnati Type Foundry was the one created by Abraham O. Stansbury...

Overview

The Uncommon Press is a modern reconstruction of English wooden common presses, specifically based on ones from 1770-1790. It was constructed in 2016 by five RIT students: Mechanical Engineering majors Seth Gottlieb, Ferris Nicolias, and Randall Paulhamus, Industrial and Systems Engineering major Veronica Hebbard, and Museum Studies major Daniel Krull. This work fulfilled a multi-disciplinary senior project. They used as many historic methods and materials as their constraints allowed.

Overview The A. B. Taylor Washington iron hand press was built in New York circa 1880. The Washington style of hand press was patented by Samuel Rust in New York in 1821. Designed to be much lighter in weight than other presses of the time, Rust's Washington press was soon copied by other manufacturers including R. Hoe and Company, whom A. B. Taylor worked for from 1822-1842 before forming his own manufacturing company. A. B. Taylor went on to manufacture various styles of presses, including this...