Steam-Powered Vintage Printing Equipment

By Leslie C. Mcmanus
Published on July 27, 2009
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Jim Daggs makes final adjustments to a Babcock cylinder press at Printers’ Hall before printing that day’s edition of
Jim Daggs makes final adjustments to a Babcock cylinder press at Printers’ Hall before printing that day’s edition of "The Threshers Bee."
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A slug of type set on a Linotype, nearly ready to print. The headline reads “Survival Guide for Rainy Days.”
A slug of type set on a Linotype, nearly ready to print. The headline reads “Survival Guide for Rainy Days.”
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A broadside on display at Printers’ Hall. Early printers composed elegant, elaborate pieces like this to demonstrate their skills to customers.
A broadside on display at Printers’ Hall. Early printers composed elegant, elaborate pieces like this to demonstrate their skills to customers.
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A Babcock country press from the 1880s.
A Babcock country press from the 1880s.
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Pulls from antique type cabinet drawers, part of a collection displayed at Printers’ Hall.
Pulls from antique type cabinet drawers, part of a collection displayed at Printers’ Hall.
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Volunteer Howard Dalrymple setting type on an Intertype typesetting machine.
Volunteer Howard Dalrymple setting type on an Intertype typesetting machine.
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Scrap lead ready to be melted into ingots like those at back.
Scrap lead ready to be melted into ingots like those at back.
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Alice Rohrssen keeps a close watch for the pressman’s signal as she adjusts the vertical steam engine powering the Babcock press. The 6 hp engine is estimated to date to the 1880s; the engine’s manufacturer is unknown.
Alice Rohrssen keeps a close watch for the pressman’s signal as she adjusts the vertical steam engine powering the Babcock press. The 6 hp engine is estimated to date to the 1880s; the engine’s manufacturer is unknown.
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Another broadside at Printers’ Hall.
Another broadside at Printers’ Hall.
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Setting up the Babcock, with a 2-page spread on the composition table in the foreground. The process requires a deft touch and infinite patience. “You’re running a thin sheet of newsprint through cast iron machinery,” says pressman Jim Daggs.
Setting up the Babcock, with a 2-page spread on the composition table in the foreground. The process requires a deft touch and infinite patience. “You’re running a thin sheet of newsprint through cast iron machinery,” says pressman Jim Daggs.

The clanking racket of cast iron, the gentle hiss of a steam engine … the sounds of a unique exhibit at the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion are familiar to old iron enthusiasts.

Familiar and yet different – for the exhibit is at Printers’ Hall, the biggest working collection of antique printing equipment in the U.S.

The collection, a permanent exhibit at the show grounds in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, celebrates industrial equipment never seen or used on the farm (see “Antique Press Powered by Live Steam). But weekly newspapers printed on such equipment were for decades the lifeblood of farm towns from coast to coast and border to border.

“The local weekly newspaper was so important in the farm community of 100 years ago,” says Jim Daggs, a volunteer at Printers’ Hall. “They didn’t have TV or radio or Internet.”

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