Earl Stanhope and the Re-Invention of Printing

Britain never knew she was a nation of voracious readers until printing entered the steam age.

1798-1814

King George III 1760-1820

Introduction

Scholary discussions of rising Victorian literacy rates focus on the educational policies of Church and State. But the problem wasn’t a lack of schools, teachers or investment. The problem was that print technology was stuck in the Tudor age.

by Clay Lane

AT the close of the 18th century, printing remained a laborious, inky and unreliable affair. The first major advance on the fifteenth-century Gutenberg press came from Charles, Earl Stanhope, who in 1798 devised a much more robust iron press, which he generously donated to the nation. Some 480 single-sided sheets could now be run off every hour, but it was still too slow to unleash mass literacy.

That changed when on 29th November 1814, the Times dashed off 1,100 impressions per hour with its brand new steam-powered iron press, developed by German engineer Friedrich Koenig and London publisher Thomas Bensley.* With improvements by the firm of Applegarth and Cowper, that figure soon rose higher.

Publishers could now print cheap and plentiful copies of newspapers, novels, encyclopaedias and magazines, and the country discovered a greedy appetite for them — delivered in hours by rail. Literacy rates began to rise steadily from the 1830s, thanks to Earl Stanhope and the inventors, publishers, and railway engineers who brought printing into the age of mass production.

by Clay Lane

With acknowledgements to ‘Men of Invention and Industry’ by Samuel Smiles, and ‘Aspects of the Victorian Book’ (British Library).

It was not done without controversy, owing to the unfounded fear that automation would cost jobs. See Changing Times.

Précis

Prior to Earl Stanhope’s iron press in 1798, and Friedrich Koenig’s steam-driven press trialled by the Times in 1814, print technology simply could not supply enough reading matter to satisfy demand. However, once publishers could distribute large volumes of cheap books and magazines by rail in the early Victorian era, national literacy improved steadily.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What was revolutionary about Earl Stanhope’s printing press?

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Earl Stanhope invented an iron printing press. He did not patent it. He gave it to the nation.

Earl Stanhope and the Re-Invention of Printing

Introduction

Précis

Sevens

Jigsaws

Tags

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