C & P—Pressman's Favorite
By Fred Williams, Editor-Publisher
Type & Press
Published Summer
1977
If a favorite press poll was ever conducted among pressmen and
printshop proprietors, there is no doubt that the C&P would win
all the honors, grippers down!
Pressmen loved its easy accessibility for
makeready, long impression dwell, pause for feeding plus its heavy
precision construction which enabled the C&P to print "run of
the hook" from a postage stamp to large four-color register forms
or die cutting.
Proprietors loved its ability to run just about
any job profitably with practically no "down time" in spite of
little maintenance.
Chandler & Price Meet 1881
Harrison T. Chandler, an Illinois banker, while
negotiating to buy an interest in the Cleveland Type Foundry, met
William H. Price, son of a builder of printing presses. They
founded the Chandler & Price Co. of Cleveland to build printing
equipment.
In 1884 the partners introduced their famous
jobber in two sizes –7xll and 10xl5 and by year's end over 300
presses had been built. Subsequently the press was built in 8xl2,
14x20, 14.5x22 sizes.
The C&P was not of original design, being
based on several expired patents granted to George Phineas Gordon
about 1850. This famous press had a reciprocating vertical bed
mounted on two long legs hinged to a shaft at the rear base of the
press. This "long hinge" made it possible for the printing surface
to approach the platen nearly parallel. The motion of the platen,
controlled by a toggle actuated by a cam wheel, moved the bed
forward at the proper sequence in the cycle.
Highly Competitive
The press building business of the 70s and 80s
was a speculative and highly competitive one, over 100 platen press
models being built by scores of companies. Many were cheap,
light-weight machines for use in small country printing offices.
Often of the "clam shell" variety with bolted frame and a
stationary bed. The platen, hinged at the bottom, offered no dwell
for feeding, simply flapping open and closed, exerting more
impression at the bottom of the sheet than the top. Many of these
presses and their manufacturers had short lives.
The C&P was able to outlast an its rivals by
concentrating on building quality into its presses. It's not
unusual to find them still operating profitable after over 50 years
of daily use.
Enterprise Flourishes
The C&P sold well and the company with
Chandler as president, was capitalized at $200,000. The company
also made paper cutters, proof presses, composing sticks, hand
presses, etc. Partner William Price died in 1895.
The business prospered and by 1901 the company
added its sixth addition to its factory. This same year Chandler
& Price bought out the tottering Gordon Press Works at Rahway,
N.J. and the right to use the name Gordon. George Gordon had died
in 1878. And so Gordon's name was kept alive but never exploited by
Chandler & Price. Several other companies had used this name
including: Challenge Gordon (1884-1910), Jones Gordon (1888-1901),
Thorpe-Gordon (1886-1890), Straight Line Gordon (1891) and Peerless
Gordon (1891-1900).
By 1900 the Rahway operation had become
unprofitable and was closed down, all manufacturing being done at
Cleveland. In the preceeding 10 years over 10,000 old style jobbers
had been sold.
Over 18 different companies had made imitations
of the Gordon old style jobber but by 1910 C&P had the field
all to themselves. The following year this Cleveland firm
introduced their New Series line of platen presses. Still of the
old style design, the new press was available in 8x12, 10x15, 12x18
and 14.5x22 sizes.
The earlier C&P presses, now referred to as
the Old Series, were characterized by ornate castings, a high base
and a large curved-spoke flywheel whereas the New Series, with
plain castings, was constructed heavier throughout. With a low
silhouette, it had a smaller straight-spoke flywheel; roller frames
and side ribs turned to the inside.
The following year President Harrison Chandler
died.
In 1921 the Craftsman models were introduced.
These presses, still basically of Gordon old style design, had a
massive one-piece frame; four form, two vibrator rollers and a
brayer fountain, were capable of executing work comparable to a
pony cylinder. Widely used for halftone and fine register work, the
press came in 10x15, 12x18 and 14.5x22 sizes.
Believing the hand-fed jobber could no longer be
operated economically various automatic feeders were developed in
the 20s and 30s. Most of these feeding units–the Miller, Kluge,
Klymax and B&K were designed to fit C&Ps. Subsequently
Miller and Kluge began building their own presses to accommodate
their feeders and Chandler & Price faced with loss of sales,
introduced their Rice feeder on their 10x15, 12x18 and 14.5x22
Craftsman models.
Subsequently all companies except C&P and
Kluge abandoned building automatics, and these two companies sold
their presses competitively until the early 60s when the tremendous
growth of offset duplicating plus competition from Kluge and the
Heidelberg, eventually doomed all models of the C&P with the
exception of the 14.5x22, which continues to be made. It is still
in demand for die cutting, perforating, scoring, heat foil,
embossing, imprinting, etc.
Altho the next few decades may see the C&P
fade into history, the press remains as a tribute to a banker and a
press builder, who over 90 years ago, joined forces and entered a
highly competitive market. Through mass production techniques they
improved the press until they were the major producer of the Gordon
Old Style press in the United States.
It’s popularity is attested by the fact that over 90% of the platen
jobbers in use in the 1930s
were C&Ps. It is estimated that 100,000 have been built to
date.