printing
offices, for it can hardly be supposed that Yankee "go-aheadativeness"
would have failed to recognize at once the importance of the
discovery, or have long delayed its general adoption, although the
hand press, with many improvements, remained the universal printing
machine in the United States until 1822, when the Treadwell power
press gave the first impulse to more rapid printing. The Treadwell was
not a cylinder press, but its invention would have been of no
consequence without the composition roller. It is certain, however,
that more than sixty years ago the melting pot and roller mould had
become an important adjunct to every rural printing office, and the
making of a new roller was an event in the routine of the
establishment. The orthodox mixture for the composition in the
printing office where the writer of this was the "devil" forty-seven
years ago was "a pint of sugar-house molasses to every pound of the
best glue, with a tablespoonful of tar to every three pints and three
pounds." And that was the customary composition of that day among
country printers.

There is a tradition among printers and roller-makers that the first
roller turned out in this country was moulded in a stove pipe; but
whether it was or not, and no matter who the first roller-maker might
have been, it is a fact that the advance in the art of roller-making
has had to be rapid in order to keep pace with the vast improvements
in the cylinder press which the first composition called into use, and
the old-fashioned glue and molasses rollers would be now of no more
service to them than would the primitive ink-balls which the roller
replaced. A comparison between the mode of making a roller in the
early days of the business and the methods in use to-day will be of
interest.

In the old days the composition was cooked in a caldron over a coal
fire, with water between two jackets to make the steam that forced the
melting. The cast-iron moulds were placed near a stove to give them
the necessary warmth of inner surface, a warm mould being required to
give a good "face" to the roller in the casting. While cooking, the
composition was constantly stirred with a stick to assist in the
proper assimilation of the ingredients. After it had reached the
proper stage, it was strained from the melting kettle into pouring
kettles, similar to ordinary milk pails. The composition was poured
from the top. Naturally, this let into the moulds, with the
c