This is the oldest press in Canada and it was once used by Louis Roy, the first printer in Upper Canada (Ontario). The press is now at Upper Canada Village, Morrisburg, Ontario. The picture shows very clearly the curvature of the bar, which allowed the pressman to make one long pull to force the platen, or printing surface, roughly half an inch down into the type bed. Wooden presses of this kind were called "common presses", as distinct from the "Bleau" or Dutch press, which had a frame of iron rods to steady the platen instead of the simple "box hose" which you can see just above the platen. The box hose moved up and down in a hole in the sill in the middle of the press in order to keep the platen from swivelling with the turning screw, which would smudge a printed impression. The invention of the sturdier and more solidly-based iron press by Lord Stanhope in 1800 caused printers to give up the old wood presses as fast as they could obtain iron ones.
Courtesy: Upper Canada Village, The St. Lawrence Parks Commission
