Usually called a jobber or Gordon, this type of press was introduced in the middle of the nineteenth century and soon replaced both the cumbersome hand press and the big cylinder press for jobbing work, such as cards, handbills, small business forms and letterheads. The operator pumped the machine with the treadle, and fed sheets of paper onto the platen which swung up into contact with the vertical type bed at each full cycle. He then removed the printed sheet and inserted a fresh sheet, occasionally losing a finger in the process; a good operator soon built up to a rhythm of 1,500 sheets an hour. As each sheet was printed, the fountain at the top transferred a small quantity of ink to the revolving ink plate; as the press opened, the ink rollers travelled on their sprung arms across the ink plate and down to ink the forme. Once the jobber was made ready it required little skill to run, and the first of the testimonials in the advertisement shows that one of its advantages was the use of semi-skilled operators instead of experienced pressmen.
