Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press

Gally, Merritt · ca 1869

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 87185. The patent covered various improvements on the inventor's earlier Universal press, a popular platen jobber in which the platen had a parallel approach to the bed. Merritt Gaily (born 1838) was apprenticed to a printer at 11, and he built a cylinder and a platen press while in his teens. In 1869 he set up a factory to build his new Universal press.