British Letterpress

Tag: Josiah Wade

  • Josiah Wade

    Josiah Wade

    Josi­ah Wade is often accord­ed the dis­tinc­tion of being a ​‘self-made man’. The phrase is used fre­quent­ly, and can lose its mean­ing — it’s worth remem­ber­ing the scale of Wade’s progress. Born in cot­tages in Heb­den Bridge, los­ing his father at five, and start­ing work at sev­en and a half is an inaus­pi­cious begin­ning. To end life hav­ing designed and built press­es serv­ing ​‘the civilised world’, and hav­ing been elect­ed as May­or of his town is a great acco­lade. Indeed the Hal­i­fax Guardian’s first reports of his death report­ed that ​“His busi­ness career was one which stamped him as a man who by his own genius, per­se­ver­ance and shrewd­ness, rose from the hum­blest posi­tion to one of afflu­ence.” The Hal­i­fax Couri­er stat­ed that Wade was “…one of a fair­ly numer­ous band of men pro­duced by this dis­trict that could claim the proud dis­tinc­tion of being a self-made man.” Wade must have demon­strat­ed ear­ly mechan­i­cal skill in being select­ed for work by Mr Cross­ley, and lat­er work for Mr Horner, a watch-mak­er. Before devel­op­ing the Arab, Wade had opened offices in Man­ches­ter to ser­vice the mar­ket for his eye­let­ting and labelling machines.

    Even while the Arab was suc­cess­ful, Wade had oth­er busi­ness inter­ests in Hal­i­fax: a boot-mak­ers on St James road; and an iron­mon­gers on Sil­ver Street. Wade also patent­ed a cut­ting and bor­ing bar with a shield, but this nev­er entered pro­duc­tion.

    Aside from his com­mer­cial work, Wade took an active role in munic­i­pal life. It’s easy to for­get how well-devel­oped our sys­tem of local gov­ern­ment is today, and just what need­ed to be done in the 1890s. Look­ing after the des­ti­tute; sup­ply­ing clean water and keep­ing the peace could not be tak­en for grant­ed.

    Wade stood for the Lib­er­al Par­ty and was elect­ed to Hal­i­fax Town Coun­cil in 1891. As Chair­man of the Water­works Com­mit­tee, he super­in­tend­ed the con­struc­tion of the Wal­shaw Dean Reser­voir Scheme. The Hal­i­fax Couri­er report­ed that his ser­vices would be “…pos­si­bly tardi­ly recog­nised by his col­leagues.” He also played a key role in the open­ing of the Salter­heb­ble Hos­pi­tal.

    Wade was cho­sen as May­or of Hal­i­fax Bor­ough in 1902, and report­ed that he was utter­ly unable to cope with the num­ber of telegrams, let­ters and tele­phone mes­sages sent by peo­ple con­grat­u­lat­ing him on the appoint­ment.

    Timeline

    1842, Dec 16 Josi­ah Wade born in cot­tages near Cross­ley Mill , Heb­den Bridge to Han­nah and Joseph Wade. Wade had five sib­lings: William, Sarah, Stephen, John and Edwin
    1847 Wades father dies, leav­ing a wid­owed moth­er
    1850 Begins work at sev­en and a half while attend­ing Har­ry Bob’s school
    1855 Moves to full-time work
    1858 Appoint­ed by Mr Cross­ley to work on the pro­duc­tion of Horse Rugs for export. How­ev­er Josi­ah Wade’s broth­er — John — was killed by light­ning at Cross­ley’s fac­to­ry. Wade could not return to work and moved to work for Mr Horner, a watch mak­er of Heb­den Bridge
    1862 Wade opens a shop in Heb­den Bridge: tak­ing orders for print­ing. Wade (with the assis­tance of two engi­neers) begins work on an eye­let­ting machine with one of his broth­ers, Edwin. With Edwin, he also estab­lished the ​“Hed­ben Chron­i­cle” — a news­pa­per last­ing only a few months
    1867 Wade left Heb­den Bridge for Well Lane, Hal­i­fax to con­tin­ue work on his eye­let­ting and labelling machines
    1891 Stood for elec­tion to Hal­i­fax Town Coun­cil in the South Ward and elect­ed. Appoint­ed to the Hal­i­fax Board of Guardians, which he con­sid­ered to be the ​‘most pro­gres­sive Board in Eng­land’
    1892 Appoint­ed vice-Chair­man of the Watch Com­mit­tee
    1894 Left the Town Coun­cil because of ill-health
    1895 Returned to the Town Coun­cil after health improved
    1897 Became Chair­man of the Water­works Com­mit­tee. It’s report­ed that much of his time at this point was spent on the Wal­shaw Dean rever­voir scheme in Heb­den Bridge. To secure good sup­plies for Hal­i­fax, he also arranged the pur­chase of 1,000 acres of land at Ogden
    1899 Made a dona­tion to the Church and Sun­day School in Heb­den Bridge. Wade’s sis­ter — Sarah — died
    1900, Nov Elect­ed an Alder­man of Hal­i­fax
    1902 Became May­or of Hal­i­fax for one term, and was per­suad­ed to stand for anoth­er term
    1904 Award­ed a ​‘Com­mis­sion of the Peace’, and re-elect­ed as Alder­man
    1908, Thu 13 Feb 0200 Died from heart fail­ure at North Park, Hal­i­fax, leav­ing a wid­ow and no chil­dren.
  • The Arab

    The Arab

    The Arab is claimed by some to be the finest hand-fed plat­en in the World. In terms of cost and weight, it out-per­forms oth­er machines; and the fact it is designed to be dis-assem­bled and rebuilt makes it eas­i­er to trans­port than oth­er, sim­i­lar, press­es.

    Models

    There were two major mod­els of the Arab: in Foolscap size (13″ x 9″ chase — 16cwt) and Crown Folio size (15″ x 10″ chase — 18cwt). A third size was made (21″ x 14″ — Demy Folio — 21cwt), but few, if any, sur­vive.

    History

    The Arab was cer­tain­ly inspired by the George Gor­don’s Press, and accounts tell us that Josi­ah Wade had import­ed a num­ber of press­es from Amer­i­ca to study. One expla­na­tion for the close link between the Franklin Press (invent­ed by Gor­don) and the Arab is that the two men shared a voy­age between the UK and Amer­i­ca. Gor­don was keen to make mon­ey from his Patents, and Wade was already on the periph­ery of the print­ing busi­ness. Wade bought the patents, designed the cast­ings, and made some improve­ments.

    The Patent of 1872 for the Arab indi­cates that the machine had ten nov­el fea­tures beyond the cur­rent state of the art includ­ing leather roller bear­ers to secure bet­ter ink­ing; spe­cial guides for the paper on the plat­en; and a way of con­trol­ling ​‘dwell’. This dwell issue was impor­tant: sim­ple press­es just open and close. Wade’s design allowed the plat­en to stay open longer (mak­ing for eas­i­er feed­ing of paper), and dwell to last longer (for a bet­ter impres­sion). This errat­ic move­ment was pos­si­ble even with the con­stant and uni­form speed of a trea­dle or belt dri­ve. The Patent shows a gear mech­a­nism used to get this motion; but most mod­els includ­ed a more sim­ple wheel run­ning with­in a cam. This sits behind the large cog stamped ​‘J Wade Paten­tee, Hal­i­fax’.

    The Arab is a ​‘clamshell plat­en’, and works by bring­ing togeth­er both the ​‘forme’ of type; and the plat­en hold­ing the paper. The back plat­en moves on an axis at the foot of the machine.

    Press reports of 1872 — re-print­ed in the Print­ers’ Reg­is­ter from the Hal­i­fax Guardian — show that Wade had named the machine ​‘The Arab’. The view at the time was that the Arab race was hard-work­ing and reli­able. I assume that the term ​‘Anglo-Amer­i­can’ was lat­er added to secure appeal on both sides of the Atlantic.

    The Arab was sup­plied in parts like mod­ern-day flat-pack fur­ni­ture. It was built ​‘in the black’ (unpaint­ed); run at the works and adjust­ed; paint­ed, pol­ished and coat­ed in oil; re-erect­ed when the forme was adjust­ed; and then dis­man­tled and packed. Wade offered to send the machine along with a man to build it; but the instruc­tions claimed that any man com­pe­tent with a screw­driv­er could build the thing. The weight of each part could be car­ried by a man; but per­son­al expe­ri­ence tells me that strong men are need­ed, espe­cial­ly when dis­man­tling. This approach also cut trans­port costs and might be one fac­tor in the spread of the machines over the ​‘civilised world’. Indeed, the Hal­i­fax Couri­er report­ed that Wade’s machines were on the Shack­le­ton Expe­di­tion

    Wade was invit­ed to send an exam­ple of his press to the Patents Muse­um in Lon­don in Decem­ber 1881 to con­trast with ear­li­er press­es. The Hal­i­fax Couri­er report­ed that Wade was pleased with this acco­lade, as it demon­strat­ed the qual­i­ty of what could be pro­duced in the North of Eng­land.

    The 1920’s mod­els of the press show a sol­id wheel in place of the spoked fly­wheel — pre­sum­ably to reduce acci­dents; and a sin­gle bar to move the hand away from the plat­en dur­ing feed­ing.

    Arab Advert (c. 1940)

    Twen­ty years beyond that, in the 1940’s, a new guard that wrapped over the top of the plat­en was intro­duced; but many felt this got in the way of work­ing, and it was often removed. A clutch re-set­ting sys­tem was improved; and a full-width ink duct fit­ted.

    The final mod­els (Mod­el ​‘A’) includ­ed the facil­i­ty to ​‘inch’ the motion of the press with a motor and boast­ed that 1,200 impres­sions per hour could be had. Geof­frey Osborne points out that there was nev­er a mech­a­nism for auto­mat­ic feed­ing of paper to the Arab, and this was a cru­cial in the declin­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty of the machine.

    Pro­duc­tion stopped in Hal­i­fax in 1959 and the inter­ests of the firm were sold to Wells­man and Par­ry in Liv­er­pool. When they closed, the firm was sold to Excel­sior in Lon­don. Excel­sior were sell­ing Arab parts until at least May 1984; and pos­si­bly trad­ing until 1986.

    Press Timeline

    August 1872 “The Arab” Patent­ed: report­ed in Hal­i­fax Couri­er, and the Print­ers Reg­is­ter. The machine was to be exhib­it­ed by Mr Pow­ell of Bou­vi­er Street, Lon­don
    1874 Arab pro­duc­tion moved from Well Head Lane, Hal­i­fax to Hop­wood Lane where Wade built ​‘Crown Works’. Lat­er to move to Hope Works on Arun­del Street
    1881 Wade invit­ed by the Patent Muse­um, Lon­don to pro­vide a spec­i­men of the Arab
    1903 Wade buys the Dunkirk Mills Estate, Hal­i­fax to match the expand­ing busi­ness
    1908 In reports of Josi­ah Wade’s death, ref­er­ence is made to agents for Wade in Liv­er­pool and South Africa, amongst oth­er places
    1920s The machine is char­ac­terised by a sol­id fly­wheel, a hand-guard made of a sin­gle ris­ing rod, and new impres­sion adjust­ment
    1940s A new guard (look­ing like a cage) is fit­ted, a full-width ink duct, and clutch re-set­ting sys­tem is added
    1950s Mod­el ​‘A’ is devel­oped, which is motorised and offers addi­tion­al guards and ​‘inch­ing’. The press remains with­out a sys­tem for feed­ing paper
    1959 Wade clos­es in Hal­i­fax, hav­ing made around 40,000 machines. The firm is bought by Wells­man and Par­ry of Liv­er­pool
    Ear­ly 1960s ISPA News reports that Wells­man and Par­ry con­tin­ued to make the machine until the ear­ly six­ties.

    Further Information

    Key sources for this page are -

    • Geof­frey Osborne arti­cle in Matrix Win­ter 1984
    • Hal­i­fax Couri­er and Hal­i­fax Guardian from Feb­ru­ary 1908
    • BPS Small Print­er Mag­a­zine, re-print of ISPA News from 1962
    • LETPRESS list

    Contributors

    These peo­ple have passed me infor­ma­tion on the Arab -