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.

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 -

• Gra­ham and Kathy at the Incline Press
• Jere­my Winkworth at AM Removal, movers and deal­ers of let­ter­press equip­ment
• Hal­i­fax Cen­tral Library
• Geoff Moor
• Steve Fish­er (Arab Parts and Names)
• Ben Wein­er (Arab Erec­tion Instruc­tions)