Vicobold Machines: Victoria Platens

These presses are of Ger­man des­cent — made by Rock­stroh-Werke AG of Heide­nau — but were made in the UK by Frank F Pershke.

Rock­stroh-Werke AG made three mod­els of machine -

• Vic­tor­ia (Mod­el ‘B’)
• Auto-Vic­tor­ia (Mod­el ‘C’)
• Kobold

The three UK-made mod­els were -

• Vico­bold
• Autovico­bold
• Autovic

Inform­a­tion from Frank F Per­shke adverts is repro­duced below. The address giv­en was Dover House, 170 West­min­ster Bridge Road, Lon­don SE1

General Principles

The key fea­ture of these machines is that they employ a ‘par­al­lel platen’ approach. The platens are not hinged (like most oth­er presses), but runs on rails in the ver­tic­al pos­i­tion. This ensures that impres­sion is even over the face of the forme.

Ink­ing is by a rotat­ing cyl­in­der at the head of the machine — rather than an ink­ing disk. The machines are based on the Vic­tor­ia Heavy Art Platen.

Vicobold

Machine	Max Sheet Size	Inside Chase Size	Platen Size	Space Occu­pied	Power Required	Net Weight
Vico­bold	10.25″ x 14″ (26 x 35.5cm)	9.5″ x 13.25″ (24 x 33.5cm)	11″ x 14.25″ (28 x 36cm)	49″ x 47″ (124 x 120cm)	0.5hp	8.5cwt (425kg)

This machine is hand-fed and fol­lows the same prin­ciples as the oth­ers in the series. Ink is sup­plied to the ink­ing drum through a screw con­trolled duct, and trans­ferred to the forme with two rollers. Impres­sion strength can be changed with a single nut at the back of the platen: the par­al­lel approach takes care of all of the forme with that one change.

There were at least two mod­els — the Mod­el ‘C’ which was motor­ised; and a Mod­el ‘T’ run with a treadle.

Autovicobold

Machine	Max Sheet Size	Inside Chase Size	Platen Size	Space Occu­pied	Power Required	Net Weight
Autovico­bold	10.25″ x 14″ (26 x 35.5cm)	9.5″ x 13.25″ (24 x 33.5cm)	11″ x 14.25″ (28 x 36cm)	38″ x 62″ (97 x 219cm) (with auto feed­er in position)	1.5hp	13cwt (650kg)

This machine is essen­tially the Vico­bold with an auto­mat­ic feed and deliv­ery sys­tem. A selling fea­ture was that the feed and deliv­ery sys­tem could be wheeled away when needed: allow­ing the machine to be used as a hand-fed machine, and also to allow open access to the work­ing area dur­ing set-up.

Autovic

Machine	Max Sheet Size	Inside Chase Size	Platen Size	Space Occu­pied	Power Required	Net Weight
Autovic	13.375″ x 18.125″ (34 x 46cm)	13.5″ x 17.75″ (34.5 x 45cm)	14.25″ x 18.875″ (36 x 48cm)	56″ x 65″ (141 x 165cm) (with auto feed­er in position)	1.5hp	24cwt (1220kg)

This machine is a lar­ger size than the oth­er two mod­els, and occu­pies a sub­stan­tially lar­ger space. It was sup­plied with an option­al feed sys­tem. Ink­ing is by means of three rollers: two are in con­tact with then forme on the way ‘down’, and the third roller is engaged with the form only on the way ‘up’. There are two addi­tion­al rollers in the ink­ing mech­an­ism for ink dis­tri­bu­tion. An auto­mat­ic wash-up sys­tem is also included.