Over recent decades, the publishing world has reached wider audiences through technological advances. In the early nineteenth century, an innovation in printing had a similar effect – the Stanhope Press, the first all-metal printing press in England.
The Stanhope Press was named after its inventor, Charles Stanhope, third Earl Stanhope (1753-1816). Born in London and educated at Eton and Geneva, he pursued the study of politics, mathematics, and science, always with a little eccentricity. After several attempts to enter Parliament, Stanhope finally won a seat for Wycombe in 1780. He introduced several bills into the Commons, advocating for the reform of parliamentary expenses and the abolition of the slave trade, and he worked closely with his contemporaries John Wilkes, William Wilberforce, and William Pitt. His views were often too outspoken or advanced for his peers, however.
When his father died in 1786, Charles succeeded him as the third Earl Stanhope, entering the House of Lords. With his passion for civil liberty, he suffered during the French Revolution, opposing British interference in France. This gained him the moniker ‘the Minority of One’ and led to his eventual withdrawal from politics.
Throughout his political career, Stanhope maintained his interest in science and became known for his mechanical inventions. These included two arithmetic machines, a musical instrument tuner, a microscopic lens, improvements to canal locks and even an early steamboat. He also developed a method of protecting buildings from fire: in an early experiment, he set alight the lower floor of a wooden building whilst a group of gentlemen sat upstairs eating ice-cream. Then there were his printing inventions, including advances in stereotyping, new logotype cases, and of course his printing press.
Before the late eighteenth century, all hand presses were constructed mainly from wood. Wilhelm Haas of Basel was the first to use a cast iron frame, but around 1800 Stanhope went further, designing a press made almost entirely of iron. He retained the conventional screw but separated it from the spindle and bar with a series of compound levers. These levers allowed much greater force to be applied to the press. The old wooden presses could only produce the impression in two ‘pulls’ but this new development allowed the impression to be created in just one pull, saving time and labour.
Stanhope employed an ironworker, Robert Walker, to make the original machines. It took them two attempts to perfect the design. The first construction had a straight frame which often cracked under pressure. The second construction had a rounded frame, cast in a harder metal. Oxford University Press acquired its first two Stanhope Presses, made by Walker, in 1805. It purchased another in 1812 for £230: this one was made by Peter Keir of Camden Town and is on display in OUP’s Museum.
