Printing on an 1880's Prouty Newspaper Press aka The Grasshopper Press 

We mostly use this 1880's Prouty Power Flat Bed Newspaper Press for demonstrations, but we inked it up for a rare look at what the press can really do! This press was nicknamed "Grasshopper" because the cylinder, traveling the length of the bed, is activated by two slotted bars which swing back and forth resembling the legs of a grasshopper. The press is extremely light-weight, considering the size sheet it can handle. Seven, eight, and nine column presses invented by Enoch Prouty were manufactured in the eighteen-eighties by the Wisconsin firm of D.G. Walker & Company, who continued this style press, with modifications, into the early twentieth century. Enoch Prouty was a Baptist minister desirous of printing a temperance paper and, not being able to afford any presses available, he designed his own. Prouty had his press manufactured and, because of its modest price, light weight, and ready source of power (hand), it was adopted by country printers. The cylinder picks up the sheet from the feed-board similarly to the action of a modern proof press. The throw-off is in the bed which descends before the return of the cylinder. Impression is effected by wheels locked underneath the bearers. This newspaper press came from a dilapidated print shop in Calico, Ark.