Unusual Press

Friends,
A friend of mine with a connection to Yale has been shown the attached photos of a press that was once used in Yale’s letterpress print shops. The only info I can find is that it was in use while the author John Hersey, (Hiroshima) taught at Yale in the late 60’s.
I could not find anything on the web to help identify this machine. It looks as if letters(type?) where stored on flat matrices, (see pix2) and placed in position on a drum (pix3) and then set up on the machine to print the page.

Has anyone seen one of these or know anything about it?
thx
s

image: drumwithtypepix3.jpg

drumwithtypepix3.jpg

image: Cabinet? pix 2.jpg

Cabinet? pix 2.jpg

image: Printer pix 1.jpg

Printer pix 1.jpg

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Multigraph?

Do a google image search for ‘multigraph press’.

Dave the Ink Tube Guy has these machines, they are Multigraphs.

Steve, what do you or your friend want to know about it? As Keelan and Dick have said, it’s a Multigraph, almost undoubtedly a model No. 4 dating from about a hundred years ago. These machines were originally designed, around 1902, as a “multiple typewriter” to turn out “typewritten” form letters at 2000+ per hour, and gradually evolved into office printing presses. The one pictured would have had a two-roller inking system for printing as well as used a 7.5” wide typewriter-like ribbon for producing “typed” letters. The supply drum (on the right in the Printer pix 1) holds a supply of a typewriter font; the individual pieces of type were slid across onto the printing drum, which gets mounted alongside the supply drum. By around 1915 this cumbersome composing system was being replaced by the No. 39 Flexo-Typesetter, shown (on its side) in pix 2. From the photos, it’s obvious this particular press has not been used recently, and some parts are not pictured and may be missing. Let me know if you want more info.

Dave