The Wharfedale is one of a spe­cial fam­ily of presses-the ‘stop cyl­in­der’ presses.

The forme moves back­wards and for­wards on a flat-bed, and the impres­sion is made by a rotat­ing cyl­in­der.

Paper is gripped on the cyl­in­der. In com­mon with proof­ing presses, the force of the impres­sion is delivered in a thin strip (just where the cyl­in­der hits the forme). This allows for a greater pre­ci­sion of impression.

The press has a long his­tory: in 1830 Wil­liam Dawson, a joiner from Otley in West York­shire, made a ‘rul­ing machine’ from wood. This expos­ure to print­ers led to more work sup­ply­ing print­ers.

Across the UK in Ulver­ston, Stephen Soulby pat­en­ted a print­ing machine where the cyl­in­der rolled over a sta­tion­ary forme. He called the press the ‘Ulver­sto­nian’ but had little suc­cess with it and was poin­ted in the dir­ec­tion of Dawson in Otley. I assume Dawson developed Soulby’s ideas with him.

In 1855 the first machine was sent from Otley-on the banks of the river Wharfe — at a cost of £60 and was cap­able of pro­du­cing 500 impres­sions per hour. At that time twenty men were employed in this work.

By 1911 between two and three thou­sand men were engaged in build­ing this type of press along the Wharfe at dif­fer­ent works: Dawsons, Payne, Folds and so on.

Wharfedales were able to deliver between two and three thou­sand impres­sions per hour.

via Wharfedale | British Letterpress.