C & P - Pressman's Favorite

Interesting old piece on Chandler and Price, the presses and the people behind them.

By Fred Williams, Editor-Publisher
Type & Press
Published Summer 1977


If a favorite press poll was ever conducted among pressmen and printshop proprietors, there is no doubt that the C&P would win all the honors, grippers down!

Pressmen loved its easy accessibility for makeready, long impression dwell, pause for feeding plus its heavy precision construction which enabled the C&P to print "run of the hook" from a postage stamp to large four-color register forms or die cutting.

Proprietors loved its ability to run just about any job profitably with practically no "down time" in spite of little maintenance.

Chandler & Price Meet 1881

Harrison T. Chandler, an Illinois banker, while negotiating to buy an interest in the Cleveland Type Foundry, met William H. Price, son of a builder of printing presses. They founded the Chandler & Price Co. of Cleveland to build printing equipment.

In 1884 the partners introduced their famous jobber in two sizes –7xll and 10xl5 and by year's end over 300 presses had been built. Subsequently the press was built in 8xl2, 14x20, 14.5x22 sizes.

The C&P was not of original design, being based on several expired patents granted to George Phineas Gordon about 1850. This famous press had a reciprocating vertical bed mounted on two long legs hinged to a shaft at the rear base of the press. This "long hinge" made it possible for the printing surface to approach the platen nearly parallel. The motion of the platen, controlled by a toggle actuated by a cam wheel, moved the bed forward at the proper sequence in the cycle.
Read More