The First Book in English on "Machine Printing" (1877)

In 1877 Jackson Gaskill, characterizing himself as "Thirty Years Machine Manager," published The Printing-Machine Manager's Complete Practical Handbook; or, The Art of Machine Managing Fully Explained in London. This was the first manual published in English exclusively on machine printing rather than on printing on a handpress.  Remarkably it was published 66 years after Friedrich Koenig developed the first steam-powered printing press, achieving an output of 800 sheets per hour, roughly double the fastest handpress operation. That there may have been little demand for Gaskill's book until the 1870s was probably a reflection of the slow-changing elements of the printing trades and the longevity of handpresses themselves.  It should not be forgotten that  a few handpress printers continue to use 19th century Stanhope, Columbian, and Albion presses in the second decade of the 21st century.

"Although there has been a tendency to equate th emergence of the cylinder printing machine with the application of steam-power, the two developments were not necessarily interrelated. Power, other than that supplied by a human being, could be and was applied to ther presses besdes those constructed on the cylinder principle, and some cylinder machines were worked by hand. Efficient steam-enginers were not universally available for another thirty years after Koenig's invention. In 1820 there were only eight steam-presses in the whole of London, nearly all being used by newspapers,e xcept for those of Strahan, the King's Printer. As late as 1851, the Printing Machine Managers Trade Society had a membership of only 130, indicating that in London, the main centre of printing, there could not have been many machines at work" (Moran, Printing Presses. History & Development from the Fifteenth Century to Modern Times [1973] 123).

Gaskill's book contains numerous text illustrations showing available machine presses plus an 11-plate color insert showing the 11 press passes required in printing a six-color plate. The work is also notable for its 23-pages of advertisements at the back for a wide variety of presses and related equipment and supplies.

Gaskill's manual on machine printing was predated by that of Wittig in German published in 1861 and that of Monet in French published in 1872.

Bigmore  & Wyman, A Bibliography of Printing (1880-86; 2001 edition) I, 255.