"The Bradford Observer" Advertises its Duncan & Wilson "Victory" Printing and Folding Machine

In 2020 I was pleased to obtain a large broadside illustrating and explaining the features of The "Victory" Printing and Folding Machine, distributed to the subscribers of The Bradford Observer newspaper about 1870. This automatic web press, built by the Liverpool press manufactuers Duncan & Wilson, was the first web press that also incorporated a paper folding mechanism. The new press enabled the newspaper to expand its circulation and increase its pages from four to eight on Thursday and Saturdays.

Such was the importance of high speed printing in the last quarter of the 19th century before electronic media that the Bradford Observer assumed that its readers would be fascinated by latest technological features applied in this web press. The lengthy text included with the broadside outlined the history of printing machines beginning with Friedrich Koenig, mentioning the invention of the web press in 1863 by William Bullock of Philadelphia, and the development in 1868 of a different web press by The Times of London. The "Victory" Printing and Folding Machine was capable of printing 9,000 complete, folding 8-page newspapers per hour.