The rotary printing press developed by Richard March Hoe (181.2-1886) was the key invention that led to the development of the mass media.
Hoe's father ran a factory for the production of printing presses in New York City, and Richard worked in the family business from a young age. Along with his father and .brothers-in-law, he made- various improvements to the traditional flat-bed press, which was based on the very earliest fifteenth-century presses from Europe.
Hoe's press- was revolutionary because of the speed at which documents could be printed. Unlike the flat-bed press, which had to be reset for each new sheet of paper, the rotary or revolving printing press passed paper -continuously through, using several cylinders to apply the type. As long as there was someone there to feed the paper, Hoe's original "lightning press" could produce up to 8,000 sheets per hour with a good quality of output.
The invention was timely. The newspaper industry in the United States was booming, and the new press allowed for enormous daily editions to be printed and circulated. The Philadelphia Public Ledger was the first newspaper to use the new press in 1847. Hoe continued to develop the rotary press until 1871 when he unveiled the "web perfecting" press, which printed both sides-of the paper simultaneously using a continuous roll of paper, and was first used by the New York Tribune. This, combined with his innovations in cutting and folding the paper, established the modern printing press, which lasted until digital printing took over-in, the late twentieth century.
