1890 PROUTY POWER PRESS
“THE GRASSHOPPER”
Back in the late 1870’s there was a certain Baptist minister by the name of Enoch Prouty who was desirous of printing a small temperance paper to help in the campaign against the abuses of alcohol. Prouty was the minister in a small rural church in the town of Boscobel, Wisconsin, which is about 120 miles west of Madison. The cost of newspaper presses available to him, coupled with their heavy weight and powering by steam, caused his attempts at establishing the temperance paper to fall short. His salary as the pastor of a small congregation limited his ability to purchase a press; also, the fact that he was located in the country made it imperative that the press be both lightweight for transporting into the area as well as powered by hand rather than by steam.
Rather than succumb to his circumstances, the resourceful Prouty who had a fondness for mechanical pursuits decided to design his own press that would meet his needs. Within years he was successful in creating a country newspaper press that came to be known as the “Prouty Power Press,” and Prouty engaged in the publishing of his “Temperance Watchman.” Representatives from the Wisconsin firm of D.G. Walker & Co. were so impressed with the design and efficiency of the press that they began to manufacture and market the press in the 1880’s.
The Prouty Country Newspaper Press was manufactured in three different sizes: seven, eight, and nine newspaper columns. When you consider the average seven or eight column press available in the 1880’s weighed close to 8000 pounds, the Prouty was extremely lightweight at about 4000 pounds. This meant it could be disassembled with ease, transported into an area that probably has extremely poor roads, if any, and set up to print a weekly paper. The only power it required was the strong arms and back of a young man to crank the cylinder for a few hours. And at the modest price of $550 for the seven column the press quickly became a favorite of many country printers.
D.G. Walker & Co. continued to manufacture the press into the early twentieth century. Soon after its introduction on the market, the Prouty press received the curious nickname of “Grasshopper,” because the cylinder, traveling the length of the bed, is activated by two long slotted bars along the side of the press, which swung back and forth. This movement of the bars resembles the legs of a grasshopper each time an impression is made.
To operate the press, one fortunate individual had to crank the cylinder while another stood on the opposite side of the press feeding one sheet of paper at a time into the head stops. Usually perched on a stool, this “fly boy” lifted a sheet, gave it a shake to create a cushion of air underneath the sheet, then slide it down the wooden feed board into the head stops. The grippers picked up the sheet, held it tightly against the cylinders as it rolled over the bed of type, creating the impression. After the cylinder traveled the length of the bed, it released the sheet and returned to the feed board, similar to a Vandercook proofing press. However, to prevent the type from printing onto the cylinder when it returns, a throw off mechanism lowers the bed out of contact after each sheet is delivered. Two swift operators could reach speeds of 1500 impressions an hour.
The Museum has an operating seven column Prouty on display in our exhibit on country printing. The efficient little Prouty Power Press is a fitting tribute to the Baptist minister who’s name it bears. The press is part of the Ernie Lindner Collection– Ernie located the press in an abandoned print shop in the small town of Calico Rock, Arkansas, along the banks of the White River. The press also became something of a celebrity since its addition to Lindner’s collection. It has been featured in a number of film productions, including the 1976 movie, Harry and Walter go to New York. Most recently, the press took a trip to New York where it was filmed in a historic mansion to appear in the HBO TV show The Gilded Age.
Ernie on the set of the 1976 film Harry and Walter Go to New York (Staring Elliot Gould and Jim Caan, pictured in the center image) with the Prouty Press
