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Richard March Hoe

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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RICHARD MARCH HOE (1812-1886), American inventor, was born in New York City on the 12th of September 1812. He was the son of Robert Hoe (1784-1833), an English-born American mechanic, who with his brothers-in-law, Peter and Matthew Smith, established in New York City a manufactory of printing presses, and used steam to run his machinery. Richard entered his father's manufactory at the age of fifteen and became head of the firm (Robert Hoe & Company) on his father's death. He had considerable inventive genius and set himself to secure greater speed for printing presses. He discarded the old flat-bed model and placed the type on a revolving cylinder, a model later developed into the well-known Hoe rotary or "lightning" press, patented in 1846, and further improved under the name of the Hoe web perfecting press (see Printing). He died in Florence, Italy, on the 7th of June 1886.

See A Short History of the Printing Press (New York, 1902) by his nephew Rober't Hoe (1839-1909), who was responsible for further improvements in printing, and was an indefatigable worker in support of the New York Metropolitan Museum.