Our “Newest” Technology

Meet the latest addition to the department’s print capabalities, the Chander & Price Pilot LetterPress. The press will become part of a “lab” component in our course on “The History of the Book.” It’s on display right now as you come into the department, but we’ll demonstrate how it works early in the coming semester. It’s hard to know exactly how old the press is, but it has a long history. In 1886, William T. Price, a mechanic, and Harrison T. Chandler, an investor, formed a company in Cleveland, Ohio for the production of floor-model jobber presses. The Pilot was, however, not a jobber but a hand-lever tabletop press that was intended mainly for schools. The Pilot is now considered one of the best tabletop presses ever made; it was manufactured by Chandler & Price until about the 1970s.