James Watt is credited with inventing a document copying device in 1780 (although he is far more widely known for his work with steam engines). As is so often the case, necessity was the mother of invention. Watt apparently found it quite frustrating not having copies of his business correspondence unless he manually reproduced them. With this invention he was able to “automate” the process and retain his own copies of all his letters and documents.
The mid-1800’s saw a significant growth in demand for copying devices and a quick scan of the catalog of the Great Exhibition of 1851 indicates that amongst the exhibitors there were more than a dozen manufacturers of copying presses, along with many suppliers of copying papers and special copying inks.
During this period, S. Mordan & Co. created a number of different styles of copying presses, including this screw press/inkstand combination, with a design registration date of March 4, 1856, registration # 3813. Interestingly, it appears that Mordan had a small “copying” problem of their own when they made these as the registration number impressed into the brass handle of the press is shown as “3183” although the design number recorded by the British Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Office at the time was “3813”.
This 1879 stationery catalog advertisement shows a near identical copying press. According to the Bank of England’s Inflation Calculator, the original price of approx. ￡3 would be somewhere around￡400 ($700 CAD) in today’s currency values.
