Hoe, Richard March (1812-1886)

US inventor. He improved on the cylinder press for use in lithographic and letterpress work, and introduced the web press in the USA, making it efficient enough to supersede the rotary press in the 1880s.

Hoe was born in New York and worked in his father's firm manufacturing printing presses. His inventions led to expansion in New York, Boston, and the UK; between 1865 and 1870, a large manufacturing branch was built up in London, employing 600 people. Concerned for the welfare of his employees, he ran free evening classes for apprentices.

Discarding the old flatbed printing press in the 1830s, Hoe placed the type on a revolving cylinder, which was developed into the rotary press.

The first press that would print on a continuous roll, or web, of paper had been produced 1865. In 1871, with Stephen D Tucker as a partner, Hoe designed and built the Hoe web perfecting press. The first of these to be used in the USA was installed in the New York Tribune. This press printed on both sides of the sheet and produced 18,000 papers per hour. Four years later, Tucker patented a rotating cylinder that folded the papers as fast as they came off the press.