Chandler & Price Platen Press, Museo del Noreste, Monterrey

The jobbing printer's everyday machine: the press that turned out handbills, letterheads, tickets and business cards in towns across the Americas. Chandler & Price was founded in Cleveland in 1881, and its platen presses follow the pattern of the Gordon "jobber," whose business it acquired. Kick a treadle or belt it to a motor, and the big flywheel swings the platen shut against the type while rollers carry fresh ink to it from the round disk on top. Production is usually said to have ended in 1964, but so many were built that C&Ps are still a common sight in letterpress studios. This one, from around 1930, is displayed in the Museo del Noreste in Monterrey, Mexico.