Columbian Press, Payana Museum, Karnataka

Nobody forgets a Columbian. George Clymer of Philadelphia invented this iron hand press around 1813, but its price and weight put American printers off, and he is thought to have sold fewer than 25 at home. In 1817 he moved to London and began making it there, and around 40 firms in eight countries went on to build it. The cast-iron eagle on top is not just decoration: it is the counterweight that lifts the platen after each pull. The creatures curling along the levers are meant to be dolphins, though most people read them as serpents. Inside, a system of levers drives the platen down. This one stands in the Payana Museum on the Bengaluru to Mysuru expressway in India, a sign of how far these presses traveled.