These Notebooks cover only the C&P "old series" (so called) and "New Series" Gordon-style platen printing presses. For other Gordon-style presses made by this company, see the C&P Craftsman and C&P Model N Notebooks.
Literature
I don't yet have much literature on this press which I can reproduce here. However, this Notebook contains pointers to, and/or bibliographic information on, all of the literature on this press of which I am aware. Parts diagrams. Oiling charts. Accessories.
Oiling
[NOT DONE] [What Oil? Why?] [Flushing Dirty Bearings.] [Cam Lubrication: Studs, Never Surfaces.] [A Photographic Survey of Oiling Points.] [Oil Hole Covers.]
The Chandler and Price Company started making presses of this general style in about 1884. It is a version of the basic design introduced by George Phineas Gordon in 1851 and manufactured by or for him until 1872. (These are sometimes referred to as "old style" Gordon presses to distinguish them from a "new style" of press introduced by Gordon in 1872. The names "old style" and "new style" when applied to presses of Gordon's own manufacture are unrelated to the terms "old series" and "new series" as applied to Chandler & Price presses. Both C&P "old series" and C&P "New Series" presses are of the Gordon "old style" type.)
C&P made these in several sizes (sizes are specified by the internal dimensions of the chase; 7 x 11 (inches), for example, or 10 x 15). These presses are easy to distinguish from later versions because their flywheels have elegantly curved spokes. They made them until 1914.
At the time, C&P generally did not refer to these presses by any special name. (They weren't "Old Series" until the "New Series" came out, of course.) Sometimes they were called "Gordon" presses, but even though C&P acquired the remains of the Gordon company in 1901 it would seem that this was more a term designating a style of press rather than a trade-name. Other companies at the time also produced their own "Gordon" presses.
In 1911, C&P began introducing a "New Series" of these presses (and called them exactly that: "New Series Presses.") These New Series presses, while generally very similar to the original ones, are easy to distinguish because their flywheels have straight spokes.
The top of the flywheel on New Series presses such as mine runs away from the operator (counterclockwise viewed from the left).
I do not have an "Old Series" C&P, and have heard conflicting reports about its flywheel direction, so on this subject I must remain silent.
A 10x15, New Series, serial number C50291. It was made in 1911. 10x15 NS production started in 1911 with C50100, and ended in about 1964 with C77168 (or later?), so mine might be the 192nd press, made in the first year of a production run which began when one of my grandmothers was eight years old and ended, at least 27,068 presses later, two years after I was born.
All portions of this document not noted otherwise are Copyright © 2009 and 2012 by David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
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