Stansbury-Style Acorn Presses

Another Acorn press is known as the Stansbury Press, named after Rev. Abraham Stansbury (1776-1829) who invented the toggle mechanism used in these presses. He received a patent on April 7, 1821 for his toggle mechanism, known as the ‘torsion toggle,’ which had two straight rods attached to a circular plate on the lower end. The rods were fixed to the head at the upper end. When the bar was pulled the circular plate rotated, and so did the rods, bringing the rods to a vertical position and forcing the platen downward to make an impression. A few years before Stansbury filed his patent, George Medhurst invented one that was similar, albeit with shorter rods. Whether Stansbury knew of this or invented it independently is unknown. 

Stansbury-Style Acorn Press. Note how different the toggle mechanism is in comparison to the Smith-Style presses. This particular Stansbury is a later one, so it features three tension rods, rather than the original two.

In 1822 the rights to manufacture this style of press was given to the Cincinnati Type Foundry. At first, CTF made the Stansbury with an all wood and a wood and iron frame, but between 1829 and 1834 converted to making them only out of iron. The earliest Stansbury presses were defined by their toggle, and were not found in acorn shapes. They were essentially common presses with a different toggle. However, after the initial patent expired in 1845 others began manufacturing them in Acorn frames.

Isaac Adams, mentioned previously as someone who often made and sold copies of others’ work, made Stansbury presses very soon after the patent expired. He put the Stansbury toggle in an Acorn frame. He also made a design change to the toggle mechanism by using three tension rods rather than the original two. R. Hoe & Co., who had already been making the Smith press for decades, began manufacturing Stansbury presses very similar to Adams’s version in 1867.