Augustus Applegath (17 June 1788 – 9 February 1871) was an English printer and inventor known for the development of the first workable vertical-drum rotary printing press.
He went to school at Alfred House Academy in London and apprenticed with Benjamin Lepard, a wholesale stationer, at Covent Garden.
Applegath was a skilled printer who notably made a number of improvements to the steam-powered flat-bed press of Friedrich Konig (1813).
William Nicholson had patented a rotary printing press in 1790, but attempts to build a working prototype had been unsuccessful.
[5][6] At the same time, Richard Hoe of New York was developing a more efficient horizontal rotary press which as available with two, four, six or ten impression cylinders.