Ruthven printing press

The Ruthven press was an iron bed press which functioned by means of an unconventional platen which rolled over a stationary table which held the type, where the pressure on the type faces was exerted from below, instead of in the conventional method where pressure was applied from above.

The press overall incorporated a number of other rather complex mechanical components, the details of which are beyond the scope of this article.

The first newspaper in Western Australia, The Fremantle Observer, Perth Gazette and Journal, issued April 5, 1831, was printed on the Ruthven press.

Thereafter the press was taken to Perth where it was employed in the printing of the Swan River Guardian, however, it was repossessed for non-payment.

Originally manufactured in Scotland, it was brought to Tasmania around 1822 by the Scottish missionary Reverend Archibald Macarthur, who sold it to the colonial authorities in Hobart Town, but it proved to be not large enough for the task they had intended and they subsequently sold the press to a former government printer, who in turn probably sold it to Samuel Dowsett, who printed Launceston's second newspaper, the Cornwall Press, in 1829.