Richard M. Hoe was an American inventor who designed an improved printing press—a revolutionary product in printing. Prior to Hoe’s invention, printing was a meticulous and time-consuming task. Hoe invented a lithographic rotary printing press that placed the text on a revolving cylinder. This design was much faster than the old flatbed printing press. The way Hoe’s invention was utilized was by rolling a cylinder over stationary plates of inked type and using the same cylinder to make impressions on paper.

On this day, July 24, 1847, Richard Hoe patented his rotary type printing press.

With this new method, there was no longer a need to make impressions on type plates themselves. This made the labor of producing text much easier, seeing that these type plates were heavy and difficult to maneuver.