Unless we’re demonstrating the way Colonial presses operated no one is using ink balls anymore. Even hand inking is done with a brayer, a roller, and our mechanized presses rely on them. Though Gutenburg was inventing moveable type around 1450, the roller wouldn’t be invented until nearly 400 years later.
Samuel Binham, invented the first roller in 1826 working for Daniel Fanshaw, who as printer for the American Tract & Bibles Societies was the largest printer of his day. In 1849 Samuel started Bingham Brothers Company, manufacturer of rollers for the printing industries.
His picture to the right is from a postcard that was mailed February 1, 1912 to G. N. LeFevre, Strasburg, Pa from the Bingham Brothers Co. which by then had offices in New York, Philadelphia, Rochester, and allied concerns Bingham and Runge in Cleveland, Ohio, and Bernhard Dietz Co. in Baltimore, Md.
George Newton LeFevre died November 29, 1943 at age 93. His short bio states that he was born and died in Strasburg Township and was a printer by trade. He is buried in the LeFevre Cemetery on North Star Road, just north of Strasburg, Pa.
