Edward J. Nolan (1907-1983) was an RIT-trained engineer who founded both the Nolan Corporation, maker of Nolan proof presses, and later the United States Forge and Foundry Co., the maker of Reprex proof presses. The Nolan Corp., based in Rome NY, made composing room and bindery equipment for the newspaper industry. They also built food canning machinery among other equipment. During WWII the company dedicated 100% of its effort to war work employing 400 men in making machine guns parts for the U.S. Army.

After a serious labor union dispute in 1951, Edward Nolan resigned and moved to nearby Pulaski NY where he started the United States Forge and Foundry Co., which in addition to the Reprex line made post grinders and large cement and mortar mixers and continued to make press parts for his old firm. In 1956 the company was sold to Porter Cable, Mr. Nolan briefly stayed on to direct product research which yielded one of the first riding lawn mowers.

United States Forge and Foundry made six Reprex models, and while total production numbers are unknown one former employee reported that the company shipped three to five presses a week during the late 1960s through the mid 1970s.

One of Edward Nolan’s last engineering projects was an overhead conveyor belt system for The Denver Post. The photo, courtesy of daughter Margaret Nolan Hays, shows him at his drawing board working on this project. Mr. Nolan was also a railroad enthusiast and built a narrow gauge steam train and tracks on his property in Pulaski.

Most of the owners of a Reprex Press have said they can’t find any serial numbers. But if you want to know when yours was made, the date is stamped on the press. The month, year, and day are stamped on the top near the end of the backside rail. See attached photo. I hope this helps some of you learn more about the heritage of your press.

Mike Day
Long Day Press

Can anyone provide a picture and approximate dimensions of the bullet catch that holds up the ink distribution rollers for cleaning on a Uni I? Ours has gone a-miss and I have a VERY KIND friend willing to machine us a new one–but I have no idea what it looks like!

Following up on the discussion a few days ago, which I think alarmed many of us into checking on our motors, I’m having some trouble finding my way around the gear box on my SP20. I’ve posted photos on flickr: if anyone can point me in the right direction I’d be thrilled. The problem is the motor is very hard to access and even see, and I don’t want to pull it out unless I have to.

On a related note, we’re having trouble with the chain rubbing the cabinet side very slightly, enough to make an annoying noise. I don’t want to shorten the lifespan of a chain that is undoubtedly already 30 years past its usable lifespan. This might require pulling the motor anyway, but wanted to see if anyone had any ideas.

Thanks,

Duncan Dempster

University of Hawaii

I was just told by one “trailing-edge” mac user that he is experiencing a problem viewing the blog since the latest blog software update (WordPress 2.5.1). My apologies to any and all readers in his position. However, I must to continue to keep pace with WP releases in order to stay ahead of comment spam and to utilitize security fixes to protect the data. I suggested the website Lowendmac.com, which addresses a variety of issues including browsers. Trailing-edge PC users may find useful the companion website for low end pcs. I hope this helps.

WordPress is an amazing and free, community-based, publishing platform. (I pay for bandwidth, data storage, and the domain name—as well as for original equipment catalogs and brochures.) However, The customization that make WP blogs so much better than your average list serve is largely made possible by third party plugins, like WP-table that has allowed me to post the censuses. Plugins are created by independent programmers who rely on donations to support this work. When a programmer abandons their plugin, as it appears the WP-table author has, it may not function with the next WP release. The same problem is now happening with the WP-Print plugin that allows printing of blog pages. Alternatives for either plugin have yet to be released. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Your humble web tinker

Dear members and guests: please note that I sometimes edit post titles and topic categories to more accurately reflect content and to improve the relevance of archive searches.

Also, please continue to send me data for the various press censuses: Vandercooks, Asbern, Challenge, Reprex, etc.

Thank you all for making this a useful resource.