Terry Chouinard sent me this advertisement he saw in the BBS Specimen Book (No. 25) for a “Vandercook Gordon Press Vibrator.” He asked if Vandercook made any other equipment for production presses? Good question. After all, their presses were marketed as pre-press equipment. But nothing in the catalogs I’ve seen references anything like the Gordon Vibrator.
Some time ago Daniel Morris gave me a CD of pdfs of Vandercook patents he found on Google Patents. After reviewing these files it appears that the vibrator and R.O. Vandercook’s first patent “Means for Dissipating Static Electricity” (1902), plus three for offset presses, were the only ones issued to his company for inventions not part of a proof/test press or plate making equipment. Hacker Manufacturing Co., acquired by Vandercook in 1937, held 14 U.S. patents for equipment that later became part of the Vandercook product line, notably their well known plate gauge.
Rather than uploading Daniel’s files, I’ve created a page with tables listing the patents issued to Vandercook and separate pages for Hacker and Challenge. Each feature links to the drawings and descriptions on Google.
It does look like a Boxcar base! I’m sure R.O. would have embraced the concept. I believe Vandercook & Sons’s “Lite-Base” was developed after he died. https://vandercookpress.info/vanderblog/2009/02/easykaster-honeycomb-mold/
Terry, click on the thumbnail it will link to a 770 x 319 px image.
Paul, do you have a link to the larger ad I sent you? I looked over patent 1381948 and I’m with Eric, much nicer.
Also, curiously, on page 1 of patent 1381948, from the slight appearance of a grid, me thinks they already have a Boxcar Base locked up in the chase.
R.O. Vandercook, inventor extrordinaire . . . unstuck in time.
Odd coincidence, but a year or so back somebody else in Silverton was selling copies of this patent drawing on eBay.
The BB&S version of the vibrator is an improvement over the design in the patent drawing (adding lateral distribution, and no apparent modifications made to the saddles). That might be worth bringing into production, Fritz. Such riders are a huge improvement to the inking system of a C&P.
Fritz says that he has the blueprints for the platen vibrator roller, and that there’s no indication they ever took it beyond a prototype.