Richard March Hoe

Inventor and industrialist, born in New York City, New York, USA. The son of a British-born manufacturer of printing presses, he joined his father's company at age 15 and, with a cousin, took over the business three years later. His Hoe rotary press, which printed on a cylinder instead of a flat plate, went into operation at the Philadelphia Public Ledger in 1847. By 1865 a competitor had developed a rotary press that printed on a continuous roll of newsprint, but within six years Hoe had produced a new design using all the main features of his rivals.

Richard March Hoe (September 12, 1812 - June 7, 1886), was an American inventor who designed an improved printing press. He was the son of Robert Hoe (1784-1833), an English-born American mechanic, who with his brothers-in-law, Peter and Matthew Smith, established in New York City a manufactory of printing presses, and used steam to run his machinery.

In 1843, Richard invented the rotary printing press, a design much faster than the old flat-bed printing press. In its early days, it was also called the "Hoe web perfecting press," the "Hoe lightning press," and the "Hoes's Cylindrical-Bed Press." He discarded the old flat-bed model and placed the type on a revolving cylinder, a model later developed into the well-known Hoe rotary or lightning press, patented in 1846, and further improved under the name of the Hoe web perfecting press.