Pressman

The workman who does the presswork. Printers are divided into two classes—compositors and pressmen—and in London boys are usually apprenticed to one or the other of these branches of the business; but in the Provinces, it is customary for an apprentice to be taught both. It consequently usually happens, especially in London and other large towns, that work-men understand only one part of the business, and are actually unable to do anything in the other. In small jobbing offices this is objectionable, as a compositor is expected to be able to do a plain job at press, pull a proof, &c., even although he is unacquainted with the more intricate departments of the art of press work. Pressmen have distinct trade societies of their own; that in London being called “The London Union of Pressmen.”

They have also several establishments termed “Gifts.” These Gifts are formed among a limited number of pressmen, for the purpose of introducing one another to a job, in preference to the members of other gifts or pressmen generally. Each member of a Gift must be a Union man; and his subscription to the Gift includes he demand of the Union, which is handed over to the Secretary of the Union by the Secretary of the Gift. The London Union of Pressmen has communication with the various provincial societies of pressmen, and acknowledge tramps from the country, on production of their trade card. A movement is on foot for amalgamating the Machine Managers’s and Pressmen’s Societies with the London Society of Compositors, for trade purposes only, to be called the “London Amalgamated Letter-press Printers Defence Fund Association.”

A very unsatisfactory method of charging for their work is adopted by pressmen. They have no settled scale; but get what they can, according to the liberality or closeness of the establishment at which they are employed. Scarcely two houses in London pay the same prices; consequently there are frequent disputes at the end of the week. A plan, however, is adopted by some managers, of drawing up a list of prices to be paid for ordinary work, and shown to the pressman when engaged; this saves a deal of time and argument at the end of the week, when the pressmen presents his bill. Some work, however, is of so intricate a nature that it is advisable to be done by time-work.

The rapid introduction of machinery of late years has caused a great diminution in the way number of pressmen; but as a rule, good pressmen can always obtain plenty of work, and many of them find it advantageous to adopt the machine as a profession, on attaining the close of their apprenticeship.