7
As early as August 18, 1825, the printer at Honolulu, Mr. Loomis, informed the corresponding secretary of the A. B. C. F. M. :
"Our printing press is materially damaged and may fail utterly at any time. The nut in which the screw plays is cracked quite in two."
And on August 20, 1825, Mr. Bingham writes to the same effect:
"The one we now have is so much worn in the screw as to render it impossible to take an even impression; and as the screw is cracked we know not how soon it may become useless."
The second Hawaiian press arrived at Honolulu, March 30, 1828. On June 5, 1828, Mr. Shepard, the newly arrived printer, writing to Mr. Evarts, thus de- scribes the condition of the first press :
"The press itself is in better order than was expected. The crack of the screw is of such a nature as not to injure it materially. It is not, however, sufficiently powerful to do justice to the close heavy forms of Luke ; We have not tried the one received by the Parthian; but intend to put it up soon.
If the Committee decide to send an iron press for the printing of the Scriptures, one of the presses now here might be sent windward. * * * If an iron press should be sent I would recommend either Wells' patent, or that known in New York by the name of Rust's press."
This appeal and others for an iron press clearly indi- cate that the Hawaiian press was one of Ramage's wooden presses.
The printers at Honolulu also made frequent requisi- tions for deniy paper, a size too large to be of use on the press now in Portland.
The writer is assured by Mr. Bullen that the injuries related by the missionaries, as quoted above, are not at all applicable to an iron, arched press such as the one exhibited in Portland, but are such as might befall Ra- mage's first type of wooden press
