Background
Calvert Byron Cottrell was born on August 10, 1821 in Westerly, Rhode Island, the home of the Cottrell family for many generations. He was the son of Lebbeus and Lydia (Maxson) Cottrell.
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Calvert Byron Cottrell
Edit ProfileEducation
Calvert had the regular education afforded by the local schools.
Career
At the age of nineteen Cottrell began his apprenticeship as a machinist in Phenix, Rhode Island, in the shops of Levalley, Lanphear & Company. Here he remained for fifteen years, most of the time as an employing contractor. While so engaged he made many improvements in machine Cottrell tools and machinery and saved enough money to start a business of his own.
In 1855 he formed a partnership with Nathan Babcock, a skilled mechanic, and rented a shop from the Pawcatuck Manufacturing Company in Westerly. Cottrell & Babcock had intended doing a general machinist’s trade but the Pawcatuck Company had just purchased the rights to manufacture a patent oscillating printing-press and prevailed upon the new firm to manufacture this. Press manufacture, however, did not engage their whole time until 1868. In that year it was made the predominating feature, and thenceforward Cottrell’s inventive genius began to show itself.
Among the first of his press improvements was the air spring for reversing the bed of a press, which lessened the jar and permitted greater printing speeds and hence increased the capacity of a press. He was the first to apply tapeless sheet delivery to the drum cylinder press. He invented and introduced hinged roller frames and devised an attachment for controlling the momentum of the cylinder.
After a brief period of minor but valuable inventions, he introduced front sheet delivery which permitted dispensing with both tapes and fly, delivering the sheets of paper to the cylinder, front side up, and at the front end of the press. He also invented a rotary color printing-press, feeding from a roll of paper and printing in three colors 300, 000 labels a day and later the shifting tympan for a web perfecting press.
Cottrell & Babcock continued in business until 1880 when Babcock retired, Cottrell continuing, however, with the aid of his three sons. Just a year before he died, the business was incorporated with a capitalization of $800, 000 as C. B. Cottrell & Sons Company. In the early days of his business, Cottrell traveled a great deal among the trade.
Achievements
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During his life Cottrell received over a hundred patents in the United States and Europe, the first one having been obtained in 1858. Probably his most valuable invention was the shifting tympan for a web perfecting press. This prevented offset on the second cylinder and enabled a press which had heretofore been capable of printing only the ordinary newspaper to execute the finest class of illustrated printing. The invention contributed much to making the five and ten cent magazines possible.
Personality
Cottrell was known widely for his quick but accurate judgment, geniality, and sincerity.
Connections
On May 4, 1849 Cottrell married Lydia W. Perkins, a descendant of John Perkins of Ipswich who came from England in 1632.
