Platen

The platen is commonly made of beechen plank, two inches and an half thick, its length about fourteen inches, and its breadth about nine inches. — M. This is the description of a platen for a two pull press of the old construction: they are now always made of well seasoned hard mahogany for wooden presses, thicker, and sometimes faced with iron.

The platen is that part of the machine which comes down upon the form, and, being acted upon by the spindle, produces the impression. Iron presses have nearly superseded wooden presses, and have of course iron platens; they are all one pull presses, and the platen ought to be made large enough to cover the types of as large a form as the press will contain. Whether they be of wood or of iron, the face of the platen, that is, the under side, which produces the impression, ought to be a true plane, as the least inequality in it produces an unequal impression, which causes a great deal of trouble at press to rectify it, more particularly in fine work.