From Scientific American, December 1, 1860, an issue that also has a patent by Abraham Lincoln for lifting riverboats over obstacles, and a note on getting leather from snake skins. It was a busy time for the industrial engineer.
This combination press was not for making publications, but for shaping cotton or other materials into bales. Scientific American explains a little about how it works (gearing multiplies the power 600 to 1) and why (to “accomplish far more work by the same number of hands”), and then instructs the curious that “…further information in relation to the matter may be obtained by addressing W.A. Cromwell, agent, of 461 Fourth Street, this city.” This city? I guess it’s New York, where the magazine was published. I wonder how much cotton was baled there in 1860.