Adana Printing Machines
Encyclopedia
The hugely popular Adana Printing presses were manufactured from 1922–1999, in Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Although most of the presses produced by Adana were aimed at hobby
Hobby
A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one's leisure time.- Etymology :A hobby horse is a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like a real horse...

 printers, they were frequently put to commercial use. Adanas are still to be found throughout the world in the hands of college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

s, enthusiasts
Fan (person)
A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...

 and professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

 printers
Printer (publisher)
In publishing, printers are both companies providing printing services and individuals who directly operate printing presses. With the invention of the moveable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450, printing—and printers—proliferated throughout Europe.Today, printers are found...

.

The earliest Adana models were flat-bed printing presses but they were to become most famous for their "Eight-Five" and other vertical platen
Platen
A platen is typically a flat metal plate pressed against a medium to cause an impression in letterpress printing...

 presses. The company sought to produce quality presses at affordable prices and it was this ethic
Business ethics
Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.Business...

 that allowed them to succeed in the face of competition
Competition
Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...

 from longer-established and perhaps more innovative American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 companies, such as Kelsey.

History of the Adana

Originally founded as The Adana Agency in 1922 by Donald Aspinall, the company's assets were bought by Frederick Ayers in 1940 and the company relaunched as Adana (Printing Machines) Limited in 1946. In 1990 the assets were again sold, this time to Caslon Limited who continued to produce a small number of presses for a further nine years. Throughout the years, both the company and its presses were usually referred to as Adana or The Adana.

Donald Aspinall

Donald Affleck Aspinall was born in South Kensington
South Kensington
South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....

, West London
West (London sub region)
The West is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow. The sub region was established in 2004 and was adjusted in 2008 to include Kensington and Chelsea. The west has a population of 1.6 million and...

, in 1899. Unusually for the time, his parents separated, and his father Herbert left the seven-year-old Donald and his brothers, John and Cecil, in the sole care of their mother, Lilian.

In 1917 Donald served in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, presumably having lied about his age. Later that year he returned from the front suffering from shell-shock
Combat stress reaction
Combat stress reaction , in the past commonly known as shell shock or battle fatigue, is a range of behaviours resulting from the stress of battle which decrease the combatant's fighting efficiency. The most common symptoms are fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's...

. While recovering, he began working on a small flat-bed printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...

. He advertised his design in The Model Engineer in 1918 and was overwhelmed by the response. The teenage Aspinall is said to have tried to hand the money over to the local constabulary
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

, rather than face the prospect of fulfilling so many orders. He was persuaded that this was not a wise move by an understanding policeman, and he eventually produced enough machines to fill the orders.

After losing his job five years later, Aspinall founded the Adana Agency and turned his hobby
Hobby
A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one's leisure time.- Etymology :A hobby horse is a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like a real horse...

 into a business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

. From premises in Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...

, he began selling flat-bed wooden presses to hobby printers. The competitive pricing and self-inking system ensured its success.

In 1928 he married Dorothy Lucas. They later have two children, Robert and Diana. The company was going from strength to strength, with new models launched regularly, showrooms opening in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, and official distributors
Distribution (business)
Product distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user.The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing,...

 enlisted in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

A decade later, the company's fortunes reversed
Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune is a 1990 film adapted from the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case, written by law professor Alan Dershowitz...

. In 1939 Aspinall suffered the first of several stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

s and the economic pressures of war left the Adana Agency in meltdown. After a meeting of the creditors, the company's assets were sold to Frederick Ayers.

Until his death in 1948, Aspinall continued to correspond with Frederick Ayers, sharing advice and ideas for new designs.

Aspinall's engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

 achievements are sometimes dismissed as he borrowed so heavily from American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 designs, but his business acumen and talent for re-working existing ideas (such as creating a revolving ink-disk for his flat-bed presses) are widely acknowledged.

Frederick Ayers

Engineer Frederick Ayers became involved with the company in 1923 when his company started supplying parts to the fledgling Adana Agency. He became friends with Donald Aspinall, and began to offer design advice. As one of the company's creditors, he was able to purchase the assets cheaply in 1940 when the Adana Agency became insolvent.

The War Years

Like many others, the company was effectively on hold during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, with a skeleton staff supplying only parts and sundries
Sundries
Sundries may refer to:* Toiletries and other usually small items both of no large value, and too numerous to mention separately such as cosmetics, threads, needles et cetera...

. They were asked to supply small flat-bed presses for the Resistance
Resistance during World War II
Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns...

 movement in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, but little else happened until 1945 when production began again on a very limited
Limited
Limited can refer to:* A private company limited by shares, a specific kind of limited company in Commonwealth of Nations commercial law; often used as a suffix ; formerly used for all limited companies...

 basis. Ongoing rationing
Rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.- In economics :...

 meant raw materials were in short supply and it wasn't until around 1950 that the company was able to trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

 at full capacity
Capacity utilization
Capacity utilization is a concept in economics and managerial accounting which refers to the extent to which an enterprise or a nation actually uses its installed productive capacity...

 again.

Post War Expansion

By 1952, Adana had distributors in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. They continued to expand until Adanas were available in nearly 100 countries around the world.

The End of Adana

There were unavoidable price increases as parts and labour became more expensive. Adana presses were virtually indestructible and the company had a policy
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...

 of supplying parts, so there was little incentive
Incentive
In economics and sociology, an incentive is any factor that enables or motivates a particular course of action, or counts as a reason for preferring one choice to the alternatives. It is an expectation that encourages people to behave in a certain way...

 to buy new when second-hand presses were readily available. Lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

 was drawing away much of the commercial market and letterpress printing (along with many crafts) became unfashionable as the 1980s brought new technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

 into homes.

The company was wound-down and the assets sold to Caslon Limited who continued to produce the more popular presses until 1999 when the last Eight-Five was sold in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Caslon still supply parts and refurbish
Remanufacturing
Remanufacturing is the process of disassembly and recovery at the module level and, eventually, at the component level. It requires the repair or replacement of worn out or obsolete components and modules. Parts subject to degradation affecting the performance or the expected life of the whole are...

 old Adanas to new condition.

Other activities

Adana also cast type and published many books. Their magazine-style catalogues (containing practical printing advice alongside price lists) such as 'Popular Printing' and 'Printcraft' were much loved and have become highly collectable.

The name

The official story behind the name Adana states that Donald Aspinall named the company after the city of Adana
Adana
Adana is a city in southern Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, in south-central Anatolia...

 in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, having served there during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. In his book on Adanas, printing historian Bob Richardson notes that Aspinall's army unit never saw action in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 and relates another theory
Theory
The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...

.


Donald's son Robert suggested recently that his father had simply used his initials, together with an extra letter from his first and last names (A and N), and juggled them to create the word ADANA. It was short, easy to remember and had a pleasant, rather exotic sound.


Even if he had served in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, it seems unlikely that Aspinall would choose a name that recalled the military service
Military service
Military service, in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft . Some nations require a specific amount of military service from every citizen...

 that so traumatised
Combat stress reaction
Combat stress reaction , in the past commonly known as shell shock or battle fatigue, is a range of behaviours resulting from the stress of battle which decrease the combatant's fighting efficiency. The most common symptoms are fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's...

him as a young man. It is possible that the company created a fictional back-story
Back-story
A back-story, background story, or backstory is the literary device of a narrative chronologically earlier than, and related to, a narrative of primary interest. Generally, it is the history of characters or other elements that underlie the situation existing at the main narrative's start...

 that was more satisfying than the reality. There is precedent
Precedent
In common law legal systems, a precedent or authority is a principle or rule established in a legal case that a court or other judicial body may apply when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts...

 for this as Adana is known to have fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

alised other aspects of the company's history for marketing purposes.

The Eight-Five

The now iconic Adana Eight-Five was launched in 1953, filling a gap between the High Speed Number 2 and the High Speed Number 3. The name was taken from the dimensions of its platen
Platen
A platen is typically a flat metal plate pressed against a medium to cause an impression in letterpress printing...

, 8 x 5 in. They continued to be produced until 1999 and many thousands are still in use.

Other Presses of Note

Some of the presses manufactured by Adana include the following:
  • The 45/- (1922)
  • Foolscap Folio Treadle Platen (1926)
  • Steel version of the 45/- Press (1927)
  • Models 3 and 4; larger presses aimed at professional printers (1927)
  • Octavo Treadle launched (1927)
  • A tiny press for children, the Adana 'Baby' (1927)
  • A starter kit called the 'Compactum' (1928)
  • The Octavo Platen, Adana's first vertical platen (1933)
  • Flat-Bed Rotary Series launched (1933)
  • The High Speed No 1 launched, a vertical platen inspired by the designs of Kelsey (1934)
  • Flat-bed Rotary Series withdrawn, possibly because of infringement on designs by a mysterious company called Anvil Ltd (1935)
  • The High Speed No 2 with a 6 x 4 in platen, double the size of the No 1 (1935)
  • QFB - 1945 Flat-Bed, Quarto Flat Bed, plywood construction(1945)
  • Treadle Platen 47 (1947)
  • Treadle Platen 48 (1948)
  • QH - Quarto Horizontal, the last flat-bed to be produced aluminium and steel castings (1950)
  • High Speed No 3 with an 8.5 x 5.5 in platen (1950)
  • Adana Thermograph, for producing relief effects (1950)
  • 8x5 - Adana Eight-Five (1953)
  • Adana 9x6 Treadle Machine (1956)
  • 5x3 - Adana Five-Three (1956)
  • Ayers Jardine Showcard Press (1960)
  • Adana P71/P71S (1970)
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