Thomas A. Lenci and the Eagle Printing Ink Company

First, it is my pleasure to welcome you to CMYK History! This is the first post of a site that I hope will serve as a platform for those interested in the history of color.

Before starting on this research, I had just finished reading the wonderful book, “Mauve,” by Simon Garfield (about William Perkins and his invention of the first aniline dye), and was looking for my next adventure into the history of color. Having worked in the printing industry for many years, much of my thinking is consumed by color printing processes. Surely there must be an interesting story buried in that history somewhere! Little did I know that seeking out what I thought would be a simple origin story of process printing would take me down a path of discovery that included so many important events this history of American popular culture and the growth of the publishing industry itself.

A basic search for “CMYK History” on Google brings you to several blogs and websites that identify the Eagle Printing Ink Company as the originators of four-color wet-on-wet printing in 1906. Below are quotes from these various websites.

In 1906, the Eagle Printing Ink Company incorporated the four-color wet process inks for the first time. They discovered that these four colors can be combined to produce an almost unlimited number of richer, darker tones.^​1​

In 1906, the Eagle Printing Ink Company incorporated the four-colour wet process inks for the first time. These four colours were cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (also known as key), hence the name CMYK. It was discovered that these four colours can be combined to produce an almost unlimited number of richer, darker tones.^​2​

Over a century ago, in the early 1900s, the Eagle Printing Ink Company developed the concept of process inks, combining cyan, magenta, yellow and black to offer an almost unlimited array of rich hues. This works by taking your design and color breaking it to the four process colors, where halftones, small evenly spaced dots, of each color are laid down, overlapping at different angles to create the image you see on the printed page. The use of halftones is critical in creating different intensities while using less ink.^​3​

 The Eagle Printing Ink Company develops four-color wet process inks. [1906 entry for Sun Chemical’s “200+ Years of Innovation at Sun Chemical” Timeline]^​4​

The [three-color process printing] technique was improved in 1906 when the Eagle Printing Ink Company introduced the four-color wet ink process, based around the CMYK color set. (CMYK, by the way, stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and “key”—also known as black.)^​5​

CMYK printing was first used in 1906, when the Eagle Printing Ink Company demonstrated that the colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black (key) could be layered over a white substrate to produce a practically unlimited range of colors.^​6​

Exploring these claims about the Eagle Printing Ink Company in more detail, I found that all of these sources refer to each other in one way or another. Many of these claims also state that the four colors were cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, although the available process inks at the time were blue, red, yellow, and black, since the pigments for what we know as cyan and magenta today were not developed until many years later.^​7​  The process of standardizing cyan, magenta, yellow, and black did not begin (at least for proofing) until the late 1940s, and continued for many decades thereafter.^​8​

The claim that the Eagle Printing Ink Company developed four-color wet-on-wet printing inks is itself complex. Three- and four-color process printing (red, yellow, blue, and black at the time), though uncommon in commercial magazine printing, was not new. The use of three- and four-color techniques to reproduce pictorial images was preceded by the development of three-color halftone photoengraving techniques by Frederick Ives in the US, Dr. E. Vogel in Germany in the 1890s. Dr. E. Albert, of Munich, determined optimal screen angles for process inks and promoted the use of black and gray as a fourth ink in his Citochrome process to overcome weaknesses in the blue process ink.^​9​ C.G. Zander promoted the use of his own four-color system, which included red, green, yellow and blue.^​10​ Gray could be produced by complements (red/green or yellow/blue). While this process made colorful prints, it did not gain traction with printers. Many other three- and four-color processes and workflows existed at the time, each specific to certain photoengraving companies. Yet, the common factor among all workflows was the use of wet-on-dry printing.  

With regard to wet-on-wet printing, the technique was likely first commercialized in the 1890s by Ivan Orloff for the Russian Government (more on that in a later post). Three- and four-color perfecting web presses were also developed in the 1890s for the newspaper industry, but that process, which used highly absorbent newsprint, was not suited for magazine publishing, which used non-absorbent coated paper. Multi-color newsprint processes will also be covered in a future post.

The specific innovation of the four-color wet-on-wet process credited to the Eagle Printing Ink Company is tied closely to the magazine industry and helped to bring full-color images to the many millions of magazine subscribers across the United States and across the world.

It’s difficult to verify the specific year of invention, but 1906 may very well be correct. I couldn’t find any patents assigned to Eagle in that period, but 1906 aligns well with contemporary accounts and the parallel innovations by a man named Milton A. McKee, an engineer with the C.B. Cottrell & Sons, referred to by his peers as a “printing genius.”^​11​  Milton McKee is another fascinating figure; a man I like to think of as the “Forest Gump” of printing. I will devote a series of posts to McKee in the coming months. However, for the sake of this discussion, we can refer to McKee as the inventor of the press and plate technology on which Eagle Printing Ink Company “Quad Inks” were used.

I also want to reflect on the fact that letterpress, not offset lithography, was the predominate form of printing used for mass media in up to the early. It was not until decades later that offset lithography and gravure took the reins from letterpress in the production of magazines and newspapers. Later posts will discuss letterpress and other printing technology more generally.

Up until the innovation of wet-on-wet printing, each separation in three- and four-color printing processes was printed one color at a time, with the ink allowed to dry between successive printings. This is referred to as wet-on-dry printing, or dry-trapping (trapping being the ability of an ink to transfer from the plate to the substrate or to the surface of another ink). The inks at the time would not transfer completely to the surface of an underlying ink and the under print would then back-transfer to the next printed plates. The result was distorted overprints and a low maximum density.^​12​

Basically, wet-on-wet did not work with the available inks. Aside from the obvious inefficiency, precise registration was difficult to achieve with wet-on-dry printing because the paper would swell and distort from the process of wetting and drying. For magazines with large circulations (the Ladies’ Home Journal had over a million subscribers by 1903), four-color wet-on-dry printing was simply impractical except for covers and a few select advertisements which could be printed in advance of publication.

Despite the difficulties, C.B. Cottrell & Sons felt where the wind was blowing and knew that developing the four-color wet-on-wet process would gain the attention of the large magazine publishers. Their perfecting web presses were already in use by several large publications. By 1900, McKee had begun developing the electrotype plate technology and the printing press that would make four-color wet-on-wet printing possible. The development was a long-and arduous process. McKee realized the missing link in this development was an ink set that could serve their needs. As one source wrote about the development of wet-on-wet printing inks in 1912:

Up to 1905, all color ink experiments in this direction were unsuccessful until T. A. Lenci, of the Eagle Printing Ink Co., New York, entered into the work of solving the problem. After three years of careful study on the subject, Mr. Lenci had an answer for the skeptics who had previously declared his purpose to be “impossible.” This was in I908. In that year the first form of The Ladies’ Home Journal was printed with such excellent results that the same form printed on flat bed presses was clearly surpassed.  Since then the high standard of printing has improved, until to-day it is conceded by all experts to be the coming method of magazine color reproduction.^{​​​13​}

Another account from 1913 gave similar praise to this innovation, referring to the term “wet printing” that was later used by Eagle to market their new inks:

The printing-ink problem was another source of expense. Inks were imported from all the prominent foreign manufacturers, while all American inks were being tested. Working body and permeance of color had to be considered. With the help of T. A. Lenci, of the Eagle Printing Ink Company, the ink problem was solved, and now the four colors are printed immediately over each other without any drying between, hence the name, “wet printing.”^​14​

Here the author suggests that the Eagle Printing Ink Company was not the first to tackle this problem, but they won the prize in the end. Whether that prize was some modest prestige or actual monetary value is uncertain. While this note does not mention the contributions of Milton A. McKee or C.B. Cottrell & Sons, other references to this period cite both the contributions of McKee and Lenci.

The T.A. Lenci referred to in the above quote as the originator of the four-color wet-printing inks was Thomas Alonzo Lenci, Secretary of the Eagle Printing Ink Company at the time. Lenci was born Thomas Alonzo Byrnes on March 13, 1869, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a family rooted in the America soil since the earliest day of the European colonies.^​15​ Lenci’s father, Thomas F. Byrnes, was a Civil War veteran and 1^st Lieutenant in the 29^th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Lenci’s mother, Aspasia Bogardus, was born on August 12, 1841.  Aspasia’s father, Alonzo L.A. Bogardus, is a direct line to Everardus Bogardus, the Dominie of the New Netherlands and second minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, the oldest church in present-day New York. Aspasia’s mother was Emma Livingston, a direct line to Robert Livingston (b. 1685), the first Lord of Livingston Manor, an area of approximately 160,000 acres in the present-day New York Hudson Valley.^​16​ Other relatives were known to have arrived in North America on the Mayflower.

Thomas F. Byrnes died in 1875, when Lenci was 5 or 6 years old. Six or seven years later, Aspasia, then 37, was living in an apartment in Philadelphia with Lenci, then 11, and his sister Marion, 13. Their neighbor in the apartment next door was George J. Lenci (38), a clerk living with his mother Ann (69), and brother, Augustus (36).^​17​ Aspasia and George were married on July 3, 1880.^​18​ They had a son, George N. Lenci, in 1884.

Lenci and Marion took their stepfather’s last name sometime during the 1880s.^​*​ By 1897, it seems, the Lenci family (Aspasia, George, Marion, Thomas, and George, Jr.) had made the permanent move from Philadelphia to New Jersey.

Lenci married Lilian Kent in 1897 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.^​19​ Their daughter Marion was born in 1898 and son Thomas Alonzo Jr. was born 1898. In 1900, Lenci, Lilian, Marion and Thomas Jr. were living in a Point Pleasant, New Jersey boarding house with Lenci’s sister, Marion, her husband, Walter P. Faust (b. 1856), and their son, Walter H. Faust (b. 1895).^​20​

It’s unclear how Lenci made his way into the ink business. His training and early professional development likely occurred between 1885, when he would have begun his professional studies around age 16, and 1895, the year before he started working for Eagle. Lenci partnered with Edwin M. Van Dyck and William G. Hoople to form the Eagle Printing Ink Company, Inc. in 1896, a successor to the Eagle Printing Ink and Color Works, of New York City.^​21,22​

Van Dyck, a chemist, founded the Eagle Printing Ink and Color Works in 1893. ^​23,24​ A 1888 graduate of Columbia College,^​25​ he was well connected in the industry early in his career, having worked for both George Mathers’ Sons Ink Works while in school and Philip Ruxton, Inc. after graduation. Philip Ruxton was one of the largest ink manufacturers in the country. He left Eagle in 1898 to take a position as head of printing-ink making at the Federal Bureau of Printing and Engraving.^​26​ He spent the later years of his career working for Ault & Wiborg, where he retired as chief chemist. Among his accomplishments at Ault & Wiborg was the development of the brown ink used in photogravure printing.^​27​ Van Dyck brought William G. Hoople into partnership with Eagle in 1895.^​28​ Born in English Canada in 1860 (Canada became independent from England in 1867), Hoople was a career business man, listing his occupation as “Manager, Offices” in 1900.^​29​ He became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in 1897 and served as President of the Eagle Printing Ink Company after Van Dyck’s departure.^​30​ Hoople served as President until 1909, with Lenci serving as Secretary.^​31,32​

The Eagle Printing Ink Company was located at 11-13 Vandewater, New York City, as of 1897,^​33​ and 60 Beekman in 1909, before moving to 24 Cliff Street, the address listed in most advertisements. The New York City addresses were most likely business offices, while manufacturing took place in Jersey City, New Jersey. The Eagle Printing Ink and Color Works occupied a space in the Cushing Buildings at 50-56 Hudson St., Jersey City, in 1896, but likely took possession earlier.^​34,35​ This space was occupied by several manufacturing companies in the late 1890s, many originally from New York and developing larger spaces on the West Side of Jersey City to which they would later relocate. There were many advantages for manufacturing companies to move to Jersey City, including better railroad facilities and lower State Taxes than New York. Many of these companies’ proprietors also saw fit to relocate to New Jersey where their companies were organized.^​36​ The Eagle Printing Ink Company moved into their new factory at 265-269 Gates Ave., Jersey City, in 1903, a two-story building sitting on a lot of about 120,000 square feet.^​37​ They remained at this site until at least 1950, expanding several times, adding a third-story and adding space along Gates Ave.^{​38–40​} The company was formally incorporated in New Jersey in 1910.^​41​

The Eagle Printing Ink Company had positioned itself as a manufacturer of high-quality colored inks for magazine publishing. It is unclear when the association between C.B. Cottrell & Sons and the Eagle Printing Ink Company began, but they most likely began working together around 1904, the year in which Milton A. McKee filed his first patent, “Art of Color Printing.”^​42​ Although this patent does not explicitly mention Lenci or the Eagle Printing Ink Company, we know they were working together around the turn of the century on the new wet-ink, single-impression letterpress technology.^​43​

Interestingly, the Eagle Printing Ink Company did not start advertising in trade-journals or sending print samples for review (a common practice at the time) until several years after the Curtis Publishing began using Eagle Quad Inks in the Ladies’ Home Journal.

The Eagle Printing Ink & Color Works did take out advertisements in 1894, before Hoople joined the firm, as shown below.^​44​

A full-color ad, listing Hoople and Van Dyck as proprietors, was taken out the following year, in 1895, the only full-color ad I found for either incarnation of Eagle published before 1917.^​45​

I could not find any advertisements for the Eagle printed between 1900 and 1910. The Inland Printer would provide analysis of print samples sent in by printers in each issue. The Eagle Printing Ink Company received positive feedback for a sample submitted for review in 1910. This review alludes to the potential impact of wet-on-wet printing on process printing.

A handsome specimen of wet color-printing executed on a Cottrell four-color press is received. This specimen sheet is 34 by 44 inches and shows eight four- color plates which are printed with the Eagle Printing Ink Company’s quad-ink. Considering that wet color-printing is yet in its infancy, the specimens are strikingly handsome and executed in an excellent manner. A close inspection does not show any unusual mottling of the surface where the inks lap, and the result is a pleasing blending of the colors, much softened in tone. The exactness of register and other desirable conditions are present owing to no lapse between printing. It seems safe to predict a wide use of this method of three and four color work.^​46​

This review is not a formal advertisement. My guess is that Eagle was still proving out its technology in 1910 and not prepared for a full-on advertising campaign.

An ad was taken out in 1911, but did not indicate any of the advances made the decade prior, advertising only the sale of lithographic inks, dry colors, and varnishes.^​47​ It wasn’t until 1912 that Eagle started advertising their wet-printing inks. One ad asked the question: “Why are Eagle inks first considered when inks are wanted for wet printing?”^​48​

Another business note from 1912 stated: “The Eagle Printing Ink Company…have perfected inks which can be printed over each other wet, and which retain their full color value when used in two, three, or four color printing.”^​49​ Around that time they also began including the slogan: “originators of wet-printing inks” in ads.^​50​

The four-color wet-printing inks were branded “Quad Inks.” A note in Inland Printer from 1913 described the use of Quad Inks to print the Christmas cover of the Ladies’ Home Journal:

The Christmas cover of the Ladies’ Home Journal is an example of the progress the Eagle Printing Ink Company has made in the printing-ink business. Five years ago it would have been declared impossible to make inks which would produce this cover in wet printing. This cover was printed in four colors on one press once through the press. The American Sunday Magazine, twice a month, uses Eagle Quad Inks, printed on four-color presses.^​51​

It is unclear why there was such a gap between the development of the technology and the start of advertising. It was clearly in use by the Curtis Publishing Company. Perhaps there was an exclusivity agreement for some years before open sale could occur, or perhaps they were waiting for the approval of patents, although this is just speculation.

By 1910, Lenci, now 41, was living in South Orange, New Jersey, with Lilian, Marion, Thomas Jr., and their second daughter, Lilian, born in 1908.^​52​ Lenci served as Secretary of the Eagle Printing Ink Company through 1910 or 1911. Hoople left the company in 1909, succeeded as President by Henry D. Donnelly.^​53​ Frank Storer-Brown, the third company director, had also left by 1910, leaving only Donnelly and Lenci as Directors. Lenci became President in either 1911 or 1912,^​54​ and remained President (and later Treasurer) at least through 1918, though it’s likely he remained President through the formation of the General Printing Ink Corporation.

The General Printing Ink Corporation was formed in 1929 by the merger of the Eagle Printing Ink Company with the George H. Morrill, Fuchs and Lang Manufacturing, Sigmund Ullman, and American Printing Ink.^​55​ Lenci became an executive in the General Printing Ink Corporation after the merger, eventually holding the title of Treasurer and Chairman of the Board.^​56​ He likely had a vested interested in the success of the company after the merger, but it’s not clear how active he was in day-to-day operations during his later years. He lists his occupation in the 1930 census as Treasurer of the Printing Ink Manufacturers, a trade organization.^​57​  Lenci died on September 13, 1935, at the age of 66.

Thomas A. Lenci Jr. continued in his father’s footsteps, graduating with a degree in Chemistry from Dartmouth in 1922. He initially desired to go into medicine after completing his Chemistry degree at Dartmouth, but was pushed by his father into the family ink business, where he remained for most of his career. The Eagle Printing Ink Company remained a division of the General Printing Ink Company after the merger. Lenci Jr. eventually became General Manager of the Eagle Printing Ink Company division and, in 1943, was promoted to Treasurer of the General Printing Ink Corporation.^​58​

The General Printing Ink Corporation was renamed Sun Chemical in 1945, and remains a prominent manufacturer of printing inks to this day.

Feel free to write a comment or reach out through the Contact Us page if you have any further information about this topic.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank several people who helped me research the Eagle Printing Ink Company. Gary G. Field, Professor Emeritus at Cal Poly, recommended many useful resources and provided great insight from his many years of experience in the printing industry. John Beekman, with the Jersey City Free Public Library, found several maps and articles that helped me tell the story the Eagle Printing Ink Company in Jersey City. Guy Lawley, from the Legion of Andy, helped me track down a few important articles and shares some useful notes on early color printing. Finally, I would like to thank Gordon Lenci, grandson of Thomas A. Lenci, and Kent Lenci, Don Lenci, and Ross Cunnick, great-grandchildren of Thomas A. Lenci, for the pleasure of many wonderful conversations about Thomas Sr., Thomas Jr., and the Lenci family.

Disclaimer

This article was written by Brian Gamm in his personal capacity. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual with which the author has been, is currently, or will be affiliated.

The author is not a professional historian. The research was conducted using publicly available resources. Please submit a comment on the Contact Us page if there are any questions about the information presented therein.

References

Comments

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Brian Gamm

A color scientist with a love for the history of color.