William Bullock (died 1867)
Bullock was an American inventor who made massive improvements to the rotary printing press and increased its speed and accuracy. Bullock had a lifelong passion for mechanics and was largely self-taught. He married Angeline Kimball and when she died he married her sister, all in all fathering 13 children. Fruitful loins.
He invented a hay press, seed planter, lathe cutting machine and grain drill but it would be his printing press that would be his downfall.
Whilst adjusting one of his improved rotary printing presses for the Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper in 1867 he tried to kick a mechanical belt onto a pulley. His leg got tangled in the machine and crushed. A few days later he developed gangrene and the doctors decided the leg needed to be lopped off. He died during the amputation.
