The name ‘Filter Press’

People often want to know why the publishing house is named ‘Filter Press.’ 

Filter press technology was (and still is) used in the mining industry to remove water from mining concentrates. Typical filter press applications include copper, zinc, lead, nickel and other metallurgical processes.

Because the first book published back in 1957 was entitled Thirty Pound Rails and told of the Denver & Rio Grande Narrow Guage railroad, the publisher felt ’The Filter Press’ would be a clever name for his new business.  Gilbert L. Campbell, who started the business, was also in fact the author, writing Thirty Pound Rails and other titles under the pseudonym ‘Kelly Choda.’ The first rails made in Colorado weighed 30 pounds to the yard, and in 1882 the Durango-Silverton route was laid with rails rolled at Pueblo, Colorado.

Although we no longer carry any of the old railroading titles, we keep the name and are proud to see the business now into the fifty-first year of continuous operation. 

(Actually there are a few copies of a 1965 title Transcontinental Rails  still around, and you can order one at www.filterpressbooks.com.)