Humm...? Nope, not at all Richard. Self-cocking shutters were called Press
shutters because in the old, old, old days of film packs the news guys (Press
Photographers) used them, so all they had to do was pull the tab on the filmpack
and shoot without having to recock the shutter. Sort of a primative motordrive.
That, by the way, was how that famous sequence of the Hindenburg burning and
crashing was shot. The kids who grew up with 35mm often can not understand how
that sequence could possibly have been shot with a press camera.

You are confusing the Press Shutter with the press-to-focus lever. And yes you
are correct they were limited to 1/100 of a second or so. The German made
Prontor-Press shutter was the best known of the type.

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Richard Knoppow wrote:

self-setting shutters. They call the self-setting variety
"press" shutters but this is a misuse of the term. A press
shutter was a shutter with a blade arrestor allowing ground
glass focusing without changing the speed setting.
Self-setting shutters are convenient and simple, shutters
that need to be cocked can have much stronger spring motors
and give higher shutter speeds.