Men of Invention and Industry

ght any contrivance to a suitable perfection, makes out what he pretends to, picks nobody's pocket, puts hi

1869, under the above title. The materials were principally o

ume, refers to the article published in 'Macmillan,' and says, "I hope you will please to accept it as a small acknowledgment of the thanks, which every German, and especially the sons of Koenig, in whose name I send the book as

d him, greatly improved upon his first idea; but this was the case with Watt, Symington, Crompton, Maudslay, and many more. The true inventor is not merely the man who registers an idea and takes a patent for it, or who compiles an invention by borrowing the idea of another, improving upon or

as now gone out of use. In feudal times it described the farmer who was obliged to keep draught cattle to perform service due to the landlord. The boy received a solid education at the Gymnasium, or public school of the town. At a proper age he wa

uncle, Anton F. Rose, at Greifswald, an old seaport town on the Baltic, where he remained a few years. He next went to Halle as a journeyman printer,-German workmen going about from place to place, during their wanderschaft, for the purpose of le

's mind was how to get rid of this "horse-work," for such it was, in the business of printing. He was not, however, over-burdened with means, though he devised a machine with this object. But to make a little money, he made translations for the publishers. In 1803 Koenig returned to his native town of Eisleb

ingia. Here he was occupied with a stereotyping process, suggested by what he had read about the art as perfected in England by Earl Stanhope. He also contrived an improve

to enlist men of capital in his scheme, but they all turned a deaf ear to him. He went from town to town, but could obtain no encouragement whatever. Besides, industrial enterprise in

ventive ability having become known, an offer was made to him by the Russian Government to proceed to St. Petersburg and organise the State printing-office there. The invitation was accepted, and Koenig proceeded to St. Petersburg in the spring of 1806. But the official difficultie

discoveries to some Government, and to so licit their encouragement. I need hardly add that scarcely ever is an invention brought to maturity under such circumstances. The well-known fact, that almost every invention seeks, as it were, refuge in England, and is there brought to perfection, though the Government does not afford any other protection to inventors beyo

ind, and he lost no opportunity of bringing the subject under the notice of master printers likely to take it up. He worked for a time in the printing office of Richard Taylor, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, and mentioned the matter to him. Taylor would not undertake the invention himself, but he furnished Koenig with an

to Mr. Bensley, signed with his name, he shall enter into a legal Engagement to purchase the Secret from Mr. Koenig, or enter into such other agreement as may be deemed mutually beneficial to both parties; or, should Mr. Bensley wish to decline having any concern with the said Invention, then h

d) T. B

erich

s-J. Hu

ady, to show his idea in actual practice. In the meantime, Mr. Walter of The Times had been seen by Bensley, and consulted on the subject of the invention. On the 9th of August, 1809, more than two years after the date of the above

ld be gained in expedition by this plan, the idea soon suggested itself of moving the press by machinery, or to reduce the several operations to one rotary motion, to which the first mover might be applied. Whilst Koenig was in the throes of his invention, he was joined by his

n ingenious arrangement for inking the type. Instead of the old-fashioned inking balls, which were beaten on the type by hand labour, several cylinders covered with felt and leather were used, and formed part of the machine itself. Two of the cylinders revolved in oppos

the specification of my first patent. It was set to Work in April, 1811. The sheet (H) of the new Annual Register for 1810, 'Principal Occurrences,' 3000 copies, was printed with it; and is,

ith the improvement of his machine. It took Watt more than twenty years to elaborate his condensing steam-engine; and since his day, owing to the perfection of self-acting tools, it has been greatl

taken up a new, and perfected, it was not considered by him sufficiently simple in its arrangements as to be adapted for common use; and he had scarcely complete

aper, linen, cotton, woollen, and other articles," by means of "blocks, forms, types, plates, and originals," which were to be "firmly imposed upon a cylindrical surface in the same manner as common letter is imposed upon a flat stone."[3] From the mention of "colouring cylinder," and "paper-hangings, floor-cloths, cottons, linens, woollens, leather, skin, and every other flexible material," mentioned in the specification, it would appear as if Nicholson's invention were adapted for calico-printing and paper-hangi

patent was taken out on October 30th, 1811; and the new machine was completed in December, 1812. The first sheets ever printed with an entirely cylindrical press, were sheets G and X of Clarkson's 'Life of Penn.' The papers of the Protestant Union were also printed with it in February and March, 1813. Mr. Koenig, in his ac

ittle of himself and his toils. It may be mentioned that the principal feature of the invention was the printing cylinder in the centre of the machine, by which the impression was taken from the types, instead of by flat plates as in the first arrangement. The forme was fixed in a cast-iron p

ing on the sheet, keeping it close to the printing cylinder by means of endless tapes; while in the second, he added the following new expedients: a feeder, consisting of an endless web,-an improved arrangement of the endless tapes by inner as well as outer friskets,-an

t of the machines, either by drawings or description, or if they told by whom or for whom they were constructed. This was to avoid the hostility of the pressmen, who, having heard of the new invention, were up in arms against it, as likely to deprive them of their employment. And y

t it was necessary to have duplicate presses, and to set up duplicate forms of type, to carry on such extra work; and still the production of copies was quite inadequate to satisfy the rapidly increasing demand for newspapers. The

machine; he would not even go to see it, for he regarded it as a gimcrack.[5] On the contrary, Mr. Walter, though he had five years before declined to enter into any arrangement with Bensley, now that he heard the machine was finished, and at work, decided to go and inspect it. It was thoroughly characteristic of the business spirit of the man. He had been very anxious to apply increased mechanical power to the printing of his newspaper. He had consult

ich he had been in search. But it turned out the impressions printed on one side only. Koenig, however, having briefly explained the more rapid action of a double machine on the same principle for the printing of newspapers, Mr. W

his leading mechanic, Bauer, aided by the valuable suggestions of Mr. Walter himself, Koenig at length completed his plans, and proceeded with the erection of the working machine. The several parts were prepared at the workshop in Whitecross Street, and taken from thence, in as secret a way as possible, to the premises in Printing House Square, adjoining The Times office, where they were fitted together and erected into a working machine. Nearly two years

November, 1814, Mr. Walter, who had been watching the working of the machine all through the night, suddenly appeared among the pressmen, and announced that "The Times is already printed by steam!" Knowing that the pressmen had vowed vengeance against the inventor and his invention, and that they had threatened "destruction to him and his traps," he informed them that if they attempt

borious' efforts in printing, far exceeds all human powers in rapidity and dispatch. That the magnitude of the invention may be justly appreciated by its effects, we shall inform the public, that after the letters are placed by the compositors, and enclosed in what is called the forme, little more remains for man to do than to attend upon and to watch this unconscious agent in its operations. The machine is then merely supplied with paper: itself pl

with many obstructions and much delay, may be readily imagined. Our share in this event has, indeed, only been the application of the discovery, under an agreement with the patentees, t

which we are capable of offering to the inventor of the printing machine, comprised in the preceding description, which we have feebly sketched, of the powers and utility of his inventio

e doubters, the unbelievers, and the threateners of vengeance. The leading ar

y when Parliament was adjourned, will have been observed; on such an occasion the operation of composing and printing the last page must commence among all the journals at the same moment; and starting from that moment, w

are always impeded by drivellers of this description, and that we owe it to such men as Mr. Koenig and his Friend, and all future promulgators of beneficial inventions, to warn them that they will have to con

ed. What right have they to make us print it slower and worse for their supposed benefit? A little reflection, indeed, would show them that it is neither in their power nor in ours to stop a discovery now made, if it is beneficial to mankind; or to force it down if it is useless. They had better, therefore, acquiesce in a result which they cannot alter; more especially as there will still be employment enough for th

discharged. We in fact employ only eight fewer workmen than formerly; whereas more than t

is invention. We have already cited several passages from the statement. After referring to his two last patents, he says: "The machines now printing The Times and Ma

nting of newspapers, and will, I trust, be indulgent with respect to the many defects in the performance, though none of them are inherent in the principle of the machine; and we

two Englishmen, Mr. Bensley and Mr. Taylor; and it is gratifying to my feelings to avail myself of this opportunity to thank those gentlemen publicly for the confidence which they have reposed in me,

difficult and even hazardous step. The Proprietor of The Times havi

ind! His merits were disputed; his rights were denied; his patents were infringed; and he never received any solid advantages for his invention, until he left the country an

, in the hour. Blumenbach's 'Physiology' was the first entire book printed by steam, by this new machine. It was afterwards employed, in 1818, in working off the Literary Gazette. A machine of the same kind

ad succeeded in making machines that would work, the way was clear for everybody else to follow his footsteps. It had taken him more than six years to invent and construct a succe

ing machines were constructed in defiance of his supposed legal rights; and he found himself stripped of the reward that he had been labouring for during so many long and to

, who was himself a book-printer, was hindering him in every way in his negotiations. Koenig was of opinion that Bensley wished to retain the exclusive advantage which the possession of his re

s end a perfect agreement by the partners was essential. When, however, Koenig asked Bensley to concur with him in taking proceedings in defence of the patent right, the latter positively re

ight be a protracted, suit in Chancery, in defence of his patent rights, with possibly his partner, Bensley, against him; and the other, to aband

g Machine," in which he honestly attributes to him the sole merit of the invention, he says, "Mr. Koenig left England, suddenly, in disgust at the treacherous conduct of Bensley, always shabby and overreaching, and whom he found to be laying a scheme for

g altogether. The 'Mechanics Magazine,' for September, 1847, attributed the invention to the Proprietors of The Times, though Mr. Walter himself had said that his share in the event had been "only the application of the discovery;" and the late Mr. Bennet Woodcroft, usually a fair man, in his introductory chapter to 'Patents for Inventions in Printing,' attributes the merit to

tering his invention. When Koenig consulted him on the subject, Nicholson observed that "seventeen years before he had taken out a patent for machine printing, but he had abandoned it, thinking that it wouldn't do; and had never taken it up ag

should now try to rob me of my reputation." Had he made any reply to the charges against him, it might have been comprised in a very few words: "When I arrived in England, no steam printing machine had ever before been seen; when I

e first machine of the kind ever made with the last, after some sixty years' experience and skill have been applied in bringing it to perfection. Were the first condensing engine made at Soho-now to be seen at the Museum in South Kensington-in like manner to be compared with the last improved pumping-engine made yesterday, even the great James Watt might be made out to have been a very poor contriv

s English partnership, and the loss of the fruits of his ingenious labours. But instead of brooding over his troubles, he determined to break away from them, and begin th

whole continent of Europe was open to him, and presen

ine too expensive,[7] the latter commissioned Koenig to send him a Stanhope printing press-the first ever introduced into Germany-the price of which was 95L. Koenig did this service for his friend, for although he stood by t

he Praemonstratensian monks. The place was conveniently situated for business, being nearly in the centre of Germany. The Bavarian Government, desirous of giving encouragement to so useful a genius, granted Koenig the use of the secularised monaste

ated to mechanical work by the partners themselves. With indescribable patience they taught these labourers the use of the hammer, the file, the turning-lathe, and other tools, which the greater number of them had never before seen, and of whose uses they were entirel

p, the old barn of the monastery be

eighth year seven double-cylinder steam presses had been manufactured for the largest newspaper printers in Germany. The recognised excellence of Koenig and Bauer's book-printing machines-their perfect register, and the quality of the work they turned

violence and irretrievably injured. But progress could not be stopped; the printing machine had been fairly born, and must eventually do its work for mankind. These combinations, however, had an effect for a time. They deterred other printers from giving orders for the machines; and Koenig and Bauer

d before the machine trade had revived, he was taken ill, and confined to bed. He became sleepless; his nerves were unstrung; and no wonder. Brain

fifty-eight, respected and

ting, instead of abridging employment, as they feared it would do, enormously increased it; and orders accordingly flowed in from Berlin, Vienna, and all the leading towns and cities of Germany, Austria, Denmark, Russia, and Sweden. The six hundredth mac

rned out no fewer than 3000 printing machines. The greater number have been supplied to Germany; but 660 were sent to Russia, 61 to

on February 27, 1860, and the remains of the partners now lie side by side in the little cemetery

s for Ch

er in The Times,

er in The Times,

ent, 29th April

er in The Times,

r. Perry declined, alleging that he did not consider a newspaper wo

, memoir in 'Philosophical Mag

1400L.; and of a cylinder registering machine, 2000L.; added to which was 250L., 350L., and 500L. per a