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

William Nicholson's patent (No. 1748), which, he said, "produced
an entire revolution in the mechanism of the art." In other

publications, the claims of Bacon and Donkin were put forward,
while those of the real inventor were ignored. The memoir of

Koenig by Mr. Richard Taylor, in the 'Philosophical Magazine,'
was honest and satisfactory; and should have set the question at

rest.
It may further be mentioned that William Nicholson,--who was a

patent agent, and a great taker out of patents, both in his own
name and in the names of others,--was the person employed by

Koenig as his agent to take the requisite steps for registering
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 again." Indeed,
the two machines were on different principles. Nor did Nicholson

himself ever make any claim to priority of invention, when the
success of Koenig's machine was publicly proclaimed by Mr. Walter

of The Times some seven years later.
When Koenig, now settled abroad, heard of the attempts made in

England to deny his merits as an inventor, he merely observed to
his friend Bauer, "It is really too bad that these people, who

have already robbed me of my invention, 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 left it, the only printing machines in actual
work were those which I had constructed." But Koenig never took

the trouble to defend the originality of his invention in
England, now that he had finally abandoned the field to others.

There can be no question as to the great improvements introduced
in the printing machine by Mr. Applegath and Mr. Cowper; by

Messrs. Hoe and Sons, of New York; and still later by the present
Mr. Walter of The Times, which have brought the art of machine

printing to an extraordinary degree of perfection and speed. But
the original merits of an invention are not to be determined by a

comparison of the 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 contriver. It would be much
fairer to compare Koenig's steam-printing machine with the

hand-press newspaper printing machine which it superseded.
Though there were steam engines before Watt, and steamboats

before Fulton, and steam locomotives before Stephenson, there
were no steam printing presses before Koenig with which to

compare them, Koenig's was undoubtedly the first, and stood
unequalled and alone.

The rest of Koenig's life, after he retired to Germany, was spent
in industry, if not in peace and quietness. He could not fail to

be cast down by the utter failure of his English partnership" target="_blank" title="n.合伙关系">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 the world anew. He was only forty-three when he

left England, and he might yet be able to establish himself
prosperously in life. He had his own head and hands to help him.

Though England was virtually closed against him, the whole
continent of Europe was open to him, and presented a wide field

for the sale of his printing machines.
While residing in England, Koenig had received many

communications from influential printers in Germany. Johann
Spencer and George Decker wrote to him in 1815, asking for

particulars about his invention; but finding his machine 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 the superior merits of his own
invention, he was sufficientlyliberal to recognise the merits of

the inventions of others. Now that he was about to settle in
Germany, he was able to supply his friends and patrons on the

spot.
The question arose, where was he to settle? He made enquiries

about sites along the Rhine, the Neckar, and the Main. At last
he was attracted by a specially interesting spot at Oberzell on

the Main, near Wurzburg. It was an old disused convent of the
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
monastery on easy terms; and there accordingly he began his

operations in the course of the following year. Bauer soon
joined him, with an order from Mr. Walter for an improved Times

machine; and the two men entered into a partnership" target="_blank" title="n.合伙关系">partnership which lasted
for life.

The partners had at first great difficulties to encounter in
getting their establishment to work. Oberzell was a rural

village, containing only common labourers, from whom they had to
select their workmen. Every person taken into the concern had to

be trained and educated to mechanical work by the partners
themselves. With indescribablepatience 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 entirely ignorant. The
machinery of the workshop was got together with equal difficulty

piece by piece, some of the parts from a great distance,--the
mechanical arts being then at a very low ebb in Germany, which

was still suffering from the effects of the long continental war.
At length the workshop was fitted up, the old barn of the

monastery being converted into an iron foundry.
Orders for printing machines were gradually obtained. The first

came from Brockhaus, of Leipzig. By the end of the fourth year
two other single-cylinder machines were completed and sent to

Berlin, for use in the State printing office. By the end of the
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 out--secured for them an increasing demand, and by

the year 1829 the firm had manufactured fifty-one machines for
the leading book printers throughout Germany. The Oberzell

manufactory was now in full work, and gave regular employment to
about 120 men.

A period of considerabledepression followed. As was the case in
England, the introduction of the printing machine in Germany

excited considerablehostility among the pressmen. In some of
the principal towns they entered into combinations to destroy

them, and several printing machines were broken by 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