consequently the force which they exert on the surface of the type is much greater. The length and number of the levers employed enable the pressman, by a gentle pull at the bar-handle, to give a severe pressure to the platen.

The Printing Machine.

A marvellous change has been effected in the art by the invention of the Printing Machine. The press is defective in two essential points. It is very slow, and great strength is required in working it. Only two men can work at it together, and these two cannot print more than 250 impressions an hour of what is now a smallsized sheet, that is, 2500 impressions a day, on one side of the paper only. No man is strong enough to give the pressure required in printing some of the large sheets, such as those on which the newspapers have been printed since the invention of the machine. The machine excels in those points in which the press is defective. It prints swiftly, and it gives an enormous pressure. Instead of 250 small sheets an hour being the highest rate of printing, no less than 60 gigantic sheets are printed in a minute!

This has been effected by substituting a cylinder, or round iron roller, for the platen or flat surface. The pressure, instead of being obtained by forcing a flat surface down upon the face of the type, is obtained by rolling a

roller over the face of the type. Again, instead of the motion being given by the strength of a man, it is now given by a steam engine. The result is, that there is really no limit to the speed of printing. The faster the machine can be fed with sheets to be printed, the faster it may be worked. It has been ascertained that a man can place 1250 sheets an hour on the feeder of the printing cylinder. If, then, the feeders are increased in number, the printing may in the same proportion be increased in rapidity.

The printing machine originated with Mr. Nicholson. But he rarely obtains any credit for it, and though he suggested the principle, and even sketched the plan, he did not put it in practice. In April 1790, Mr. Nicholson obtained a patent for a printing machine; and the specification or description of it, deposited by him at the office of patents, states that he proposed to substitute a cylinder for a platen, or, to use other words, rolling for squeezing. Nay, more; the excessive speed required to print the vast number of copies issued daily from the London newspaper offices, has led to the construction of upright cylinder machines, in which the type, instead of being laid flat under the cylinder, is fixed round the surface of the cylinder itself. This improvement was considered as a triumph of the art when effected by Mr. Augustus Applegath in 1848; yet even this is described

F

in Nicholson's specification. Mr. Nicholson, as we have already said, never succeeded in constructing a printing machine. The cause of his failure is, perhaps, explained in the remarks which he published on "The Art of Printing Books." He had not only to overcome the inherent difficulties of making a new machine, but he was cramped in his experiments by want of money. Few men possessed of independent fortunes, he says truly enough, are likely to trouble themselves with labour of this kind; whilst it almost invariably happens that the expense exceeds the means of the inventor, who is usually a poor person stimulated by a desire to make a fortune. Nicholson seems to have had no rich friends willing to encourage or reap the benefit of his mechanical abilities. Then he was opposed by the manufacturers of the press, whose craft was endangered, and also by the prejudices of the printers in favour of the old mode of working. Moreover, he was actively engaged in writing books; he kept a large school; and he was agent for Lord Camelford. If he had possessed money, he would have had no time to spend in carrying out his idea of a printing machine.

What Mr. Nicholson left undone M. Koenig, a Saxon, accomplished. Koenig was a printer by trade, and had endeavoured to make the common press work faster by applying steam to it. But neither Saxony nor

any other continental country in his day gave much encouragement to the mechanical arts. Koenig, with his head full of ideas on the subject, came to England, which was then almost the sole workshop of the world. Reaching London in 1804, he laid his plans before several printers of repute. But they gave him a very cold reception. Either they thought him a visionary, or they did not like to risk their money in experiments for the improvement of their art. The press, in truth, moved fast enough for the work to be done. Besides, at that time Koenig had really invented nothing, though he conceived it possible that something might be invented. Fortunately he attracted the attention of a great printer, Mr. Bensley, and suggested to him that the press might be moved quicker, while the second man employed in inking the types, might be superseded by self-acting rollers.* Mr. Bensley, being a practical and enterprising man, succeeded in drawing Mr. Woodfall and Mr. R. Taylor into the speculation, and they supplied Koenig with money to carry on the necessary experiments. But he failed so completely, that Mr. Woodfall gave up the attempt in despair. Mr. Bensley and Mr. Taylor were, however, more sanguine, and they went on, year after year, supplying Koenig with funds to overcome the unforeseen

*A press was made about the year 1800, by the late Lord Stanhope, that had inking rollers attached to it, and was worked a short time at the Shakespeare Printing-office.

difficulties which constantly rose in his way. At length Koenig himself fairly confessed that he was unable to reduce his ideas to practice. Simple as they might seem in theory, they were impossible in fact; and after much time and money had been wasted, it was clearly proved that the intended improvement could not be brought to bear with the common press. Koenig now turned his attention to cylinder printing. The idea had probably been suggested to him by the patent granted to Mr. Nicholson; for he had come to England for the purpose of applying steam to common presses, not to make cylinder machines. Bensley and Taylor still supplied him with money, but three years passed with a similar want of success. At length, after many failures and disappointments, these gentlemen were richly rewarded for their enterprise. Koenig, though he had long been foiled, succeeded in constructing a cylinder machine that actually would work. The types were inked by. the machine, and the paper was printed by being passed under a roller. The machine was first set in operation at the manufactory in Whitecross-street, in April 1811, and printed 3000 sheets of the Annual Register, to the admiration of all persons who beheld it at work. It was, however, a very costly triumph. For in the seven years of experimenting, which it had required to bring Koenig's ideas to bear, Mr. Bensley spent no less a sum than 16,000l.