Engines for Steamboats.

151

vived and practised with success by the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company.

In 1815, while Murdock was engaged in erecting an apparatus of his own invention for heating the water for the baths at Leamington, a ponderous cast-iron plate fell upon his leg above his ankle, and severely injured him. He remained a long while at Leamington, and when it was thought safe to remove him, the Birmingham Canal Company kindly placed their excursion boat at his disposal, and he was conveyed safely homeward. So soon as he was able, he was at work again at the Soho factory.

Although the elder Watt had to a certain extent ignored the uses of steam as applied to navigation, being too much occupied with developing the powers of the pumping and rotary engine, the young partners, with the stout aid of Murdock, took up the question. They supplied Fulton in 1807 with his first engine, by means of which the Clermont made her first voyage along the Hudson River. They also supplied Fulton & Livingston with the next two engines for the Car of Neptune and the Paragon. From that time forward, Boulton & Watt devoted themselves to the manufacture of engines for steamboats. Up to the year 1814 marine engines had been all applied singly in the vessel; but in this year Boulton & Watt first applied two condensing engines, connected by cranks set at right angles on the shaft, to propel a steamer on the Clyde. Since then, nearly all steamers are fitted with two engines. In making this important improvement, the firm were materially aided by the mechanical genius of William Murdock, and also of Mr. Brown, then an assistant, but afterwards a member of the firm.

In order to carry on a set of experiments with respect to the most improved form of marine engine,

Boulton & Watt purchased the Caledonia, a Scotch boat built on the Clyde by James Wood & Co., of Port Glasgow. The engines and boilers were taken out. The vessel was fitted with two side-lever engines, and many successive experiments were made with her down to August, 1817, at an expense of about £10,000. This led to a settled plan of construction, by which marine engines were greatly improved. James Watt, junior, accompanied the Caledonia to Holland and up the Rhine. The vessel was eventually sold to the Danish government, and used for carrying the mails between Kiel and Copenhagen. It is, however, unnecessary here to venture upon the further history of steam navigation.

In the midst of these repeated inventions and experiments, Murdock was becoming an old man. Yet he never ceased to take an interest in the works at Soho. At length his faculties experienced a gradual decay, and he died peacefully at his house at Sycamore Hill, on the 15th of November, 1839, in his eighty-fifth year. He was buried near the remains of the great Boulton and Watt; and a bust by Chantrey served to perpetuate the remembrance of his manly and intelligent countenance.

CHAPTER VI.

FREDERICK KOENIG,

INVENTOR OF THE STEAM PRINTING MACHINE.

"The honest projector is he who, having by fair and plain principles of sense, honesty, and ingenuity, brought any contrivance to a suitable perfection, makes out what he pretends to, picks nobody's pocket, puts his project in execution, and contents himself with the real produce as the profit of his invention."-DE FOE.

I PUBLISHED an article in Macmillan's Magazine for December, 1869, under the above title. The materials were principally obtained from William and Frederick Koenig, sons of the inventor. Since then an elaborate life has been published at Stuttgart, under the title of "Friederich Koenig und die Erfindung der Schnellpresse, ein Biographisches Denkmal. Von Theodor Goebel." The author, in sending me a copy of the volume, 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 well as in mine, owe to you for having bravely taken up the cause of the muchwronged inventor, their father—an action all the more praiseworthy, as you had to write against the prejudices and the interests of your own countrymen."

I believe it is now generally admitted that Koenig was entitled to the merit of being the first person practically to apply the power of steam to indefinitely multiplying the productions of the printing-press;

and that no one now attempts to deny him this honor. It is true others, who followed 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 adding to his arrangements, but the man who constructs a machine such as has never before been made, and which executes satisfactorily all the functions it was intended to perform. And this is what Koenig's invention did, as will be observed from the following brief summary of his life and labors.

Frederick Koenig was born on the 17th of April, 1774, at Eisleben, in Saxony, the birthplace also of a still more famous person, Martin Luther. His father was a respectable peasant proprietor, described by Herr Goebel as Anspänner. But this word has 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 proper age he was bound apprentice for five years to Breitkopf & Härtel, of Leipzig, as compositor and printer; but, after serving for four and a quarter years, he was released from his engagement because of his exceptional skill, which was an unusual

occurrence.

During the later years of his apprenticeship, Koenig was permitted to attend the classes of the university, more especially those of Ernst Platner, "physician, philosopher, and anthropologist." After that he proceeded to the printing-office of his uncle, Anton F. Röse, 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

Improvements in Printing.

155

about from place to place, during their wanderschaft, for the purpose of learning their business. After that he returned to Breitkopf & Härtel, at Leipzig, where he had first learned his trade. During this time, having saved a little money, he enrolled himself for a year as a regular student at the University of Leipzig.

a very

According to Koenig's own account, he first began to devise ways and means for improving the art of printing in the year 1802, when he was twenty-eight years old. Printing large sheets of paper by hand was slow as well as a very laborious process. One of the things that most occupied the young printer's mind was, how to get rid of this "horse-work," for such it was, in the business of printing. He was not, however, overburdened 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 Eisleben, where he entered into an arrangement with Frederick Riedel, who furnished the necessary capital for carrying on the business of a printer and bookseller. Koenig alleges that his reason for adopting this step was to raise sufficient money to enable him to carry out his plans for the improvement of printing.

The business, however, did not succeed, as we find him in the following year carrying on a printing trade at Mayence. Having sold this business, he removed to Suhl, in Thuringia. 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 improved press, provided with a movable carriage, on which the types were placed, with inking-rollers, and a new mechanical method of taking off the impression by flat pressure.

Koenig brought his new machine under the notice of the leading printers in Germany, but they would