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tion; but finding his machine too expensive,* the latter commissioned Koenig to send him a Stanhope printing-press-the first ever introduced into Germany-the price of which was £95. Koenig did this service for his friend, for although he stood by the superior merits of his own invention, he was sufficiently liberal to recognize 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 inquiries 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 Würzburg. It was an old disused convent of the Præmonstratensian 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 secularized 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 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 laborers, 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 them

* The price of a single-cylinder non-registering machine was advertised at £900; of a double ditto, £1400; and of a cylinder registering machine, £2000; added to which was £250, £350, and £500 per annum for each of these machines so long as the patent lasted, or an agreed sum to be paid down at once.

Steam Presses in Germany.

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selves. With indescribable patience they taught these laborers the use of the hammer, the file, the turninglathe, 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 foundery.

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 recognized excellence of Koenig & 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 one hundred and twenty

men.

A period of considerable depression followed. As was the case in England, the introduction of the printing machine in Germany excited considerable hostility 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 a time. They deterred other printers from giving orders for the machines; and Koenig & Bauer were under the necessity of suspending their manufacture to a considerable extent. To keep their men employed, the partners proceeded to fit up a paper manufactory, Mr. Cotta, of Stuttgart, joining them in the adventure, and a mill was fitted up, embodying all the latest improvements in paper-making.

Koenig, however, did not live to enjoy the fruits of all his study, labor, toil, and anxiety; for, while this enterprise was still in progress, and 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-disease carried him off on the 17th of January, 1833, and this good, ingenious, and admirable inventor was removed from all further care and trouble. He died at the early age of fifty-eight, respected and beloved by all who knew him.

His partner, Bauer, survived to continue the business for twenty years longer. It was during this later period that the Oberzell manufactory enjoyed its greatest prosperity. The prejudices of the workmen gradually subsided when they found that machine-printing, 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 machine, turned out in 1847, was capable of printing six thousand impressions in the hour. In March, 1865, the thousandth machine was completed at Oberzell, on the occasion of the celebration of the fifty years' jubilee of the invention of the steam press by Koenig.

The sons of Koenig carried on the business; and, in

Manufactory at Oberzell.

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the biography by Goebel, it is stated that the manufactory of Oberzell has now turned out no fewer than three thousand printing machines. The greater number have been supplied to Germany; but six hundred and sixty were sent to Russia, sixty-one to Asia, twelve to England, and eleven to America. The rest were despatched to Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Holland, and other countries.

It remains to be said that Koenig and Bauer, united in life, were not divided by death. Bauer died on February 27th, 1860, and the remains of the partners now lie side by side in the little cemetery at Oberzell, close to the scene of their labors and the valuable establishment which they founded.

CHAPTER VII.

THE WALTERS OF "THE TIMES."

INVENTION OF THE WALTER PRESS.

"Intellect and industry are never incompatible. There is more wisdom, and will be more benefit, in combining them, than scholars like to believe, or than the common world imagine. Life has time enough for both, and its happiness will be increased by the union.”SHARON TURNER.

"I have beheld with most respect the man

Who knew himself, and knew the ways before him,

And from among them chose considerately,

With a clear foresight, not a blindfold courage;
And, having chosen, with a steadfast mind
Pursued his purpose."

HENRY TAYLOR: Philip von Artevelde.

THE late John Walter, who adopted Koenig's steam printing-press in printing The Times, was virtually the inventor of the modern newspaper. The first John Walter, his father, learned the art of printing in the office of Dodsley, the proprietor of the "Annual Register." He afterwards pursued the profession of an underwriter, but his fortunes were literally shipwrecked by the capture of a fleet of merchantmen by a French squadron. Compelled by this loss to return to his trade, he succeeded in obtaining the publication of "Lloyd's List," as well as the printing of the Board of Customs. He also established himself as a publisher and bookseller, at No. 8 Charing Cross. But his principal achievement was in founding The Times newspaper.

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