298 Mr. R. Taylor on the Inveniion and First Introduction 



Times. Mr. Walter could not brook the taedium of the manual 

 process. As early as the year 1804 an ingenious compositor, named 

 Thomas Martyn, had invented a self-acting machine for working the 

 press, and had produced a model which satisfied Mr. Walter of the 

 feasibility of the scheme. Being assisted by Mr. Walter with the 

 necessary funds, he made considerable progress towards the comple- 

 tion of his work." 



" On the very eve of success he was doomed to bitter disappoint- 

 ment. He had exhausted his own funds in the attempt, and his 

 father, who had hitherto assisted him, became disheartened, and re- 

 fused him any further aid. The project was therefore for the time 

 abandoned." [Why abandoned, we may ask, if so feasible, and on 

 the very eve of success ?] 



" Mr. Walter, however, was not the man to be deterred from what 

 he had once resolved to do. He gave his mind incessantly to the 

 subject, and courted aid from all quarters, with his usual munificence. 

 In the year 1814 he was induced by a clerical friend, in whose judge- 

 ment he confided, to make a fresh experiment ; and accordingly the 

 machinery of the amiable and ingenious Koenig, assisted by his young 

 friend Bauer, was introduced — not, indeed, at first, into The Times 

 office, but into the adjoining premises, such caution being thought 

 necessary from the threatened violence of the pressmen. Here the 

 work advanced, under the frequent inspection and advice of the 

 friend alluded to. At one period these two able mechanics sus- 

 pended their anxious toil, and left the premises in disgust. After 

 the lapse, however, of about three days, the same gentleman dis- 

 covered their retreat*, induced them to return, showed them to their 

 surprise their difficulty conquered, and the work still in progress." 



Who would not infer from the above, that Mr. Walter, 

 having determined " to make a fresh experiment," in pur- 

 suance of those which he had long before abandoned (not- 

 withstanding his early resolution that there should be no im- 

 possibility in it), and " courting aid from all quarters with his 

 usual munificence," had been actually the person that enabled 

 Mr. Koenig to pursue his labours on Mr. Walter^s premises, 

 " under the inspection and advice of Mr. Walter's clerical 

 friend," and thus to produce his invention? Whereas, in 

 truth, Mr. Walter knew nothing of Mr. Koenig till after his 

 invention had been completed. He was merely the first 

 newspaper proprietor who purchased from the Patentees the 

 Printing Machines long before invented by Mr. Koenig. Of 

 these patentees I was one, and as I am now the sole survivor, 

 it devolves upon me to contradict any erroneous statements 

 and unfounded pretensions. I feel this to be the more ne- 

 cessary, as already the misstatements of The Times are cir- 

 culated, with additions and exaggerations, in other journals, 



* To me this story appears not a little extraordinary : — the " discovery 

 of the retreat" of Messrs. K. and B. ! who were every day to be found su- 

 perintending our factory in Whitecross Street. — R. T. 



