of Mr. Koeuig's Printing Machine. 299 



Thus, in an article in the Mechanics' Magazine for Sept. 18, 

 copied into the newspapers, I find the following passage : — 



" No sooner were presses made of iron, than the idea occurred of 

 working them by steam ; and the first to welcome the new and happy 

 thought was the proprietor of a journal which stood in instant need 

 of some such powerful auxiliary to enable him to keep pace with a 

 circulation unexampled in the history of the press, and who, with- 

 out it, would most assuredly never have been able to attain to that 

 prodigious influence which for many years past has at once asto- 

 nished and awed the world. Koenig, the ingenious inventor of the 

 steam-press*, found in the proprietor of The Times his natural and 

 best possible patron. With the liberal aid of the late Mr. Walter, 

 he produced a machine of somewhat gigantic size, but nevertheless 

 possessing a completeness of design and purpose which cast all other 

 surface printing-presses into the shade." 



And again — 



" The steam-press has given occupation to many thousands, who, 

 but for its introduction, would have been standing idle, and who 

 ought, one and all, to bless the memory of Mr. Walter for enabling 

 the inventor to work out his ideas, and perfect his great and glorious 

 undertaking." 



Now the whole of this is a fable. Mr. Walter was no 

 " natural and best possible patron " of Mr. Koenig's, — gave 

 him no " liberal aid in producing his machine," nor did any- 

 thing whatever to "enable him to work out his ideas." These 

 had all been worked out long before ; patents had been taken 

 out, a machine had been made, and was in operation on the 

 premises of the Patentees, before ever Mr. Walter, or any- 

 other newspaper proprietor, was applied to and invited to 

 adopt it. Mr. Perry of the Morning Chronicle declined, 

 alleging that he did not consider a newspaper worth so many 

 years' purchase as would equal the cost of machines. Mr. 

 Walter, "being a cautious man of the world," but enterprizing, 

 " it being," as his biographer says, " his habit in tiie game 

 of life never to throw away a chance," when he had fully sa- 

 tisfied himself by seeing that the invention was accomplished, 

 and in effective operation, consented to give an order for two 

 machines, for the cost of which he paid us a certain sum, and a 

 rental according to the number of copies printed ; and this rent 

 we received, until it was commuted for a sum agreed upon. 



I do not mean to charge the writer in the Mechanics' Ma- 

 gazine with any intentional misrepresentation. He has evi- 

 dently been misled by the articles in The Times, which though 

 they do not directly assert all that he has inferred from them, 

 yet they imply as much. Thus a story gains in the telling, 



* Mr. Kcenig's invention is very inappropiiately designated by the terms 

 " steam-press," and " the working of iron presses by steam." Its construc- 

 tion is wholly independent of the motive power employed. 



