SOO On the Invention of Mr. Koenig's Printing Machine. 



till the most vague and unfounded suggestions, if uncontra- 

 dicted, are assumed as indisputable facts ; and it would be 

 recorded that if Koenig was the Gutemberg of the new dis- 

 covery, Walter was at least the Faust or Schoeffer of the 

 affair, or rather, both in one. 



I am convinced that Mr. Walter, were he living, would 

 disclaim the pretensions that have been made in his name : 

 and indeed he has done so in the announcement which ap- 

 peared in The Times, Nov. 20, 1814, the day on which that 

 journal was first printed by the machines, and \yhich contains 

 the following passage : — 



" That the completion of an invention of this kind, not the effect 

 of chance, but the result of mechanical combinations methodically 

 arranged in the mind of the artist, should he attended with many 

 obstructions and much delay may be readily admitted. Our share in 

 the event has indeed only been the application of the discovery, under 

 an agreement with the patentees, to our own particular business." 



" The time for effecting the great revolution in the art of 

 printing," says Mr. Walter's biographer, " did not arrive till 

 the year 1814." Now it was in 1809 that, together with the 

 late Mr. George Woodfall, I joined Mr. Kcenig and Mr. 

 Bensley in taking out patents*, the machine being even then 

 so far advanced as to satisfy us as to the prospect of success, 

 and to enable us to have the specifications drawn up. Kcenig 

 had gone on with Bensley, to whom 1 had recommended him 

 some few years before, up to the year 1809, when the taking 

 of premises and the purchase of lathes, tools, &c., and the 

 employing of workmen, with the salaries of Mr. Koenig and 

 his able and excellent assistant Mr. Bauer, led Bensley to in- 

 vite us to a partnership in the undertaking. For several years 

 it occupied much of our time and attention, and cost us much 

 money (from which we had no return f ) and much anxiety. 

 Each experiment suggested some improvement, and one im- 

 provement led to others, so that additional patents had to be 

 taken out. But with Mr. Walter we had none of us any com- 

 munication, until, as I have before stated, the machine had 

 been completed and was at work on our own premises. 



I have thought it right, under the circumstances, to put on 



* One of the four patents bears date March 29, 1810 (See Phil, Mag. 

 vol. XXXV. 1st Series, p. 319). It was taken out in the name of Frederick 

 Koenig, and was assigned by articles of partnership to the firm of Bensley, 

 Koenig, Woodfall and Taylor. 



•f Mr. Koenig left England, suddenly, in disgust at the treacherous con- 

 duct of Bensley, always shabby and overreaching, and whom he found to 

 be laying a scheme for defrauding bis partners in the patents of all the ad- 

 vantages to arise from them. Bensley, however, while he destroyed the 

 prospects of his partners, outwitted himself, and grasping at all, lost all, 

 becoming bankrupt in fortune as well as in character. 



