34 
By his zeal and determination and by forcing public attention 
Redman just kept the thing alive for a short time, but with no 
successful result to himself, and so he too disappeared. Failing 
trade support, the appeals had always been made to private 
artists. This could hardly be expected to produce a great profit, 
as but few could have any reason except curiosity, for producing 
their drawings in any numbers. Eventually Mr. Ackerman, a 
printseller, interested himself, and started a trade press in 1817. 
An amateur however had the first attempt with it. There 
were extant in 1851 the following lines by the author of 
Dr. Syntax :— 
I have been told of one 
Who being asked for bread, 
In its stead 
Returned a stone. 
But here we manage better 
The stone we ask 
To do its task, 
And it returns us every letter. 
(Signed) Wm. CoMBE, January 23, 1817. 
Underwritten : This is the first impression of Ackerman’s Lithographic 
press. 
In 1819 Ackerman printed a book entitled :—A complete course 
of Lithography, &c. Herein he expressed an anxious wish to see 
the process naturalized. Some specimen plates, not good, are 
given, and these were the next issue after the Bath volumes. 
Thus at last taken up by the trade, slow, very slow progess was 
made, for yet twenty years had passed before it became thoroughly 
established. The fears of the engravers have been realized, as at 
the present time their art has almost ceased to be, ousted by 
lithography or the various improvements upon it. 
This is an age of wonders, wrote one in 1829; of gas, steam, 
and lithography. The writer little dreamed of the revolution and 
unrest which would result from these inventions. We, too, are 
