654 



PRINTING MACHINE 



Nicholson's, for 

 arched type. 



Nicholson's, for 

 common type. 



Continental printers in his views, he came to London soon after that period, and sub- 

 mitted his plans to Mr. T. Bensley and Mr. G. Woodfall, well-known printers, and 



to Mr. R. Taylor, late one of the editors of 

 the ' Philosophical Magazine." 



These gentlemen afforded Mr. Konig, 

 and his assistant Bauer, a German me- 

 chanic, liberal pecuniary support. In 1811, 

 he obtained a patent for a method of work- 

 ing a common hand-press by steam-power, 

 and 3,000 copies of signature H of the 

 ' New Annual Register ' were printed by it ; 

 but, after much expense and labour, he was 

 glad to renounce the scheme. He then 

 turned his mind to the use of a cylinder 

 for communicating the pressure, instead of 

 a flat plate ; and he finally succeeded, sometime before November 28, 1814, in com- 

 pleting his printing automaton ; for on that day the editors of the ' Times ' informed 

 their readers that they were perusing for the first time a newspaper printed by steam- 

 impelled machinery ; it is a day, therefore, which will be ever memorable in the 

 annals of typography. 



In that machine the form of type was made to traverse horizontally under the 

 pressure-cylinder, with which the sheet of paper was held in close embrace by means 

 of a series of endless tapes. The ink was placed in a cylindrical box, from which it 

 was extruded by means of a powerful screw, depressing a well-fitted piston ; it then 

 fell between two iron rollers, and was by their rotation transferred to several other 

 subjacent rollers, which had not only a motion round their axes, but an alternating 

 traverse motion (endwise). This system of equalising rollers terminated in two, which 

 applied the ink to the types. (See jig. 1677.) This plan of inking evidently involved 

 a rather complex mechanism, was hence difficult to manage, and sometimes required 

 two hours to get into good working trim. 



In order to obtain a great many impressions rapidly from the same form, a paper- 

 conducting cylinder (one embraced by the paper) was mounted upon each side of the 

 inking apparatus, the form being made to traverse under both' of them. This double- 

 action machine threw off 1,100 impressions per hour when first finished; and by a 

 subsequent improvement, no less than 1,800 



1677 



1678 



Konig's single, for one side of the sheet. 



Kb'nig's double, for both sides of the sheet. 



1676 



Mr. Konig's next feat was the construction of a machine for printing both sides of 

 the newspaper at each complete traverse of the forms. This resembled two single 

 machines, placed with their cylinders towards each other, at a distance of two or three 

 feet ; the sheet was conveyed from one paper-cylinder to another, as before, by means 

 of tapes ; the track of the sheet exactly resembled the letter S laid horizontally, thus, 

 02 ; and the sheet was turned over or reversed in the course of its passage. At the 

 first paper-cylinder it received the impression from the first form, and at the second 

 received it from the second form ; whereby the machine could print 750 sheets of book 

 letter-press on both sides in an hour. This new register apparatus was erected for 

 Mr. T. Bensley, in the year 1815, being the only machine 

 made by Mr. Konig for printing upon both sides. See Jiff. 1678. 

 Messrs. Donkin and Bacon had for some years previous to 

 this date been busily engaged with printing machines, and had 

 indeed, in 1813, obtained a patent for an apparatus, in which 

 the types were placed upon the sides of a revolving prism ; the 

 ink was applied by a roller, which rose and fell with the eccen- 

 tricities of the prismatic surface, and the sheet was wrapped 

 upon another prism fashioned so as to coincide with the eccen- 

 tricities of the type-prism. One such machine was erected for 

 the University of Cambridge. (See Jiff. 1679.) It was a beau- 

 tiful specimen of ingenious contrivance and good workmanship. Though it was found 

 to be too complicated for common operatives, and defective ia the mechanism of the 



Donkin and Bacon' .-> 

 for type. 





