"Our Journal of this day presents to the Public the practical result of
the greatest improvement connected with printing since the discovery of
the art itself.  The reader of this paragraph now holds in his hand one
of the many thousand impressions of The Times newspaper which were
taken off last night by a mechanical apparatus.  A system of machinery
almost organic has been devised and arranged, which, while it relieves
the human frame of its most laborious' efforts in printing, far exceeds
all human powers in rapidity and dispatch.  That the magnitude of the
invention may be justly appreciated by its effects, we shall inform the
public, that after the letters are placed by the compositors, and
enclosed in what is called the forme, little more remains for man to do
than to attend upon and to watch this unconscious agent in its
operations.  The machine is then merely supplied with paper: itself
places the forme, inks it, adjusts the paper to the forme newly inked,
stamps the sheet, and gives it forth to the hands of the attendant, at
the same time withdrawing the forme for a fresh coat of ink, which
itself again distributes, to meet the ensuing sheet now advancing for
impression; and the whole of these complicated acts is performed with
such a velocity and simultaneousness of movement, that no less than
1100 sheets are impressed in one hour.

"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 be attended with many obstructions
and much delay, may be readily imagined.  Our share in this event has,
indeed, only been the application of the discovery, under an agreement
with the patentees, to our own particular business; yet few can
conceive--even with this limited interest--the various disappointments
and deep anxiety to which we have for a long course of time been
subjected.

"Of the person who made this discovery we have but little to add. Sir
Christopher Wren's noblest monument is to be found in the building
which he erected; so is the best tribute of praise which we are capable
of offering to the inventor of the printing machine, comprised in the
preceding description, which we have feebly sketched, of the powers and
utility of his invention.  It must suffice to say further, that he is a
Saxon by birth; that his name is Koenig; and that the invention has
been executed under the direction of his friend and countryman, Bauer."

The machine continued to work steadily and satisfactorily,
notwithstanding the doubters, the unbelievers, and the threateners of
vengeance.  The leading article of The Times for December 3rd, 1814,
contains the following statement:--

"The machine of which we announced the discovery and our adoption a few
days ago, has been whirling on its course ever since, with improving
order, regularity, and even speed.  The length of the debates on
Thursday, the day when Parliament was adjourned, will have been
observed; on such an occasion the operation of composing and printing
the last page must commence among all the journals at the same moment;
and starting from that moment, we, with our infinitely superior
circulation, were enabled to throw off our whole impression many hours
before the other respectable rival prints.  The accuracy and clearness
of the impression will likewise excite attention.

"We shall make no reflections upon those by whom this wonderful
discovery has been opposed,--the doubters and unbelievers,--however
uncharitable they may have been to us; were it not that the efforts of
genius are always impeded by drivellers of this description, and that
we owe it to such men as Mr. Koenig and his Friend, and all future
promulgators of beneficial inventions, to warn them that they will have
to contend with everything that selfishness and conceited ignorance can
devise or say; and if we cannot clear their way before them, we would
at least give them notice to prepare a panoply against its dirt and
filth.

"There is another class of men from whom we receive dark and anonymous
threats of vengeance if we persevere in the use of this machine.  These
are the Pressmen.  They well know, at least should well know, that such
menace is thrown away upon us.  There is nothing that we will not do to
assist and serve those whom we have discharged.  They themselves can
seethe greater rapidity and precision with which the paper is printed.
What right have they to make us print it slower and worse for their
supposed benefit? A little reflection, indeed, would show them that it
is neither in their power nor in ours to stop a discovery now made, if
it is beneficial to mankind; or to force it down if it is useless. They
had better, therefore, acquiesce in a result which they cannot alter;
more especially as there will still be employment enough for the old
race of pressmen, before the new method obtains general use, and no new
ones need be brought up to the business; but we caution them seriously
against involving themselves and their families in ruin, by becoming
amenable to the laws of their country.  It has always been matter of
great satisfaction to us to reflect, that we encountered and crushed
one conspiracy; and we should be sorry to find our work half done.

"It is proper to undeceive the world in one particular; that is, as to
the number of men discharged.  We in fact employ only eight fewer
workmen than formerly; whereas more than three times that number have
been employed for a year and a half in building the machine."

On the 8th of December following, Mr. Koenig addressed an advertisement
"To the Public" in the columns of The Times, giving an account of the
origin and progress of his invention.  We have already cited several
passages from the statement.  After referring to his two last patents,
he says: "The machines now printing The Times and Mail are upon the
same principle; but they have been contrived for the particular purpose
of a newspaper of extensive circulation, where expedition is the great
object.

"The public are undoubtedly aware, that never, perhaps, was a new
invention put to so severe a trial as the present one, by being used on
its first public introduction for the printing of newspapers, and will,
I trust, be indulgent with respect to the many defects in the
performance, though none of them are inherent in the principle of the
machine; and we hope, that in less than two months, the whole will be
corrected by greater adroitness in the management of it, so far at
least as the hurry of newspaper printing will at all admit.

"It will appear from the foregoing narrative, that it was incorrectly
stated in several newspapers, that I had sold my interest to two other
foreigners; my partners in this enterprise being at present two
Englishmen, Mr. Bensley and Mr. Taylor; and it is gratifying to my
feelings to avail myself of this opportunity to thank those gentlemen
publicly for the confidence which they have reposed in me, for the aid
of their practical skill, and for the persevering support which they
have afforded me in long and very expensive experiments; thus risking
their fortunes in the prosecution of my invention.

"The first introduction of the invention was considered by some as a
difficult and even hazardous step.  The Proprietor of The Times having
made that his task, the public are aware that it is in good hands."

One would think that Koenig would now feel himself in smooth water, and
receive a share of the good fortune which he had so laboriously
prepared for others.  Nothing of the kind!  His merits were disputed;
his rights were denied; his patents were infringed; and he never
received any solid advantages for his invention, until he left the
country and took refuge in Germany. It is true, he remained for a few
years longer, in charge of the manufactory in Whitecross Street, but
they were years to him of trouble and sorrow.

In 1816, Koenig designed and superintended the construction of a single
cylinder registering machine for book-printing.  This was supplied to
Bensley and Son, and turned out 1000 sheets, printed on both sides, in
the hour.  Blumenbach's 'Physiology' was the first entire book printed
by steam, by this new machine.  It was afterwards employed, in 1818, in
working off the Literary Gazette.  A machine of the same kind was
supplied to Mr. Richard Taylor for the purpose of printing the
'Philosophical Magazine,' and books generally.  This was afterwards
altered to a double machine, and employed for printing the Weekly
Dispatch.

But what about Koenig's patents?  They proved of little use to him.
They only proclaimed his methods, and enabled other ingenious mechanics
to borrow his adaptations.  Now that he had succeeded in making
machines that would work, the way was clear for everybody else to
follow his footsteps.  It had taken him more than six years to invent
and construct a successful steam printing press; but any clever
mechanic, by merely studying his specification, and examining his
machine at work, might arrive at the same results in less than a week.

The patents did not protect him.  New specifications, embodying some
modification or alteration in detail, were lodged by other inventors
and new patents taken out.  New printing machines were constructed in
defiance of his supposed legal rights; and he found himself stripped of
the reward that he had been labouring for during so many long and
toilsome years.  He could not go to law, and increase his own vexation
and loss.  He might get into Chancery easy enough; but when would he
get out of it, and in what condition?

It must also be added, that Koenig was unfortunate in his partner
Bensley.  While the inventor was taking steps to push the sale of his
book-printing machines among the London printers, Bensley, who was
himself a book-printer, was hindering him in every way in his
negotiations.  Koenig was of opinion that Bensley wished to retain the
exclusive advantage which the possession of his registering book
machine gave him over the other printers, by enabling him to print more
quickly and correctly than they could, and thus give him an advantage
over them in his printing contracts.

When Koenig, in despair at his position, consulted counsel as to the
infringement of his patent, he was told that he might institute
proceedings with the best prospect of success; but to this end a
perfect agreement by the partners was essential. When, however, Koenig
asked Bensley to concur with him in taking proceedings in defence of
the patent right, the latter positively refused to do so.  Indeed,
Koenig was under the impression that his partner had even entered into
an arrangement with the infringers of the patent to share with them the
proceeds of their piracy.

Under these circumstances, it appeared to Koenig that only two
alternatives remained for him to adopt.  One was to commence an
expensive, and it might be a protracted, suit in Chancery, in defence
of his patent rights, with possibly his partner, Bensley, against him;
and the other, to abandon his invention in England without further
struggle, and settle abroad.  He chose the latter alternative, and left
England finally in August, 1817.

Mr. Richard Taylor, the other partner in the patent, was an honourable
man; but he could not control the proceedings of Bensley.  In a memoir
published by him in the 'Philosophical Magazine,' "On the Invention and
First Introduction of Mr. Koenig's Printing Machine," in which he
honestly attributes to him the sole merit of the invention, he says,
"Mr. Koenig left England, suddenly, in disgust at the treacherous
conduct of Bensley, always shabby and overreaching, and whom he found
to be laying a scheme for defrauding his partners in the patents of all
the advantages 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."[6]

Koenig was badly used throughout.  His merits as an inventor were
denied.  On the 3rd of January, 1818, after he had left England,
Bensley published a letter in the Literary Gazette, in which he speaks
of the printing machine as his own, without mentioning a word of
Koenig.  The 'British Encyclopaedia,' in describing the inventors of
the printing machine, omitted the name of Koenig altogether.  The
'Mechanics Magazine,' for September, 1847, attributed the invention to
the Proprietors of The Times, though Mr. Walter himself had said that
his share in the event had been "only the application of the
discovery;" and the late Mr. Bennet Woodcroft, usually a fair man, in
his introductory chapter to 'Patents for Inventions in Printing,'
attributes the merit to William Nicholson's patent (No. 1748), which,
he said, "produced an entire revolution in the mechanism of the art."
In other publications, the claims of Bacon and Donkin were put forward,
while those of the real inventor were ignored.  The memoir of Koenig by
Mr. Richard Taylor, in the 'Philosophical Magazine,' was honest and
satisfactory; and should have set the question at rest.

It may further be mentioned that William Nicholson,--who was a patent
agent, and a great taker out of patents, both in his own name and in
the names of others,--was the person employed by Koenig as his agent to
take the requisite steps for registering his invention.  When Koenig
consulted him on the subject, Nicholson observed that "seventeen years
before he had taken out a patent for machine printing, but he had
abandoned it, thinking that it wouldn't do; and had never taken it up
again."  Indeed, the two machines were on different principles.  Nor
did Nicholson himself ever make any claim to priority of invention,
when the success of Koenig's machine was publicly proclaimed by Mr.
Walter of The Times some seven years later.

When Koenig, now settled abroad, heard of the attempts made in England
to deny his merits as an inventor, he merely observed to his friend
Bauer, "It is really too bad that these people, who have already robbed
me of my invention, should now try to rob me of my reputation."  Had he
made any reply to the charges against him, it might have been comprised
in a very few words:  "When I arrived in England, no steam printing
machine had ever before been seen; when I left it, the only printing
machines in actual work were those which I had constructed."  But
Koenig never took the trouble to defend the originality of his
invention in England, now that he had finally abandoned the field to
others.

There can be no question as to the great improvements introduced in the
printing machine by Mr. Applegath and Mr. Cowper; by Messrs. Hoe and
Sons, of New York; and still later by the present Mr. Walter of The
Times, which have brought the art of machine printing to an
extraordinary degree of perfection and speed.  But the original merits
of an invention are not to be determined by a comparison of the first
machine of the kind ever made with the last, after some sixty years'
experience and skill have been applied in bringing it to perfection.
Were the first condensing engine made at Soho--now to be seen at the
Museum in South Kensington--in like manner to be compared with the last
improved pumping-engine made yesterday, even the great James Watt might
be made out to have been a very poor contriver.  It would be much
fairer to compare Koenig's steam-printing machine with the hand-press
newspaper printing machine which it superseded. Though there were steam
engines before Watt, and steamboats before Fulton, and steam
locomotives before Stephenson, there were no steam printing presses
before Koenig with which to compare them, Koenig's was undoubtedly the
first, and stood unequalled and alone.

The rest of Koenig's life, after he retired to Germany, was spent in
industry, if not in peace and quietness.  He could not fail to be cast
down by the utter failure of his English partnership, and the loss of
the fruits of his ingenious labours.  But instead of brooding over his
troubles, he determined to break away from them, and begin the world
anew.  He was only forty-three when he left England, and he might yet
be able to establish himself prosperously in life.  He had his own head
and hands to help him.

Though England was virtually closed against him, the whole continent of
Europe was open to him, and presented a wide field for the sale of his
printing machines.

While residing in England, Koenig had received many communications from
influential printers in Germany.  Johann Spencer and George Decker
wrote to him in 1815, asking for particulars about his invention; but
finding his machine too expensive,[7] the latter commissioned Koenig to
send him a Stanhope printing press--the first ever introduced into
Germany--the price of which was 95L.  Koenig did this service for his
friend, for although he stood by the superior merits of his own
invention, he was sufficiently liberal to recognise the merits of the
inventions of others.  Now that he was about to settle in Germany, he
was able to supply his friends and patrons on the spot.

The question arose, where was he to settle?  He made enquiries about
sites along the Rhine, the Neckar, and the Main.  At last he was
attracted by a specially interesting spot at Oberzell on the Main, near
Wurzburg.  It was an old disused convent of the Praemonstratensian
monks.  The place was conveniently situated for business, being nearly
in the centre of Germany.  The Bavarian Government, desirous of giving
encouragement to so useful a genius, granted Koenig the use of the
secularised monastery on easy terms; and there accordingly he began his
operations in the course of the following year.  Bauer soon joined him,
with an order from Mr. Walter for an improved Times machine; and the
two men entered into a partnership which lasted for life.

The partners had at first great difficulties to encounter in getting
their establishment to work.  Oberzell was a rural village, containing
only common labourers, from whom they had to select their workmen.
Every person taken into the concern had to be trained and educated to
mechanical work by the partners themselves.  With indescribable
patience they taught these labourers the use of the hammer, the file,
the turning-lathe, and other tools, which the greater number of them
had never before seen, and of whose uses they were entirely ignorant.
The machinery of the workshop was got together with equal difficulty
piece by piece, some of the parts from a great distance,--the
mechanical arts being then at a very low ebb in Germany, which was
still suffering from the effects of the long continental war.

At length the workshop was fitted up, the old barn of the monastery
being converted into an iron foundry.

Orders for printing machines were gradually obtained.  The first came
from Brockhaus, of Leipzig.  By the end of the fourth year two other
single-cylinder machines were completed and sent to Berlin, for use in
the State printing office.  By the end of the eighth year seven
double-cylinder steam presses had been manufactured for the largest
newspaper printers in Germany.  The recognised excellence of Koenig and
Bauer's book-printing machines--their perfect register, and the quality
of the work they turned out--secured for them an increasing demand, and
by the year 1829 the firm had manufactured fifty-one machines for the
leading book printers throughout Germany.  The Oberzell manufactory was
now in full work, and gave regular employment to about 120 men.

A period of considerable depression followed.  As was the case in
England, the introduction of the printing machine in Germany excited
considerable hostility among the pressmen.  In some of the principal
towns they entered into combinations to destroy them, and several
printing machines were broken by violence and irretrievably injured.
But progress could not be stopped; the printing machine had been fairly
born, and must eventually do its work for mankind.  These combinations,
however, had an effect for a time.  They deterred other printers from
giving orders for the machines; and Koenig and Bauer were under the
necessity of suspending their manufacture to a considerable extent.  To
keep their men employed, the partners proceeded to fit up a paper
manufactory, Mr. Cotta, of Stuttgart, joining them in the adventure;
and a mill was fitted up, embodying all the latest improvements in
paper-making.

Koenig, however, did not live to enjoy the fruits or all his study,
labour, toil, and anxiety; for, while this enterprise was still in
progress, and before the machine trade had revived, he was taken ill,
and confined to bed.  He became sleepless; his nerves were unstrung;
and no wonder.  Brain disease carried him off on the 17th of January,
1833; and this good, ingenious, and admirable inventor was removed from
all further care and trouble.

He died at the early age of fifty-eight, respected and beloved by all
who knew him.

His partner Bauer survived to continue the business for twenty years
longer.  It was during this later period that the Oberzell manufactory
enjoyed its greatest prosperity.  The prejudices of the workmen
gradually subsided when they found that machine printing, instead of
abridging employment, as they feared it would do, enormously increased
it; and orders accordingly flowed in from Berlin, Vienna, and all the
leading towns and cities of Germany, Austria, Denmark, Russia, and
Sweden.  The six hundredth machine, turned out in 1847, was capable of
printing 6000 impressions in the hour.  In March, 1865, the thousandth
machine was completed at Oberzell, on the occasion of the celebration
of the fifty years' jubilee of the invention of the steam press by
Koenig.

The sons of Koenig carried on the business; and in the biography by
Goebel, it is stated that the manufactory of Oberzell has now turned
out no fewer than 3000 printing machines.  The greater number have been
supplied to Germany; but 660 were sent to Russia, 61 to Asia, 12 to
England, and 11 to America.  The rest were despatched to Italy,
Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Holland, and other countries.

It remains to be said that Koenig and Bauer, united in life, were not
divided by death.  Bauer died on February 27, 1860, and the remains of
the partners now lie side by side in the little cemetery at Oberzell,
close to the scene of their labours and the valuable establishment
which they founded.


Footnotes for Chapter VI.

[1] Koenig's letter in The Times, 8th December, 1814

[2] Koenig's letter in The Times, 8th December, 1814.

[3] Date of Patent, 29th April, 1790, No. 1748,

[4] Koenig's letter in The Times, 8th December, 1814.

[5] Mr. Richard Taylor, one of the partners in the patent, says, "Mr.
Perry declined, alleging that he did not consider a newspaper worth so
many years' purchase as would equal the cost of the machine."

[6] Mr. Richard Taylor, F.S.A., memoir in 'Philosophical Magazine' for
October 1847, p. 300.

[7] The price of a single cylinder non-registering machine was
advertised at 900L.; of a double ditto, 1400L.; and of a cylinder
registering machine, 2000L.; added to which was 250L., 350L., and 500L.
per annum for each of these machines so long as the patent lasted, or
an agreed sum to be paid down at once.



CHAPTER VII.

THE WALTERS OF THE TIMES: INVENTION OF THE WALTER PRESS.

"Intellect and industry are never incompatible.  There is  more wisdom,
and will be more benefit, in combining them than scholars like to
believe, or than the common world imagine.  Life has time enough for
both, and its happiness will be increased by the union."--SHARON TURNER.

"I have beheld with most respect the man Who knew himself, and knew the
ways before him, And from among them chose considerately, With a clear
foresight, not a blindfold courage; And, having chosen, with a
steadfast mind Pursued his purpose." HENRY TAYLOR--Philip van Artevelde.

The late John Walter, who adopted Koenig's steam printing press in
printing The Times, was virtually the inventor of the modern newspaper.
The first John Walter, his father, learnt the art of printing in the
office of Dodsley, the proprietor of the 'Annual Register.' He
afterwards pursued the profession of an underwriter, but his fortunes
were literally shipwrecked by the capture of a fleet of merchantmen by
a French squadron. Compelled by this loss to return to his trade, he
succeeded in obtaining the publication of 'Lloyd's List,' as well as
the printing of the Board of Customs.  He also established himself as a
publisher and bookseller at No. 8, Charing Cross.  But his principal
achievement was in founding The Times newspaper.

The Daily Universal Register was started on the 1st of January, 1785,
and was described in the heading as "printed logographically."  The
type had still to be composed, letter by letter, each placed alongside
of its predecessor by human fingers.  Mr. Walter's invention consisted
in using stereotyped words and parts of words instead of separate metal
letters, by which a certain saving of time and labour was effected.
The name of the 'Register' did not suit, there being many other
publications bearing a similar title.  Accordingly, it was re-named The
Times, and the first number was issued from Printing House Square on
the 1st of January, 1788.

The Times was at first a very meagre publication.  It was not much
bigger than a number of the old 'Penny Magazine,' containing a single
short leader on some current topic, without any pretensions to
excellence; some driblets of news spread out in large type; half a
column of foreign intelligence, with a column of facetious paragraphs
under the heading of "The Cuckoo;" while the rest of each number
consisted of advertisements. Notwithstanding the comparative innocence
of the contents of the early numbers of the paper, certain passages
which appeared in it on two occasions subjected the publisher to
imprisonment in Newgate.  The extent of the offence, on one occasion,
consisted in the publication of a short paragraph intimating that their
Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York had "so
demeaned themselves as to incur the just disapprobation of his
Majesty!"  For such slight offences were printers sent to gaol in those
days.

Although the first Mr. Walter was a man of considerable business
ability, his exertions were probably too much divided amongst a variety
of pursuits to enable him to devote that exclusive attention to The
Times which was necessary to ensure its success.

He possibly regarded it, as other publishers of newspapers then did,
mainly as a means of obtaining a profitable business in job-printing.
Hence, in the elder Walter's hands, the paper was not only unprofitable
in itself, but its maintenance became a source of gradually increasing
expenditure; and the proprietor seriously contemplated its
discontinuance.

At this juncture, John Walter, junior, who had been taken into the
business as a partner, entreated his father to entrust him with the
sole conduct of the paper, and to give it "one more trial."  This was
at the beginning of 1803.  The new editor and conductor was then only
twenty-seven years of age.  He had been trained to the manual work of a
printer "at case," and passed through nearly every department in the
office, literary and mechanical.  But in the first place, he had
received a very liberal education, first at Merchant Taylors' School,
and afterwards at Trinity College, Oxford, where he pursued his
classical studies with much success.  He was thus a man of
well-cultured mind; he had been thoroughly disciplined to work; he was,
moreover, a man of tact and energy, full of expedients, and possessed
by a passion for business.  His father, urged by the young man's
entreaties, at length consented, although not without misgivings, to
resign into his hands the entire future control of The Times.

Young Walter proceeded forthwith to remodel the establishment, and to
introduce improvements into every department, as far as the scanty
capital at his command would admit.  Before he assumed the direction,
The Times did not seek to guide opinion or to exercise political
influence.  It was a scanty newspaper--nothing more, Any political
matters referred to were usually introduced in "Letters to the Editor,"
in the form in which Junius's Letters first appeared in the Public
Advertiser.  The comments on political affairs by the Editor were
meagre and brief, and confined to a mere statement of supposed facts.

Mr. Walter, very much to the dismay of his father, struck out an
entirely new course.  He boldly stated his views on public affairs,
bringing his strong and original judgment to bear upon the political
and social topics of the day.  He carefully watched and closely studied
public opinion, and discussed general questions in all their bearings.
He thus invented the modern Leading Article.  The adoption of an
independent line of politics necessarily led him to canvass freely, and
occasionally to condemn, the measures of the Government.  Thus, he had
only been about a year in office as editor, when the Sidmouth
Administration was succeeded by that of Mr. Pitt, under whom Lord
Melville undertook the unfortunate Catamaran expedition.  His
Lordship's malpractices in the Navy Department had also been brought to
light by the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry.  On both these topics Mr.
Walter spoke out freely in terms of reprobation; and the result was,
that the printing for the Customs and the Government advertisements
were at once removed from The Times office.

Two years later Mr. Pitt died, and an Administration succeeded which
contained a portion of the political chiefs whom the editor had
formerly supported on his undertaking the management of the paper.  He
was invited by one of them to state the injustice which had been done
to him by the loss of the Customs printing, and a memorial to the
Treasury was submitted for his signature, with a view to its recovery.
But believing that the reparation of the injury in this manner was
likely to be considered as a favour, entitling those who granted it to
a certain degree of influence over the politics of the journal, Walter
refused to sign it, or to have any concern in presenting the memorial.
He did more; he wrote to those from whom the restoration of the
employment was expected to come, disavowing all connection with the
proceeding.  The matter then dropped, and the Customs printing was
never restored to the office.

This course was so unprecedented, and, as his father thought, was so
very wrong-headed, that young Walter had for some time considerable
difficulty in holding his ground and maintaining the independent
position he had assumed.  But with great tenacity of purpose he held on
his course undismayed.  He was a man who looked far ahead,--not so much
taking into account the results at the end of each day or of each year,
but how the plan he had laid down for conducting the paper would work
out in the long run. And events proved that the high-minded course he
had pursued with so much firmness of purpose was the wisest course
after all.

Another feature in the management which showed clear-sightedness and
business acuteness, was the pains which the Editor took to ensure
greater celerity of information and dispatch in printing. The expense
which he incurred in carrying out these objects excited the serious
displeasure of his father, who regarded them as acts of juvenile folly
and extravagance.  Another circumstance strongly roused the old man's
wrath.  It appears that in those days the insertion of theatrical puffs
formed a considerable source of newspaper income; and yet young Walter
determined at once to abolish them.  It is not a little remarkable that
these earliest acts of Mr. Walter--which so clearly marked his
enterprise and high-mindedness--should have been made the subject of
painful comments in his father's will.

Notwithstanding this serious opposition from within, the power and
influence of the paper visibly and rapidly grew.  The new Editor
concentrated in the columns of his paper a range of information such as
had never before been attempted, or indeed thought possible.  His
vigilant eye was directed to every detail of his business.  He greatly
improved the reporting of public meetings, the money market, and other
intelligence,--aiming at greater fulness and accuracy.  In the
department of criticism his labours were unwearied.  He sought to
elevate the character of the paper, and rendered it more dignified by
insisting that it should be impartial.  He thus conferred the greatest
public service upon literature, the drama, and the fine arts, by
protecting them against the evil influences of venal panegyric on the
one hand, and of prejudiced hostility on the other.

But the most remarkable feature of The Times that which emphatically
commended it to public support and ensured its commercial success--was
its department of foreign intelligence. At the time that Walter
undertook the management of the journal, Europe was a vast theatre of
war; and in the conduct of commercial affairs--not to speak of
political movements--it was of the most vital importance that early
information should be obtained of affairs on the Continent.  The Editor
resolved to become himself the purveyor of foreign intelligence, and at
great expense he despatched his agents in all directions, even in the
track of armies; while others were employed, under various disguises
and by means of sundry pretexts, in many parts of the Continent.  These
agents collected information, and despatched it to London, often at
considerable risks, for publication in The Times, where it usually
appeared long in advance of the government despatches.

The late Mr. Pryme, in his 'Autobiographic Recollections,' mentions a
visit which he paid to Mr. Walter at his seat at Bearwood.  "He
described to me," says Mr. Pryme, "the cause of the large extension in
the circulation of The Times.  He was the first to establish a foreign
correspondent.  This was Henry Crabb Robinson, at a salary of 300L. a
year....  Mr. Walter also established local reporters, instead of
copying from the country papers.  His father doubted the wisdom of such
a large expenditure, but the son prophesied a gradual and certain
success, which has actually been realised."

Mr. Robinson has described in his Diary the manner in which he became
connected with the foreign correspondence.  "In January, 1807," he
says, "I received, through my friend J.D. Collier, a proposal from Mr.
Walter that I should take up my residence at Altona, and become The
Times correspondent.  I was to receive from the editor of the
'Hamburger Correspondenten' all the public documents at his disposal,
and was to have the benefit also of a mass of information, of which the
restraints of the German Press did not permit him to avail himself.
The honorarium I was to receive was ample with my habits of life.  I
gladly accepted the offer, and never repented having done so.  My
acquaintance with Mr. Walter ripened into friendship, and lasted as
long as he lived."[1]

Mr. Robinson was forced to leave Germany by the Battle of Friedland and
the Treaty of Tilsit, which resulted in the naval coalition against
England.  Returning to London, he became foreign editor of The Times
until the following year, when he proceeded to Spain as foreign
correspondent.  Mr. Walter had also an agent in the track of the army
in the unfortunate Walcheren expedition; and The Times announced the
capitulation of Flushing forty-eight hours before the news had arrived
by any other channel.  By this prompt method of communicating public
intelligence, the practice, which had previously existed, of
systematically retarding the publication of foreign news by officials
at the General Post Office, who made gain by selling them to the
Lombard Street brokers, was effectually extinguished.

This circumstance, as well as the independent course which Mr. Walter
adopted in the discussion of foreign politics, explains in some measure
the opposition which he had to encounter in the transmission of his
despatches.  As early as the year 1805, when he had come into collision
with the Government and lost the Customs printing, The Times despatches
were regularly stopped at the outports, whilst those for the
Ministerial journals were allowed to proceed.  This might have crushed
a weaker man, but it did not crush Walter.  Of course he expostulated.
He was informed at the Home Secretary's office that he might be
permitted to receive his foreign papers as a favour.  But as this
implied the expectation of a favour from him in return, the proposal
was rejected; and, determined not to be baffled, he employed special
couriers, at great cost, for the purpose of obtaining the earliest
transmission of foreign intelligence.

These important qualities--enterprise, energy, business tact, and
public spirit--sufficiently account for his remarkable success. To
these, however, must be added another of no small
importance--discernment and knowledge of character.  Though himself the
head and front of his enterprise, it was necessary that he should
secure the services and co-operation of men of first-rate ability; and
in the selection of such men his judgment was almost unerring.  By his
discernment and munificence, he collected round him some of the ablest
writers of the age.  These were frequently revealed to him in the
communications of correspondents--the author of the letters signed
"Vetus" being thus selected to write in the leading columns of the
Paper.  But Walter himself was the soul of The Times.  It was he who
gave the tone to its articles, directed its influence, and
superintended its entire conduct with unremitting vigilance.

Even in conducting the mechanical arrangements of the paper--a business
of no small difficulty--he had often occasion to exercise promptness
and boldness of decision in cases of emergency.  Printers in those days
were a rather refractory class of work men, and not unfrequently took
advantage of their position to impose hard terms on their employers,
especially in the daily press, where everything must be promptly done
within a very limited time.  Thus on one occasion, in 1810, the
pressmen made a sudden demand upon the proprietor for an increase of
wages, and insisted upon a uniform rate being paid to all hands,
whether good or bad.  Walter was at first disposed to make concessions
to the men; but having been privately informed that a combination was
already entered into by the compositors, as well as by the pressmen, to
leave his employment suddenly, under circumstances that would have
stopped the publication of the paper, and inflicted on him the most
serious injury, he determined to run all risks, rather than submit to
what now appeared to him in the light of an extortion.

The strike took place on a Saturday morning, when suddenly, and without
notice, all the hands turned out.  Mr. Walter had only a few hours'
notice of it, but he had already resolved upon his course.  He
collected apprentices from half a dozen different quarters, and a few
inferior workmen, who were glad to obtain employment on any terms.  He
himself stript to his shirt-sleeves, and went to work with the rest;
and for the next six-and-thirty hours he was incessantly employed at
case and at press.  On the Monday morning, the conspirators, who had
assembled to triumph over his ruin, to their inexpressible amazement
saw The Times issue from the publishing office at the usual hour,
affording a memorable example of what one man's resolute energy may
accomplish in a moment of difficulty.

The journal continued to appear with regularity, though the printers
employed at the office lived in a state of daily peril. The
conspirators, finding themselves baffled, resolved upon trying another
game.  They contrived to have two of the men employed by Walter as
compositors apprehended as deserters from the Royal Navy.  The men were
taken before the magistrate; but the charge was only sustained by the
testimony of clumsy, perjured witnesses, and fell to the ground.  The
turn-outs next proceeded to assault the new hands, when Mr. Walter
resolved to throw around them the protection of the law.  By the advice
of counsel, he had twenty-one of the conspirators apprehended and
tried, and nineteen of them were found guilty and condemned to various
periods of imprisonment.  From that moment combination was at an end in
Printing House Square.

Mr. Walter's greatest achievement was his successful application of
steam power to newspaper printing.  Although he had greatly improved
the mechanical arrangements after he took command of the paper, the
rate at which the copies could be printed off remained almost
stationary.  It took a very long time indeed to throw off, by the
hand-labour of pressmen, the three or four thousand copies which then
constituted the ordinary circulation of The Times.  On the occasion of
any event of great public interest being reported in the paper, it was
found almost impossible to meet the demand for copies.  Only about 300
copies could be printed in the hour, with one man to ink the types and
another to work the press, while the labour was very severe.  Thus it
took a long time to get out the daily impression, and very often the
evening papers were out before The Times had half supplied the demand.

Mr. Walter could not brook the tedium of this irksome and laborious
process.  To increase the number of impressions, he resorted to various
expedients.  The type was set up in duplicate, and even in triplicate;
several Stanhope presses were kept constantly at work; and still the
insatiable demands of the newsmen on certain occasions could not be
met.  Thus the question was early forced upon his consideration,
whether he could not devise machinery for the purpose of expediting the
production of newspapers.  Instead of 300 impressions an hour, he
wanted from 1500 to 2000.  Although such a speed as this seemed quite
as chimerical as propelling a ship through the water against wind and
tide at fifteen miles an hour, or running a locomotive on a railway at
fifty, yet Mr. Walter was impressed with the conviction that a much
more rapid printing of newspapers was feasible than by the slow
hand-labour process; and he endeavoured to induce several ingenious
mechanical contrivers to take up and work out his idea.

The principle of producing impressions by means of a cylinder, and of
inking the types by means of a roller, was not new.  We have seen, in
the preceding memoir, that as early as 1790 William Nicholson had
patented such a method, but his scheme had never been brought into
practical operation.  Mr. Walter endeavoured to enlist Marc Isambard
Brunel--one of the cleverest inventors of the day--in his proposed
method of rapid printing by machinery; but after labouring over a
variety of plans for a considerable time, Brunel finally gave up the
printing machine, unable to make anything of it.  Mr. Walter next tried
Thomas Martyn, an ingenious young compositor, who had a scheme for a
self-acting machine for working the printing press.  He was supplied
with the necessary funds to enable him to prosecute his idea; but Mr.
Walter's father was opposed to the scheme, and when the funds became
exhausted, this scheme also fell to the ground.

As years passed on, and the circulation of the paper increased, the
necessity for some more expeditious method of printing became still
more urgent.  Although Mr. Walter had declined to enter into an
arrangement with Bensley in 1809, before Koenig had completed his
invention of printing by cylinders, it was different five years later,
when Koenig's printing machine was actually at work.  In the preceding
memoir, the circumstances connected with the adoption of the invention
by Mr. Walter are fully related; as well as the announcement made in
The Times on the 29th of November, 1814--the day on which the first
newspaper printed by steam was given to the world.

But Koenig's printing machine was but the beginning of a great new
branch of industry.  After he had left this country in disgust, it
remained for others to perfect the invention; although the ingenious
German was entitled to the greatest credit for having made the first
satisfactory beginning.  Great inventions are not brought forth at a
heat.  They are begun by one man, improved by another, and perfected by
a whole host of mechanical inventors.  Numerous patents were taken out
for the mechanical improvement of printing.  Donkin and Bacon contrived
a machine in 1813, in which the types were placed on a revolving prism.
One of them was made for the University of Cambridge, but it was found
too complicated; the inking was defective; and the project was
abandoned.

In 1816, Mr. Cowper obtained a patent (No.3974) entitled, "A Method of
Printing Paper for Paper Hangings, and Other Purposes."

The principal feature of this invention consisted in the curving or
bending of stereotype plates for the purpose of being printed in that
form.  A number of machines for printing in two colours, in exact
register, was made for the Bank of England, and four millions of One
Pound notes were printed before the Bank Directors determined to
abolish their further issue.  The regular mode of producing stereotype
plates, from plaster of Paris moulds, took so much time, that they
could not then be used for newspaper printing.

Two years later, in 1818, Mr. Cowper invented and patented (No. 4194)
his great improvements in printing.  It may be mentioned that he was
then himself a printer, in partnership with Mr. Applegath, his
brother-in-law.  His invention consisted in the perfect distribution of
the ink, by giving end motion to the rollers, so as to get a
distribution crossways, as well as lengthways.  This principle is at
the very foundation of good printing, and has been adopted in every
machine since made.  The very first experiment proved that the
principle was right.  Mr. Cowper was asked by Mr. Walter to alter
Koenig's machine at The Times office, so as to obtain good
distribution.  He adopted two of Nicholson's single cylinders and flat
formes of type.  Two "drums" were placed betwixt the cylinders to
ensure accuracy in the register,--over and under which the sheet was
conveyed in it s progress from one cylinder to the other,--the sheet
being at all times firmly held between two tapes, which bound it to the
cylinders and drums.  This is commonly called, in the trade, a
"perfecting machine;" that is, it printed the paper on both sides
simultaneously, and is still much used for "book-work," whilst single
cylinder machines are often used for provincial newspapers.

After this, Mr. Cowper designed the four cylinder machine for The
Times,--by means of which from 4000 to 5000 sheets could be printed
from one forme in the hour.  In 1823, Mr. Applegath invented an
improvement in the inking apparatus, by placing the distributing
rollers at an angle across the distributing table, instead of forcing
them endways by other means.

Mr. Walter continued to devote the same unremitting attention to his
business as before.  He looked into all the details, was familiar with
every department, and, on an emergency, was willing to lend a hand in
any work requiring more than ordinary despatch.

Thus, it is related of him that, in the spring of 1833, shortly after
his return to Parliament as Member for Berkshire, he was at The Times
office one day, when an express arrived from Paris, bringing the speech
of the King of the French on the opening of the Chambers.  The express
arrived at 10 A.M., after the day's impression of the paper had been
published, and the editors and compositors had left the office.  It was
important that the speech should be published at once; and Mr. Walter
immediately set to work upon it.  He first translated the document;
then, assisted by one compositor, he took his place at the type-case,
and set it up.  To the amazement of one of the staff, who dropped in
about noon, he "found Mr. Walter, M.P. for Berks, working in his
shirt-sleeves!"  The speech was set and printed, and the second edition
was in the City by one o'clock.  Had he not "turned to" as he did, the
whole expense of the express service would have been lost.  And it is
probable that there was not another man in the whole establishment who
could have performed the double work--intellectual and physical--which
he that day executed with his own head and hands.

Such an incident curiously illustrates his eminent success in life.  It
was simply the result of persevering diligence, which shrank from no
effort and neglected no detail; as well as of prudence allied to
boldness, but certainly not "of chance;" and, above all, of highminded
integrity and unimpeachable honesty.  It is perhaps unnecessary to add
more as to the merits of Mr. Walter as a man of enterprise in business,
or as a public man and a Member of Parliament.  The great work of his
life was the development of his journal, the history of which forms the
best monument to his merits and his powers.

The progressive improvement of steam printing machinery was not
affected by Mr. Walter's death, which occurred in 1847.  He had given
it an impulse which it never lost.  In 1846 Mr. Applegath patented
certain important improvements in the steam press.  The general
disposition of his new machine was that of a vertical cylinder 200
inches in circumference, holding on it the type and distributing
surfaces, and surrounded alternately by inking rollers and pressing
cylinders.  Mr. Applegath estimated in his specification that in his
new vertical system the machine, with eight cylinders, would print
about 10,000 sheets per hour.  The new printing press came into use in
1848, and completely justified the anticipations of its projector.

Applegath's machine, though successfully employed at The Times office,
did not come into general use.  It was, to a large extent, superseded
by the invention of Richard M. Hoe, of New York.  Hoe's process
consisted in placing the types upon a horizontal cylinder, against
which the sheets were pressed by exterior and smaller cylinders.  The
types were arranged in segments of a circle, each segment forming a
frame that could be fixed on the cylinder.  These printing machines
were made with from two to ten subsidiary cylinders.  The first presses
sent by Messrs. Hoe & Co. to this country were for Lloyd's Weekly
Newspaper, and were of the six-cylinder size.  These were followed by
two ten-cylinder machines, ordered by the present Mr. Walter, for The
Times.  Other English newspaper proprietors--both in London and the
provinces--were supplied with the machines, as many as thirty-five
having been imported from America between 1856 and 1862.  It may be
mentioned that the two ten-cylinder Hoes made for The Times were driven
at the rate of thirty-two revolutions per minute, which gives a
printing rate of 19,200 per hour, or about 16,000 including stoppages.