fice to it in a few years, yet others were eager to fill their stations; therefore this could not be assigned as an excuse for their (the machines) introduction."

The machine thus successfully set up was followed by others manufactured to order for various eminent printers in the metropolis. This course, and the concomitant practice of stereotyping popular or standard works, so alarmed the journeymen, that they set themselves against what they considered so inimical to the welfare of the trade; and, for a time, compositors and pressmen, countenanced by some of the master-printers, refused to work for those houses who had so daringly innovated on the old system. These feuds, which are now hap

pily forgotten, are alluded to, in the work already quoted, in a manner which cannot fail to excite surprise that a really ingenious mind could be so warped by prejudice, and so blinded by a false view of self-interest.

The flail-user may complain of the threshing-machine, and the sailmaker of the steam ship, because these latter inventions are, as it were, but the recent invasions of science upon the primitive modes of beating out corn and appointing vessels in this country; but the printing press in its rudest form was a machine substituted for manual labour, at a time when it was infinitely less easy than at present for a race of ingenious and even literate men to find their subsistence by a new employment: with how much reason the scriveners of the fifteenth century would deprecate the use of the new-fangled printing press we may easily conceive. It would be strange indeed, if the press, to the justly boasted liberty of which we are indebted so largely in all our scientific improvements, were to set itself exclusively against the enlargement of its own immense capabilities. Whatever cheapens knowledge deserves our applause, certainly not less than that which merely beautifies its exhibition. If literary and intellectual excellence had been at all conservated by the use of hand presses alone, or even had fine printing vanished on the introduction of machines, then there would have been good ground for the

complaint above quoted. The reverse, however, of both these issues has literally taken place. How different from the querulous apprehensions of Mr. Johnson are the sentiments of the excellent and learned Dr. Olinthus Gregory, in a lecture delivered by him before the Mechanics' Institution at Deptford, in 1826. Among other topics illustrative of the patronage afforded to the arts and sciences by the intelligence and enterprise of this country, the venerable lecturer directed the attention of his audience to "the case of Mr. König, a truly ingenious foreigner, and his invention of an improved printing press, in which, by duly blending the alternating and rotatory principles of motion, the apparatus is capable of working off 1100 sheets in an hour, with the superintendence of two boys. Tracing the history of his invention, of his difficulties, and of his want of encouragement, through the greater part of the continent of Europe, Mr. König says, 'I need hardly add, that scarcely ever was an invention brought to maturity under such circumstances. The well known fact, that almost every invention seeks, as it were, refuge in England, and is there brought to perfection, seems to indicate that the Continent has yet to learn from her the best manner of encouraging the mechanical arts. I had my full share in the ordinary disappointments of continental projectors; and, after having spent in Germany and Russia upwards of two years in fruitless applications, I proceeded to England.'

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"What could not be accomplished by the encouragement of princes on the Continent," proceeds Dr. Gregory, was effected by the aid of private individuals in London. A few enterprising printers, and their names cannot be mentioned but with honour on such an occasion; Mr. Thomas Bensley, Mr. George Woodfall, and Mr. Richard Taylor,-liberally assisted this ingenious foreigner in bringing his invention to maturity. The machine was set to work in April, 1811, and 3000 copies of sheet H of the New Annual Register for 1810,' were printed by means of it. This was, doubtless, the first part of a book ever printed solely by a machine.

Messrs. Bacon and Donkin were, it is true, simultaneously at work upon analogous contrivances; and, since then, other ingenious artists, especially Applegath and Cowper, have contributed greatly to the simplification of this class of machinery.”

In the earliest attempt to substitute rollers for verti➡ cal pressure in type printing, the most plausible idea as to practicability was, as we have already seen, suggested by Mr. Nicholson, namely, the making of the types to stand together in the segment of a circle on the surface of a cylinder, like the stones which form an arch. With loose types, as must be at once apparent, this ingenious scheme was in reality impracticable. It led, however, to the curving of stereotype plates for the purpose of fixing them on a cylinder, for which, in 1815, Mr. Cowper obtained a patent. Machines constructed in this way were found capable of printing 1000 sheets per hour on both sides, and twelve of them were at one time made for the use of the Bank of England. The final improvement, however, resulted from the invention of König already mentioned, and which consisted in taking the impression, by means of rollers, from the table or form of types lying in a horizontal position, as in the common press.

The perspective view (fig. 70.) of what has long been known as Applegath and Cowper's machine, here presented to the reader, is derived from an engraving prefixed to the substance of a lecture on the recent improvements in printing, delivered by Mr. Edward Cowper, at the Royal Institution, February 22. 1828. This interesting memoir exhibits succinctly the steps by which the machine was brought to its present state of perfection, and, at the same time, presents a candid review of the exertions and success of other inventors having the same object. Before we proceed to describe the engraving, it may be interesting to remark, on the authority of this do cument, that Applegath and Cowper have constructed upwards of seventy of these expensive machines upon their combined patents, modified in twenty-five different ways, for the various purposes of printing books, news

papers, bank notes, &c.

Some idea of the simplification

in the structure of the apparatus now in use, may be

formed from the fact, that not fewer than forty wheels were removed from König's machine, when Mr. Bensley employed Messrs. Applegath and Cowper to apply their improvements. It need hardly be intimated to the intelligent reader, that in a machine of so much complexity, it would be impossible to represent every minute part in an engraving, or so to describe them as not to produce confusion. All that can be done, therefore, with advantage, will be, with the assistance of the foregoing perspective view, and the annexed section, to describe generally the more prominent parts, and the actual operation of the machine. The section is taken from the opposite side of the machine to that exhibited in the perspective delineation. A (fig. 71.) shows the supply of blank paper, laid upon

a table, from whence the sheets are drawn, one by one, by the boy standing upon the platform, and who lays them out upon