The first person who publicly projected a self-acting printing-press,
was Mr. William Nicholson, the able editor of the Philosophical Journal,
who obtained a patent in 1790-1, for imposing types upon a cylindrical
surface; this disposition of types, plates, and blocks, being a new
invention (see _fig._ 913.); 2, for applying the ink upon the surface of
the types, &c., by causing the surface of a cylinder smeared with the
colouring-matter to roll over them; or else causing the types to apply
themselves to the said cylinder. For the purpose of spreading the ink
evenly over this cylinder, he proposed to apply three or more
distributing rollers longitudinally against the inking cylinder, so that
they might be turned by the motion of the latter. 3. “I perform,” he
says, “_all my impressions by the action_ of a cylinder, or cylindrical
surface; that is, I cause the paper to pass between two cylinders, one
of which has the form of types attached to it, and forming part of its
surface; and the other is faced with cloth, and serves to press the
paper so as to take off an impression of the colour previously applied;
or otherwise I cause the form of types, previously coloured, to pass in
close and successive contact with the paper wrapped round a cylinder
with woollen.” (See _figs._ 913. and 914.)[46]
[46] The black parts in these little diagrams, 913-922, indicate the
inking apparatus; the diagonal lines, the cylinders upon which the
paper to be printed is applied; the perpendicular lines, the plates or
types; and the arrows show the track pursued by the sheet of paper.
In this description Mr. Nicholson indicates pretty plainly the principal
parts of modern printing machines; and had he paid the same attention to
any one part of his invention which he fruitlessly bestowed upon
attempts to attach types to a cylinder, or had he bethought himself of
curving stereotype plates, which were then beginning to be talked of, he
would in all probability have realized a working apparatus, instead of
scheming merely ideal plans.
The first operative printing machine was undoubtedly contrived by, and
constructed under the direction of, M. König, a clockmaker from Saxony,
who, so early as the year 1804, was occupied in improving
printing-presses. Having failed to interest the continental printers in
his views, he came to London soon after that period, and submitted his
plans to Mr. T. Bensley, our celebrated printer, and to Mr. R. Taylor,
now one of the editors of the Philosophical Magazine.
These gentlemen afforded Mr. König and his assistant Bauer, a German
mechanic, liberal pecuniary support. In 1811, he obtained a patent for a
method of working a common hand-press by power; 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 the 28th November
1814, in completing 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.
[Illustration: 915