ithout 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.