Beschreibung
The Anunal Register, 52-55. - London: Printed for W. Otridge and Son; .; Printed by T. Bensly, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, London, 1812, 8°, (16), 765 pp., 1 Tab., rebacked half leather; enclosed the years 1811-1813. 'PRINCIPAL OCCURRENCES' of Machine Printing! In April 1811 the sheet (H) of the Annual Register for 1810 (edition 3000) was printed with this press, certainly the first part of a book, which ever was printed by a machine." "After arriving in London, Koenig had difficulty finding printers interested in his ideas, eventually however, he was introduced to Thomas Bensley, a book printer of Bolt Court, Fleet Street. Bensley was receptive to the ideas of Koenig and, on the 30th November, 1807 they put their signatures to a business agreement. Koenig's original plan was confined to his 'improved' powered hand press, where the operation of applying the ink to the type was performed by rollers connected to the motions of the bed, thereby saving the labour of one person, known as the dabber or beater. With the continuing refinement, versatility and availability of the steam engine - particularly in England, it was decided this rotary motion could be best used to power the machine. Whilst Koenig was thus engaged, he was joined by fellow countryman and good friend, Andreas F. Bauer (1783-1860), a clever mechanician (some sources say watchmaker) and eventual partner. Together, these two proceeded to pool their ideas, and to construct the first actual printing machine powered by steam. A patent was taken out 29th march, 1810. The specifications stated in part: 'A machine with impression by a platen, in which the printing was produced by two plain plates just like in the common press.' The machine was finally set to work in april, 1811 and printed off 3,000 copies of sheet (H) of the Annual Register for 1810, 'Principal Occurrences.' This was, in Koenig's words 'no doubt, the first part of a book ever printed with a machine'. The press is said to have worked at the rate of 400 impressions per hour, a modest improvement on the hand press; he continued to make improvements until he finally realized that it could advance no further technically. "By 1810 Koenig had designed a mechanised iron press, closely related to his first Suhl machine, which was easily capable of producing as many as 800 sheets an hour, well over the 300 stipulated in his contract. Apart from feeding and removing sheets of paper, the machine was fully automatic, though the inking mechanism was less than satisfactory. It was patented on 29 March 1810 (BP 3321); no doubt the description of the millwork, which occupied a greater part of the specification, led to the misnaming of the machine as a 'steampress'. Koenig had completely fulfilled his contract, as was demonstrated in April 1811 when 3000 copies of one signature (H) of the Annual Register were run off the original machine standing in Bensley's Bolt Court office." "By then Koenig could already see that the machine was a deadend, since the replication of the historic handpress's vertical motion prohibited any further increase in the impression rate. Possibly inspired by the ink-rolling mechanism he had devised, by which ink was injected by piston on to several vertical cylinders which distributed it over the form, Koenig speculated that still higher rates of impression could be achieved if the paper was brought into contact with the moving form of type on its horizontal bed by means of a rotating cylinder." W H Brock & A.J. Meadows: The Lamp of Learning: Taylor & Francis And Two Centuries of Publishing (2003), pp.68 Thomas Bensley (1759-1835) was an English printer known for fine work, and as a collaborator of Friedrich Koenig. He was an innovator in the fields of steam-powered printing presses, and lithography for book illustration. Bensley, the son of a printer in The Strand, had printing premises at Bolt Court, off Fleet Street in London, and William . Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 59223
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