Nearly two years
elapsed before the press was ready for work. Great as was the
secrecy with which the operations were conducted, the pressmen of
The Times office obtained some inkling of what was going on, and
they vowed vengeance to the foreign inventor who threatened their
craft with destruction. There was, however, always this
consolation: every attempt that had heretofore been made to print
newspapers in any other way than by manual labour had proved an
utter failure!
At length the day arrived when the first newspaper steam-press
was ready for use. The pressmen were in a state of great
excitement, for they knew by rumour that the machine of which
they had so long been apprehensive was fast approaching
completion. One night they were told to wait in the press-room,
as important news was expected from abroad. At six o'clock in
the morning of the 29th November, 1814, Mr. Walter, who had been
watching the working of the machine all through the night,
suddenly appeared among the pressmen, and announced that "The
Times is already printed by steam!" Knowing that the pressmen
had vowed vengeance against the inventor and his invention, and
that they had threatened "destruction to him and his traps," he
informed them that if they attempted violence, there was a force
ready to suppress it; but that if they were peaceable, their
wages should be continued to every one of them until they could
obtain similar employment.
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