This proved satisfactory so far, and
he proceeded to distribute several copies of the newspaper
amongst them--the first newspaper printed by steam! That paper
contained the following memorable announcement:--
"Our Journal of this day presents to the Public the practical
result of the greatest improvement connected with printing since
the discovery of the art itself. The reader of this paragraph
now holds in his hand one of the many thousand impressions of The
Times newspaper which were taken off last night by a mechanical
apparatus. A system of machinery almost organic has been devised
and arranged, which, while it relieves the human frame of its
most laborious' efforts in printing, far exceeds all human powers
in rapidity and dispatch. That the magnitude of the invention
may be justly appreciated by its effects, we shall inform the
public, that after the letters are placed by the compositors, and
enclosed in what is called the forme, little more remains for man
to do than to attend upon and to watch this unconscious agent in
its operations. The machine is then merely supplied with paper:
itself places the forme, inks it, adjusts the paper to the forme
newly inked, stamps the sheet, and gives it forth to the hands of
the attendant, at the same time withdrawing the forme for a fresh
coat of ink, which itself again distributes, to meet the ensuing
sheet now advancing for impression; and the whole of these
complicated acts is performed with such a velocity and
simultaneousness of movement, that no less than 1100 sheets are
impressed in one hour.
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