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.
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