" 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. Cowper; by
Messrs. Hoe and Sons, of New York; and still later by the present
Mr. Walter of The Times, which have brought the art of machine
printing to an extraordinary degree of perfection and speed. But
the original merits of an invention are not to be determined by a
comparison of the first machine of the kind ever made with the
last, after some sixty years' experience and skill have been
applied in bringing it to perfection. Were the first condensing
engine made at Soho--now to be seen at the Museum in South
Kensington--in like manner to be compared with the last improved
pumping-engine made yesterday, even the great James Watt might be
made out to have been a very poor contriver. It would be much
fairer to compare Koenig's steam-printing machine with the
hand-press newspaper printing machine which it superseded.
Though there were steam engines before Watt, and steamboats
before Fulton, and steam locomotives before Stephenson, there
were no steam printing presses before Koenig with which to
compare them, Koenig's was undoubtedly the first, and stood
unequalled and alone.
The rest of Koenig's life, after he retired to Germany, was spent
in industry, if not in peace and quietness.
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