At last
he was attracted by a specially interesting spot at Oberzell on
the Main, near Wurzburg. It was an old disused convent of the
Praemonstratensian monks. The place was conveniently situated
for business, being nearly in the centre of Germany. The
Bavarian Government, desirous of giving encouragement to so
useful a genius, granted Koenig the use of the secularised
monastery on easy terms; and there accordingly he began his
operations in the course of the following year. Bauer soon
joined him, with an order from Mr. Walter for an improved Times
machine; and the two men entered into a partnership which lasted
for life.
The partners had at first great difficulties to encounter in
getting their establishment to work. Oberzell was a rural
village, containing only common labourers, from whom they had to
select their workmen. Every person taken into the concern had to
be trained and educated to mechanical work by the partners
themselves. With indescribable patience they taught these
labourers the use of the hammer, the file, the turning-lathe, and
other tools, which the greater number of them had never before
seen, and of whose uses they were entirely ignorant. The
machinery of the workshop was got together with equal difficulty
piece by piece, some of the parts from a great distance,--the
mechanical arts being then at a very low ebb in Germany, which
was still suffering from the effects of the long continental war.
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