At length the workshop was fitted up, the old barn of the
monastery being converted into an iron foundry.
Orders for printing machines were gradually obtained. The first
came from Brockhaus, of Leipzig. By the end of the fourth year
two other single-cylinder machines were completed and sent to
Berlin, for use in the State printing office. By the end of the
eighth year seven double-cylinder steam presses had been
manufactured for the largest newspaper printers in Germany. The
recognised excellence of Koenig and Bauer's book-printing
machines--their perfect register, and the quality of the work
they turned out--secured for them an increasing demand, and by
the year 1829 the firm had manufactured fifty-one machines for
the leading book printers throughout Germany. The Oberzell
manufactory was now in full work, and gave regular employment to
about 120 men.
A period of considerable depression followed. As was the case in
England, the introduction of the printing machine in Germany
excited considerable hostility among the pressmen. In some of
the principal towns they entered into combinations to destroy
them, and several printing machines were broken by violence and
irretrievably injured. But progress could not be stopped; the
printing machine had been fairly born, and must eventually do its
work for mankind. These combinations, however, had an effect for
a time.
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