It
is perhaps unnecessary to add more as to the merits of Mr. Walter
as a man of enterprise in business, or as a public man and a
Member of Parliament. The great work of his life was the
development of his journal, the history of which forms the best
monument to his merits and his powers.
The progressive improvement of steam printing machinery was not
affected by Mr. Walter's death, which occurred in 1847. He had
given it an impulse which it never lost. In 1846 Mr. Applegath
patented certain important improvements in the steam press. The
general disposition of his new machine was that of a vertical
cylinder 200 inches in circumference, holding on it the type and
distributing surfaces, and surrounded alternately by inking
rollers and pressing cylinders. Mr. Applegath estimated in his
specification that in his new vertical system the machine, with
eight cylinders, would print about 10,000 sheets per hour. The
new printing press came into use in 1848, and completely
justified the anticipations of its projector.
Applegath's machine, though successfully employed at The Times
office, did not come into general use. It was, to a large
extent, superseded by the invention of Richard M. Hoe, of New
York. Hoe's process consisted in placing the types upon a
horizontal cylinder, against which the sheets were pressed by
exterior and smaller cylinders.
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