Mr. Clowes would not hesitate, in the height of his career, to
have tons of type locked up for months in some ponderous
blue-book. To print a report of a hundred folio pages in the
course of a day or during a night, or of a thousand pages in a
week, was no uncommon occurrence. From his gigantic
establishment were turned out not fewer than 725,000 printed
sheets, or equal to 30,000 volumes a week. Nearly 45,000 pounds
of paper were printed weekly. The quantity printed on both sides
per week, if laid down in a path of 22 1/4 inches broad, would
extend 263 miles in length.
About the year l840, a Polish inventor brought out a composing
machine, and submitted it to Mr. Clowes for approval. But Mr.
Clowes was getting too old to take up and push any new invention.
He was also averse to doing anything to injure the compositors,
having once been a member of the craft. At the same time he said
to his son George, "If you find this to be a likely machine, let
me know. Of course we must go with the age. If I had not
started the steam press when I did, where should I have been
now?" On the whole, the composing machine, though ingenious, was
incomplete, and did not come into use at that time, nor indeed
for a long time after. Still, the idea had been born, and, like
other inventions, became eventually developed into a useful
working machine. Composing machines are now in use in many
printing-offices, and the present Clowes' firm possesses several
of them.
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