Industrial arts -- Biography; Inventors -- Biography
"The machine of which we announced the discovery and our adoption a few
days ago, has been whirling on its course ever since, with improving
order, regularity, and even speed. The length of the debates on
Thursday, the day when Parliament was adjourned, will have been
observed; on such an occasion the operation of composing and printing
the last page must commence among all the journals at the same moment;
and starting from that moment, we, with our infinitely superior
circulation, were enabled to throw off our whole impression many hours
before the other respectable rival prints. The accuracy and clearness
of the impression will likewise excite attention.
"We shall make no reflections upon those by whom this wonderful
discovery has been opposed,--the doubters and unbelievers,--however
uncharitable they may have been to us; were it not that the efforts of
genius are always impeded by drivellers of this description, and that
we owe it to such men as Mr. Koenig and his Friend, and all future
promulgators of beneficial inventions, to warn them that they will have
to contend with everything that selfishness and conceited ignorance can
devise or say; and if we cannot clear their way before them, we would
at least give them notice to prepare a panoply against its dirt and
filth.
"There is another class of men from whom we receive dark and anonymous
threats of vengeance if we persevere in the use of this machine. These
are the Pressmen. They well know, at least should well know, that such
menace is thrown away upon us. There is nothing that we will not do to
assist and serve those whom we have discharged. They themselves can
seethe greater rapidity and precision with which the paper is printed.
What right have they to make us print it slower and worse for their
supposed benefit? A little reflection, indeed, would show them that it
is neither in their power nor in ours to stop a discovery now made, if
it is beneficial to mankind; or to force it down if it is useless. They
had better, therefore, acquiesce in a result which they cannot alter;
more especially as there will still be employment enough for the old
race of pressmen, before the new method obtains general use, and no new
ones need be brought up to the business; but we caution them seriously
against involving themselves and their families in ruin, by becoming
amenable to the laws of their country. It has always been matter of
great satisfaction to us to reflect, that we encountered and crushed
one conspiracy; and we should be sorry to find our work half done.
"It is proper to undeceive the world in one particular; that is, as to
the number of men discharged. We in fact employ only eight fewer
workmen than formerly; whereas more than three times that number have
been employed for a year and a half in building the machine."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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