Friedrich Koenig
Friedrich Koenig was a Genius! If you visit either KBA’s Würzburg headquarters or the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, you will see just how advanced – and complicated his now famous “The Times” press (of 1814) is. With a 19th century fledgling printing industry laboring with only brute force, Koenig created a massive advancement tantamount to replacing a composing stick with an Apple computer. I was stunned when I saw it. Such brilliance in a press that was the first to not only have a cylinder but also endless tapes to feed a sheet. But the most incredible feature was how Koenig worked out the system with cams and gears to stop and start the cylinder and keep register to a moving bed. What may be even more stunning is how long it took afterwards for his concepts to become common-place. All powered not by a man but by steam! Koenig’s creation would hasten the development of newspapers – making them cheaper and more available while spurring mankind’s knowledge with the spreading of ideas.
2017 marks an incredible milestone for Germany’s Koenig & Bauer AG. KBA is the world’s second largest printing equipment manufacturer and whose roots begin in England not Germany. In fact in the earliest part of the 19th century Germany, as we know it today, didn’t even exist.
One can only imagine KBA’s path to this 200th anniversary celebration had plenty of potholes and fallen trees along the way. From a heart wrenching history of suffering, failures and double-crossing to ultimate salvation and success and that’s only while the founder Friedrich Koenig was alive! KBA has much to boast and we in the industry have a great deal to thank them for. But it’s the London years that should be retold.
All roads led to England in the earliest part of the 19th century. James Watt’s invention of the steam engine (in 1769), not only unleashed new thinking in the trade houses of Great Britain but stimulated thoughts and ideas from all sorts of manufacturing industries that relied on manpower, waterfalls or animals to drive their machines. Watts’s invention caught fire all over Europe. This was the time of the Industrial Revolution and men were thinking about how they could use “steam” to lift the burdens of manual labor.
Friedrich Koenig was born in 1774 in the Saxon town of Eisleben. Eisleben was most famous as the home of Martin Luther. After schooling he entered an apprenticeship in a printing shop, then returned to University to study Mathematics and mechanics. Afterword Koenig tried his luck running both a bookstore and a printing shop. Both were unsuccessful.
It was not until Koenig relocated to Suhl (state of Thuringia) that he began experiments using steam power to operate a faster printing press. Koenig had an incredible idea! Up until 1803 print shops were still using the rudimentary wooden presses almost identical to Gutenberg in 1450. By 1799 Lord Stanhope had fashioned the first successful all iron hand press and the famous George Clymer Columbian was still years away. The printing industry was primitive with basic screw and wood hand presses. Being a printer in those days was a lot of hard work. No one had the foresight of Koenig.
A wooden prototype was constructed in Suhl, but was ultimately a failure. Not deterred, Koenig wrote out a description of his ideas and sent prospectuses off to all the leading printers in Europe and Russia.
The Times press, 1814
With poor response Koenig decided to try his luck in the most advanced country on earth. England was ground zero for advanced engineering and also patents could be easily obtained. Fortuitously Koenig managed to arrive only one day before Napoleon’s blockade of the channel and on November 20, 1806 he stepped foot on English soil.
To make ends meet Koenig worked in a book shop and as a printer. It was on March 31, 1807 in order to get financing for his project, Koenig struck his deal with the devil. One of England’s most prestigious printers was a Mr. Thomas Bensley. Koenig caught Bensley’s interest with his ideas and formed a partnership with him. In part the contract read:
“Mr. Koenig has stated in the particulars he has delivered to Mr. Bensley, signed with his name, he shall enter into a legal Engagement to purchase the Secret from Mr. Koenig”.
With Koenig hard at work it was Bensley’s job to hunt for prospects and newspapers of the day was a very good start.
Mr. John Walter Jr. owned the venerable The Times newspaper. Walter himself was an educated and inquisitive man and progressive when it came to utilizing new technologies for his paper. In fact back in 1804 Walter had himself entered into an agreement with a Thomas Martyn who was a printer in Golden lane (London), to finance the building of four new presses “by which manual labour in printing will be rendered nearly unnecessary”. There were stipulations on Martyn that these presses were for the exclusive use of The Times. After wasting £1,482 (£138,000 in today’s money), on Martyn’s “Self Acting Press” Walter killed the project. So it seemed prudent for Bensley to approach Walter.
On August 9, 1809 Bensley wrote to Koenig:
“Having occasion to leave town for the remainder of this week, I made a point of calling upon Mr. Walter yesterday, who I am sorry to say declines our proposition altogether”
The rejection by Walter forced Bensley to bring in additional financial partners and form a syndicate. The partnership now included Thomas Bensley, printer of Bolt Court, Fleet Street, Frederick Koenig, printer of Castle Street, Finsbury Square, George Woodfall, printer, Sea Coal Lane, Ludgate Circus and Richard Taylor, printer, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street. None could offer anything more than money to the enterprise except Koenig who himself had invested all his savings.
1809 is the year that we first hear of Andreas Bauer. A very well educated man, Bauer held master’s degrees in mathematics and natural sciences. But he too had arrived in London now well rounded with his further training as an optical instrument maker. Bauer first met Koenig in 1805 but became business partners only in 1809. The two formed a close bond right from their first meeting and began collaborating on Koenig’s invention.
By March 1810 Koenig’s first platen press was issued a British patent. In April 1811 the press was used for the first time to print a trial run of the Annual Register (3,000 copies). This was to be the first job ever printed on a mechanical (steam) press and ran a sprightly 400 sheets per hour. Unheard of at the time.
By December 1812 Koenig’s second machine – now for the very first time a cylinder and bed construction, was completed. It ran Clarkson’s Life of Penn. Patents on this design were granted July 20, 1813. With the secret press Set up at Koenig’s workshop in Whitecross Street, Koenig invited a Mr. Perry, the owner of the Morning Chronicle, and for the second time Mr. Walter of The Times. Perry thought the visit a waste of time and declined but Walter on the insistence of his colleague Peter Fraser, did come. On witnessing Koenig’s phenomenal machine in action a shocked Walter quickly realized what a leap it was and subsequently agreed to purchase two presses from the Bensley/Koenig syndicate.
Construction on the Times machines continued in secret in Whitecross Street. Andreas Bauer, now Koenig’s manager and chief mechanic had each of his employees bound by a stamped confidentiality fidelity-bond of £100 each. A sizable amount.
By March 30, 1813 the syndicate and Walter had a signed contract. The agreement describes the goods as:
“Printing by means of Machinery, two double machines of sufficient dimensions and capable of printing sheets 35 ½ inches in length by 22 inches in breadth, the letter press occupying to within one inch of the length and breadth thereof. Price £1,100 each with additionally two steam engines of two horse power - £250 each”
Additionally Walter was to have a 14 year exclusive agreement on the technology (save allowing the syndicate rights to sell machines for printing the Clarendon Bible and use by Government Printing Office) But – should the machines NOT produce 1,100 sheets per hour (550 sheets per machine), then Walter had the right to terminate the contract and get his money back.
As time went on Koenig was busy making parts for his presses and as they were completed he delivered them to a special building owned by Walter near The Times at Printing House Square. All done in secret or so it seemed at first until The Times compositors caught wind of what was happening and demonstrated. The compositors feared that some would lose their jobs as the composing of duplicate pages would not be necessary. The rebellion was quashed by Walter and he himself was on hand the now famous night of November 28 1814 to oversee the very first issue printed on Koenig’s marvelous press.
By six o’clock in the morning of the 29th Walter walked into the main Times pressroom holding up a copy of the paper to stunned pressman. He shouted out this now famous line; “The Times is already printed – by Steam!” In that issue the lead story was the new press and how its effects would change the course of printing forever. Of significance it also mentioned both Koenig and Bauer by name.
Various revisions of the original Times contract culminated with terms that would ultimately seal Koenig’s fate in England and usher forth competition from English engineers. In essence the revised November 19, 1816 agreement lifted all restrictions upon Walter to use anyone he wished to work on or repair the Koenig presses. Furthermore the revision restricted the patentees from selling similar machines to any morning papers for less than £1,000 each. These roadblocks would hamper Koenig and he was dejected and heartbroken at what he saw as a betrayal by his now chief partner Bensley (who negotiated the deal) to relegate him to the sidelines. For Bensley he was not restricted to use the Koenig machines himself and although Walter’s revised contract stipulated payments (to Walter), if the Koenig press was sold to other papers Bensley refused to allow Koenig to do so!
Koenig and Bauer ad for a web press, 1890s
There was seemingly nothing more the two Germans could do in England. Totally dejected, on August 9 1817 Koenig and Bauer while still in London, put pen to paper and formalized their partnership establishing a new company: Koenig & Bauer. The very next day Koenig left England for good and settled in an unused Monastery in Oberzell just outside Würzburg in Bavaria. Less than a year later Bauer would join him, bringing along two English lathes, some tools and an English mechanic-fitter.
Of course Bensley now had the opportunity to take all the credit as well as profit by selling his direct copy of Koenig’s press. In an article of the Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres dated January 3, 1818, the editors wrote:
“It may also be interesting to our readers to know, that, commencing with the present number, this Journal will be printed by Messrs. Bensley’s patent machine, an inventive improvement in the art of printing, which reflects honour on the present age, and exhibits a proof of the progress of the art of ingenious mechanism in this country”
Establishing the new factory in southern Germany became an exhausting undertaking for not only was Koenig & Bauer the first Saxon printing machinery manufacturer but also the very first machine factory in Bavaria. It is said that most raw materials still had to be imported from England and there was virtually no skilled labor. Koenig wrote Walter in December 1818 and complained about the difficulties in finding talent and materials to supply Walter’s spares requirements. He also wrote about his troubles with Bensley;
“My way goes up hill, owing principally to Bensley, who has bilked me completely. Yet, I am gaining grounds, and perhaps, I may still have the sad satisfaction of dying rich, after having lived poor”.
The problems of re-starting their business in what was then a backward country opened the door for Walter to seek help from others. William Cowper and his brother-in-law Ambrose Applegath would benefit the most by Koenig’s genius. The two took out patents citing another Englishman: William Nicholson’s never realized patent to skirt Koenig’s own patents, and in the same year brought forth an improved version of Koenig’s press while ushering in a new age of the British steam powered printing press. Nicholson has often been referenced as a “father” of the drum and bed concept. In 1790 he had applied and received a British patent but never acted on or applied it. Nicholson was ignored and certainly Koenig had never gleaned any concepts he later put in place. British historian James Moran described the Nicholson ideas as “insufficient and superficial”.
By 1827, Cowper and Applegath, constructed a new “Multiple Machine with Four Cylinders” which was delivering an astounding 4,000 sheets per hour at The Times of London. The ideas of which they based their press were Koenig’s and not Nicholson’s. This deliberate slight in not citing a previous art, (Koenig’s) was a sad testament to Koenig’s brilliance and may have even hastened his death at only 59. After all Koenig was a German. There was little respect by the English for anything and anyone who wasn’t English. Through all of this Koenig & Bauer never brought suit from the English courts. Had they done so perhaps Justice would have prevailed?
Koenig and Bauer went on to great things as we know. The German factory continued developments and concentrated sales all over Europe. They continued in invent and bring new presses to market. But the deceit and difficulties in England would never be forgotten by either partner. The injustice was so acute that even by 1851, when Britain held its “Great Exhibition” at London’s famed Crystal Palace, Andreas Bauer refused to attend and display his machinery. Koenig is credited with three milestone technologies: connecting a printing press to a steam engine, using tapes to feed a sheet to the cylinder, and finally using a cylinder instead of a platen. Koenig subsequently modified his press further with an additional cylinder to be the first to “perfect” or print both sides of the sheet in one printing.
However, in the monumental first edition of The Times printed on Koenig’s press, there was some solace in the following passage:
“So is the best tribute of praise, which we are capable of offering to the inventor of the printing machine, comprised in the preceding description, which we have feebly sketched, of the powers and utility of his invention. It must suffice to say farther, that he is a Saxon by birth; that his name is Koenig; and that the invention has been executed under the direction of his friend and countryman Bauer”.
Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer would end up winning the war.
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