DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 34 ) race being Henry Crabbe Robinson. But the direction in which he displayed his abilities most usefully of all was in promoting improvements in the printing-press. This, again, was effected by a German, one Frederic Keenig, a native of Saxony, who, with Walter’s enterprising aid, invented the first printing-press that was worked by steam. Walter adopted Keenig’s machine, and after two years’ experiments, on the 29th November, 1814, he held in his hand the first sheet of the Times printed by steam. The effects of this daring imno- vation were soon apparent, the improvement of the process of printing went forward by leaps and bounds, and when John Walter died in 1847 he was not only a famous but a wealthy man. In 1862 the Times was printed at the rate of 8000 copies an hour; while in 1814 when Keenig’s machine turned out 1100 copies in that time it was considered a work of magic. Under the present and third Mr. Walter the Walter Press has been so perfected that it will give off 17,000 complete impressions in an hour ; and by multiplying these presses, the whole issue of the Times, which is put down at 80,000, is printed in less than two hours every morning. This press is at once simple and compact. A large reel covered with a continuous roll of paper revolves at one end, at the other the printed sheets