Born on April 17, 1774, in Eisleben in central Germany, nothing seemed to predestine Friedrich Gottlob Koenig from a farming family to a career in printing. Particularly gifted in mathematics and mechanics, he chose to apprentice from 1790 to 1795 with the Leipzig printer Breitkopf & Härtel. As the story goes, he left the firm dreaming of inventing a machine to facilitate the work of printers, a dream that years later made him the forerunner of industrial printing.
Since Gutenberg, printing has always been a craft, with manual presses producing 200 to 250 copies per hour, unchanged since the 15th century. In order to achieve slightly higher print runs for daily newspapers, printers had to use several presses at the same time.
In 1803, in Suhl, Friedrich Koenig developed his first printing press, a manually operated machine with an automatic inking system. This innovation received no support in Germany, as the country was not yet ready for an industrial revolution. Nevertheless, Friedrich Koenig needed capital to develop his machine and set off for Great Britain, a country in full industrial development. In London, he met his future patron: Thomas Bensley, an English printer, and signed a contract with him on November 30, 1807, covering the development of his machine.
When Koenig met Bauer...
Friedrich Koenig found a partner in Andreas Bauer, a German precision mechanic he had met in London. On March 29, 1810, the two men patented the first steam-powered printing press.
In 1812, at the presentation of a cylinder press with a 400-sheet-per-hour output, John Walter, founder of the Times . Two years later, on the night of November 28, 1814, the Times is printed at the then unbelievable speed of 1,100 sheets per hour on the steam-powered double-cylinder press invented especially for the British newspaper by Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer.
With this press, which mechanically performed operations previously carried out by hand, the industrialization of printing was initiated. The two inventors wanted to move into mass production, but Thomas Bensley, fearing competition, opposed the project.
Friedrich Koenig returned to Germany in 1817, bought a monastery in Oberzell, near Würzburg, and founded the Koenig & Bauer rapid press factory with Andrea Bauer on August 9 of the same year. As for the rest of the story, it's been 207 years in the making...
