In 1816 Koenig added a perfector to The Times of London steam power press, allowing the press to print almost as many copies on both sides of the sheet on one pass through the press as had been previously printed on one side only. By 1818 Koenig's steam power press achieved an output of 2400 impressions per hour.
Thomas Bensley's steam-powered Koenig press was first used to print a weekly magazine beginning with the January 3, 1818 issue of The Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Politics, Etc. The publishers featured the introduction of the new technology in the top center column of the first page of the issue:
"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. In this respect our Journal will enjoy an advantage over all other weekly papers, being the first ever printed by a steam-engine, and we shall thus be enabled to published at a very early hour on the Saturday morning."
In their issue published one week later on January 10, 1818 the editors of the same journal included the following article on p. 23
"The Patent Completing Printing Machine.
"In our last number, we mentioned, that the Literary Gazette was the only Journal in the world printed by this most admirable machine; and as a mattter of extraordinary mechanical interest we subjoin a brief account of the process by which about a thousand of these large sheets are per hour produced by this magical invention. The beauty of the movements, their rapidity, their precision are enhanced to the imagination by the nature of the operation they perform: it looks as if mind and not matter were at work. We see a boy lay a white sheet of paper upon the web (here described), and while we tell three it is received by another boy, as flour comes from the mill, a perfect newspaper, printed on both sides, with a degree of unequalled force, clearness, and correctness. A more gratifying scene, than the action of this piece of mechanism, it is impossible to conceive; it seems the very climax of human ingenuity, and if ever a thing of the kind merited public admiration and acknowledgement, we hesitate not to say, that it is this wonderful apparatus. Printed in the house where Samuel Johnson lived and died, by a Machine as curious and unique as his endowments were stupendous and unrivalled; the Literary Gazette now presents at least two incidental attractions in addition to those which have been already honoured with such cheering encouragement.
"We beg to request the notice of our readers to our page as a specmen of the art of printing by the singular means devised and perfected as is below explained.
"About ten years ago Mr. Bensley was applied to by Mr. König, a Saxon, who submitted to him proposals for joining him in the prosecution of a plan for improving the common printing press, which consisted chiefly in moving the press by machinery, by which the labour of one man might be saved. A press was formed on this plan, but the result was so unsatisfactory as to induce the rejection of it altogether. It will readily be conceived that this resolution was not taken till after numberless experiments had rendered the prospect of success hopeless. The idea of cylindical impression now presented itself, which had been attempted by others without success; and a machine on this construction was completed, after encountering great difficulties, at the close of the year 1812. It may be proper here to introduce an outline of its operation.
The form (i.e. the composed types) is placed on a carriage or coffin, which is constantly passing under the inking cylinders, obtain a coat of ink in its ingress and egress; these cylinders have a lateral and rotatory motion, for the purpose of equalizing the ink before it is communicated to the form. After the form is thoroughly inked, it passes under the printing cylinder, on which the paper is laid, where it receives the impression, and thence delivers itself into the hands of the boy who waits to receive it. This is termed a Single Machine; by the assistance of two boys it prints 750 sheets on one side per hour. As despatch, however, is of the utmost importance to a newspaper, it was deemed advisable to construct what is called a Double Machine. This differs in no respect from that above described, excepting the addition of a second printing cylinder, by which means with the assistance of four boys, 1100 sheets are printed within the hour on one side. The Machines used for printing the Times newspaper are on this plan, and have now been constantly in use since November 1814. After the Times' Machines were constructed the grander improvement of the Completing Machine was suggested, so called from its delivering the sheet printed on both sides. It has a double inking and printing apparatus, with two carriages or coffins, each large enough to admit a double demy form 34 1/2 by 21 inches. The paper is laid on an endless web, called the feeder, which revolves at intervals; thence the sheet passes into the Machine, and is ejected in a few seconds printed on both sides. By this means 900 sheets are struck off in an hour, printed on both sides, or 1800 impressions; if the double sized paper be used, 3600 single impressions. Two boys and an overlooker are all the assistance requisite, and a steam engine of one-horse power is sufficient force to impel it.
"The Patentees must feel a just pride in the completion of such an ardous undertaking, after so many years of labour and expense; and it is not the least grafifying circumstance attending it, to consider that in England so important an invention has been matured, which had been previously rejected by all the principal cities on the continent; for the inventor (Mr. König) spent not less than two years in seeking patronage in Germany and Russia, till at length, to use his own words, he was 'compelled to take refuge in England, the only country where mchanical inventions are duly rewarded'."
