An Ox Powers the First Cylinder Printing Machine in China

According to Xiantao Zhang, The Origins of the Modern Chinese Press,(2007) p. 106, in 1847 a cylinder printing machine paid for by the British Bible Society substantially increased the output of printing in China by the London Missionary Society Press. "Its first half year of production exceeded a whole year's output of the hand operated press. It is worth noting that the printing machine was in fact modified to be driven by an ox, which, along with its remarkable efficiency, created a sensation among the educated Chinese. Wang Tao, working then as a Chinese editor in the LMSP, describing the printing studio was astonished by the production of more than forty thousand pages every day. Several Chinese scholars wrote poems to express their amazement. One poem joked that the busily-employed ox was puzzled as to why it was ploughing a field of soil but one of paper (Xion 1995-186-187)."