oving upon or adding to his arrangements, but the man who
constructs a machine such as has never before been made, which executes
satisfactorily all the functions it was intended to perform. And this
is what Koenig's invention did, as will be observed from the following
brief summary of his life and labours.

Frederick Koenig was born on the 17th of April, 1774, at Eisleben, in
Saxony, the birthplace also of a still more famous person, Martin
Luther. His father was a respectable peasant proprietor, described by
Herr Goebel as Anspanner. But this word has now gone out of use. In
feudal times it described the farmer who was obliged to keep draught
cattle to perform service due to the landlord. The boy received a
solid education at the Gymnasium, or public school of the town. At a
proper age he was bound apprentice for five years to Breitkopf and
Hartel, of Leipzig, as compositor and printer; but after serving for
four and a quarter years, he was released from his engagement because
of his exceptional skill, which was an unusual occurrence.

During the later years of his apprenticeship, Koenig was permitted to
attend the classes in the University, more especially those of Ernst
Platner, a physician, philosopher, and anthropologist. After that he
proceeded to the printing-office of his uncle, Anton F. Rose, at
Greifswald, an old seaport town on the Baltic, where he remained a few
years. He next went to Halle as a journeyman printer,--German workmen
going about from place to place, during their wanderschaft, for the
purpose of learning their business. After that, he returned to
Breitkopf and Hartel, at Leipzig, where he had first learnt his trade.
During this time, having saved a little money, he enrolled himself for
a year as a regular student at the University of Leipzig.

According to Koenig's own account, he first began to devise ways and
means for improving the art of printing in the year 1802, when he was
twenty-eight years old. Printing large sheets of paper by hand was a
very slow as well as a very laborious process. One of the things that
most occupied the young printer's mind was how to get rid of this
"horse-work," for such it was, in the business of printing. He was
not, however, over-burdened with means, though he devised a machine
with this object. But to make a little money, he made translations for
the publishers. In 1803 Koenig returned to his native town of
Eisleben, where he entered into an