uestion arose, where was he to settle? He made enquiries about
sites along the Rhine, the Neckar, and the Main. At last he was
attracted by a specially interesting spot at Oberzell on the Main, near
Wurzburg. It was an old disused convent of the Praemonstratensian
monks. The place was conveniently situated for business, being nearly
in the centre of Germany. The Bavarian Government, desirous of giving
encouragement to so useful a genius, granted Koenig the use of the
secularised monastery on easy terms; and there accordingly he began his
operations in the course of the following year. Bauer soon joined him,
with an order from Mr. Walter for an improved Times machine; and the
two men entered into a partnership which lasted for life.

The partners had at first great difficulties to encounter in getting
their establishment to work. Oberzell was a rural village, containing
only common labourers, from whom they had to select their workmen.
Every person taken into the concern had to be trained and educated to
mechanical work by the partners themselves. With indescribable
patience they taught these labourers the use of the hammer, the file,
the turning-lathe, and other tools, which the greater number of them
had never before seen, and of whose uses they were entirely ignorant.
The machinery of the workshop was got together with equal difficulty
piece by piece, some of the parts from a great distance,--the
mechanical arts being then at a very low ebb in Germany, which was
still suffering from the effects of the long continental war.

At length the workshop was fitted up, the old barn of the monastery
being converted into an iron foundry.

Orders for printing machines were gradually obtained. The first came
from Brockhaus, of Leipzig. By the end of the fourth year two other
single-cylinder machines were completed and sent to Berlin, for use in
the State printing office. By the end of the eighth year seven
double-cylinder steam presses had been manufactured for the largest
newspaper printers in Germany. The recognised excellence of Koenig and
Bauer's book-printing machines--their perfect register, and the quality
of the work they turned out--secured for them an increasing demand, and
by the year 1829 the firm had manufactured fifty-one machines for the
leading book printers throughout Germany. The Oberzell manufactory was
now in full work, and gave regular employment to about 120 men.

A period of considerable dep