ght up in his father's business,
after receiving a fair education. He inherited his father's inventive
genius, combined with a rare business capacity, and from the first was
regarded as the future hope of the establishment. Upon the withdrawal of
his father, a partnership was established between himself, his brother
Robert, Mr. Newton, and his cousin Matthew Smith, but the style of the
firm remained unchanged.

Richard Hoe's first invention was conceived in 1837, and consisted of a
valuable improvement in the manufacture of grinding saws. Having
obtained a patent for it in the United States, he visited England in
that year for the same purpose. By his process circular saws may be
ground with accuracy to any desired thickness. He readily obtained a
patent in England, as the excellence of his invention commended it to
every one. While there he gave especial attention to the improvements
which had been made in the printing press, in the manufacture of which
his firm was still largely engaged. Returning to New York, he devoted
himself entirely to this branch of his business, and soon produced the
machine known as "Hoe's Double-Cylinder Press," which was capable of
making about six thousand impressions per hour. The first press of this
kind ever made was ordered by the New York _Sun_, and was the admiration
of all the printers of the city. This style of press is now used
extensively for printing country newspapers.

As long as the newspaper interest of the country stood still, "Hoe's
Double-Cylinder Press" was amply sufficient for its wants, but as the
circulation of the journals of the large cities began to increase, the
"double-cylinder" was often taxed far beyond its powers. A printing
press capable of striking off papers with much greater rapidity was felt
to be an imperative and still-increasing need. It was often necessary
to hold the forms back until nearly daylight for the purpose of issuing
the latest news, and in the hurry which ensued to get out the morning
edition, the press very frequently met with accidents.

Mr. Hoe was fully alive to the importance of improving his press, and,
in 1842, he began to experiment with it for the purpose of obtaining
greater speed. It was a serious undertaking, however, and at every step
fresh difficulties arose. He spent four years in experimenting, and at
the end of that time was almost ready to confess that the obstacles were
too great to be overcome. One night, in. 1846, whil