e in this mood, he
resumed his experiments. The more he pondered over the subject the more
difficult it seemed. In despair, he was about to relinquish the effort
for the night, when suddenly there flashed across his mind a plan for
securing the type on a horizontal cylinder. This had been his great
difficulty, and he now felt that he had mastered it. He sat up all
night, working out his design, and making a note of every idea that
occurred to him, in order that nothing should escape him. By morning the
problem which had baffled him so long had been solved, and the
magnificent "Lightning Press" already had a being in the inventor's
fertile brain.

He carried his model rapidly to perfection, and, proceeding with it to
Washington, obtained a patent. On his return home he met Mr. Swain, the
proprietor of the Baltimore _Sun_ and Philadelphia _Ledger_, and
explained his invention to him. Mr. Swain was so much pleased with it
that he at once ordered a four-cylinder press, which was completed and
ready for use on the 31st of December, 1848. This press was capable of
making ten thousand impressions per hour, and did its work with entire
satisfaction in every respect.

This was a success absolutely unprecedented--so marked, in fact, that
some persons were inclined to doubt it. The news flew rapidly from city
to city, and across the ocean to foreign lands, and soon wherever a
newspaper was printed men were talking of Hoe's wonderful invention.
Orders came pouring in upon the inventor with such rapidity that he soon
had as many on hand as he could fill in several years. In a
comparatively brief period the _Herald_, _Tribune_, and _Sun_, of New
York, were boasting of their "Lightning Presses," and soon the
_Traveller_ and _Daily Journal_, in Boston, followed their example. Mr.
Hoe was now not only a famous man, but possessed of an assured business
for the future, which was certain to result in a large fortune. By the
year 1860, besides supplying the principal cities of the Union (fifteen
lightning presses being used in the city of New York alone), he had
shipped eighteen presses to Great Britain, four to France, and one to
Australia. Two of the presses sent to England were ordered for the
London _Times_.

Mr. Hoe continued to improve his invention, adding additional cylinders
as increased, speed was desired, and at length brought it to the degree
of perfection exhibited in the splendid ten-cylinder press now in use in
the office