In the meantime, Mr.Walter of The Times had been seen by Bensley, and consulted on the subject of the invention.

On the 9th of August, 1809, more than two years after the date of the above agreement, Bensley writes to Koenig: "I made a point of calling upon Mr.Walter yesterday, who, I am sorry to say, declines our proposition altogether, having (as he says) so many engagements as to prevent him entering into more." It may be mentioned that Koenig's original plan was confined to an improved press, in which the operation of laying the ink on the types was to be performed by an apparatus connected with the motions of the coffin, in such a manner as that one hand could be saved.

As little could be gained in expedition by this plan, the idea soon suggested itself of moving the press by machinery, or to reduce the several operations to one rotary motion, to which the first mover might be applied.

Whilst Koenig was in the throes of his invention, he was joined by his friend Andrew F.Bauer, a native of Stuttgart, who possessed considerable mechanical power, in which the inventor himself was probably somewhat deficient.

At all events, these two together proceeded to work out the idea, and to construct the first actual working printing machine.
A patent was taken out, dated the 29th of March, 1810, which describes the details of the invention.