29/41 Now that he had succeeded in making machines that would work, the way was clear for everybody else to follow his footsteps. It had taken him more than six years to invent and construct a successful steam printing press; but any clever mechanic, by merely studying his specification, and examining his machine at work, might arrive at the same results in less than a week. New specifications, embodying some modification or alteration in detail, were lodged by other inventors and new patents taken out. New printing machines were constructed in defiance of his supposed legal rights; and he found himself stripped of the reward that he had been labouring for during so many long and toilsome years. He could not go to law, and increase his own vexation and loss. |