Although he had greatly improved the mechanical arrangements after he took command of the paper, the rate at which the copies could be printed off remained almost stationary.

It took a very long time indeed to throw off, by the hand-labour of pressmen, the three or four thousand copies which then constituted the ordinary circulation of The Times.

On the occasion of any event of great public interest being reported in the paper, it was found almost impossible to meet the demand for copies.

Only about 300 copies could be printed in the hour, with one man to ink the types and another to work the press, while the labour was very severe.

Thus it took a long time to get out the daily impression, and very often the evening papers were out before The Times had half supplied the demand.
Mr.Walter could not brook the tedium of this irksome and laborious process.