We have seen, in the preceding memoir, that as early as 1790 William Nicholson had patented such a method, but his scheme had never been brought into practical operation.

Mr.Walter endeavoured to enlist Marc Isambard Brunel--one of the cleverest inventors of the day--in his proposed method of rapid printing by machinery; but after labouring over a variety of plans for a considerable time, Brunel finally gave up the printing machine, unable to make anything of it.

Mr.Walter next tried Thomas Martyn, an ingenious young compositor, who had a scheme for a self-acting machine for working the printing press.

He was supplied with the necessary funds to enable him to prosecute his idea; but Mr.
Walter's father was opposed to the scheme, and when the funds became exhausted, this scheme also fell to the ground.
As years passed on, and the circulation of the paper increased, the necessity for some more expeditious method of printing became still more urgent.

Although Mr.Walter had declined to enter into an arrangement with Bensley in 1809, before Koenig had completed his invention of printing by cylinders, it was different five years later, when Koenig's printing machine was actually at work.