Invention Timeline – Edward Cowper, English Inventor; Patented a Method of Printing Paper for Paper Hangings and Other Purposes in 1816
b. ? 1790 and d. October 17, 1852
English inventor. In 1816 he patented a method of printing paper for paper hangings and other purposes. Its chief feature consisted in curving stereotype plates and fixing them on cylinders for printing long rolls of paper. In 1818 he made improvements and patented a better method of distribution of the ink and an improved manner of conveying the sheets from one cylinder to another. This was the origin of the “perfecting machine,” which prints on both sides of the paper at once. He did for the printing machine what Watt did for the steam engine.
Think! Oh, be machines no longer-
Like the windmills by the wood,
Think! ’twill make you fresher, stronger;
Link you to the great and good.
Thought exalts and lightens labor,
Thought forbids the soul to sink!
Self respect and love for neighbor,
Mark the men who work-and think!
—Work and Think: Theodore F. Seward
It is almost impossible to over-estimate the
importance of these inventions. The Greeks would
have elevated their authors among the gods; nor
will the enlightened judgment of modern times
deny them the place among their fellow-men which
is so undeniably their due.
—Edinburgh Review
