Thomas Bensley

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Thomas Bensley (1759–1835) was an English printer known for fine work, and as a collaborator of Friedrich Koenig.[1] He was an innovator in the fields of steam-powered printing presses, and lithography for book illustration.[2]

Life

Bensley, the son of a printer in The Strand, had printing premises at Bolt Court, off Fleet Street in London, and William Bulmer was considered his only rival in fine printing.[1][3] In a preface Bensley complains of a fire which had destroyed his premises, with much of his stock; he was burned out on two separate occasions, in 1807 and 1819.[4][5]

Works from the press included

Sir Richard Westmacott on the death of Huntington in 1813. He printed The Posthumous Letters of William Huntington (1822), which he also edited in part.[4]

Development of the press

Friedrich Koenig came to London from Saxony in 1806, with a design for the powered "Suhl press". Bensley took up the innovation, and formed a consortium with Richard Taylor and George Woodfall to monopolise it. Working with Andreas Friedrich Bauer, Koenig took out a patent in 1810, and built a working machine for Bensley in 1811. Over the next few years, development work produced a steam-driven press adapted to printing newspapers, rather than books as initially, and it was used for The Times of London.[6] The working relationship of Bensley and Koenig broke down by 1817, however, as Bensley enforced his shareholding rights.[7]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-954315-1
    .
  2. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2136. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ISBN 978-1-4655-4384-4
    .
  4. ^ a b Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Bensley, Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  5. ^ Charles Henry Timperley (1839). A Dictionary of Printers and Printing: With the Progress of Literature, Ancient and Modern; Bibliographical Illustrations, Etc. Etc. H. Johnson. p. 941.
  6. ISBN 978-0-520-02904-0
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-203-21167-0
    .
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Bensley, Thomas". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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