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Poppe acknowledged that the German Friedrich Koenig invented the printing machine but the image that he reproduced was the version of the Applegath & Cowper machine widely reproduced especially in English publications.

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In his section on printing, the last section in his book, besides the steam-driven printing machine, Poppe illustrated a Gutenberg-style primarily wooden hand press.

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Poppe also illustrated an iron Stanhope press.

Detail map of Stuttgart-Mitte, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Overview map of Stuttgart-Mitte, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

A: Stuttgart-Mitte, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

The First Illustration of a Printing Machine Published in a German Book

1830
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Remarkably well preserved but rather fragile binding of publisher's blue printed boards on Poppe's guide to interesting manufacturing technologies.

The Technologische Bildergallerie oder Darstellung der interssantesten und lehrreichsten Manufacturen, Fabriken Künst und Handwerke, in getrenen Bildern und ausführlichen deutlichen Erklärungen issued by German mathematician and technologist Johann Henirch Moritz von Poppe 1776-1854) in 1830 contained the earliest image of a printing machine published in a German book that I had seen when I wrote this entry in July 2020. 

Notably, Poppe, who appeared to be up to date in his accounts of various technologies, issued his book by the time that the Industrial Revolution in Germany, which lagged behind England and France, had begun to advance. Poppe's section on book production, the last section in the volume, contained three images: the first showed a Gutenberg-style mostly wooden hand press and manual typesetting equipment, the second showed an iron Stanhope press, and the third showed a version of the widely reproduced image of the Applegath & Cowper rotary printing machine. Notably both the Stanhope press and the Applegath & Cowper machine were manufactured in England. In his text Poppe did alude to the printing machine having been invented by Friedrich Koenig, who Poppe noted was German by birth. Poppe also mentioned that printing machines were often driven by steam engines. As I noted in other entries in this database, one factor that held back steam power being more widely applied to printing in Germany in 1830 was the limited availability and high cost of steam engines.

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