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

Life

Bensley, the son of a printer in The Strand, had printing premises at Bolt Court, off

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...

in London, and William Bulmer was considered his only rival in fine printing. 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. Works from the press included Thomas Macklin's folio Bible in seven volumes (1800), an edition of

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...

's ''History of England'', and an octavo Shakespeare. A trustee of Providence Chapel, in Gray's Inn Lane, Bensley supported the ministry of William Huntington; and helped to raise the monument by 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.

Development of the press

Friedrich Koenig came to London from

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

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 ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' of London. The working relationship of Bensley and Koenig broke down by 1817, however, as Bensley enforced his shareholding rights.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Bensley, Thomas 1759 births 1835 deaths English printers