Edward Shickle Cowper (1790–1852) was an English printing engineer, inventor, and academic.

Life

Cowper went into partnership as a printer with his brother-in-law,

Augustus Applegath :''Often appears mis-spelt as "Augustus Applegarth"'' Augustus Applegath (17 June 1788 – 9 February 1871) was an English printer and inventor known for the development of the first workable vertical-drum rotary printing press. Early life Ap ...

, around 1813, when their employer William Cornish died. A proposal to print banknotes for the Bank of England fell through. Their printing business in Duke Street, Stamford Street, London was then acquired by William Clowes, and they concentrated on machine-making. The partnership, or, according to

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in his ''Dictionary of the Art of Printing'', Applegath alone, was employed by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' to improve their presses. For many years Edward was in partnership with his brother Ebenezer, and the machines of Messrs. E. & E. Cowper were used throughout Europe. Ebenezer (1804–1880) carried on the practical part of the business. Towards the end of his life Edward Cowper was professor of manufacturing art and mechanics at King's College London. He died at Kensington 17 October 1852, in his sixty-third year.

Innovations

Cowper was the improver of the steam printing machine, projected by William Nicholson and implemented by

Friedrich Koenig Friedrich Gottlob Koenig (17 April 1774 – 17 January 1833) was a German inventor best known for his high-speed steam-powered printing press, which he built together with watchmaker Andreas Friedrich Bauer. This new style of printing pre ...

. In 1816, when he described himself as an ironmonger and mechanist of

Newington Butts Newington Butts is a former hamlet, now an area of the London Borough of Southwark, that gives its name to a segment of the A3 road running south-west from the Elephant and Castle junction. The road continues as Kennington Park Road leading to ...

, Cowper obtained a patent (No. 3974) for "a method of printing paper for paper-hangings and other purposes", with curved stereotype plates fixed on cylinders for printing long rolls of paper. In 1818, styling himself as a printer, he patented (No. 4194) certain improvements in printing, which consisted of a method for a better 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 printed on both sides of the paper at once. Cowper did not invent the soft composition for distributing the ink, which superseded the old pelt-balls in hand-presses, but devised the system of forming it into rollers. In 1827 Applegath and Cowper jointly invented the four-cylinder machine, which Applegath erected for ''The Times'', superseding Koenig's machine. The rate of printing was five thousand an hour, a large improvement. Edward and Ebenezer Cowper also invented a cylinder card-printing machine.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowper, Edward 1790 births 1852 deaths Academics of King's College London English engineers English inventors