Strohhofer learned the elements of the process from my brother Karl, and associated himself, in 1806, with Herr Sidler, royal court musician, who had studied first with my brothers, then with Madame Gleissner, and then in the Aretin printery. When Strohhofer left Munich, Sidler erected a stone-printery for the Government, and after he had obtained an official permit before the expiration of my franchise, he established his own institution, producing very good work.
During this time Madame Gleissner had petitioned the Government frequently for sufficient work to assist her, and had obtained the promise through His Excellency the Minister of State, von Montgelas. Then it happened that the chief of a newly organized bureau, Freiherr von Hartmann, having a great deal of writing to do in beginning his new work, decided to introduce lithography for the purpose of saving labor. His intention was to have it all done in our institution. No doubt he had communicated this plan to von Montgelas; for as he met Madame Gleissner about this time, and she asked again for work, he said that he had given Senefelder enough work to keep ten presses busy, and if he had not yet received it, he would get it soon through Freiherr von Hartmann. There evidently was a misunderstanding here on account of the name. When Freiherr von Hartmann sent one of his subordinates to call Senefelder to him, he brought my brother Theobald, who immediately got orders to establish a lithographic office, and shortly afterward was appointed Inspector of Lithography. Beside a considerable salary, he received the following other incomes, first, excellent pay for all work that was turned in; second, an agreement that if his ten presses could not be sufficiently employed by the bureau, he might work for other governmental bureaus and for private persons. Thus he received a great deal of work, among other jobs the printing of passports for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which earned large sums for him in a short time and placed him in very good circumstances.
He could not conceal his good luck, and so it came that many people imagined that stone-printing was a means for getting rich quickly, which resulted in a disproportionate growth of new shops. Out of his own there sprang two, namely, those of Helmle and Roth, who erected their own printeries under the permit of the police.
At the same time a lithographic institution was erected in the Royal Asylum for the Poor on the Anger; and a Herr Dietrich, of a government bureau, also established one.
My own prospects became worse and worse toward the year 1810. Though I may flatter myself that I perfected myself very greatly through unceasing practice and thousands of experiments, still, without a fortunate accident, it might well have happened that I would have been forced to think it lucky if I could obtain work under one of my former apprentices.
I even suffered the insult of having the papers declare that though I had invented the art roughly, I had kept it secret for a long time through selfishness, and had never understood how to use it for anything except merely printing music. The falsity and humiliating character of this statement were bound to pain me the more bitterly, since all other stone-artists and stone-printers had learned only from me, and not one (not even Herr Mitterer, the most expert and, perhaps because of that, the most modest) possessed the art as a whole, in all its parts, as perfectly as I did. I hope that my text-book will prove this.
So far as the secret was concerned, the statement was an evident falsehood. Since the moment when I received the exclusive franchise in Bavaria, in the year 1799, I had made no secret of any part of my process toward any living being. I showed the whole manipulation to my workmen as well as to all strangers. Those who knew me more intimately and realized, therefore, that I could not resist the desire for communicating anything that I discovered to benefit mankind, often censured me severely for my frankness, saying that I could have been a millionaire had I kept my art a secret. But this was equally erroneous. I never could have succeeded to any degree with my own means.
The false belief that I desired exclusive enjoyment of the results of stone-printing, is in direct contradiction of the fact that the lack of secrecy was held to invalidate my exclusive franchise. The idea may have arisen, at least partly, through the circumstance that several of my former workmen, or others who learned something of the art, made a wonderful secret of it, in order to be considered more important. This was carried to such an extent that some traveled from place to place and sold their knowledge to many people for large sums under the seal of confidence. I pity those who thus received in exchange for their money something of little or no use, when they could have learned from me for practically nothing, as it always was my greatest delight to converse with intelligent men about those subjects that interested me so deeply as inventor.
After making this little excursion, which was needed for my justification, I return to my story.
There were, then, in 1809, six public printeries in Munich besides mine, without reckoning those which several artists had made for their own use. The foremost among the latter was Herr Mettenleithner, Royal Copper Plate Engraver. He was one of the first to whom I had shown specimens, as early as 1796, of the new process, but he had paid little attention to it. Partly through various very excellent specimens from Herr Mitterer's print, and partly through the work of Strixner and Pilotti, he was induced to make experiments. A son of Herr von Dall' Armi, who was taking lessons just then in drawing and copper etching for his own pleasure, interested himself in the process. As a result, the latter established a lithographic institution in Rome, which, so far as I know, never achieved any decided success.