head of the department of engineering at King's College, London, who, with his brother-in-law Augustus Applegath, developed an improved newspaper printing press

1804 - apprenticed to Benjamin Lepard, wholesale stationer in Covent Garden;

1813 - patent for paper-cutting machine; partner with Augustus Applegath and Henry Mitton, stereotype founders and printers, at Nelson Square, Southwark

1816 - patent for curved stereotype plates, for printing rolls of paper for hangings and other purposes; worked to improve the ink distribution on curved plates, and method of conveying paper through the printer; proprietors of The Times newspaper invited the partners to modify the Koenig press;

1820 - Applegath and Cowper moved to Duke Street; left the partnership and set up as a consulting engineer;

1817-1821 with youngest brother, Ebenezer, developed system of printing banknotes that would be difficult to forge for the Bank of England, but did not adopt proposal;

1823 - patent for printing a web of paper or fabric;

1827 - patent for a method of printing music; the Cowper brothers brought out a new steam-powered ‘multiple’ machine with four cylinders but using flat formes, delivering 4000 sheets/hour, for The Times;

1828 - patent for machine to cut rolls of paper into sheets;

1820s - E. and E. Cowper, Edward and his younger brother Ebenezer manufactured and installed printing machinery throughout Europe;

1839 - appointed part-time lecturer in newly established class of manufacturing art and machinery, in the civil engineering department of King's College, London;

1848 - appointed professor of manufacturing art and mechanics;

two sons, including Edward Alfred Cowper, mechanical engineer, and two daughters survived him. The business was continued by his brother Ebenezer:

Ebenezer Cowper (1804–1880), printing engineer, born Enfield on 17 September 1804, the youngest brother of Edward Shickle Cowper. died at 97 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, on 14 September 1880.