History of PrintingThe western world tends to claim the invention of printing, and it takes the kudos from the advances that followed the mass production of written material. There is no doubt that the spread of information throughout the western world was assisted by the invention of printing. Gutenberg is named as the inventor of printing although others, especially the Chinese, already used some of the techniques (or similar techniques), which later became known as printing.
Johann Gensfleisch zum Gutenburg (born sometime between 1394 and 1399) was a Mainz goldsmith of a patrician family. He began his experiments with printing towards 1440 when he was a political exile in Strasbourg. Gutenberg was not the only person experimenting and developing but he was a colossus on the world scene and the industry that developed owes much to his impetus and invention. We have featured Gutenberg on our web site by placing a line drawing of him on our masthead. Gutenburg’s contribution seems to be that he conceived the idea of movable metal type cast from matrices. He and others of his time were seeking an artificial script to help speed up the duplication and production of books. What we now call founts or fonts of type had to be designed and then cast in metal. The characters were cast individually in molds using molten type-metal, which is a mixture of lead, antimony and tin. At first, the characters used resembled hand-written script, but as time went on other sets of characters were produced, along with various non-alphabetic signs. We need now to discuss the achievements of the Chinese. Their contribution to printing was enormous -- apparently as early as 594, they used a method of rubbing off impressions from a wooden block which was carved to a negative relief. The process was specialised for the specific shapes of the Chinese style of writing. From China also came the invention of paper, which was to provide an ideal medium for printing. In Europe and far East in the early 1400’s a technique of printing from wooden blocks had become common. This was the springboard for Gutenburg’s invention of movable metal type. Quite early in the history of printing with metal type printer's ink achieved considerable levels of sophistication. About 1460, perhaps only fifteen years after the first use of oil paint by picture painters, printer's ink was invented. Ink had many requirements; it needed to stick to metal and transfer cleanly to paper or other surfaces while not taking too long to dry. The black pigment used was soot derived from burning pitch. Boiled linseed oil and sometimes resin were added The preparation could include roasting, and even letting the mixture stand for as long as a year. A great effort was made to avoid or limit the tarry oils or fats which spread out and made unwanted marks on the paper. Very Early DaysP>This is an engraving of a very early typefoundry. The artisans on the left are pouring molten type-metal from the furnaces into the molds to cast individual letters. The whole task was done by hand.
New Zealand HistoryThe picture below shows compositors at work in Wellington at the New Zealand Government printer in 1870.
The bench or table in the foreground was called a "stone" and the letters DIS stand for Distribution. This stone was the distributing point for the characters of type after they had been used for printing. From here they would have been collected up and placed back in their correct cases and stored there until they were required again.
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