I Wonder How Gutenberg Felt?

I was reading the PrintSouth Magazine today and this was the headline “I wonder how Gutenberg felt?” by Jim Lobaito. This is what the first three paragraphs say.

When Gutenberg ran his Bible off the press, I wonder if he was thinking about all the people he was about to put out of work? The Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed with a movable type print press, thus ushering in the age of mass produced printed book. Suddenly ideas could be shared with the masses and humanity dramatically changed.

The printing press was an important step towards the democratization of knowledge and moveable type made it available to common man. Surely this was an exciting time to be in business or was it?

The people who transcribed books by hand for a living felt threatened by moveable type.

The story goes to tell the reader how web sites aren’t threatening to today’s printers. But this got me to thinking about how threatening we feel when something new comes along. We just installed a new digital press. It’s night and day different from Gutenberg’s printing press. It could be seen as a threat to the other printers in our town, or the pressman that runs our offset press. It’s faster, has better quality, and unbelievably easy to run. As good as it is, it will not replace the old ink on paper printing press any time soon.

The process of printing has changed over the years, and each change has put someone or a trade out in the street looking for a new jobs. I know there’s been times I’ve felt threaten by someone or a new printing company coming to town. The one thing I do know, is when I’ve been threatened, it has always has got my butt too moving. We can get in a rut and not want any changes in our day to day world. This is what the writer was saying about the people who transcribed books. Change comes with a price sometimes, and there are times when it doesn’t, but there’s one thing you can count on, there will be changes like them or not.

Wine Made By God, And Just Foe Us

Wine only from God!

I read a book about Ben Franklin “Benjamin Franklin an American Life”. Being a printer the same as he I have found the book a real joy. He was always ready with some home spun wisdom. Put them to pen as he called it. Calling them essays or Bagatelles, this was a French term for a sprightly little musical piece. He set up a printing press in Paris (1782) and printed quite a few while there. He was in Paris at Passy to negotiate a peace between America and Britain after the war for our independence.

One of these little bagatelles I found, was incorporated in the earlier quote I posted.

“ We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as a miracle. But this conversion is, though the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy. The miracle in question was performed only to hasten the operation.”

Oh so well said!

I also came across this and wanted to add it...

“It is, of course, entirely possible to cook without using wine. It is also possible to wear suits and dresses made out of gunny sacks, but who wants to?”

—	Morrison Wood, Introduction to ‘With a Jug of Wine’ (1949)

More on the Linotype.

The post the other day I put up about the Linotype, brought back a lot of good memories of spending a year sitting in front of one when I worked at McGee printing in the early 70s. It was my first opportunity to run the old Linotype. Mr. McGee, the owner gave me a quick rundown on the finer points of running a Linotype, and then handed me the church bulletin and told me he need it before three. The keyboard was so confusing, it was nothing like a typewriter, and you had to really hit the keys hard similar to a manual typewriter to make it work. The Linotype machine uses a 90-character keyboard to create an entire line of metal type at once. That's how it got its name: 'line o' type'. This allowed much faster typesetting and composition than the original hand method. There is no shift key; uppercase letters have keys separate from the lowercase letters. The arrangement of letters corresponds roughly to letter frequency, with the most frequently used letters on the left.  The first two columns of keys are: e, t, a, o, i, n; and s, h, r, d, l, u. See what I mean about being confusing. After about 15 minutes of trial and error, I thought I had the hang of it. Or so I thought. On the Linotype you have to reach down with your left hand and pull a lever that engages the machine to the clutch. Once you pull the handle you can't let go and if the line of type is not tight (I found out that's what spacebands are for.) the hot molten lead will squirt on your arm. After two or three tries and a couple of blistered spots on my left arm I kind of got the hang of it.

This machine revolutionized newspaper publishing and made it possible for a small number of operators to set type for many pages on a daily basis. Before Mergenthaler's invention of the Linotype in 1884, no newspaper had more than eight pages.

The shop that I was working at was not a newspaper but a commercial job shop. It'd been in business since the 40s. The Linotype and letter presses had been the only methods of printing in the shop. Mr. McGee hired me because I had the experience of offset printing, which was really new to him. He had just bought an old 1250 multi offset press. It was a great 3 years that I worked there, and I learned a lot about Linotype's, letterpress, and hand set type from an old master of printing. Just one more example of printing being an art.

I wish I'd taken some pictures of the old machine so I could show them here. I found a photo on the Internet, I'll add it to give you an idea of the workings of the Linotype.

The big 60 and forty years of happiness!

Well it was one heck of a great two weeks. It was my birthday, the big 60 and our 40^th anniversary, all in the same week. Looking back over the last 40 years there have been some good times and some hard times, but that’s expected in any marriage. The last few days we’ve talked about the things we‘ve done and the places we’ve traveled. A trip to Africa, to teach the printing technique that lasted one month while Judy stayed home with the kids, five cruses, two to Alaska, one to Canada, two to the Caribbean. A train ride in 1992 from New Orleans to Seattle with a four night stop in Napa Valley for some wine tasting. A lot of mission trips with our church. Nights with the family in New Orleans at the apartment we rented for two years, weekends at the camp at Dixie Springs Lake. But the biggest thing to happen was the two wonderful children God gave us. Tara was the first blessing in 1975 then Ryan in 1980. They have been the best thing to happen to us. Now they are both married and have wonderful spouses and have given us grandchildren. Matt, Tara’s husband and their two sons, Vanna and our son Ryan with there child.

We spent two weeks in June 2010 with Vanna, Ryan, Tara, Matt and the grand children. They kids rented a lovely home in the heart of Napa Valley to celebrate with us. All of us in one house. Lots of cooking,  front porch sitting, talking and laughing, piling in one car to tour the wineries. The time went by way too quick. You know I don’t believe I can put down all the stuff Judy and I have enjoyed as one. I think that’s what the preacher said to us that Saturday forty years ago. We would be as one, what fascinating words. As one and that’s what I feel with Judy, it’s been so entertaining, pleasurable, engaging and just pure fun.  

House in Napa.

I not am going to even start with the last sixty years of birthdays! 

I will save that for another blog...

The romance of Linotype

"Clang, clang, clang" went the Lino...type
"Ding, ding, ding" went the bell
"Zing, zing, zing" slid the copy
At the moment I typed it, it fell

"Chug, chug, chug" went the motor
"Bump, bump, bump" rang the lead
"Thump, thump, thump" went the matrices
When it molded, I could see the type fed

"Buzz, buzz, buzz" went the buzzer
"Plop, plop, plop" went the gears
"Stop, stop, stop" went the typesetters
The moment the chapel meeting nears.

If you ever hear one running you would know the verses above are the sounds of the Linotype. In it's height of being used in printing shops and newspapers operators would move from shop to shop looking for the best wages. The operators of the Linotype were so specialized in it's operation that shop managers would do and pay just about anything to keep a good operator.

The romance of Linotype was filled ups and downs, thumps and plops. Linotype was the crazy Victorian machine that somehow overcame its industrial age-Rube Goldberg clunkiness and was the fact of typesetting life for decades before phototype emerged.

Linotype was called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by Thomas Edison, it revolutionized printing, communication and society.  Because of advances in technology, most Linotypes were scrapped and melted-down by the thousands. Today, very few machines are still in existence. 

The illustrations here are from The Linotype News, one of many publications issued by Linotype to keep its customers and fans abreast of the hot metal.

The art of printing lost one more artist with the end of the Linotype...

The elbow, our helper to enjoy a glass of wine.

I am still reading in the Ben Franklin book. He was a man of great wisdom and insight. He was the right person to be negotiating for America. But that isn’t what I want to say here today. I found another little gem from the Master Printer. This time it was about the elbow.

As for the human elbow, Franklin explained, it was important that it be located at the right place, otherwise it would be hard to drink wine. If Providence had placed the elbow too low on the arm, it would be hard for the forearm to reach the mouth. Likewise, if the elbow had been placed too high, the forearm would overshoot the mouth. “But by the actual situation, we are enabled to drink at our ease, the glass going exactly to the mouth. Let us, with glass in hand, adore this benevolent wisdom; let us adore and drink!”

Not only did he and I have a love for art of printing, but love of wine also!

The Art in Letterpress

Art... what you don't think it's art!

Letterpress printing started to fail in the 1950s and was all but gone by the 80s. Offset printing was coming of age, and with desktop publishing in the late 80s it closed the door on the letterpress.

It’s still a specialty craft. Some graphic artists have revived the art.  Not getting the results they were looking for in desktops flat design. They found a medium and expression in the letterpress. Though specialty shops and internet stores some have found a following for the look and feel of letterpress printing. “Letterpress is like the new engraving” said Kitty Maryatt “it looks different, it feels old and people love that. It’s the romance of the impression of the letters pressed into the paper that people feel good about” I couldn’t agree with her any more. I love the feel of the impression, the sound of the press  and that is where the art comes from. The master or the pressman knows just how much to push. Not too much or it will cut, not to soft or it won’t have the feel and look of letterpress. It’s what we see and feel on the paper that opens the old world printing in our Imagination. The remembered old wedding invitation or business card found long ago that’s the “feel good” part Kitty was talking about.

Art, yes I think its art. Just like an old painting on the wall it’s an expression of the artist.