History of Printing and Paper-Making

The art preservative of all arts it has been rightfully called. Before its
birth generation after generation of the human family lived and died, and each
was but little wiser, and but little better than its predecessor. Tradition
was the misty, vague, and sometimes wholly false dependence of the living, and
the experiences of mankind were, in the words of an eminent writer, but like
the stern lights of a vessel, which only illumined the pathway over which each
had passed. But printing gives to the present the cumulative wisdom of the
past, and marks a great era of growth in civilization. It conserves and
preserves man’s thoughts and makes them immortal, so that each generation
comes into existence with a richer legacy of ideas, and is guaranteed a higher
plane of existence, and a more exalted destiny.

Printing from letters engraved on blocks of wood is an ancient art, having had
its origin in China many centuries before the Christian era. The Chinese
method, which is still followed, was to write their characters with a brush on
a sheet of paper, and while still wet, the piece of paper was laid face
downward on a smooth piece of board to transfer the ink lines, and then all
except the ink lines on the board was cut away. Thus they have one type plate
for each book page. Printing with movable type, i. e., with a separate type
for each letter, which may be repeatedly set up into forms of varying
composition, is practically the beginning of the modern art of printing. This
invention is usually ascribed to Johann Gutenberg, of Mentz, about 1436.

In the earliest printing presses the form was locked up in a tray, and placed
upon a platform, and the platen was then brought down upon it by turning a
screw in a cross bar above. The first printing press of this type was made by
Blaew, of Amsterdam, in 1620, which had a spring to cause the screw to fly
back after the impression was taken. The press upon which Benjamin Franklin
worked in London in 1725 is of this pattern, and is to be seen in the National
Museum at Washington.