Benton Crane

We had a FamilyLearn team meeting today. Neal wants us all to understand the history of printing so the second half of our meeting was at the Crandall Historical Printing Museum in Provo. They claim to have the world’s only functioning, moveable-type Gutenberg press. They actually printed two pages from The Bible to show us how it works.

I learned at a young age that Gutenberg’s press is one of the most, if not the most, important invention of all times. I was surprised to learn though, that the press itself was not that innovative. It closely resembled olive presses of the day.

The significant invention was actually his hand type caster. It was a small, bland looking device, but it changed history. At the time, the Chinese had already successfully made type out of wood and ceramic, but they hadn’t figured out how to mass produce it. Nor had they discovered how to make each piece the exact same height so that every piece would make an even impression on the paper.

Gutenberg’s hand type caster solved both problems:

• Pieces of identical type could be mass produced (2-3 pieces per minute or 2000 per day). It took around 70,000 pieces to make Gutenberg-s Bible.
• Each piece was cast to an identical height.

Even though the hand type caster was the most significant invention Gutenberg made, it was only one of a whole list of inventions necessary to make the whole process work. Here are some other problems he had to overcome:

• He had to formulate the proper blend of metals for type casting. He needed something that wouldn’t contract when it cooled, but was hard enough to withstand use.
• He had to formulate ink that was sticky enough to stay on the thin ridges of type.
• He had to moisten the paper so it would be soft enough to work in the press (paper in those days was smooth and hard).
• He built a case to organize the different pieces of type. Capital letters went in the upper case and miniscules went in the lower. That’s were the names uppercase and lowercase came from.

Within 50 years from the time that Gutenberg succeeded, 20 million books and been printed in Europe. The world was thirsting for light and knowledge. I doubt Gutenberg realized the significance of his work; I’m sure he was inspired by God in order to have the persistence and drive necessary to do what he did. It took over 20 years, huge amounts of money, and multiple trials by the Catholic Church.

Will any of today’s inventions impact the world in the same way as Gutenberg’s press? Let me know what you think.

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