Chapter 226 Printing House 2
Chapter 226 The Printing House 2
The workshop owner smiled as he approached.
“Mr. Factory Master, the two ladies, is there anything I can do for you?”
“Just accompany the two of them for a nice stroll through this workshop and introduce the printing process.”
“Yes.”
The plant manager nodded as he said to Erin and Lardy “He’s the director in charge of this workshop, just ask him if you have any questions. I have work to do, so I’ll leave you to it,” and turned to go.
Irene skimmed towards the back of the factory director’s departure, while Lardy took her hand and turned to the workshop director and said, “Then I’ll trouble you, Mr. Director. Betty and I are really quite interested in this place.”
The director smiled awkwardly, “Not at all, please follow me.”
The three of them went to the nearest printing press, and the director pointed out the machine and explained to Irene and Lardy the structure and working principle of the printing machine in detail.
It so happened that a worker was operating the machine and the two women watched the complete printing process from one side to the other.
The printers worked in pairs, taking turns operating the plates in and out and pulling the press, a labor intensive task that required more skill than inking the paper evenly.
A worker uses a handle spatula to apply ink to the sudden printing plate, rubbing it carefully with an ink roller, then taking an ink rubbing ball pad from a rack, tapping it on the ink, and then rubbing it in a circular motion on the plate, so that the ink is evenly coated on the surface.
Next, ink each page of the printing plate in turn, from time to time to rub the ink rubbing ball pad in order to adjust the distribution of ink.
Meanwhile, another worker places a page of paper in the printing position fixed to the platen grid, then closes the paper-clamping frame above it, then uses his right hand to make the platen grid, the paper, and the paper-clamping frame descend to the flat surface of the upper inked movable type; he grips the press handle firmly in his right hand and rotates it so as to drive the front half of the plate table under the platen, and with his right hand pulls down on the press handle, moving the rear half of the plate table below the platen, pulling it again, and then relaxing the the handle so that it springs back; lifting up the platen, removing the plate table and removing the press grid device.
“Wow! So simple! This press is so useful!”
Erin clapped her hands as if cheering, her silver-bell voice drawing the crowd to look at her once more. Of course, in their hearts, they didn’t agree with her words, “Simple? This little girl says it’s too easy, try printing 200 leaflets in an hour yourself? Guaranteed to make you cry out.”
The workshop director smiled and introduced, “After lining up a plate, we will print all the planned quantity of paper on one side, then print the reverse side of the paper, hang it up to dry, and finally bind them and store them in the warehouse. The used plates are washed with lye and given to the typesetter to be broken down into movable type.”
“This is movable type?”
Ladisertia walked over to Sam the typesetter and looked at the individual metal movable letters on the table, little things smaller than the fingernail cap of her pinky.
“Yes, yes, yes, Counselor Thothia, these are living letters. Don’t look at how small they are, it’s not easy to make them.”
The workshop director introduced them with a showy tone.
“First you have the letter engraver draw the letters on the end of the metal blanks, then you carve or file away the unwanted metal, then you harden these positive molds and stamp them into brass or bronze to make a blank negative mold, which varies in width with the size of the letter.”
“Next all the raised metal parts of the face are filed off, and the size of the negative mold is adjusted so that the lettering is accurately embedded in its proper place at the bottom of the impression, and then the negative mold is placed in the hands of the casters, whose skill is put to the test in casting the movable lettering by making sure that the liquid of the molten metal is spread over every part of the face.”
The two women marveled, “So complicated!”
“So, how many sheets of paper can you print in a day?”
The workshop director made a rough estimation and replied, “With an ordinary sized printing plate, two skilled printers can print 250 to 300 sheets per hour, if the printing plate is a little bigger, then it will be a little difficult to ink evenly, and the speed will drop.”
“In our workshop, we can print 3,000 pages a day, double-sided.” The director patted his chest and said proudly, “No other workshop is as fast as we are here, and the quality is not as good as ours.”
Irene’s cherry mouth slightly opened, stunned, said, “This speed …… is indeed much faster than copying books.”
Lardy picked up a new bound book next to her, and she was surprised to find that it was a summary of poems from her hometown of Horn Bay.
“This kind of book is even printed here?”
“Oh, you mean that book! That’s a batch of books from Horned Cove sent by the Lord of Lords for us to print, but we don’t know the Horned Cove language on them, so casting the movable type and typesetting them was a real pain in the ass. It is said that the Lord wants to sell them back to Horned Bay, and I heard the factory manager say that this is some poet from Horned Bay who wrote something called ‘Wet Pole’, and if you ask me, these Horned Bay guys are really fed up, and have nothing better to do than to write some sickly things.”
La Di listened to a head of black line, the workshop director does not know the female consultant is from the corner of the Bay, still in the gushing of his own opinion: “also, sell back to pit pit that gang of rich people is also a very good business, I heard that everyone there is rich and oily …… ouch! ”
The director held his feet and jumped up.
Irene said with an apologetic face, “Aiya, I am really sorry ah, just now when I took a step one did not pay attention to ……”
The director looked at her delicate face how could not get angry, waved his hand and said, “Haha, all right all right.”
……
Irene and La Di visited the factory for half a day, until near noon, only to leave the samples to be printed to leave and return.
As they walked, they chatted, exchanging their opinions on the things they had just seen.
“Betty, I think this printing press is something more remarkable than those musket cannons.”
“I think so too, if only a few more printing presses were made, books would be so cheap that even commoners could afford them.”
“Aren’t the ‘Literacy Books’ and ‘Basic Hygiene Manuals’ we just sent aimed at civilians? Although the things on them are very simple, they are keys to unlocking the doors of knowledge. Haha, you, the head of the Education Department, can make a big splash.”
“Well, seeing the printing press I’m indeed getting more and more confident. Speaking of the education hall, if you were present at that time, I guess that nerd appointed you as the supervisor.”
“Don’t say that, it was fitting to put you in that position, let those men get a good look at what we women can do.”
Erin clenched her small fists, “I’ll work hard.”
She suddenly let go, as if thinking of something, and said, a little lost in thought, “But will the status of ‘scholar’ become less and less valuable?”
Lardy’s face darkened, then she smiled sweetly, “Isn’t making knowledge available to more people what my generation would like to see?”
“That’s true!”
Seeing that the other party was so open-minded, Ayrin was relieved.
(End of chapter)