By the people...for the people

PbO: Letterpress Workshop

20th November 2014

It's amazing to think how Johannes Gutenberg - a German blacksmith, goldsmith and printer, changed the way in which the western world accessed information; sharing with us the ability to print whole actual books when all around everyone else was writing (if indeed they could write) with the thin end of a parsnip dipped in dung and ploughing fields with the arse bone of a giraffe.

http://www.gutenberg.de/english/erfindun.htm

http://bav.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/arch-b-b10

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6KmzuULPmQ
(Stephen Fry -The Machine that made us)

Today's workshop introduced by Phil Bowden (the Litho man) explored the inner sanctum of the complex, laborious but magical process that is LetterPress printing.

Phil is obviously a 'Cold Metal' man who is passionate and ingenuous about this process but he was also extremely patient with students like me whose hands immediately turned into pigs trotters the moment they touched a compositing stick! 

The discovery of 'moveable type' was hugely important. It was the beginning of mass production and propaganda publicity with religious doctrines being the first printed ephemera produced. The stem of Letterpress printing grew from Illuminated letterforms and with the Church being the pinnacle of wealth and power in medieval society it is no surprise that 'religious indulgences' were Gutenbergs' first printed documents for those who could read.

rolling up type on press

Metal type on press

Individual characters were cast in lead alloy and the first press was designed along the same lines as a wine press- the lead characters were set down onto the press bed, inked up and 'screwed down' onto parchment paper. The structure of this press moved on from this 'screwing' style press to the 'knuckle and joint' and then 'Albion press design.

The operation of type manufacture in its inception went from hand carved wooden characters to basically slopping molten metal into casts in sand, moulding type shapes added to the individuality of each character and then using carved characters, which were 'punched' into brass moulds, cast each type form more accurately and uniformly.

metal type set and locked into press

Letterforms were cut from wood (skilful, lighter and more economical than metal type forms but more time consuming and less accurate than metal characters) latterly lead was the metal of choice. Unfortunately setting lead type was a perilous process, with Lead Oxide poisoning rife as the metal was unconsciously ingested due to poor hand hygiene. This insidious poisoning was often what 'carried off' the poor compositors in days of yore, their 'blue tongues' lolling like that of a Chow dog.

http://britishletterpress.co.uk/type-and-typography/woodletter-or-poster-types/

http://britishletterpress.co.uk/type-and-typography/finding-second-hand-type/

 

final print