Crandall Print Museum

As a class we toured the Crandall Print Museum yesterday, and I really feel it was a great experience. I have now visited the museum a few times, and each time I leave with a better appreciation and understanding of print history (the invention, evolution, and use truly was miraculous and a wonderful blessing - certainly when considering that it was in essence the single attributing factor bringing mankind out of the dark ages.) Here are a few of my notes and or things I remember from our field trip to the Crandall Print Museum. (Please excuse any spelling and or grammar issues - it has yet to be read through and edited. It's just a simple smattering of my thoughts.)

1. Many of the first scriptures and other writings were composed on veal (or cafe skin), which is where we get the term "vellum".

2. In 1400 AD in Mince, Germany, a boy was born to a gold smith family named Yohan Ginsphlith; however, Yohan didn't like his name because it meant "Goose Flesh", so he changed his last name to the name his father had given their home (which evidently was a common thing to do during that time period) - the name being "Guttenburg" (meaning = good mountain.)

3. Among the many things that Guttenburg had to invent for his press he figured out the prefect metal mixture for type (which is still used today): lead (80%), antinoni (13%), and tin (7%).

4. The sprue is the end of the poured type that is broken off.

5. The composing stick is used to first set the type, from there it is moved to the galley and placed on the press inside the frame composed of 42 lines of type, and locked into place with the chase(s).

6. When the type was sorted, it was placed in a gridded box, the capital letters of the alphabet being placed in the top half of the box (or case), and the smaller (or "lower case") letters going in the bottom half. From this sequence the terms lower and upper case letters resulted.

7. He boiled linseed oil and mixed it with various oxides and candle resin to create the think black ink used in printing.

8. He came up with the idea to make ink balls, which were also called beaters, that placed the ink on the press (they were made of horse hide, stuffed ironically with goose feathers.)

9. In 4 years he printed 180 copies of the Bible composed of 1248 pages (the earliest editions were printed on vellum, and later paper - but he had to wet the paper because the ink didn't take to it too well when dry.)

10. The "tippin and friskit" was the device that held the paper in place on the press (it looked like a framing device.)

11. The "peal" was the t shaped device used to lift the wet printed paper up for hanging.

12. The illuminater was a monk who would act as the designer/ artist of the Bible, adding artist drawings, calligraphy, and color to the text.

13. From 1450 - 1500 this time period was called the "incognobula" period, where 20 million books were printed, and in essence marks the exit period of the dark ages. One reason it was possible for 20 million books to be printed was due in large part to the 6 different print shops Guttenburg trained and tried to get going (eventually he lost funding and his creditors shut him down) - yet, his training survived and all his apprentices went their separate ways, establishing their own printing shops all throughout Europe.

14. Benjamin was born in 1706 AD, he was 1 of 17 kids born to a candlestick maker. At twelve, similar to other boys his age, he was expected to get an apprenticeship. He didn't like the candle business, so we signed a contract with his older brother working as an apprentice printer. He helped bring the English Common Press to the United States, and in 1733 he printed his 1st almanac, but under the name Saunders (his alter ego/ pen name.)

15. Thomas Payne wrote the "Crisis Papers" to give moral to the losing American troops - first large scale print propaganda in American wartime history.

16. On June 7, 1776 in the senate it was proposed that the early settlements break away from English rule under King George the 3rd (he was heavily taxing them, etc.) The "Crisis Papers" were printed to help "advertise"/ spread the word that this was happening. Later, after much discussion, Thomas Jefferson was asked to write the Declaration of Independence (from England), which in essence started the British American war (note: George Washington, the only man having any real substantial military experience was asked to lead the American troops - which weren't really troops at all; most of the American men were trades and craftsmen. However, the Americans were lucky enough to have the French become their allies, and that the British made a critical wartime error trapping their ships in Chesapeake bay during the winter months.

17. The Grandin print room was 17.5' X 33'. It had two presses, 1 wood and a 1 new iron one.

18. By the early 1800's there had been little improvements to the printing process - in fact Guttenburg's process was still the premise of all printing efforts for many more years. It had been 380 years since Guttenburg's first invention and still not a lot had changed.

19. Grandin was just 23 years old when asked to print 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon (an outlandish number - no press in the country had an order that large at the time.) Joseph was just 24 years old.

20. Note: The 2/3 sealed portion of the Book of Mormon was most likely sealed with bees wax, were made of a 75% gold and 25% silver mixture, weighing probably 80 lbs.

21. The entire Book of Mormon was translated in 85 days, and was immediately copied in hand by Oliver Cowdery (a school teacher) to protect the original transcriptions. The copied manuscript was taken to the press a few pages at a time in secrecy - to prevent from robbery and mobbing.

22. The paper used at the time was called "Foolscap" because that was the type of paper used to make "dunce caps" for students sent to the corner.

23. John Gilbert was the oldest guy working for Grandin, he was 27. He is the one who set the type for the Book of Mormon - because the original text didn't have any punctuation he set the type not only, as print required, upside down and backwards, but also added all the punctuation. There were 592 pages he had to set. He had a few 14 year old apprentice boys who would have been present to help "throw-away" the type (put it back in the case) and move paper around, etc.

24. All 5000 copies (again an incredible #) were printed in 7 months (they worked 11hrs/day 6days/wk).

25. Because the printed back to back, they printed 2500 pages, then flipped all of those over and printed on the back side 2500 times. They were only able to print 16 pages of the 592 pages of the Book of Mormon at a time, which means they had to go through the print process 37 times, which meant they had to do 185,000 press pulls, and 185,000 inkings.

26. A similar print process was used until 1979 when the last Bible was printed - now copies and high end special printing processes have been developed and are used.