Read Ebook: Historic Inventions by Holland Rupert Sargent

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Ebook has 578 lines and 80908 words, and 12 pages

"Whose handiwork is this?" asked the Father.

"Where didst thou obtain them?" asked the Abbot.

The Abbot looked them over carefully. "I will take them all," said he. "They will grace the walls of our library, and tend to preserve us from evil."

The young jeweler was very much pleased, and hurried home to tell his wife what had happened. She was delighted. "Now thou art in a fair way to grow rich," said she.

On his next visit to the Cathedral he came home with a big package under his arm. He unwrapped it, and showed Anna a large volume. "See," said he, "this is the 'History of St. John the Evangelist.' The Abbot gave it to me in return for some more copies of my St. Christopher. It is written on vellum with a pen, and all the initial letters are illuminated. There are sixty-three pages, and some patient monk has spent months, aye, perhaps years, in making it. But I have a plan to engrave it all, just as I did the picture."

"Engrave a whole book! That would be a miracle!"

"I believe I can do it. And when once the sixty-three blocks are cut, a block to a page, I can print a score of the books as easily as one copy."

"Then thou canst sell books as well as the monks! And when the blocks are done it may not take more than a day to make a book, instead of months and years."

So John Gutenburg set to work with new enthusiasm. He needed a very quiet place in which to carry out his scheme, and more room than he had at home. It is said he found such a place in the ruined cloisters of the Monastery of St. Arbogast in the suburbs of Strasburg. Thither he stole away whenever he could leave the shop, and not even Anna went with him, nor even to her did he tell what he was doing. At last he brought home the tools he had been making, and started to cut the letters of the first pages of the "History of St. John." Night after night he worked at it, until a great pile of engraved blocks was done.

Then one evening there was a knock at the door of the living-room, and before he could answer it the door was opened, and the two apprentices, Dritzhn and Hielman, came in. They saw their master bending over wooden blocks, a pile of tools, and the open pages of the History. "What is this?" exclaimed Dritzhn. "Some new mystery?"

"I cannot explain now," said the confused inventor.

"But thou promised to teach us all thy arts for the money we pay thee," objected Hielman, who was of an avaricious turn of mind.

"No, only the trade of cutting gems and shaping mirrors."

"We understood we paid thee for all thy teaching," objected the apprentice. "'Tis only fair we should have our money's worth."

This made Dritzhn more eager than ever to learn what the work was. "We can keep thy secret," said he, "furnish funds, and perhaps help in the business."

"Books!" exclaimed the apprentice.

"Yes. I have found a new way of imprinting them." Then he showed them what he was doing with the History.

Dritzhn was amazed. "There should be a fortune in this!" said he. "But will not this art do away with the old method of copying?"

"In time it may," agreed the inventor. "That's one reason why we must keep it secret. Otherwise the copyists might try to destroy what I have done."

In time the blocks were all finished. "Now I can help," said Anna. "Thou must let me take the impressions."

"So thou shalt," her husband answered. "To-night we will fold and cut the paper into the right size for the pages, and grind the umber for ink. To-morrow we will begin to print the leaves."

The following day they all took turns making the impressions. Page after page came out clear and true. Then Anna started to paste the blank sides of the sheets together, for the pages were only printed on one side. In a week a pile of the Histories was printed and bound, and ready to be sold.

"Good-morning, my son," said the Abbot. "Hast thou brought us more of thy magical books?"

"Thanks, my son. It is always a pleasure to examine thy manuscripts."

The monks gathered around the Abbot to look at the new volume. "It is strange," said one of them, named Father Melchior. "How canst thou make so many books? Thou must have a great company of scribes."

Another was turning over the pages of the book. "It is not quite like the work of our hands," said he.

"It is certain that none of us can compete with thy speed in writing," went on Father Melchior. "Every few weeks thou dost bring in twelve or more books, written in half the time it takes our quickest scribe to make a single copy."

"Moreover," said another, "the letters are all so exact and regular. Thou hast brought two copies, and one has just as many letters and words on a page as the other, and all the letters are exactly alike."

"It is as I guessed," said the Abbot. "They are made from blocks, like the St. Christopher."

"The priests will need many copies," the Abbot assured him. "And thou shalt be well paid for them."

So the young printer agreed to undertake this new commission. It meant much to him to have secured the patronage of the Abbot, for this would set a seal upon the excellence of his work, and bring him to the notice of the wealthy and cultivated people of the day.

"There are seven hundred pages in the Bible," said he. "I cannot engrave more than two pages a month working steadily, and at such a rate it would take me fully three hundred and fifty months, or nearly thirty years, to make blocks enough to print the Holy Book."

"Why, thou wouldst be an old man before it was done!" cried his wife in dismay.

"Yes, and more than that, this process of engraving is dimming to the eyes. I should be blind before my work was half done."

"But couldst thou not divide the work with the others?"

"Yes, if only I could persuade them to attempt so big a work. They want to try smaller books, for they say my new process is hardly better for making a large book than the old method of copying. It may be that I can get them to print the Gospels gradually, one book at a time."

The other men looked aghast. So much work had gone for nothing.

As he experimented with these first type he made another improvement. He found it was hard to keep the letters tight together, so that he could ink them and print from them. He cut little notches in the edges of the different type, and by fastening his linen thread about the notches in the outside letters of each word he found that he could hold a word as tightly together as if all the letters in it were cut on a single block.

After many patient experiments he finished a small model of a press which seemed to him to combine all the qualifications needed for his work. He took this to a skilful turner in wood and metal, who examined it carefully. "This is only a simple wine-press I am to make, Master John," said he.

"Leave it by all means," advised the Father, "for be sure that no good will come of these strange arts."

But when he went back to the shop Dritzhn discovered the others setting type for a new work, a dictionary, that was called a "Catholicon." They were all enthusiastic about this, believing it would have a readier sale than their other works, and so he decided to stay with them a little longer, in spite of the Father's advice.

"What, all our labor for the last three years!" cried Hielman.

So, taking hammers and mallets, they broke the precious forms of type into thousands of fragments.

"The very place," agreed Faust. "It is almost a palace in size, and will give us ample room; it is in the city, and yet out of its bustle. It is vacant now, and I will rent it at once. When canst thou move there?"

Two well-lighted rooms on the second floor, so placed as to be inaccessible to visitors, were chosen for the workshops. Here the four worked from early morning until nearly midnight, cutting out new sets of type and preparing them for the presswork. They began by printing a new manual of grammar, an "Absies," or alphabetical table, and the "Doctrinale." All three of these it was thought would be of use to all who could read.

"We must send for him," said Faust.

"I remember that when I was in the Cathedral school," said Schoeffer, "Father Melchior showed us the Gothic Gospels, or Silver Book, and said that more art and expense had been spent on the Bible than on any other book he knew. I believe therefore that it is the most useful and important book in the world."

"But what a tremendous undertaking, to print the whole Bible!" exclaimed Schoeffer.

"It is wonderful!" said he. "How many impressions canst thou take from the press in a day?"

"About three hundred, working steadily."

"Then books will indeed multiply! What would the plodding copyists say to this!"

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