The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-06-25
sEMI-MILLENNIAL OF PRINTING.

The five hundredth anniversary Of the
birthday of Gutenberg, the inventor of
printing from movable types, was Gel
ebrated in Mainz, Germany. June 90 1t
is a long jump from Gutenberg and Faust
TO Mergenthaler and Hoe. but it has taken
a long time 10 make ii. The history of
printing during those five hundred years.
even If only the most salient features of
the progression were noted, would fl
large volume. Nevertheless Mr. RoEe,t
Hoe, the press builder. tells the New York
Journal that. in his opinion, there has
been only one really great invention in
the art OF printing from the time of Gut
enberg to the present. This does not
refer, of course. TO the mechanical part o.
the art, but has reference to esse-ti
principles. The great invention which
Mr.. Hoe had in mind was that of making
stereotype plates. without these ate,
printing must have remained a comp ra-
lively slow and costly process. The cheap
newspapers and books, as we know them
to-day. could not have been pro lac d.
There would have been no great newspa-
pers with eiFeelatieHs- running into III
nulluItNS Oh liOuSdNuS udilA, because me
cost of the necessary printing estaa ISM
ment would have made 1t out of the ques-
ton to produce a popular ced newspa-
per.
Stereotyping was invented by Within
Ged of Edinburgh. Scotland. As "a
back as 1928 he began his experiments. but
IL was not until 1876 that he was able o
print a book from stereotype1 plates. The
printers Of those days were oppos d -
Ged's invention. They saw in il a lao
saving device which would they GU n.
reduce the volume OF their emp Cymert.
They. therefore, threw evety obstacle pcs
sible in Geds way. But, by working st
night after the ether employees ial ltft
the shop, he finally produced sue ess ul
plates. Mr.. Ged's invention is orc hun
bred aud seveuty-fve years old, reYe,t' e
less the principle applied to-day is the
same as that discovered by him. 7: ere
is of course a veIy vide differen
tween the quickly-made and perfec, ma
trices Of the morning papers or tie p es-
ent. and the old, rough plaster cas- Of
Ged, but that is merely matter Of elo u
ton of Improvement, and not Of invon-
ton.
The great printing machines Of the day,
TOO. are only elaboratiors upon the ii st
presses. But what marvellous cab RI
tons they are, Gutenberg was able to
get one impression on one side Of small
sheet in probably two minutes. The PIES
out monster presses devour endless r,ns
of white paper aud turn out com3la'e
newspapers ut the rate of many thous-
ands per hour. Mergenthaler's inven / n.
one of the most wonderful machines in the
world. adheres TO Gutenberg principle of
employing movable pieces Of metal hav-
ing letters and characters upon them With
which 70 form words aud combilatio 8
Thus II will be seen that while there has
been marvellous progress in the ''art pre-
servative" the evolution has been slow
and the discoveries of new principles have
been few Gutenberg's invention revolu-
tionized the literature and art Of The
world: Ged's greatly multiplied TIE carac-
ity of printing establishments, ard ether
inventors oC mechanical appliances have
so cheapened and perfected the business
Of printing that now the best literature
and the daily epitome OF the world nc VS.
are within the reach of every person.