Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1901-03-30
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THE BIBLE AND A MYSTERY.

Only Three Men in the Indn Paper 90
crri AZ Ok "ri
1t is fairly well known. says tha
Golden Penny, that the Universities OF
Oxford and Cambridge, having paid
go 600 toward the cost cf publlca-
ton, are Joint ownCr3 of the copy
right Of the Revised Version. The
copyrights of the Authorized Version
i and of the Book of Common Prayer.
however. are vested in the Crown,
and authority to print them in Eng.
land is given by patent to the kings
printers, and by charter to the Uni
vcrsites of Oxford and Cambridge.
There is, probably, not another print
ing press in the word which issues
so many copies Of the Bible as that OF
the Oxford university, where the ia
nous India paper, Il quarter of CEN
tury ago, rcvolutioniZcd both the Bibls
and the prayer book trade.
OXford's answer to the question
whether the circulation of the Bible is
decreasing is cmphatically: No" The
output averages about million com
plete copies every year, apart from
New Testamcnts, Sc parate portions and
Welsh Bibles. Justly proud of their
printing, the authorities of the press
make Il standing offer of a guinea to
anybody who first points out a print
crs error in any edition of the Author
lied Version and as there are over
10 editions of the oxford Bible alto
gether, it is sufficient testimony TO the
excellence of the work TO say that the
bill for these errorsthe errors them
selves being usually of the most triv
ial character-rarely amounts to more
than two or three guineas a year.
There are few obsolete words in the
Bible, astonied,' for ex-
ample-which are a constant source of
trouble on this account, raising false
hopes in the breasts of many would
be winner of the guinea reward, and
involving correspondence with appli-
cants from all over the world.
Today the Bible. in all its stages,
is produced by the best workmanship
in the trade, and under the most
watchful care it is possible to provide.
This remark is equally true of each Of
the three great houses from which we
get our Bibles. The Oxford Press Is
remarkable from the fact that it not
only prints its books, but manufactures
its own paper, makes its own type for
some so or 60 languages, maintains it's
l., ~ LIT, g
least 100000 animals are annually pre-
pared for Bibles alone-and, in short,
does everything connected with the
work from start to finish. The Oxford
type foundery is interesting as being
the oldest establishment of it's kind IN
England.
The Oxford India paper is, Of course,
of recent date, although its original,
hidden among the many other secrets
of the mysterious East, may date back
to an indefinite age Only three per-
sons at a time are permitted to know
the process of its manufacture at the
University mills at Wolvercote. each
workman being allowed to understand
only one stage of the process The
story of it's introduction has been told
before, but it is worth retelling. Sixty
years ago an Oxford graduate, newly
home from India, presented the Uni
versity Press with a small fold of re-
markably thin, yet perfectly Opaque
paper In 1874 serious attempt was
made to manufacture a similar paper.
The preliminary experiments at the
Wolvercote mills failed. but out OF
these failures presently came complete
success, the first fruits of which took
the form of an edition of the Bible
similar in all respects to the unlimited
number of copies printed 33 years be-
fore on the graduates fold of paper
from India. This was in August, 1875.
and so great was the demand for the
new edition that in a few weeks a
quarter of million copies had been
sold Nowadays the Oxford India
paper is employed for hundreds of diff
ferent works and editions, yet it re-
mains as much a mystery as ever.