The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1913-07-31
THE FIRST PRINTERS
OF the World and the History OF Print
ing and Rag Paper Making

The antiquity of Oriental civilization
is yisualized at the Newberry Library
Chicago, in a collection of printing
implements and data showing that
Solomon's remark, OF making books
there is no end" had its literal appli-
cation in the modern sense in China
centuries before the art of printing
was discovered in Europe In the
days when the monks in Europe were
placing Illuminated manuscripts upon
parchment and using palimpsests
when few but the clergy could read
much less write, the Chinese were
turning out books printed on rag pa
per from wooden blocks
| When manuscript Bibles were
chained to desks in Libraries and
churches, and one book was worth
Kings ransom in Europe clear cut
printed books were common among
the Celestials and monumental works
of more than 500 volumes were being
struck off the blocks.
Four centuries before Gutenberg set
up his printing press in Mainz, and
the diffusion of learning began,
Chinese smith, Pi Sheng, had invented
movable types of clay, while a full
generation before Gutenberg began his
experiments the Coreans had become
expert printers with movable types of
copper and lead.
The exhibit contains specimens Of
the wooden blocks from which Chinese
printers of today strike off their en-
cravings. All the tools of the wood
engrayer are displayed, and likewise
the implements with which impress
sions are taken from the modern
movable types. These implements
are simple enough. They could be
carried in an oyercoat pocket, for they
consist merely of one double-bell
shaped brush of coir, or cocoanut
husk with which the ink is lightly
spread over the type face, and an
other padded brush which is passed
over the paper to give it the impress
sion. They are the same primitive
instruments which Oriental printers
were using a century or two after
the fall of Rome
Blocks from which the Chinese
print wall paper, of which they were
the inventors, are likewise on eXhi
bition. Before Dutch traders brought
the so-called "pagoda papers into
Europe at the end of the seventeenth
century, the wealthy decorated their
walls with tapestries and leather
panels, while the poorer people had
nothing but plaster walls in their
home. AS early as 1888 Chinese wall
paper was brought to America, and in
some of the Colonial houses in Mas
sachusetts well-preseryed specimens
are still found on the walls, some
having been imported as early as 1850.
Europe discovered printing for itself
after the Chinese had practiced it for
ages, but modern civilization is in
debted to the Asiatics for rag paper
and wall paper as we'll as for play
ing cards.
The exhibit of printing appliances
and ancient tones and the explaaa-
tory cards on the wall which trace
the history of printing and paper max
ing, afford a complete survey Of the
art that was the greatest factor in
developing modern civilization. As
early as 175 A D. the Chinese engray-
ed classics on stone tablets and took
paper rubbings from them for stu
dents The method of obtaining these
rubbings is identical with the one en-
ployed today by archaeologists in OBJ
tanning prints of the inscriptions on
old monuments. Sheets of thin but
tough paper, soaked in water, are ap-
piled to the surface of the inscription.
The paper is pressed into all the cuts
and crevises with a wooden mallet and !
a soft brush. When the paper is !
dry it is brushed with a stuffed pad |
of cotton lightly dipped in ink, and
when the paper is then taken OFF 1t
shows a perfect impression of the |
inscription in white on a black back
ground.
In the earliest form of block print
ing the characters were carved in the
wood just as a name is carved in a
tree trunk, only in reverse, and the
prints were white letters on black
Later Foong- Taou
Chinese Minister of State who was
the father of the facsimile
stamp idea, hit upon the device of cut
ting away all parts of the wood but
the lines of the characters, and pro-
duced the first block inscription in
relief. When Foong Taou pulled the
first proof reproduction of his own
stared him in the face,
the first facsimile, perhaps in the his
tory nf man