Evening star., 1924-09-07
Capital Sideligghts
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

An interesting picture which adorns
the office OF Thomas S. Robertson,
commissioner OF patents, visualiZes
the invention of the art of printing
and a history Of pioneer inventions, by
Frank KEEPER, which Commissioner
Robertson has just placed In the Ii
brary Of the Patent Office. discloses
that John Gutenberg of Mainz, Ger
| many. the inventor Of printing had to
divulge the secret of his invention
ITO save himself from torture when it
was believed that he had sold HIM
self to the devil. In this account is
found the origin Of the '"printers devil"
Here also is emphasized that while
the human race has been on this
earth for more than 100000 years and
possibly for many times that period,
more than 90 per cent of that time had
passed before the alphabet was in
vented, and 80 $40 per cent OF that time
before the art Of printing was invented
1t is less than 500 years since John
Gutenberg gave to the world this new
art, which was the basis for the line of
matrices now assembled by the Mer-
genthaler typesetting machine and
the line of type cast thereby.
Referring to this new historical
work In the Patent Office library.
|
that the printing press was sepa-
rate invention and an important step
in the development Of the art as we
see II in retrospect, but the art of
printing was made up of a number of
Inventions. each of which was patent
able in itself. These separate inven-
tions can be listed as: First, movable
type; second. the hand setting of the
type; third, the taking of an impress
ui< - ~,
press, just as the printer now takes a
proof by hand from type; fourth, the
casting OF type in a matrix, and fifth,
the printing press. 1t is quite prob
able that the casting Of type in a
matrix and the use of a printing press
were not arrived at until many years
after the preceding steps had been
taken. Yet the art of printing was a
complete invention when movable
types were made and set up and an
impression was taken from them by
hand.
Il X X X
When Gutenberg invented printing
he did not show his invention to the
public. but kept it as a trade secret,
although not for long. He soon lost
his trade secret, and this is how il
happened, as explained by Mr.. KEEPER:
The first book that Gutenberg printed
was the Bible, and when he had
printed the first edition (about 1850,
his partner, John Faust, went to Paris
to sell the books. He sold his first
copy to Charles VII Of France. The
book was greatly admired. Every one
thought 1T was copied by hand and
marveled at the evenness and uni
formity of the letters. 1t must have
taken a wonderfully steady hand to
copy 1t and must have been the work
Of lifetime. so every one thought,
for every letter was clear and dis
tinct. not blot or an error was
found anywhere. The King paid $50
crowns for 1t.
Some days later the archbishop
called and the King showed him the
Bible. The archbishop said at once
that 1t was much like the one he had
recently bought. He sent for his
copy and compared them. To their
astonishment they found that they
were exactly alike, page for page,
line for line and word for word. They
could hardly believe their senses. so
contrary was this to their ordinary
experience with books. Then they found
that others had copies just like theirs.
which further increased the mystery.
Finally they traced the books back to
John Faust and John Gutenberg. and
having sold themselves to the devil.
The monks and friars had copied all
books by hand up to that time, and
they Joined in denouncing Faust and
Gutenberg, for their occupation was
threatened by this mystery.
To save their lives Faust and
Gutenberg had to show how the
books were copied by printing, and
thus the secret got out and soon
fn oil nfrio
printers never forgave the clergy for
causing the loss Of their secret, and
by way of contempt he called a blot
a monk and a blank a friar, and by
way Of glorifying the devil he called
the printers boy by that name. These
terms have been used in the trade
ever since. Their use has a connec-
tion with the loss of a valuable trade
secret that has been of vast benefit
to the whole world.
1t has been the most valuable in
vention ever given to the human race
Printing would have been impos-
sible without the alphabet. and would
have been impractical without the
development of paper. This great in
vention was. therefore, dependent
on two prior inventions. This is fire.
quently the case with inventions, DR..
Robertson, the United States patent
commissioner, explains.
x X X
The alphabet is the oldest and prob
ably the greatest invention ever
made. Compared with the age Of the
race. 1t is very recent invention. 1t
is the first and only instrument that
connects the written language with
the spoken language. 1t was invented
probably by the Phoenicians less than
1000 years ago. They were the first
to drop all other written characters
and use the alphabet exclusively in
their writing. Other languages cop
led the alphabet from them.
The spoken language grew first.
The written language started long
after, but without the alphabet. The
written language first used pictures
and then other characters, signs, and
symbols to represent the spoken
words for objects and ideas. Each
spoken word, IL written at all. was
written with a picture or character
Whatever language was written be-
fore the invention Of the alpha bet
was written in crude, clumsy charac-
t2rS or pictures that somewhat re-
semble and were harder to use and
harder to understand than the illus
trated rebuS that we sometimes see
in puzzles.
The use or such characters greatly
restricted the growth of language and
thought. The Chinese written lam
guage was originally made up of
such characters, and some Of these
characters have persisted in that
language till the present time
The Phoenician alphabet had only
consonants. The Greeks improved
upon it by adding vowefs. This is
the usual course in making inven-
tions. The English alphabet Is not a
complete and perfect instrument. 1t
duplicates some sounds and .omits
others. 1t omitS characters for MANY