HOW THE OLD-TIME PRINTERS WORKED
Before considering the organization of a shop and the conditions under
which the work was done, it is worth while to look into a printing
establishment of the sixteenth, seventeenth, or eighteenth century and
see how the work itself was carried on. This general view of an old-time
printing plant will be made fairly full even at the cost of some
repetition of facts already stated elsewhere on account of the
importance of presenting here as complete a picture as possible of the
life and labor of printers in the centuries under discussion.
Originally the printer did everything except to make his paper and his
presses. He designed and cast his type, he made his ink, he edited his
manuscript, printed his books, bound them, and, for a time, sold them.
We have just considered his relations to the bookseller. He got rid of
his type casting about one hundred years after the invention. The type
foundry of Guillaume Le Bé, established about 1551, seems to have been
the beginning of type founding as a separate industry, although in later
years some very large establishments maintained type foundries and even
paper mills as incidents of the business; but the printer from this time
on began to get his type outside.
Bookbinding came to be regarded as a separate industry at about the same
time.
Ink making was done by the printer until comparatively recently. The ink
balls which were used for distributing the ink on types were made by the
printers themselves until the ink ball was superseded by the roller with
the coming in of modern presses. Even then rollers were made in the
shops for a long time, and indeed the practice is hardly now entirely
discontinued.
The early paper was hand-made and was thick, with a rough, furrowed
surface. It was grayish or yellowish in color and was very strongly
water-marked. It was very costly, but very durable. It was heavy and
hard to handle, especially as it was handled without mechanical
appliances.
The early types were irregular in face and body as the natural result of
being cast in hand moulds from hand cut dies. The early types were cast
on large bodies and were used without leads. The point system, which
reduced type to uniformity and did away with the annoying irregularity
in size of the old types, did not come into existence until the middle
of the eighteenth century, three hundred years after the invention of
printing. Of course, all composition throughout this period was done by
hand. Women were employed as compositors as early as 1500, but they
apparently disappeared from the industry before long, as we find no
evidence of their presence after the reorganization of 1618 or for some
time before that.
The press was substantially the old screw press of Gutenberg in which
the platen was forced down onto the bed by the direct pressure of a
screw. A few improvements had been made. A sliding bed was introduced in
1500. A copper screw (more effective and durable than the old wooden
screw), tympan, and frisket were added in 1550, and the so-called Dutch
press, which did away with the necessity of raising the platen by a
reverse motion of the screw by substituting leverage for it, was
introduced in 1620. These were the only improvements of any note which
were made before the introduction of the Stanhope press about 1800. Of
course, the presses were worked by hand power and it will be seen that
the setting up of the screw or the throwing of a lever with sufficient
force to insure a good impression was an extremely laborious task. It
was sometimes dangerous, as the screw bar or lever was liable to break
when the workman’s weight and strength were thrown upon it, resulting in
serious injuries.
The ink was good—well-aged linseed oil, boiled until viscous when cool,
and mixed in a mortar with resin black. It was mixed in the proportion
of thirty-two ounces of oil to five ounces of black. Of course, it was
variable, its quality depending upon the quality of the ingredients and
the care exercised in preparation. It was spread on the type by means of
balls of leather stuffed with wool and firmly attached to wooden
handles. One of these balls was taken in each hand, a small portion of
ink was spread evenly over the balls by rubbing them together, and the
ink ball was then passed over the type so as to distribute the ink as
evenly as possible.
Composition was done by the full page. This was a fairly reasonable
method of reckoning, as the kinds of printing were not varied as they
are now. Compositors worked “on honor” and were paid by time. Payment by
ems is a very late advance, not having been adopted until about 1775.
Imposition was done practically as now.
The pressman’s day began by the preparation, through softening and
cleaning, of the balls which were to be used on the day’s run, and the
mixing of the amount of ink considered necessary for the day’s work.
Make-ready, adjustment of margins, register, and the like had to be
attended to before the impressions could be taken. Meanwhile the paper
had been dampened. The old screw press could not print on dry paper.
Paper came from the mill in “hands” or packages of twenty-five sheets,
folded once and laid inside each other as note paper is now sold by the
stationer. A “hand” was dipped in a tub of water. It was then taken out
and the sheets were placed flat under weights to squeeze out the
superfluous water and keep the sheets in shape. After the water had been
squeezed out the sheets were re-folded into “hands” and sent to the
pressroom to be placed upon the press while still damp.
Two men worked together on the press, one inking the type and the other
making the impression. They worked turn and turn about in hour shifts so
that the more and less laborious work was equally distributed.
Two-color work was done by taking two impressions from one form. The
parts which were intended to be printed in red were set in higher type
than the rest and a perforated frisket was used. The red ink impression
was taken first. The type for red ink was then removed and slugs were
put in, making the form type high throughout. From this form the
impression was taken in black ink. As might be supposed, the register
was almost always imperfect.
The printed leaves while still damp were piled under weights to remove
the counter impression of the type which naturally struck through the
damp paper.
The printing was done with the paper sufficiently damp to make this
simple process of removal fairly successful. Later the printed sheets
were pressed between heated plates of metal, giving a very smooth and
glossy surface to the page.
The pressman was paid by time like the compositor, but he was expected
to accomplish a given amount of work in a day. In Paris, about 1575, he
was expected to print 2650 sheets, while at Lyons the day’s work was
held to be 3350. All folding, of course, was done by hand with no
further assistance than that of the bone or wooden folding stick. The
first sheet from the press was taken as a sample or proof. Proving, as
distinguished from printing, was then unknown.
Proofreading was done practically as now and the proof marks were
substantially the same. Two corrections per page must be made by the
compositor without extra compensation. Other corrections were apparently
not made by the original compositor, but by other workmen who were
employed as piece workers on that particular occupation for the time
being. The printer appears to have ordinarily managed to get these
corrections charged to the author.
There was a rude system of cost finding and estimating in force. In
making a price on a job the printer charged first for the paper. Whether
or not he took a profit here is uncertain, but he probably did when he
thought he could get it. The paper did not enter any further into his
computation. He next estimated the cost of the labor. He then figured 50
per cent of the labor cost as overhead, including such minor items as
ink and other special materials which might be needed on that particular
job before it got to the customer. He then added another 25 per cent of
the labor cost, which was supposed to be profit, and upon that basis he
made up his price. Presumably there were price cutters and more or less
unsuccessful guessers in those days as there are now, but the method
just outlined was supposed to be that by which printers generally
reached their figures. The financial success of the printer depended, of
course, on operation. He might so conduct his work that the 50 per cent
overhead might leave a considerable margin to be added to the 25 per
cent profit or, on the other hand, he might so bungle it as to eat up
the 25 per cent and more too.