Jingming

Chapter 282 The Difficulty of Printing
"Have you heard the will clearly? Although you are all young, you are all chosen from thousands of miles to come here, and your skills are not much worse than the masters who have been there for many years!"

As soon as the class started today, Shen Zhongming, the dean of the School of Engineering of Huangming University, came to the master training class.

Zheng Kui sat at the bottom, looking at the dean on the stage in a daze.

This Shen Zhongming was originally just a small head of the Ministry of Industry, but he was really obsessed with all kinds of utensils and principles.Nearly [-] years old, but still only a principal, You Xi sent a foreigner to the factory under the Ministry of Industry.

When Huangming University was looking for the dean of the engineering school, Li Nai recommended him, and now Shen Zhongming thinks this is a very good opportunity.

"In the entire Ming Dynasty, where can we find so many skilled craftsmen from all walks of life?" Shen Zhongming was very excited. "In the academy, there are also professors and enshrined priests who developed the Huangming Bell. The dean thinks that in addition to your studies, there are more You can take this opportunity to participate in this matter. If you get something, you will get extra points in the performance appraisal!"

He was talking about improving printing technology.

But these young craftsmen are still ignorant: in the past, they just followed the tasks arranged by the above, and completed the required quantity with the skills they learned.

It is enough to come here to learn characters, learn arithmetic, and listen to those miscellaneous truths every day, but now you want to participate in this matter?

Of course, they heard the decree clearly. If there is a good way to propose it and it will be effective after use, you can ask His Majesty to grant you a title of grace or even a title of merit.

Shen Zhongming is very familiar with what the craftsmen are like, so now he just arranges tasks for them: "You can do it, but you must also be able to think. After today's class, I will come here again at night, and work together to think of some ideas. If it is feasible If there is any way, the dean will arrange a trial production."

Coming over to announce this, the young craftsmen in the master craftsman training class could only suppress their inner wailing.

I can't express my dissatisfaction, but my homework is very heavy every day.

In the past, the hands that wielded hammers, shovels and various tools now have to practice calligraphy and do calculations every night, which is already very difficult.

Engraving this kind of thing... most people are not in this line of work!
But they didn't dare to ignore the matter arranged by the dean.

At noon, discussions started in the dormitory.

The center of the crowd was Wu Erqi from the Si Li Supervisory Factory.

He is a printer.

The Lijian began to engrave books and periodicals from the Yongle period, and later even had a special book engraving factory for the needs of the royal family.The engraved editions of the Supervisor of Rites are some of the more authoritative edited editions of books on the market.

In the factory, there are 50 typewriters, 310 framers, and 58 printers in shifts.

"So I can't do it alone!" Wu Erqi had never been surrounded by so many people before, "I don't know how to engrave or frame!"

"How much do you know how to do it?" Someone said, "The dean said that what His Majesty wants is to be able to print faster than before. Now everyone doesn't think of a way. When it gets dark, the dean asked, is it possible Lock us up and think about it? Do you want to write the copybook?"

"It's not that easy!" Wu Erqi shook his head, "Let me tell you, how are they printed now..."

He began to talk about the craftsmanship of engraving books in the factory.

The first step is lettering.

In the Jingchang, there are actually still engraving plates, which are the high-quality editions presented by Yulan. The engraved characters are first written by people with excellent calligraphy, and then carved by the most skillful calligraphy craftsmen.

If it is movable type, it also depends on what kind of material it is.There are many good woods that can be used in the factory, and wooden movable type occupies a little more.In addition, there are clay movable type, so it is necessary to engrave the master mold first, and then put the clay inside and fire it.As for the copper movable type, there are also two sets.

If movable type is used for printing, the next step is to select characters and make plates.

Not to mention the time-consuming and labor-intensive selection of characters. When the selected characters are arranged, they must be very stable and firm on the board.The current method is to first put a layer of rosin and wax-made ointment on the bottom of the board, which will soften when heated, and then solidify after being flattened.

After the board is made, the next step is to ink.

"I will not talk about the preparation of this ink. You must be very skillful and careful when applying the ink. It must be even, and the ink should not be too much or too little. After the rice paper is covered, use a brown brush to carefully sweep the back of the paper, only to see that the back of the paper also shows ink. The rice paper should be peeled off gently. Let me tell you, the force of peeling off the paper should be very delicate..."

Wu Erqi talked emphatically about the skills and difficulties involved, and wanted to show his prowess, and finally said triumphantly: "Do you know how difficult it is now? Think about when Grandpa Taizong was around, the "Yongle Dadian" took a lot of money." How long did it take to print? I heard from them that it took us more than a year to print [-] copies of the new dictionary. Just finished the night shift."

They are all knowledgeable, although they don't know how to engrave, but only listen to Wu Erqi's emphatic talk about the skillful strength and soft strength needed for this, and they know that this matter can only be done with a lot of skilled hands.

How can this get up faster?Experienced hands are the hardest to bring.

After the paper is flattened, if the movable type on the board has hair-like unevenness, some characters will be printed clearly, and some characters will not be inked at all.

If you use too much force, the paper will break easily.

Wu Erqi said again: "To be honest, the dictionary is okay. Anyway, after the characters are selected and the board is made, only some fonts are broken and need to be replaced. But the newspaper, every time the article is different, It is really difficult to re-select characters and make plates every time!"

At this very moment, the small engraving room in the editorial department of Gongli Mingbao was full of familiar hands from the original factory, and the master craftsman in charge of this place knelt in front of the manager of the engraving department who was in charge of them.

"Lord Lu, I have been picking and making plates day and night. There are tens of thousands of movable type in this issue. To print so many copies, I have to pick out a dozen plates. One issue will be released in fifteen days. This issue I can barely handle the job, but the younger ones in the next issue will really not be able to handle it. There are two type-pickers, and their eyes suddenly can't see clearly. "

"This is the emperor's order!"

"Forgive me, my lord. We really need more people."

"Your Majesty is merciful, hasn't some manpower been transferred?"

"But they are not in this business. There are always mistakes and omissions in the word selection, and the plate maker is even more afraid to let them come. Even if it is inked and printed, the samples that come out cannot be used. There is still an oracle in this issue, and it will be printed when the time comes. How can the newspapers have double images or unclear words?"

"... Hurry up and teach them."

"My lord, can't we only publish one issue a month first, and then change to a half-monthly issue when the new engraving factory is built and there are enough skilled hands?"

"Your Majesty wants a half-monthly issue, that is, a half-monthly issue! If you want manpower, I will transfer manpower for you. If you want paper and ink, I will give you whatever you want. But the newspaper company wants a half-monthly issue, and this is not negotiable! "

The master could only wipe his tears and reluctantly go back to the engraving room.

The movement in the palace can't be hidden from Zhu Houcong, especially now that this matter is one of his major concerns.

After hearing Huang Jin's presentation and seeing his helpless and unbearable expression, Zhu Houcong also let out a long sigh.

In today's era, too many things can only be done by manpower.

But Zhu Houcong also knew nothing about the technology and craftsmanship in the field of printing.

If the "Jiajing Dictionary" can control the responsibility of the engraved characters, it might not be possible to authorize it after the Ming Pao Bank has established a local franchise branch.

The emergence of new characters, strictly controlling the appearance of various variant characters is an extremely important part of the successful promotion.What this thing wants is unity.

After hearing the difficulties reported by Ming Pao, Zhu Houcong has allowed them to make more engravings.

This is also due to Zhu Houcong's lack of understanding of the details of the current technical situation. In his cognition, he naturally thinks that movable type printing is more advanced, so the new characters, dictionaries, and newspapers were clearly engraved in a batch at the beginning. New Simplified Typeface.

But once the dictionary is confirmed, the engraving can better control the writing of each word after it is engraved or authorized in the future-just for the engraving.

Only newspapers cannot avoid movable type.As the quantity increases, the printing cost of a single newspaper will of course be reduced, but the consumption of manpower, fonts and many other aspects will double, and the disadvantages of today's movable type printing will also be doubled.

"Tell the newspaper that the newspaper does not need to strive for excellence, just like the many books that were submitted for imperial reading in the past. There are some double images, some words are not clear, it is not a big problem, as long as the words are correct."

Zhu Houcong knows that everyone's standards are different.

What he wants is that the newspaper can be published on a regular basis, but there will still be "something that the emperor asked to do well" at the newspaper bank, so it will naturally pursue excellence.

For Zhu Houcong, newspapers are enough.As for print quality, that's not something that happens overnight.

From rough to fine, Ming Pao Hong has this pressure, which is also the motivation to stimulate them to optimize the process.

"In this way, don't push the craftsmen to go too far." Zhu Houcong warned, "In the future, new employees in the newspaper engraving factory will have to be brought by them, and each one is very precious. Tell them clearly that I don't need this newspaper to be so exquisite , People who read newspapers can understand the meaning. Occasionally, a few words are unclear, so why can’t they guess which word it is? "

After Huang Jin went out, Zhu Houcong sat in a daze for a while.

For this business, only two words can come to his mind: type, printing press.

Later, lead type was used. Compared with the current wooden, clay, and copper characters, what advantages does this type have?How to cast?
There is also a printing machine. How can the current printing process be integrated into a printing machine after the plate making is completed to improve the efficiency of the printing process?

After Huang Jin arranged for someone to go to the Ming Pao Company to communicate and came back into the study of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Zhu Houcong said, "Go and call Alfonso, and I'll ask him if he has any knowledge of this in Europa."

……

Comrade Alfonso has integrated into Ming, wearing the robes that his other colleagues often wear.

As one of the priests of Huangming University, he is doing well in Huangming University now, and he especially likes the many delicacies of Daming.

After his experience and knowledge in shipbuilding, naval warfare, guns and many other aspects have been emptied, Alfonso has not yet obtained complete "freedom", let alone any other opportunities.

Last year, there was a rebellion in the land of the Eastern Emperor, and Comrade Alfonso's "contribution" also had a small credit for it - those new Oriental artillery and warships are said to have played a big role in the war .

But he never expected that His Majesty the Emperor summoned him and asked about printing.

"Your Majesty, I... oh no, I have to remember it well."

Zhu Houcong didn't urge him either.

"...I just remembered that my wife once asked someone to buy a "Bible". I heard that it was handed down from Germany. It is very exquisite. I didn't ask about it. Maybe my wife knows a little bit."

Zhu Houcong nodded: "Huang Jin?"

"Slave servant, please send someone to ask her to bring that scripture as well."

Really, who would dare to call it the "Holy" Bible?

Huang Jin didn't expect Zhu Houcong to be so concerned about this trivial matter, so he immediately arranged for someone to go to Huangming University.

Alfonso hesitated again, and then asked carefully: "Your Majesty, I wonder if we can meet Carolina?"

"Of course, there's no rush."

When Zhu Houcong heard him talking about the "Bible", a name vaguely came to mind: Gutenberg.

But it's useless, it's all kinds of miscellaneous and scattered knowledge when I was a student back then, but I don't have any impression of useful things at this time.

However, with this inspiration, Zhu Houcong chatted with Alfonso about Alfonso's current memories in Europe, but instead remembered some scattered situations.

When Alfonso's wife came over, Alfonso was still chattering and asking her questions, and she answered in a chattering manner—for her, learning the Ming language seemed to be a little more difficult.

Zhu Houcong was looking at the thing she brought over, it was made of paper, and there were two volumes.

After hearing her words, Alfonso reported to Zhu Houcong: "Your Majesty, I heard that it was very rare, and it was one of less than two hundred copies printed at that time. I spent a lot of money to buy it for collection.”

After finishing speaking, Zhu Houcong saw his wife glaring slightly, and wondered if Alfonso had scolded a prodigal woman.

"Does she know how this book was printed? Since it is a collection to show her status, there should be something to brag about, right?"

Alfonso asked again, and after getting an answer, he said helplessly: "She is just because of her beauty and the special font on this book."

Zhu Houcong looked carefully again, and saw that many letters had sharp edges and corners.

He didn't have much feeling for the fonts of Western characters, but the "Bible" did have flowers and plants on every page, which looked more exquisite.

This is a lady, just because she looks good.

At this time, Alfonso's wife hesitated for a moment, and then chattered again.

Zhu Houcong looked at Alfonso curiously, but saw that Alfonso's face darkened, and then he asked a few words with a rather unhappy expression, but his wife said it plausibly.

Alfonso's face changed again and again, and finally he said: "Your Majesty, she said that she once heard a friend who visited her home mention that it was stamped with a special machine."

"Press?"

"Yes, I don't know exactly how to do it."

Zhu Houcong looked at him, then at his wife, who was looking at him expectantly.

"...Is there any detail that hasn't been mentioned?"

Alfonso's wife chattered, but Alfonso shook his head.

"...Go get Caroline."

Zhu Houcong ordered Huang Jin, and Carolina, who had already learned Daming dialect from Wen Suyun, came.

The family was reunited, and Caroline was very happy at the beginning. When Zhu Houcong asked her, after hearing what her mother said, Caroline hesitated and said: "My mother would like to ask... if I have some more details, can you... ...reward my father with a title?"

"What details are you unwilling to tell?" Zhu Houcong looked at Alfonso curiously.

But Alfonso looked embarrassed and angry, and so did Carolina.

After a long time, Zhu Houcong looked at Alfonso with a strange expression on his face.

"...This is not a useful detail." Zhu Houcong waved his hand, "Serve me well, and the title will gradually come. I'm afraid it's not easy for you to reunite now, right?"

Alfonso murmured a few times in a low voice, and then took his leave without taking his wife.

And his wife didn't say goodbye to her daughter much, instead she chased after her and still chattered eloquently. Zhu Houcong faintly heard Alfonso cursing in a low voice.

But what does a juicer have to do with a printing press?
Zhu Houcong didn't care about the behavior of Alfonso's wife and a certain baron who had an interesting talk about the principle of the printing press.

Alfonso's head is green, isn't that normal?
Improving typography is important, but really scratching the surface these days.

(End of this chapter)