Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 601 Printing House

The most important equipment in the printing office is the high-speed mimeograph.As for the few EPSON 24-pin printers, they were also very important in the early days—a lot of stencil printing used to be done with these printers. Later, after the first batch of female typists were trained, the Chinese typewriters they brought finally came into play. As a result, Zhou Dongtian basically relied on Chinese typewriters to wax paper.

Now, the Chinese typewriter brought from the old time and space has been used as STC together with several other dot matrix, inkjet and laser printers in better condition—the original standard equipment template has been cleaned and sealed, and replaced by a few silly big black A thick local Chinese typewriter.Several female typists were working hard in front of the bright windows, and the sound of typing heads beating the type plates echoed in the room.

In the next room, around a large table, some people are engraving steel plates with stylus, and some are proofreading the proofs that have just been printed. Everyone is very busy—the printing factory is very busy in the time-traveling group. Undertake the printing of thousands of copies of the two magazines of "Lingao Times" every week, and also undertake the printing tasks of a large number of textbooks, technical brochures, various manuals and countless documents.The task is very heavy.In addition to mimeographs, several hand-operated mimeographs were imitated for a small amount of printing.Several workers are shaking the machine.

Here, the engraving workshop occupies the largest area.Zhou Dongtian went in to have a look.When these workshops were first built, great pains were taken in lighting.The time-traveling group cannot provide enough artificial light sources for the workers, so they have to try to make the most of the sunlight.A lot of thought was put into the lighting design.There are not only large windows in the workshop, but also skylights in most of the workshops.Use blinds and drapes to adjust the light and make it as soft as possible.

In front of the window sat a few old engravers, wearing presbyopic glasses that were distributed, and were concentrating on engraving the printing plate.Engraving is mainly used to print various bills, blank documents, certificates and the like.

Lingao's currency—grain circulation coupons and other securities—was also printed here.Therefore, the woodblock printing workshop is particularly important.When going to work, a special person is responsible for guarding.All engravings, paper and inks must be counted and put back in a special warehouse before get off work ends.

The management system here is very strict. Not only are engravings made, modified and discarded, there are inventory records, but there is also a registration system for each printing and printing.Clear to each printed sheet.

Zhou Dongtian went to the mimeograph workshop to look for Tan Ming—he was one of the rare talents who had driven a printing machine, and he was good at color separation—but he was not available locally.

The high-speed mimeograph machine is placed in a separate workshop and locked when not in use.Zhou Dongtian brought a large amount of spare parts and ink for it at the beginning, and it is estimated that it can be used for about seven or eight years if it is used economically.In order to serve this precious lump, every time the seal is opened, the elders will do it by themselves, and only a few indigenous apprentices will help.

Tan Ming is washing his hands, he has just finished processing the latest order.It is a dictionary of Ming Mandarin compiled by the Great Library.The executive committee made a list of one hundred copies.

Because Zhou Dongtian has too many part-time jobs, now Tan Ming is mainly responsible for the technical work of the printing house.Zhou Dongtian talked with him about setting up a printing factory.

"I've never seen the kind of movable type factory you mentioned." Tan Ming shook his head, "I've operated an offset machine and done laser phototypesetting. But I really don't understand the work of typesetting with lead type."

"It's not necessary for you to do it yourself." Zhou Dongtian said, "But my main focus in the future will be on the movable type printing factory. You can take care of the printing office. I wrote a letter to the organization department, suggesting appointment You are the director of Bairen Printing Factory. It will probably take a few days for your official appointment to come down."

"This...Of course...Thank you..." Tan Ming said incoherently.

"You're welcome, this is where you do things! Besides, I'm just a part-time job here." Zhou Dongtian waved his hand, "It's the same whether you are a factory director or not. The key is that you have a name to do things well."

Zhou Dongtian explained all the affairs to him one by one in the office. Tan Ming seemed a little lacking in confidence, and suddenly had to take charge of everything himself, which made him feel a little scared.

After Zhou Dongtian finished his work, he hurried to the Ministry of Industry to discuss equipment issues.

Movable type printing sounds very modern, and it is almost invisible in the modern printing industry. Even small printing factories no longer use it. Zhou Dongtian has been in contact with movable type printing factories in the past, and he still has a little understanding of this system.

Movable type was of course much more efficient than woodblock printing.But in a traditional society without any industrial base, the cost is much higher than engraving and printing.It is also much more technically difficult.This is also the reason why movable type printing has not been popularized in China.There are only a few large-scale movable type printing books in Chinese history, and they are all officially organized.Folk movable type printing has been stuck in small-scale simple and low-level printing applications.Rarely used to print books.

Of course Zhou Dongtian knew the reason. First of all, casting movable type is a technical task, and printing a book requires a large amount of movable type, which must be manufactured in advance.The materials of movable type are very particular.Bi Sheng made pottery movable type, which is the least difficult and cheapest to manufacture.Therefore, pottery movable type was still useful in the 19th century. Mansions in various places were printed with pottery movable type. Because of poor adhesion to ink, the printed documents were blurred.

The official books printed in the Qing Dynasty used copper movable type, and the printing effect was good.But the cost of copper movable type is high-only the royal family can afford it.The value of copper itself made the emperor unable to bear the idea of ​​using copper movable type. The copper movable type kept in the Hall of Martial Arts in the Qing Dynasty was converted into a royal display by the time of Qianlong.

Printers also experimented with other materials for type, including wood and tin.The effect is not good.The requirements for movable type are very high, not only must it be wear-resistant, but not too hard, it must also be able to adhere to the ink well, the price must be cheap, and it must be able to be used in large quantities.Only lead meets this requirement.However, the effect of simple lead type is still unsatisfactory, and antimony must be added.

Another problem of movable type printing is ink, which has not been solved in the traditional printing industry in China-traditional engraving printing uses water-based ink-water-soluble ink with smoke ink as pigment.Water-soluble ink works well on wooden blocks, but tends to bead ink on metal type.Moreover, transfer printing cannot be completed by simple embossing like engraving printing.Rubbing is a very slow process. In order to ensure effective printing, paper with strong water absorption must be used. As a result, there will be ink marks on the back of the paper, and double-sided printing cannot be done, which virtually increases the printing cost.

The combination of these factors has resulted in movable type printing not being the mainstream of the printing industry in China.

New technologies and concepts cannot become productive forces until suitable technical means are found.Zhou Dongtian had such a feeling after learning a little bit about the development history of printing out of interest in the past—Chinese people have put forward countless new technologies and concepts ahead of the times in history, but many of them have remained at the primitive stage: In the middle of the 19th century, pottery movable type workshops for printing newspapers in various places were no different from Bi Sheng’s era.

Zhou Dongtian knew that in order to use metal movable type, he had to first solve the problem of large-scale self-produced printing ink-he remembered that the key was to use oil-based ink, that is to say, to use oil to adjust the printing ink.

According to the technical data, boiled linseed oil is the best.It has excellent adhesion and dries easily.So it has been used to prepare oil paints so far.However, Zhou Dongtian went to the Planning Institute once and checked all the material catalog lists.There is no such thing as linseed oil in the inventory, production and procurement materials.As for other vegetable oils, including canola oil, castor oil, coconut oil, and peanut oil are not suitable.

"I want linseed oil." He found Fa Shilu of the Council of Agriculture. As the chief agronomist, he should have a solution. "I know there is no one in Lingao, but you can definitely think of some substitute oil that can be produced locally."

"Cannabis oil." It took only 30 seconds for Fa Shilu to give him the answer, "There is cannabis in Lingao - to be honest, there are not many places without cannabis. But we haven't planted it - Li people should have planted it, Last time, the trade team in Le District brought back hemp rope and coarse cloth."

So Zhou Dongtian went to the Planning Institute again.But there is no such thing in the inventory of the Planning Institute—cannabis oil has a slight hallucinogenic effect after consumption, so it cannot be eaten.

Under his relentless pursuit, Wood couldn't stand it anymore, and finally agreed to put the collection of marijuana seeds on the urgent schedule.

"I will let the long-distance exploration team and the trade department collect it as soon as possible." Wood said, "But I don't know if the marijuana will be fruitful or not-you have to have a schedule, you can't say you want it..."

"Then the executive committee shouldn't suddenly issue instructions to expand exports."

"Okay, okay, it's our fault." Wood said helplessly, "The point is that you want this thing is too strange, I still have hemp fiber in stock. No one has ever thought about the seeds."

After solving the ink problem, Zhou Dongtian went to the machinery factory to directly find Zhan Wuya.Ask him to gather all the people who participated in the last manufacturing of Chinese typewriters-this group of people has made typefaces on typing pads last time, so they are considered experienced.

Lead type needs mass production, and the easiest and cheapest mass production method is of course casting.The specific method is to use hard metal, such as steel, to carve out a reverse convex character by the engraver-the male mold, and then use the male mold to punch out the female mold on the soft brass.Then pour lead water into the female mold to cast characters.

This is just a simple principle, but there are actually a series of detailed processes: lead type must be of the same size, and the word base parts must be able to match each other completely so that they can be arranged neatly on the typesetting board.This requires special process equipment to ensure, as well as special repair workers for grinding.Due to the large amount of lead type used, casting lead type must be a continuous large-scale work, and the type mold must have a special process for quick demoulding... The complete set of type casting technology began in the 15th century and was gradually improved until the 18th century has reached a very high level.

Zhou Dongtian intends to base on the existing industrial level of the group, and manufacture equipment according to the level of the printing factory in the 18th century.

Several technicians surrounded Zhou Dongtian's copy of the technical materials from the large library, commenting on them.Obviously, to mass-produce lead type, it is not enough to carve a steel mold for each character. This thing wears out quickly, and the steel mold must be continuously replenished.This makes everyone a little bit difficult: engraving steel fonts is a very boring thing, quite boring.

"I remember that the number of commonly used characters is [-]. If you want to print, you still need to prepare [-] characters." Jiang Ye calculated, "Each character needs four or five steel molds on average. Just making steel molds It takes tens of thousands. This will take years to go.”

"More than that." Sun Li shook his head, "The printed books must use both simplified characters and traditional characters. The combination of the two will cost at least five or six thousand characters. Moreover, there are so many rare characters in ancient books, and these rare characters have to be created. Two steel molds are in reserve."

"Carver can recruit engraving masters, who are themselves engravers." Zhou Dongtian said.

"But the efficiency is very low." Sun Li looked at it for a long time and said, "I don't know how many characters a letter engraver can carve out in a day, but the efficiency is not too high, and the casting of this kind of stamped die must be done by hand. ——It also needs to add the work of demoulding and repairing files. If it is all done by hand, it may not be reliable to be able to form printing capabilities in three to four months." He asked: "How does a modern movable type printing factory do it? have to?"

"There is a special all-in-one casting machine. Casting, typesetting, and plate removal are all done automatically, and one person can operate it. Of course, electricity or steam is used." Zhou Dongtian said and took out several drawings, "But this machine Quite complex, almost at the level of the early [-]th century."

What he took out was the Leno type casting machine invented by the Americans.This machine was used from 1890 to 1940, and although it was mainly used to print newspapers and magazines, it was also widely used to print books in the United States.

Several got together to study for a long time.

"There is no problem with the imitation machine, but the structural strength and tolerance of the material are difficult to control. This machine is quite precise." Xiao Gui said, "It can be manufactured, but the quality cannot be guaranteed."

"I mean first simple and then difficult. It is very difficult to manufacture the integrated casting and arranging machine, and it will be built later. First sacrifice efficiency and use simple technology." Sun Li said, "Industrial upgrading is not a day or two."

"I have an idea," said Liang Xin, who had been silent all this time. "Let's think in reverse—we have precise stamping technology that people in this era don't have. We simply use stamping to make type."

His idea is to use high-strength steel to make a die, and then use the die as a stamping head to directly punch a lead plate of a certain thickness, and directly punch the lead off the lead plate.

"In this way, we can save the casting process, and a stamping die can punch hundreds of characters in one go. The efficiency is much higher." Liang Xin said, "The post-processing work of the stamped workpiece is also much less. It doesn't need so much repair file."

"Then you have to make thousands of stamping dies." Jiang Ye frowned. "Besides, you used high-strength steel to make the die. What material did you use to make the punch? Could it be that the sculptors should directly carve high-strength steel?"

"I think it's possible, that's what they eat. Even diamonds, jade and glass can be carved, why can't steel be carved?" Liang Xin said, "It seems that the speed is a bit too late. Or directly use the machining center to make fonts."

"Your idea is good, but it doesn't work." Zhou Dongtian shook his head. "The characters you punch out like this are just one character. Without a character base, it is impossible to arrange them neatly on the typesetting board. And without the base, there are characters with radicals on the side." How to do?"

Liang Xin scratched his head in disappointment, he hadn't thought of this question.

"If speed is required, the first batch of embossed characters can be directly made by the machining center. A few days is enough." Sun Li said, "It's enough to be able to top up a stage, and then let the engravers gradually become familiar with it. .”

"It's a pity that we are too far away from Europe." Zhou Dongtian said. "The Dutch already have a professional casting workshop, which can manufacture various standardized letters and symbols for printing plants."

"The Dutch are making letters, so tell him to make Chinese characters?" Jiang Ye rubbed his chin, "Why don't you talk to the executive committee about recruiting a group of Dutch typecasters—it's too late."

"It should be ok, he can just think of it as making graphics." Zhou Dongtian said regretfully, "But it's a long way, even if we send people to wait for them to arrive in Lingao now, it will be at least two years later."

Sun Li said: "Aren't the Dutch in Batavia? Since the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company is here, there must be something to print, right? There must be a printing workshop. According to your statement, the casting of characters must be carried out non-stop. Yes, there will be a few typewriters. Just go and kidnap people and equipment. Lock them up and help us print."

"I always feel that this method is too backward." Jiang Ye looked at it for a long time, "There should be a simple method-you must know that we are standing on the shoulders of our predecessors, so many inventions can always choose the right one. Come on. Let's think about craftsmanship."

"The sooner this happens, the better." Zhou Dongtian said.If he could recruit skilled typewriters, it would be much better than a half-hearted person like himself who trained workers himself. After all, he had only seen how to type and how to print.

Zhou Dongtian continued his departmental travel and official document application. He found the Colonial and Trade Department and handed in the documents about going to Batavia to recruit Dutch printing workers.The document emphasizes that whether it is forced or voluntary, it is good to get people here anyway.It is best to get the equipment together.

Scaled is organizing a trade expedition to Southeast Asia.Zhou Dongtian's request was incidental, and he agreed immediately.He said that as long as there are locals, he will do everything possible to get people here.

(End of this chapter)