American inventions and inventors . in any Europeanlanguage was a German Bible issued in 1743 by ChristopherSower in Germantown, Pennsylvania. This was awonderful w^ork for thoseearly days. It was a largequarto Bible, consisting of1,284 pages, and it took fouryears to complete the print-ing of it. How quaint the earlyprinting press would appearto us of to-day! It wasused with very little changefor one hundred and fiftyyears. The forms of typewere placed upon wood orstone beds surrounded byframes called coffins,moved in and out by hand with great labor, and after each impression the platen whic
American inventions and inventors . in any Europeanlanguage was a German Bible issued in 1743 by ChristopherSower in Germantown, Pennsylvania. This was awonderful w^ork for thoseearly days. It was a largequarto Bible, consisting of1,284 pages, and it took fouryears to complete the print-ing of it. How quaint the earlyprinting press would appearto us of to-day! It wasused with very little changefor one hundred and fiftyyears. The forms of typewere placed upon wood orstone beds surrounded byframes called coffins,moved in and out by hand with great labor, and after each impression the platen whichhad pressed the paper down upon the type had to be screwedup again with a bar. The presses which Benjamin Franklinused were made with wooden framework of the simplestpossible construction. Iron frames were first used in Eng-land just one hundred years ago. Franklin, in his Autobiography, tells the story of his at-tempt to set up a printing establishment in first he found it difficult to obtain any work, but finally. A FRANKLIN PRESS. 256 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS he was given the job of printing forty sheets of a History ofthe Friends. The price offered was low, but Franklin andhis partner, Meredith, decided to accept it as a beginning. Franklin set up the type for a sheet each day, whileMeredith worked it off at the press the next day. Thetype had to be distributed every evening in order that itmight be ready for the next days composition. Thereforeit was often late at night before Franklin finished his daystask, perhaps eleven oclock or even later. Other little jobs came in to delay the printers, but Frank-lin was determined to do a sheet a day of the history. Onenight, just as his work was done, one of the forms was ac-cidentally broken, and two pages reduced to pi. Frank-lin, late as it was, distributed the pi and composed the formagain before going to bed. Such industry and perseverance were sure to bring successin the end. Though, in the clubs and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpubli, booksubjectinventions
