How To Make a Book (circa 1947)

[Donnageddon]

A fascinating video on how books were made in 1947. It begs the question of why publishers today make excuses for how difficult it is to make ebooks.


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Of course, I am sure RWood and HarryT can fill us in on how books were made on papyrus.

* spotted on BoingBoing

[Donnageddon]

Let me work on the editing for this post...

[Donnageddon]

A fascinating video on how books were made in 1947. It begs the question of why publishers today make excuses for how difficult it is to make ebooks.

<object width="400" height="300"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1063458&amp;server=vimeo.com &amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portr ait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" /> <embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1063458&amp;server=vimeo.com &amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portr ait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/1063458?pg=embed&amp;sec=1063458">Printing a Book, Old School</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user481965?pg=embed&amp;sec=1063458">Armin Vit</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com?pg=embed&amp;sec=1063458">Vimeo</a>.**


Of course, I am sure RWood and HarryT can fill us in on how books were made on papyrus.

* spotted on BoingBoing

** tried to embed the video, but it is not YouTube, it is from "Vimeo", just go to the BoingBoing link.

[Donnageddon]

The whole "This Page Intentionally Left Blank" makes sense now. The presses had to hold an equal number of plates.

Another eternal (to me) mystery solved.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

<snip>
Of course, I am sure RWood and HarryT can fill us in on how books were made on papyrus.
<snip>

Being a few years older than Harry (papyrus had already come into wide spread use by the time Harry came along) I will take a shot at this.

Unlike today's modern massive publishing establishments like Steve Jordan Books or Penguin, we employed slave, prisoner professional scribes to copy each page. Papyrus was made in small batches in our own shops and the ink came from natural sources -- black from carbon black, the soot from the candles we burned, and the red from their our own blood. A high speed scribe could complete several pages a week. A whole book, say the Bible might take a lifetime or more. (Lifetimes were shorter then.)

I hope this answers your question. If you have more questions, I am sure that Dr. Doom Dr. Drib will be glad to help.

[BookishDreamer]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

** tried to embed the video, but it is not YouTube, it is from "Vimeo", just go to the BoingBoing link.

Or go here.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29395

Dreamer

[Donnageddon]

Thanks, BookishDreamer, I did not see this was a duplicate of a acidzebra post.

At least we got a technological history lesson from the esteemed RWood out of this post!