Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Printing Presses, Typewriters, and Mimeographs

This blog was originally written on January 3, 2013, but may have been invisible to everyone but me since my list of blogs indicated DRAFT on this and the previous two. You have to click on PUBLISH to complete the blog.

Bridget had Pat and me start this Remembrances blog (she, actually, set it up for us) so her kids would learn things about their grandparents that even she didn't know. Here is an exchange between Amy Loveless and myself which points out some of my background and an interesting period of time beginning with the publishing of the Guttenburg Bible centuries ago which was done with movable type rather than with woodblocks with the letters carved out to form each page.

EMP is electromagnetic pulse (from a nuclear bomb  exploding in the atmosphere) which threatens to wipe out all of North American electronics. How do we get along without our cars, telecommunications, electrical power, aircraft, GPS, and thousands of other modern conveniences? Well, I guess we do what they did 100 years ago or more. Most of this correspondence was from yesterday and this morning.
  • John Fawcett

    Just a private and personal comment regarding a word you generally misspell so as not to embarrass you.
    "Loosing" bees would be like setting them loose. You are talking about "losing" bees to natural attrition or to plague or famine. I know you would annoy me on purpose when given the chance, but this misspelling brings discredit onto you, and I'm sure you are probably reluctantly thanking me.
    Now, kill the messenger!
    John
  • Amy Downing Loveless

    Wut? I dunno how somethin go's....wunder wie I mist the mistakes wen I rite wif my thums on a cell and spell check thinks it no's wut I meen... hmmm.
  • John Fawcett

    Used to be that "being all thumbs" was not an honorable thing. Is this the new smarts?
  • Amy Downing Loveless

    John... the new smarts is what ever the grammar standard is in any age... have you looked at Joseph Smith grammar... you will know the BofM is a miracle after seeing it.
    Old English has even evolved.
    I do not like spelling errors... but when your phone changes words as you write them. .they sometimes happen.
    Thanks though for making me self conscious and aware.
  • Today
  • John Fawcett

    I guess I'm glad I don't think with my phone. I am more of a perfectionist. Besides, I haven't mastered writing long messages with my thumbs, and I understand and commiserate with your troubles when your phone mis-corrects your spelling. By the way, using the desk top, I googled the correct spelling of "commiserate."
    I've got an original page from the Book of Mormon, and I know the book has been cleaned up many times over the years. Joseph Smith didn't write the book, by the way. He dictated it. I believe Martin and Oliver and other transcribers were more responsible for spelling and grammatical errors - but especially E. B. Grandin, the printer and his staff, would have been responsible for errors.
    Here is an interesting first hand report on a man involved with that process:
    http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/JHGilbert.html
    I don't know if you remember, but I wanted to do my mission with Pat at the Grandin print shop. I believe I can still set type and actually have my print shop dating back to the 8th grade at my office in Everett. Unfortunately, I still haven't used the equipment since high school or early college. The ink rollers have deteriorated, and I would have some work to do to get it working again.
    Now a kid with an iPad can print off in minutes what I used to take hours t o print. After the EMP, though, we'll see who can get the word out. I've also got a typewriter collection and a mimeograph machine, all EMP-proof. I'll be the handbill king!
  • Amy Downing Loveless

    I meant Josephs journals

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