Chapter 51 Printing Press
The entire printing press is made of all metal, most of it is iron, a small part is copper, the movable type and key parts are made of copper, and most other parts are made of iron.
The hydraulic forging created under He Xi's prompting inadvertently improved Ming's metal processing capabilities. Therefore, it was of great help in manufacturing this printing press. The general structure of the printing press was designed by He Xi. It is very simple in structure. After all, printing was nothing new to the Ming Dynasty. It existed in the Song Dynasty.
Just alive typography has always been of poor quality. Historically, it was also in the middle and late Ming Dynasty that relatively complete metal movable types were developed. During the Zhengtong period, there was printing among the people, and some of them have been preserved. The technology is really difficult to describe. It is common for the characters to be erased and the ink to be lost. As for a piece of paper, the weight of the handwriting varies, which is even more normal.
Therefore, when it comes to typography, the most important thing is not the design of the large frame, but the control of details.
The area around the printing press is where the fonts are stored.
There are many large and small fonts, but the most common one is slightly larger than point 5. The reason is also very simple. That was for printing newspapers. It is the font size that is small enough that can carry more content in the newspaper. Moreover, He Xi was not used to ancient books with one or two hundred words per page.
There is no need to do anything else while reading. I can only keep turning the pages.
However, reducing font size is not an easy task. Because the smaller the font size, the finer the printing press is required. the reason is simple. If the font size is large, a little more ink, a little less ink, it doesn't really matter. There is a little more missing, but the font is slightly heavier. Or there are some ink spots, and the smaller the font, the less tolerance for such mistakes.
Because if you miss a little more, the whole word may be unclear.
This is also the reason why the printing press, which was originally made of wood, became made of copper and iron. Because the wood is a bit soft, it can easily deform.
Next to the printing press, there is a large disk. There are probably thousands of movable types on it, and there are fonts of different sizes. The prince glanced at him and said, "Yunbu?"
"Your Highness Shengming." Ding Xian said, "It's the Yun Department."
Seeing Ding Xian like this, He Xi remembered Liu Song's words. He thought to himself: "This Ding Xian hasn't learned any lessons at all, and he can never settle down. Alas------"
The person in charge here is Ge Tiangong. Logically speaking, whatever the prince asks, Ge Tiangong should answer. But Ding Xian clearly surpassed Ge Tiangong. It can be seen that the restlessness in Ding Xian's heart made him unwilling to miss any opportunity.
The mistakes of the past are still there today.
The prince did not pay attention to these details. After all, in the prince's opinion, except for the people in the courtyard in front of him, except He Xi, who was valued by him, the rest were very indifferent. The prince can make them die without a burial place by just blowing his breath.
Why bother trying to figure out their thoughts?
Waste your own energy.
The prince said: "I see you are also a scholar. Is this what you did?"
Ding Xian said: "Exactly, I am a disciple of Teacher He and I am here to help. In the past, many craftsmen were illiterate and it was difficult to type and pick characters. I designed this kind of pick-up tray with the rhyme department as the core. Sitting here, Just turn the disc, so the fonts are always close at hand.”
The prince didn't know if he was giving He Xi face, but he glanced at He Xi and said, "Not bad, very good. Print two copies and let me see if there are any problems."
Ge Tiangong said: "Yes."
Craftsmen were immediately arranged, and Ding Xian stepped forward to pick up the characters himself. He sat in front of the picking plate and said, "Let's print the university."
As a Confucian scholar, Ding Xian must memorize it in college. As a prose, there are not many words in it. The selection was completed in a moment, and then after going through various procedures of the craftsman, it was printed out in a while.
The prince took the paper that still smelled warm. Thousands of words about the university were completely printed on a piece of quarto-sized paper. The prince looked at it and said, "What's wrong with this? Isn't it good?"
Ding Xian immediately said: "Your Highness, I don't know. The biggest problem with this printing press now is its instability. Generally, there is no problem at all after three or four printings, but after five times, there will be problems."
The printing press here was opened and closed several times under the control of the craftsman, and dozens of copies were printed at once.
The prince took it and looked at it one by one, and then he determined the problem Ding Xian said.
The first five pictures are all fine. But in the sixth picture, you can't see it yet, but in the seventh and eighth pictures, there are all kinds of obvious problems. The biggest problem is that the ink is uneven. I follow the same steps for applying ink every time, but I don’t know what’s wrong. There were no problems before, but here, the ink is uneven.
I don’t know if it’s a paper problem, an ink problem, a design problem, or something else.
He Xi was powerless to deal with such a problem. This is beyond He Xi's ability. As for industrial production, there are countless such problems.
He Xi could only let the craftsmen try and adjust over and over again.
In He Xi's view, this was still far from complete completion. But in the prince's opinion, it was already very good. The prince said: "Yes, all matters related to the newspaper will be in accordance with your regulations. Don't rush here, the worst is to postpone it for a while. Things can be delayed a little, but there must be a good start."
He Xi said: "Your Highness is wise."
The prince said: "Ding Xian, right?"
Ding Xian said: "The students are here."
The prince said: "Since you are here, you can also do some errands. From now on, the printing of newspapers will be handled by the secretary. Work hard. I will never forget you." The prince also thought of the Yilun Hall before Ding Xian. thing. However, the prince also understood one thing, that is, printing newspapers was unlikely to be left to those illiterate craftsmen. As for the secretaries and supervisors being asked to come here and keep an eye on it, no one would be willing to do so.
In this case, leave it to Ding Xian.
In the prince's opinion, it was just a trivial matter. But it was Ding Xian's second chance.
Ding Xian rushed forward with enthusiasm and said: "Your Highness, please rest assured that the students will do well."
He Xi said: "Actually, there are some things that I have wanted to say to His Highness for a long time. Now that Your Highness is here, I will say them all."
The prince said: "I am listening attentively."
He Xi said: "Your Highness, the knowledge in the world is not only on the main road, but also on many small roads, such as what happened today. I have estimated that if this machine is completed, the cost of each newspaper will be, Not more than a penny.”
"Of course, the cost of content has not yet been calculated."
The prince was stunned and said, "One penny."
From the prince’s perspective, what is the cost of content? The people in the Secretary's Prison are all receiving salary from the imperial court, why should they be given additional money? But He Xi had calculated that if a newspaper had a large staff of editors, reporters, etc. In an era when most of the Ming Dynasty was illiterate, the wages of these educated people were definitely not low. So, the money is spread over the cost of the newspaper. The cost is only two or three cents. If you sell more, you can get it cheaper.
That is to say, the price of newspapers can be four cents, or even lower.
The price of newspapers during the Republic of China was only four cents. As for whether the four cents from the Republic of China period or the four cents from the Hongwu period were more valuable, He Xi could not know.
However, even if the price is higher, it still has the significance of large-scale promotion.
It's just that He Xi ignored two points in cost accounting, that is, the impact of large-scale purchases on paper and ink. After all, it is different from the industrial era. In the industrial era, the larger the purchase volume, the cheaper it was. However, before the industrial era, the opposite logic was true. The larger the purchase quantity, the more expensive it will be.
Without mechanized large-scale production, the output of many things is restricted by various conditions, and it is difficult to increase it. It will not become cheaper because the purchase volume increases, but because the purchase volume increases, things become more expensive because of scarcity, so they become more expensive.
This is a lack of productivity.
He Xi didn't realize this, and what he took for granted six hundred years later was substituted into today's cost accounting. At this moment, He Xi didn't know there was such a loophole, and was still explaining it to the prince emphatically.
