A Chinese Printing Office.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 22 October 1891, Page 2

A Chinese Printing Office.

I • THE TYPE IS STUCK INTO CLAY AND HELD BY IT UNTIL THE WORK IS I'ONE. One of the most interesting places in Pekin is a Chinese printing office, conducted just as it was centuries before the barbarous world outside of the Flowery Empire ha«l dreamed of the art of typography. The office contained a score of plain square tables, on which the cases of type/, were spread out, much ' after the method in this country, only taking up much more room. One man was engaged in setting up type ; another was printing. The former stood before a table, on which was what may be called the Chinese "case." It was a solid block of hard wood, about 22 inches long by 15 inches broad, and perhaps three inches deep. The inside was hollowed out to a depth of about a quarter of an inch, this depression being still further hollowed out into grooves about threequarters of an inch deep. The block had twenty-nine of these grooves, each filled to a depth of a quarter of an inch with ordinary stiff clay. With this copy before him, armed with a small pair of iron pincers, the compositor began his work ; character after character was transferred from the case and firmly pressed into the clay. When the " forme " was com- ■ plete a flat board was placed on the top and the characters pressed perfectly even and level with the surface and the wooden edge of which was cut to form the border generally found round every Chinese page. The printer now received the forme and carefully brushed his ink over the type. Taking a sheet of paper, he pressed it down all over the forme so that it might be brought in contaci with every character. He then removed the sheet and examined each character, carefully adjusting those which were not quite straight with the pincers, and apparantly never touching the type with his fingers. After sufficient copies had been struck off the type was distributed, each character being returned to its particular box. The type in the forme was of three sizes, each character being kept in place entirely by the clay in which it stood. They were cut out of some hard wood and were perfectly square.