Dear Karel,
This is true, but moveable type is not interchangeable in the same
way that the moving parts of a machine are. Metal type was
mass-produced, and individual pieces of type were interchangeable,
but they did not work together in the same way as the milled parts of
a machine work together. They were placed in the form, used for
impressions, then removed and re-used. They were not themselves the
working moveable parts of the printing press that used them.
There would have been other problems had individual pieces of type
been required to stand up to machine use in the sense that I
described the interchangeable parts of a gun or the machinery that
manufactured guns.
Early type was milled to the fairly loose specifications typical of
early firearms. They worked as intended, but the tolerance and
variation was too great to permit interchangeable use in working
parts. Type was lead, and it would have deformed rapidly under
machine use conditions. Type did, in fact, degenerate in use under
the normal pressure of printing.
Dies used to cast type were much harder, but they were molds for
type, and they were also variable in tolerance. It was only in the
1800s that new metals, new technology, new milling techniques, and a
growing industrial context made it possible for tool and die makers
to mill moving parts that were both sturdy and highly tolerant.
Nevertheless, the typesetting industry does offer examples of the
early factories that worked to the highest standards available in
their time, establishing work methods and pioneering methods that
would become essential to later industries.
Yours,
Ken
Karel van der Waarde wrote:
>I'm a bit puzzled. Mass production of interchangeable parts started
>around 1455 when books were printed from metal type. Although the
>end-result - books - were still individually crafted and bound, the
>metal type from which they were printed was certainly mass-produced.
>Standards within printing workshops existed as early as 1495/1496
>(See for example Peter Burnhill 'Type spaces. In-house norms in the
>typography of Aldus Manutius. Hyphen Press 2003).
>
>After pages were printed, the metal type could be distributed and
>rearranged to form any other text
--
Prof. Ken Friedman
Institute for Communication, Culture, and Language
Norwegian School of Management
Oslo
Center for Design Research
Denmark's Design School
Copenhagen
+47 46.41.06.76 Tlf NSM
+47 33.40.10.95 Tlf Privat
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