Grandpa’s Printshop (Part 4 of 4)

The next step was more difficult. For this, the press was stopped temporarily. Grandpa had to lock the metal framework holding the type into the printing press. Then he put some little clips to hold the paper in place as each sheet would be printed. This was a long and complex process of getting things centered properly; it involved a lot of trial and error. When I was older, my grandpa gave me a smaller, hand-powered press to work with. For me this was the hardest part. But Grandpa made it, like the rest of the printing process, look easy.
It was finally time for some serious printing. Grandpa placed a stack of paper on a shelf that jutted out on one side of the printing press. Sometimes he had to cut the paper to the size he wanted. This was done on his paper cutter. He placed a stack of paper about two or three inches thick on the cutter table. Then he clamped it down and with a large handle, brought the huge blade down on the paper. He sliced right through it. For a kid who was still having trouble with scissors, it was fascinating!
Grandpa placed one sheet of paper in the clips of the press. He turned it on and the rollers came down and inked the type. When the rollers were out of the way the place in the press where the paper was located was brought in contact with the type. It only took an instant and then the press opened up again and Grandpa reached in and removed the paper with his left hand while inserting a new piece of paper with his right. He did this during the instant the rollers were down inking the type. Once he got going, he increased the speed of the press. He got going pretty fast.
He had to be coordinated and fast to do this, and brave! One slip up and his hands would have been mashed in the press with I-don’t-know-how-many-pounds of pressure!
I watched with delight as the stack of paper on the ledge to the right of the press got smaller and a new stack of freshly printed paper on the left, grew larger. It was a joy to see the words, the fancy lettering, and the designs appear on the paper, that I had seen come out of the type cases just a few moments before.
What was a miracle five hundred years ago when Gutenberg first printed the Bible, is still a miracle to me now.