แ What then were the 'stücke,' the 'formen,' the 'wurbelin'? What do the words mean? The German dictionary gives us the answer -"Pieces, parts, bits, fragments," &c: 'forms, figures, shapes, frames, patterns, models," &c:-"turning joints, tourniquots, twirls, convolutions, pulley rolls, pegs (in musical instruments)," &c.* And as the German for types is "lettern," for pages "seiten," and for screws "schrauben," instead of looking to the types for the true interpretation of the terms, we look to the press, and especially to that portion of it which Gutenberg was contriving, in order to utilize the mechanical power of the screw for the purposes of book-printing. As yet this contrivance was incomplete, for no books had been printed, -no impressions taken from In certain parts of the north of Scotland augers and high-pitched screws are to this day called 'wommels' or 'wombels,' by old folk. The word is no doubt the same as the antiquated German wurbel.' either blocks or types. The invention, in fact, had not been perfected: - there were parts which needed to be changed, altered, corrected. Under such circumstances it is easy to understand that Gutenberg would reserve the secret of his separable types, until the completion of the press should enable him to introduce them as the crowning triumph of his ingenuity. Within the frame-work of the press then, were fixed, first, the screw; underneath the screw, second, the platten, (the impression block or plate,) to be brought down by the screw upon the types; third, the carriage, on which the types were to be placed; and fourth, the table or slide-rest supporting the carriage, with its rounce, or spindle with crankhandle, drum, and connecting girths to run the carriage in and out before and after impressions were made. These, or their original substitutes, were the 'pieces, parts, or bits' that formed the four 'stücke' spoken of. But what were the 'wurbelin'? They were two stout screw-bolts, working through nuts in a cross-head, and fixing, immoveably, the cross-block in which the centre screw of the press was wormed. They were variously made, but the object was invariably the same; to resist, by a counter pressure, the upward thrust of the screw, when, by the working of the bar or lever, it was brought down upon the platten, and met the resistance of the forme at the moment the impression had to be taken. Examine now the figure of the press in the accompanying engraving, copied from woodcuts of presses used as printers' emblems as early as 1498 and 1511; and observe how easily its component pieces could be separated by removing or opening (unscrewing) the two long wurbelin fixed above the working parts, which were probably merely morticed and tenoned together. In the following diagram, outlined from an engrav ing of the date of 1520, an older fashioned press seems to be shewn, in which the two wurbelin are differently shaped, while their special use is still more plainly to be seen. These unscrewed, the inner portions of the press taken to pieces, and the parts sepa rated or laid aside, no one, unacquainted with the secret, would be able to guess for what object they were designed; or, in the words of the evidence, "know what it is." It may perhaps be said, that so apparently simple a matter could surely not have taken so long a time to contrive, nor have cost so much as has been implied, in the way of preliminary experiments. experiments. But the printing press, in its origin, was an entirely novel invention. The whole contrivance,-although the idea, as we learn from Arnold de Bergel, (1541), was first suggested to Gutenberg's mind by the wine-press,*-had to be thought out by its inventor, step by step, unhelped by any adventitious aid. Gutenberg, versatile genius as he was, may not have been an expert mechanic; he was certainly unable "Quid, si nunc justos, aeris ratione reducta, Et dixit, preli forma sit ista novi." Encomion Chalcographiæ, v.v. 65-69. |