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Re: napier and logarithms
From: James N Wilson
Date: 2009 May 31, 20:33 -0700
From: James N Wilson
Date: 2009 May 31, 20:33 -0700
George: You asked: "I wondered how these marks had been put into my copy, and indeed, whether they had been laboriously drawn in, in manuscript, after printing. By a stroke of luck, the museum happened to have a second copy of that same edition. [It's hard enough to lay hands on a 17th century book, never mind finding two identical copies in the same place] And indeed, those L marks, in the two copies, were identical; they had indeed been printed. "So now, at long last, I get to my question. HOW were they printed? The museum librarian hazarded a guess that the printer had somehow inserted bits of bent wire into his block, to pick up the ink and transfer it. But how would they be held in place? Does anyone know enough about printing to make a guess?" As a journeyman printer in my youth, I'll venture my understanding. Printed lines were achieved by using "rules," a thin (two point) type height strip which could be inserted between columns, for instance. But they weren't bendable, breaking easily because they were type metal, mainly lead. Now, I'm surprised at the vertical lines in your copy--if they were rules, they would be straight, and they're not. That could be a consequence of scanning. Significant distortion is evident throughout the page, and type isn't at all moldable. But I can't explain the L shapes as distortion due to scanning. The size of the type is larger for the left digits, and smaller for the right. That would leave enough space for a rule to be inserted under the right hand type. But it couldn't be bent. And the rules take up space, and the spacing between numbers isn't greater where a vertical line is present. And they're all different, which I associate with hand-drawn lines. The idea of wires doesn't track, because printing is done with heavy pressure, so type has to be sturdy. The days of pages of individual type were a lot more difficult. Everything had to fit together and needed space. We didn't know better, so we just made it work. Lithography can be ruled out, since it wasn't invented until 1796, and besides, it was more suited to art than text and numbers then. Sorry, but my expertise ends here. And I was born three centuries too late to really understand. Jim Wilson ____________________________________________________________ Free information - Learn about Email Marketing. Click now! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---