Industrial Revolution and 19th-century printing

Introduction

This research topic has been chosen to find the relationship between the Industrial Revolution and 19^th-century printing and prove the huge impact that Industrial Revolution has had on printing.

Among many reasons, including historical, environmental, and political ones, there is a notable reason behind the development of printing in the 19^th century. In this research paper, we will reveal the biggest contributor to the development of printing in the 19^th century: the Industrial Revolution.

According to a Britannica article, technology that allowed for the creation of machines more complex than before was developed during and after the Industrial Revolution (Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia). Also, the Industrial Revolution enabled the generation of more electric power and mass production of products. Industrialization brought with it a fast-growing, massive publication. The delicate machines were able to make good designs as well (Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia, 2018).

Because of the Industrial Revolution, people started to desire more knowledge, so more books had to be published. However, the machines and the technology were insufficient and not developed enough to print many books to satisfy the demand for them, so people started to invent or develop printing machines (Namu Wiki, The Editors of Encyclopedia, 2021).

Literature Review

According to an article in History of the Book and Namu Wiki, no notable development in printing since Gutenberg’s printing press happened (History of Book, The Writer(s) of the article), (Namu Wiki, The Editors of Encyclopedia, 2021). However, numerous developments in printing were introduced during the 19^th century.

Several printing systems were invented or developed in the 19^th century.

The first machine is the linotype. The linotype is a newspaper printing machine that makes a line of words as a strip of metal (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries). The linotype was patented in 1884 by Ottmar Mergenthaler (Britannica). With the advent of the linotype, mass publishing became possible. Before the advent of the linotype, people had to place the types by hand. It took much time to make a page, but after the introduction of the linotype, publishing took much less time.

The second machine is the monotype. The monotype was similar to the linotype. The monotype was a machine that made metal type one letter at a time (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries). Both the monotype and the linotype made metal type by typing on the keyboard. The monotype allowed for easier fixing of operator-caused mistakes. The operator needed to take a type out to fix the mistakes. Unlike the monotype, it was difficult to fix any mistake with the linotype, as the operator needed to type some more words on the keyboard and make a line and remove it.

The monotype was patented in 1885 by Tolbert Lanston. The monotype was used a lot in book publishing because it was easy to fix. Meanwhile, the linotype was used mainly for newspaper printing (Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia, 2007).

The third one is color printing. Color printing is not a machine but a printing method. Color printing became popular during the 19^th century because color paint became cheaper (National Library of Korea Blog, 2011). Before the 19^th century, most publishers printed only in black. Another printing method used in the 19^th century was wood engraving. Wood engraving is a printing method that uses a carved woodblock. The carver carves the woodblock and paints the surface. When color paint became cheaper, the carver (or the painter) painted the surface with color paints instead of black paint. With the cheaper price of color paint, the illustrations became more beautiful than before, and children’s books became popular (National Library of Korea Blog, The Writer(s) of the Blog, 2011).

The fourth machine is the rotary press. The rotary press is a machine that prints by inserting the paper between rotating cylinders. The rotary press was invented in 1843, was developed years afterwards, and was patented in 1847 by Richard March Hoe (Wikipedia, The Editors of Encyclopedia, 2020).

With the advent of the rotary press―like the linotype and the monotype―the printing speed became faster than it was before.

The last one is the Braille system. Braille is a system of printing for blind people, in which the alphabets and numbers are printed in raised dots that can be read by touching them with the fingers (Oxford Learner’s Dictionary), (Cambridge Dictionary).

Braille was invented in 1824 by Louis Braille. Braille spent nine years more developing the Braille system. Braille, the inventor, was inspired by the system called “night writing”. Night writing was a military code that was used to communicate with comrade soldiers at night. Charles Barbier, the inventor of night writing, saw many soldiers die while reading the messages of comrades at night. It was because the soldiers had to turn the lamps on and read the message. The enemies could know the location of the soldiers because of the light. Barbier created a system called night writing, which was 12 dots representing the alphabets and the sound of the words (Braille Works, The Writer(s) of the article).

With the advent of the Braille system, blind people could read the writings, and this invention is still used nowadays.

Conclusion

The Industrial Revolution affected the invention and development of printing systems in many ways. Through the Industrial Revolution, everything, including printing methods, has become modernized. The printing methods developed the Gutenberg printing process, which had not been developed or improved for hundreds of years. The Industrial Revolution and the printing methods brought the Middle Age to the Modern Age (Namu Wiki, The Editors of Encyclopedia, 2021).

Sources:

1. Wikipedia, The Editors of Wikipedia, “Victorian era”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era. Accessed 7 September 2021.
2. History of the Book, The Writer(s) of the article, “Chapter 9. Industrialization of Print”. https://hob.gseis.ucla.edu/HoBCoursebook_Ch_9.html. Accessed 5 September 2021
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4. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, “Linotype”, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/linotypetm?q=linotype.
5. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia, “Linotype”. Encyclopedia Britannica, Apr. 5 2018, https://www.britannica.com/technology/Linotype.
6. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, “Monotype”, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/monotypetm?q=monotype.
7. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia, “Monotype”. Encyclopedia Britannica, Nov. 18^th 2007, https://www.britannica.com/technology/Monotype-typesetting-machine.
8. National Library of Korea Blog, The writer(s) of the blog, “History of Book”. May 31^st 2011, https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.naver?isHttpsRedirect=true&blogId=dibrary1004&logNo=30096953290.
9. Wikipedia, The Editors of Encyclopedia, “Rotary Press”. Last edited: Dec. 7^th 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_printing_press.
10. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, “Braille”. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/braille?q=braille.
11. Cambridge Dictionary, “Braille”. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/braille?q=braille.
12. Braille Works, The Writer(s) of the article, “History of Braille”. link .
13. Namu Wiki, The Editors of Encyclopedia, “산업 혁명”. Last edited: Sept. 23^rd 2021, https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%82%B0%EC%97%85%20%ED%98%81%EB%AA%85.