Movable type printing3/18/2023 Metal moveable type printing was adopted for paper money and official documents. The technology really took off once Chinese printers started casting their type in bronze. However, the it was the wooden version that was widely taken up (perhaps because it was easier to carve wood than bake porcelain) and there are far more surviving documents that were printed with wooden moveable type than pottery moveable type from this era (the Song Dynasty). He rejected this method as the grain of the wood and the medium’s tendency to absorb ink led to uneven results. Hence: ‘moveable’ type.īi Sheng also experimented with wooden type. Crucially, the same symbols could then be rearranged to spell out a different message. The individual symbols could be arranged to spell out a message that would then be dipped in ink and printed onto silk. He relief-cut Chinese symbols into porcelain clay that was then kiln-fired. ![]() The concept of moveable type was invented by Bi Sheng in 1041. The Chinese were centuries ahead of their European cousins. We thought it would be interesting to share how moveable type worked and see what’s changed over the centuries. Moveable type made it possible to cheaply produce hundreds of copies of popular works such as The Bible, The Canterbury Tales and Le Morte d’Arthur. Prior to its introduction to England by William Caxton in 1476, books had to be laboriously transcribed by hand or printed from whole page woodblocks. As a printing method with a long history and heritage, it continues to generate interest.In 15th Century Europe, the moveable type printing press was cutting edge technology. It has had a tremendous impact on subsequent generations. In the history of printing, the invention of movable type was a major technological breakthrough. However, besides his invention, little is known about Bi's life.Ībout 400 years later, Johannes Gutenberg invented a machine that used movable type in Germany. "Bi Sheng's innovation was revolutionary for his time." Shen Kuo said that the method was arduous if only a few copies of a book were to be printed, but it was extraordinarily rapid and efficient if hundreds or thousands of copies were to be printed. To prepare for the repetition of characters on the same page, there were several duplicate types for each character, and there were twenty or more types for certain common characters. Two iron sheets were employed for improved efficiency, one for new typesetting and the other for printing, so that a new plate was ready before the previous one had produced the required number of copies. Meanwhile, a wooden board was used to press the clay types down to the height of the frame, and the plate was ready for printing. When the frame was packed, a plate was complete and the mixture was heated until it melted. ![]() An iron frame was then used to encircle the mixture. A square iron sheet was prepared for typesetting using a layer of resin, wax, and paper ashes mixed and spread on it. The Dream Pool Essays, a Chinese classic, written by Shen Kuo who was a famous scientist in Song Dynasty, contains a detailed discussion of the printing technology of Bi Sheng's invention of movable type, which changed the way printing was done in ancient China and made printing more efficient.Īccording to Shen Kuo's records, Bi's invention started from creating clay types for each of the Chinese characters, which were then hardened by fire. With the development of the movable type, everything changed. It not only took time and was laborious, but also during the process was easy to make mistakes. (PHOTO:VCG)īefore the invention of printers, books had to be written by hand and then duplicated by hand in order to be mass-produced. Bi Sheng is the inventor of movable type.
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