Chapter 51 The Printing Press

The entire printing press is made of all metal, most of it is iron, a small part is copper, the movable type and key parts are copper, and most of the rest of the press is iron.

The hydraulic forging created under He Xi's prompting inadvertently improved Daming's ability to work with metals. Therefore, it was of great help to the manufacture of this printing press. The general structure of the printing press was done by He Xi, and the structure is very simple. After all, living printing is not a new thing for Da Ming. The Song Dynasty had it.

It's just that alive printing has always been, and the quality is very poor. In history, it was also in the middle and late Ming Dynasty that there was a relatively complete metal type. In the orthodox years, there is a living printing of the people, some of them have been preserved, the technology is really indescribable, out of the word and ink, is commonplace, as for a piece of paper, the handwriting is different, it is a normal situation.

Therefore, the most important thing in living printing is not the design of the large frame, but the control of details.

And around the printing press, is where the fonts are stored.

There are many fonts, large and small, but the most common one is a slightly larger font than the number 5 font. The reason is also very simple. That's to print newspapers. It's a font that's small enough to take on more content in the newspaper. And ancient books have one or two hundred words per page, which really makes He Xi unaccustomed to it.

You don't have to do anything else to read. I can only keep turning the page.

Font shrinkage is also not an easy task, though. Because the smaller the font, the finer the printing press is required. The reason is simple. If the font is big, a little more ink, a little less ink, in fact, nothing. A little more missing, but the font is a little heavier. Or there are some ink spots, and the smaller the font, the less tolerance there is for such mistakes.

Because if you miss a little more, it is likely that the whole word will not be read clearly.

This is also the reason why the original wooden printing press was made of copper and iron. Because the texture of the wood is a little soft, it is easy to deform.

And next to the printing press, there is a large disc. There are thousands of movable types densely packed on it, and there are fonts of different sizes. The prince's eyes flashed, and he said, "Yunbu? ”

"Your Highness." Ding Xian said: "It's the rhyme department. ”

Seeing Ding Xian like this, He Xi remembered Liu Song's words. Secretly said: "This Ding Xian has not learned any lessons, and his heart is always unsettled." Hey------"

The person in charge here is Ge Tiangong, and it stands to reason that whatever the prince asks, that is, Ge Tiangong will answer. But Ding Xian obviously crossed Ge Tiangong. It can be seen that the restlessness in Ding Xian's heart makes him unwilling to let go of any opportunity.

The mistakes of the past, and still today.

The prince didn't care about these details, after all, in the prince's opinion, the people in the courtyard in front of him were very indifferent except for He Xi who could be valued by him. The crown prince can blow a breath, and they will die without a place to be buried.

Why bother to search their minds?

Waste your own energy.

The prince said, "I see that you are also a scholar, and you did this?" ”

Ding Xian said: "Exactly, Chen Nai is a disciple of Teacher He, and he is here to help. Before the craftsmen were illiterate, and it was difficult to typeset and pick up words, so the minister took the rhyme as the core and designed this kind of word picking plate. Sitting here, all you have to do is turn the disc, so the font is always at hand, ready to go. ”

The prince didn't know if he was giving He Xi face, he glanced at He Xi and said, "Yes, it's very good." Print two and let me see what's wrong? ”

Ge Tiangong said: "Yes." ”

Immediately arranged for the craftsman, Ding Xian stepped forward to pick up the words himself, he sat in front of the word picking plate, and said, "Seal the university." ”

As a Confucian student, Ding Xian must memorize in college, and as an essay, the university does not have many words. The selection was completed in a few moments, and then it was printed in a matter of time after going through various procedures by craftsmen.

The prince took the paper that still had a warm breath. On a sheet of paper the size of four pages, thousands of words of the university were completely printed. The prince looked at it and said, "What's wrong with this, isn't this good?" ”

Ding Xian immediately said: "Your Highness, I don't know, and now the biggest problem of this printing press is instability, generally printing three or four times, there is no problem at all, but after five times, there will be problems." ”

The printing press here was opened and closed several times under the manipulation of craftsmen, and more than a dozen copies were printed at once.

The prince took them and looked at them one by one, and only then did he determine the problem that Ding Xian said.

The first five are all fine. But in the sixth sheet, I can't see it, but in the seventh and eighth sheets, there are all kinds of obvious problems. The biggest problem is that the ink is uneven, and I have to brush the ink the same step every time, but I don't know what's wrong. There was no problem before, but here it is, the ink is uneven.

I don't know if it's a problem with paper, or ink, or design, or something else.

For such a problem, He Xi is also powerless. This is beyond He Xi's capabilities. And industrial production, such a problem, I don't know how many.

He Xi could only let the craftsmen try over and over again, and adjust it over and over again.

In He Xi's opinion, this is not much worse than being completely completed. But in the eyes of the prince, it is already very good. The prince said, "Yes, all matters of the newspaper are in accordance with your statutes. Don't be in a hurry here, it's a big deal to postpone it for a while. It can be a little later, but there must be a good start. ”

He Xi said: "Your Highness is wise. ”

The prince said, "Ding Xian, right? ”

Ding Xian said: "The students are here. ”

The prince said, "Since you are here, you will also have an errand by the way." In the future, the matter of newspaper printing will be handled by the secretary and supervisor. Work with heart. Lone won't forget you. The prince also remembered what happened to Ding Xian's previous Yilun Hall. However, the prince also understood one thing, and that was that the matter of printing newspapers was unlikely to be handed over to illiterate craftsmen. And let the secretary and supervisor come here to watch, it is estimated that no one wants to.

In that case, leave it to Ding Xian.

In the eyes of the prince, it is just a trivial matter. But it was Ding Xian's second chance.

Ding Xian rushed forward with enthusiasm and said, "Please rest assured, Your Highness, the students will do a good job." ”

He Xi said: "Actually, there are some things that the minister has long wanted to say to His Highness, and since His Highness is here, the minister will say it together." ”

The prince said, "Listen to me. ”

He Xi said: "Your Highness, the knowledge between the world is not only on the avenue, but also on many small roads, such as today's events. The minister estimated that if this machine was completed, the cost of each newspaper would not be more than a penny. ”

"Of course, the cost of content hasn't been calculated yet."

The prince was stunned for a moment and said; "A penny."

In the prince's opinion, what is the cost of content? The people in the secretary and prison are all eating the court's money, so can't they give another money? But He Xi has calculated, if a newspaper has editors and reporters, there is a big mess. In the era when the Ming Dynasty was mostly illiterate, the wages of these literate people were definitely not low. So, the money is spread over the cost of the newspaper. The cost of 10,000 is only two or three cents. If you sell more, you can also get cheaper.

That is, the price of the newspaper can be four cents, or even lower.

The price of newspapers during the Republic of China period was only a quarter of a cent. As for the four cents during the Republic of China period and the four cents during the Hongwu period, who is more valuable is not something He Xi can know.

However, even if the price is a little higher, it has the significance of large-scale promotion.

It's just that He Xi ignored two points in cost accounting, that is, the impact of large-scale procurement on paper ink. After all, unlike the industrial age, the larger the purchase, the cheaper it is, but before the industrial age, it was the opposite logic. The larger the purchase, the more expensive it will be.

Without mechanized large-scale production, the output of many things is constrained by various conditions, and it is difficult to increase. It will not be cheaper because the purchase volume increases, but because the purchase volume is larger, the scarcity becomes more expensive.

This is the lack of productivity.

He Xi didn't realize this, and his 600 years later, as a matter of course, were substituted into the current cost accounting. At this moment, He Xi didn't know that there was such a loophole, and he was still swearing to explain it to the prince.