Gutenberg press replica - photo

Gutenberg press replica at the International Printing Museum in Carson, California.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...s_fullsize.jpg
https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...berg_press.jpg


Previously:

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...335#post158110
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...711#post128888
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...524#post128039

Amazing. The wood construction really gives you a concept of the technology of the time. Nails weren't even really a thing.

If any of you are in the LA area I highly recommend a visit. Call first though because COVID has made everything complicated - but there are many interesting presses and other tidbits related to printing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nova_robotics

Amazing. The wood construction really gives you a concept of the technology of the time. Nails weren't even really a thing.

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Nails were fabulously expensive well into the late 18th century and early 19th, until mechanized cut nail production was perfected. They used to burn abandoned buildings to ash to recover the nails.

Here's a neat story about a french company that still operated their 1888 machinery to make nails. https://blog.lostartpress.com/2016/0...-forged-nails/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bruce.desertrat

Nails were fabulously expensive well into the late 18th century and early 19th, until mechanized cut nail production was perfected. They used to burn abandoned buildings to ash to recover the nails.

Here's a neat story about a french company that still operated their 1888 machinery to make nails. https://blog.lostartpress.com/2016/0...-forged-nails/

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The house I grew up in is 120 - 150 years old. No nails. The construction is absolutely amazing. 2x4s? Nah. Try 16x16s. It's like if you had nothing but a hatchet, and a forrest full of giant trees and removed the absolute MINIMUM amount of material with your hatchet in order to make them square. That's what that house (and barn) was made out of. And the walls were filled with seaweed.