And so the ingenious American and British engineers featured in this volume found ways to apply rotary power to presses that were based on the iron
handpress model.
It is exceedingly rare to see an original
handpress book in an intermediate stage of production, what is technically called a book in sheets.
In Lilliat's book, Knight argues, the "malleable, recombinant text of the
handpress era" acted as a "template for composing" (88).
A brief example of his knotty wordplay can be seen in this description of printing during the
handpress period.
See also Nicholas Pickwoad, "Books for Reading: Commercial Bindings in Parchment and Paper in the Era of the
Handpress," in Great Bindings from the Spanish Royal Collections, lS-21st Centuries, ed.
Pressed pellets of pure PANI and PANI/MMT composite were prepared using LECO
handpress (applied pressure 28 MPa) at room temperature, without any lubrication and without any binder.
In the kitchen, they experiment with old-fashioned cooking gadgets like flour grinders, a handcrank ice cream maker, and a
handpress juicer.
It was my duty to light the fire, sweep the floor, twirl the roller on an old Washington
handpress, turn the crank for the power press on publication day, fold the papers, deliver routes, paste bills, and incidentally set type--for all of which I received the munificent sum of $20 the first year, $40 the second year, $60 the third year, and $80 the fourth year, and the privilege of boarding with the boss." (3)
Using her own illuminated lettering and a combination of woodblocks,
handpress printing, and watercolors, Andrea Wisnewski brings this historical story to life in vivid medieval detail, decorating each page of text with manuscript-like borders that reveal the exquisite eye for color and line that ancient scribes themselves displayed.
Illustrations from Of a Feather will be on show in the Gwasg Gregynog section of the University of Wales stand on the National Eisteddfod Maes, alongside a small
handpress where Gregynog printer Gerard O'Shea will be ready to help anyone who wants to print a souvenir featuring a stanza from the traditional song Ffarwel i Blwy' Llangower with their own name on it.
In these and other issues readers can expect to see renewed interest in questions involving the transmission of texts, especially during the
handpress and early machine-press periods, and an awareness of the historical forces that condition the production of literature and of textual scholarship itself.