Stories of Useful Inventions Part 11

At first thought was recorded and preserved by _tradition_. An account of a nation's deeds, its laws, the precepts of its religion were stamped, printed, on the memory of persons specially trained to memorize these things and hand them down by word of mouth from generation to generation (Fig. 1). These persons were usually priests, who underwent long years of daily and hourly training in memorizing what was to be handed down. The Sanskrit Vedas, the sacred scripture of the Hindoos, were for many centuries transmitted by tradition, and it is said it took forty years to memorize them. It is a wonder it did not take longer, for the Vedas make a volume as large as our Bible. It is believed that primitive people everywhere first adopted the method of tradition to record and preserve the thought which they did not wish to perish. We may say, then, that the first book was written on the tablet of the human memory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1.--TRADITION.

A Mural Decoration in the Library of Congress.]

The first step in the growth of the book was taken when _memory aids_ were invented. Sometimes we tie a knot in a handkerchief to help us to remember something. Now, it was just by tying knots that primitive man first lent a.s.sistance to the memory. The first material book was doubtless a series of _knots_ well represented by the _quipu_ (Fig. 2) of the ancient Peruvians. This curious-looking book was written (tied) by one known as the officer of the knots. It contains an account of the strength of the Peruvian army, although it is confessed that its exact meaning cannot be made out. It was not intended to be read by any one who was not a keeper of the knots. Books made of knots were used by nearly all the ancient peoples of South America and by some of those of Asia. Akin to the knotted cord is the _notched stick_, which is still used in Australia by the savages to a.s.sist the memory of one who has a message to carry. Figure 3 shows a variety of such message-sticks. The lowest one--a crooked branch of a tree--contains an invitation to a dancing party. The notches are read by the messenger. The notched stick as an aid to memory is not confined to savage races. Many a highly civilized baker has kept his accounts by making notches in sticks and so has many a modern dairyman, as he has delivered milk from door to door.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.--THE QUIPU OF THE PERUVIANS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3.--MESSAGE-STICKS.]

Memory aids were followed by _picture-writing_. To express thought by means of pictures is an instinct shared alike by the lowest savage and the most enlightened people. All over the earth we find examples of early picture-writing. A beloved chief had died, a fierce battle had been fought, an exciting chase had occurred: promptly the event was pictured on a stone or on the skin of some animal. Pages might be filled with ill.u.s.trations of these primitive picture-books, but we must be content with a single specimen (Fig. 4). This was found painted on a rock in California: "_We selected this as a camping place, but we have found nothing_," say the human figures _f_, _g_, _h_, _i_. The upturned palms say plainly, "nothing, nothing." "_One of our comrades_ (_d_) _has died of starvation_," say the three lank figures at _c_ pointing to their own lean bodies. "_We deeply mourn his loss_," says the sorrow-stricken _a_. "_We have gone northward_," says _j_, his distinguished arm extended to the north.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4.--PICTURE WRITING.]

Practice in picture-making was bound to lead to shorter methods of expressing ideas. It was soon found that reduced pictures, or _picture-signs_, would suffice to express ideas. Thus, if the idea of sorrow was to be expressed it was not necessary to draw an elaborate picture of a sorrowful looking man like _a_ in Figure 4; a weeping eye would express the idea just as well. Instead of numerous figures (_e_, _f_, _g_, _h_, _i_) weeping and saying, "nothing here," a single pair of empty palms would say the same thing just as clearly. In this way a pair of clasped hands came to mean "friends.h.i.+p"; two trees meant "a forest"; a calf running toward water meant "thirst." These picture-signs, of course, a.s.sumed the form in which they could be most easily and rapidly drawn. The weeping eye became [symbol: eye]; the pair of extended palms [symbol: palms]; the forest [symbol: trees]; thirst [symbol: dog walking on water]. A simple picture of this kind became a fixed conventional sign for certain ideas; it was always drawn in the same way and it always stood for the same idea.

Picture-signs (ideographs) followed picture-writing in almost every country where the people were progressive. China was writing its books with picture-signs many thousands of years ago, and it is writing them in the same clumsy way still. Even in highly civilized countries picture-signs have not been entirely abandoned. Examine the advertising page of a newspaper or observe the business signs on the street and you will find picture-signs--pictures that are always made in the same way and that always stand for the same thing.

Each of the great nations of antiquity had its own peculiar system of writing, but the system that should interest us most is that of ancient Egypt, for it is to ancient Egypt that you must look for the origin of the book that is in your hands. The book in Egypt pa.s.sed through the stages of tradition, memory aids, picture-writing and picture-signs (ideographs); then it pa.s.sed into the _alphabetic_ stage. Since the alphabet is certainly the most wonderful and perhaps the most useful of all inventions, and since it is an Egyptian invention, it is well worth your while to learn how the Egyptian picture-signs--hieroglyphics they are called--grew into letters, but if you wish to understand the change you will have to give the subject very close attention.

Well, here was the Egyptian system of picture-signs consisting of several thousand pictures of birds, beasts, reptiles, insects, trees, flowers, and objects of almost every description. Now suppose you were employed in writing _English_ by means of several thousand picture-signs and in the course of an hour would have to write the words _man_age, _man_sion, _man_tle, _man_date, might it not occur to you that it would be a good thing if that sound _man_ could be represented by the picture-sign for man ([symbol: man])? And if you had to write _trea_cle, _trea_son, _trea_ty, might you not feel like beginning these words with a tree ([symbol: tree])? At some time in the remote past Egyptian scribes--priests they usually were--noticing that syllables identical in sound were constantly recurring in the different words, began to represent these _syllable-sounds_ that occurred most frequently by _picture-signs_.[20] The picture-sign subst.i.tuted for a syllable-sound was placed in the word not because it stood for an _idea_, but because it stood for a _sound_, just as in the case supposed above you would use the [symbol: man] or the [symbol: tree] not because it represented a thought, but because it had a certain sound. So certain Egyptian picture-signs began to be used to represent the sound of certain syllables. The picture-signs thus chosen were called _phonograms_.

The phonogram led to the alphabet. The scribes in seeking a way to shorten their work found that the syllable itself could be broken up into separate sounds. For example, when they came to the syllable whose sound is spelled by our three letters _pad_, they found that it had three distinct sounds, namely: (1) one a lip sound which could be represented by the first sound of the picture-sign [symbol: door] (a door); (2) one an open-throat or vowel sound which could be represented by the first sound of the picture-sign [symbol: eagle] (an eagle); (3) one a dental sound which could be represented by the first sound in the picture-sign [symbol: hand] (a hand). So the scribes wrote the syllable (p-a-d) with the three characters [symbol: door] [symbol: eagle]

[symbol: hand]. And so with all the other sounds in the Egyptian language; each was represented by one of the picture-signs already used.

Since there were only about twenty-five distinct elementary sounds in the Egyptian language, twenty-five picture-signs were sufficient to represent any sound or any word in the language. These twenty-five picture-sounds were the letters of the Egyptian alphabet. Twenty-five characters instead of thousands! Now the Egyptian youth could learn to read in three or four years, whereas under the old system it took fifteen or twenty years, just as it takes fifteen or twenty years for the Chinese youth to learn to read well.

Now that its origin has been explained, the story of the alphabet may be rapidly told. Indeed, its whole history can be learned from Figure 5. In column (a) are the three Egyptian picture-signs referred to above.

Column (b) shows how the rapid writing of the priests reduced the old hieroglyphics to script; [symbol: door] became [symbol: 3 c's]; [symbol: eagle] became [symbol: odd a] and [symbol: hand] became [symbol: squiggle]. The Phoenicians, who were great travelers, visited Egypt at a very early date and borrowed not only the idea of the alphabet, but also the forms of the Egyptian letters, as column _c_ shows. Column _d_ confirms the words of Herodotus, who tells us that the Greeks borrowed their alphabet from the Phoenicians. Column _e_ shows that the Greeks handed the alphabet on to the Romans, who handed it on to us. Thus the three letters p, a, d come straight from the Egyptians and were originally a _door_, an _eagle_, and a _hand_, respectively. As it is with these three letters, so it is with nearly all the letters of our alphabet. If the letters on the page before you could be suddenly changed to their original form, you would behold a motley collection of birds, serpents, animals, tools, and articles of household use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 5.--SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THREE LETTERS, P, A, AND D.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 6.--AN ANCIENT VOLUME.]

We must look to Egypt for the origin of the material form of our book as well as for the origin of our alphabetical characters. Before history had dawned the Egyptians had covered over with their writing nearly all the available surface on their pyramids and in their temples. At a time too far back for a date necessity seems to have compelled them to seek a subst.i.tute for stone. This they found in the _papyrus_ plant, which grew in great luxuriance in the valley of the Nile. They placed side by side strips of the pith of the papyrus, and across these at right angles they placed another layer of strips. The two layers were then glued together and pressed until a smooth surface was formed. This made one sheet. To make a book a number of sheets were fastened together end to end. When in book form the papyrus was wound around a stick and kept in the form of a roll, a _volume_ (Fig. 6). The roll was usually eight or ten inches wide, but its length might be upward of a hundred feet. This papyrus roll was the parent of our modern paper book, as the word papyrus is the original of our word paper. The pen used in writing upon papyrus was a split reed (_calamus_), and the ink a mixture of soot and gum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 7.--THE OLDEST BOOK IN THE WORLD. WRITTEN NEARLY 5,000 YEARS AGO.]

The most ancient volume in the world is an Egyptian papyrus (Fig. 7) now in the National Library of France. It was written nearly 5,000 years ago by an aged sage and contains precepts of right living. In this oldest of volumes we find this priceless gem:

"If thou art become great, if after being in poverty thou hast ama.s.sed riches and art become the first in the city, if thou art known for thy wealth and art become a great lord, let not thy heart become proud, for it is G.o.d who is the author of them for thee."

In a.s.syria and in other ancient countries of Central Asia letters were engraved on cylinders and these were rolled upon slabs of soft clay, making an impression of the raised letters, just as we make an impression with the seal of a ring. In the ruins of the cities of a.s.syria these old clay books may be found by the cart-load. The a.s.syrian cylinder was really the first printing press. In ancient Greece and Rome wooden tablets within which was spread a thin layer of wax were used as a writing surface in schools and in the business world. The writing on the wax was done with a sharp-pointed instrument of bone or iron called the _stylus_. But next to papyrus the most important writing material of antiquity was _parchment_, or the prepared skin of young calves and kids. The invention of parchment is said to have been due to the literary ambitions of two kings, the king of Persia and the king of Egypt. The king of Pergamus (250 B.C.) wis.h.i.+ng to have the finest and largest library in the world was consuming enormous quant.i.ties of papyrus. The king of Egypt, who also wished to have the finest library in the world, in order to cripple the plans of his literary rival, issued a command forbidding the exportation of papyrus from Egypt. The king of Pergamus, being unable to get papyrus except from Egypt, caused the skins of sheep to be prepared, and on these skins books for his library continued to be written. The prepared skins received the name of _pergamena_, because they were made in Pergamus, and from pergamena we get the word parchment. This is the story that has come down to us to explain the origin of parchment, but it cannot be accepted as wholly true. We know very well that the Old Testament was written in gold on a roll of skins long before there was a king of Pergamus. Indeed, writing was done on skins as far back as the picture-writing period.

After the invention of the alphabet and of paper (papyrus) books multiplied as never before. "Of making many books there is no end,"

exclaimed Solomon a thousand years before the Christian era. Greece in her early day was slow to make books, but after she learned from the Phoenicians (800 B.C.) how to use an alphabet she made up for lost time.

In 600 B.C. there was a public library at Athens, and 200 years later the Greeks had written more good books than all the other countries in the world combined.

But the most productive of ancient book-makers were the Romans. In Rome publis.h.i.+ng houses were flouris.h.i.+ng in the time of Cicero (50 B.C.).

Atticus, one of Cicero's best friends, was a publisher. Let us see how a book was made in his establishment. Of course, there were no type-setters or printing-presses. Every book was a ma.n.u.script; every word of every copy had to be written with a pen. The writing was sometimes done by slaves trained to write neatly and rapidly. We may imagine 50 or 100 slaves sitting at desks in a room writing to the dictation of the reader. Now if Atticus had ten readers each of whom dictated to 100 slaves it took only two or three days for the publication of 1,000 copies of one of his friend Cicero's books. Of course every copy would not be perfect. The slave would sometimes make blunders and write what the reader did not dictate. But books in our own time are not free of errors. An English poet recently wrote:

"Like dew-drops upon fresh blown roses."

In print the first letter of the last word in the line appeared as _n_ instead of _r_. This mistake disfigured thousands of copies. In the Roman publis.h.i.+ng house such a blunder marred only one copy.

You can readily see that by methods just described books could be made in great numbers. And so they were. Slaves were cheap and numerous and the cost of publication was small. It is estimated that a good sized volume in Nero's time (50 A.D.) would sell for a s.h.i.+lling. Books were cheaper in those days than they had ever been before and almost as cheap as they are to-day, perhaps. The Roman world became satiated with reading matter. The poet Martial exclaimed, "Every one has me in his pocket, every one has me in his hand." Books became a drug on the market and could be sold only to grocers for "wrapping up pastry and spices."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 8.--BOOK-MAKING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.]

But a time was to come when books would not be so plentiful and cheap.

With the overthrow of Rome (476 A.D.) culture received a blow from which it did not recover for a thousand years. The barbarian invaders of Southern Europe destroyed all the books they could find and caused the writers of books to flee within the walls of the churches. Throughout the Middle Ages nearly all the writing in Europe was done in the religious houses of monks (Fig. 8), and nearly all the books written were of a religious nature. The monks worked with the greatest patience and care upon their ma.n.u.scripts. They often wrote on vellum (calf-skin parchment) and illuminated the page with beautiful colors and adorned it with artistic figures.

The ma.n.u.script volumes of the dark ages were beautiful and magnificent, but their cost was so great that only the most wealthy could buy. A Bible would sometimes cost thousands of dollars. Along in the 14th and 15th centuries Europe began to thirst for knowledge and there arose a demand for cheap books. How could the demand be met? There were now no hordes of intelligent slaves who could be put to work with their pens, and without slave labor the cost of the written book could not be greatly reduced. Invention, as always, came to the rescue and gave the world what it wanted.

In the first place, writing material was made cheaper by the invention of paper-making. The wasp in making its nest had given a hint for paper-making, but man was extremely slow to take the hint. The Chinese had done something in the way of making paper from the bark of trees as early as the first century, but it was not until the middle of the 13th century that paper began to be manufactured in Europe from hemp, rags, linen, and cotton.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 9.]

In the second place, _printing_ was invented. On a strip of transparent paper write the word _post_. Now turn the strip over from right to left and trace the letters on the smooth surface of a block of wood. Remove the paper and you will have the result shown in Figure 9. With a sharp knife cut out the wood from around the letters. Ink the raised letters and press upon them a piece of paper. You have printed the word "post"

in precisely the way the first books were printed. In the 13th century fancy designs were engraved on wood and by the aid of ink the figures were stamped on silk and linen. In the 14th century playing cards and books were printed on engraved blocks in the manner the word "post" was printed above. (Fig. 10.) The block-book was the first step in the art of printing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 10.--A BLOCK PRINT CONTAINING THE ALPHABET USED BY CHILDREN WHEN LEARNING TO READ.]

The block-book decreased the cost of a book, for when a page was once engraved as many impressions could be taken as were wanted, yet it did not meet the necessities of the time. In the middle of the 15th century the desire for reading began to resemble a frenzy and the books that could be got hold of "were as insufficient to slake the thirsty craving for religious and material knowledge as a few rain drops to quench the burning thirst of the traveler in the desert who seeks for long, deep-draughts at copious springs of living water." To meet the demand of the time book-makers everywhere were trying to improve on the block-making process and by the end of the century the book as we have it to-day was being made throughout all Europe.

In what did the improvement consist? First let us call to mind what the book-maker in the early part of the 15th century had to begin with; he had paper, he had printing-ink, he had skill in engraving whole pages for block-books, and he had a rude kind of printing-press. The improvement consisted in this: Instead of engraving a whole page on a block, single letters were engraved on little blocks called types, and when a word or a line or a page was to be printed these types were set in the position desired; in other words, the improvement consisted in the invention of _moveable types_. The types were first made of wood and afterward of metal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 11.--AN EARLY PRINTING PRESS.]

The great advantage of the moveable types over the block-book is easily seen. A block containing, say, the word "post" is useless except for printing the word _post_; but divide it into four blocks, each containing a letter: now you can print _post_, _spot_, _tops_, _stop_, _top_, _sop_, _sot_, _pot_, _so_, _to_ and so forth.

The exact date of the invention of moveable types cannot be determined.

We can only say that they were first used between 1450 and 1460. Nor can we tell who invented them. The Dutch claim that Lawrence Koster of Harlem (Holland) made some moveable types as early as 1430, and that John Faust, an employee, stole them and carried them to Mayence (Germany), where John Gutenberg learned the secret of printing with them. The Germans claim that Gutenberg was the real inventor. Much can be said in behalf of both claims. What we really know is that the earliest complete book printed on moveable types was a Bible which came from the press of John Gutenberg in 1455.

Since 1450 there has been no discovery that has changed the character of the printed volume. There have been wonderful improvements in the processes of making and setting type, and printing-presses (Fig. 11) have become marvels of mechanical skill, but the book of to-day is essentially like the book of four hundred years ago. The tablet of the memory, the knotted cord and notched stick, the uncanny picture-writing, the clumsy picture-sign, the alphabet, the ma.n.u.script volume, the printed block-book and the volume before you bring to an end the story of the book.

FOOTNOTE:

[20] The ill.u.s.tration is taken from Keary's "Dawn of History."

THE MESSAGE

Men had not been living together long in a state of society before they found it necessary to communicate with their fellow-men at a distance and in order to do this the _message_ was invented. We have seen (p.

205) that among certain tribes of savages notched sticks bearing messages were sent from one tribe to another. Among the ancient Peruvians the message took the form of the curious looking quipu. After the alphabet had been invented and papyrus had come into use as a writing material, the message took the form of a written doc.u.ment and resembled somewhat the modern _letter_.