Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/198

 126 WORKMEN AND HEROES He was supposed to go there to draw the designs, arabesques, and figurines for his jcuvlrv and the frames of his glasses ; but he passed his days and sleepless nights there, wearing himself out in the pursuit of his invention. There it was that he engraved his movable types in wood, and projected casting them in metal, and studied hard to find the means of inclosing them in forms, whether of wood or of iron, to make the types into words, phrases, and lines, and to leave spaces on the paper. There it was that he invented colored mediums, oleaginous and yet drying, to reproduce these characters, brushes and dabbers to spread the ink on the letters, boards to hold them, and screws and weights to compress them. Months and years were spent, as well as his own fortune and the funds of the firm, in these persevering experiments, with alternate success and disappointment. At length, having made a model of a press, which seemed to him to combine all the requirements of printing, according to his ideas at that time, he concealed it under his cloak, and walking to the town, went to a skilful turner in wood and metal, named Conrad Saspach, who lived in the Mercer's Lane, asking him to make the machine of full size. He requested the workman to keep it secret, merely telling him that it was a machine by the help of which he proposed to produce some masterpieces of art and mechanism, of which the marvels should be known in due time. The turner, taking the model in his hands, and turning it backward and for- ward with the smile of contempt that a skilful artist usually puts on when look- ing at a rough specimen, said, somewhat scornfully, " But it is just simply a press that you are asking me for, Master Hans !" " Yes," replied Gutenberg, with a grave and enthusiastic tone, " it is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall soon flow in inexhaustible streams the most abundant and most marvellous liquor that has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of man ! Through it God will spread his Word. A spring of pure truth shall flow from it ; like a new star, it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine among men." He retired. The turner, who under- stood not these words, made the machine, and delivered it at the monastery of Arbogast. This was the first printing-press. As soon as he was in possession of his press, Gutenberg began printing. Lit- tle is known of the first works which he sent out ; but the strongly religious dis- position of the inventor leaves no doubt concerning the nature of the labors to which he devoted the first-fruits of his art. They were, to a certainty, religious books. The art invented for the sake of God, and by his inspiration, began with his worship. His later publications at Mainz are a proof of it ; the divine songs of the Psalmist, and the celebrated Latin Bible, were the first works issued at Mainz from the machine invented by Gutenberg, and applied to the use of the most sacred powers of man, lyrical praise of his Maker, and lamentation for the woes of earth. Under the hands of this pious and unfortunate man, praise and prayer were the first voices of the press. The press ought ever to be proud of it. But great tribulation awaited him after his triumph. We have seen that the