Gutenberg...long shot

[woodbloke]

Michael Huntley, the editor of F&C nipped in briefly this afternoon and amongst the many topics we nattered about was the workbench restoration project he's doing in the mag. He needs to cut the female part of a wooden thread and we both started to talk about the programme recently on TV where someone made a reproduction of a Gutenberg printing press in which there was a lot of info on cutting the threads. Did anyone make a copy of that programme and if so could you drop me a PM? Many thanks - Rob

 

[Chems]

Do you mean this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/medieval/gutenberg.shtml

Its only a trailer but is that the right program?

Half of it on YT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwPvYZhe-yQ

 

[woodbloke]

That's the one but the ed needs to see the complete thing, apparently the section that he needs isn't on the YT version - Rob

 

[Gill]

Ah... the one Stephen Fry presented! I was so impressed, I recorded it as a 534,938KB DivX file. I'm rather surprised it hasn't come up in conversation before now; the woodwork really made you sit up and think about what they achieved with the technology in those days.

PM me.

Gill

 

[TrimTheKing]

Sent you PM, if Gill hasn't already sorted it.

Mark

 

[woodbloke]

Folks, very many thanks for the PM's, will be in touch on the 'morrow - Rob

 

[Gill]

If anyone who missed this fascinating programme is still interested, it's being repeated tonight, 20 September 2008, at 7.30pm on BBC 2 (VIDEO Plus+: 72575).

Gill

 

[BradNaylor]

Watched the prog tonight for the first time - absolutely outstanding.

The best thing was that Dan junior (7) was absolutely rivetted.

The trouble is that he expects me to take him down the workshop in the morning and knock out a printing press!


Dan

 

[Argus]

.

Seen it both times.... very interesting, too.

It should also be available as a BBC iplayer download (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/) for a week after the Friday 20th broadcast. (UK only, sorry).


.

 

[Shultzy]

An interesting and informative programme, but I felt that there was no information on when or how the leap from hand-drawn to printing was made. Normally there is a series of steps from one technology to the next but no evidence was given that this happened. There also seemed to be too much emphasis on the press itself which I feel was probably the easiest part to solve. To me the most important leapt forward was the construction of the lettering and the paper.

 

[Jhalfa]

Is it still available on the BBC iPlayer?

 

[Argus]

Is it still available on the BBC iPlayer?

I believe so. The BBC keep the programmes active for a week after the broadcast -

The web address is in my earlier post.

The programme is an entertainment vehicle for Stephen Fry and doesn't dwell on the technology of cutting the thread for long, but any woodworker should be able to work it out from the pictures.

.

 

[cpfs]

There's a bit of confusion, I believe it was actually on BBC4 not BBC2. The iplayer link should work until Saturday, 27th Sept 2008

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b009wynj/

 

[Argus]

There's a bit of confusion, I believe it was actually on BBC4 not BBC2. The iplayer link should work until Saturday, 27th Sept 2008

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b009wynj/

Yes, it was on BBC 4 when it was first shown.

Last Saturdays show was a repeat on BBC 2.


.

 

[wizer]

Thanks, I enjoyed this documentary, but it seemed to brush over some stuff quite quickly. Much like all TV nowadays.

 

[bugbear]

Michael Huntley, the editor of F&C nipped in briefly this afternoon and amongst the many topics we nattered about was the workbench restoration project he's doing in the mag. He needs to cut the female part of a wooden thread and we both started to talk about the programme recently on TV where someone made a reproduction of a Gutenberg printing press in which there was a lot of info on cutting the threads. Did anyone make a copy of that programme and if so could you drop me a PM? Many thanks - Rob

IIRC the female thread was cut in the standard as-shown-by-Roiy-Underhill fashion.

Again IIRC the male was cut using a leadscrew equipped pattern makers lathe.

You might also want to check out one of the Adam Hart-Davis programs where the male was hand marked and cut.

(searchy) got it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Romans_Did_for_Us

"The screw press, reconstructed using traditional techniques by carpenter Henry Russell..."

And someone made a printing press in "What the Tudors and Stuarts Did For Us"

Also a pattern makers lathe IIRC.

BugBear