The miracle of modern-day printing

Thomas Jefferson once said, “I cannot live without books.” Most of the ideas that fueled Jefferson’s outlook on life, and consequently those of our nation’s revolution, came out of books written by philosophers of the time like Rousseau and Locke. Joseph Smith’s First Vision and encounter with God came after he prayed at the behest of a book, in this case the Holy Bible.
The ability of the common layperson to read the scriptures on his own was one of the most important spiritual developments of the Christian era. For more than a thousand years, the Roman Catholic church dominated religious thought in Western Europe. The Vulgate from which they preached was written in Latin and kept mostly in the hands of ministers, who were also usually the only ones who could understand Latin. The translation of the Bible into vernacular languages and its mass-production allowed ideas to diversify. Martin Luther, the most famous of the so-called “Reformers,” questioned the sale of indulgences and other church practices upon his own inspection of the Bible. This eventually paved the way for the Restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith.
Knowing this history and its relevance to Latter-Day Saints, I enjoyed attending the Crandall Printing Museum. I was fascinated by the process Guttenberg underwent to make his movable-type printing press functional. I was aware before that Guttenberg did not invent the press, as it came from China through the Mongols. I was unaware, however, of how many innovations and inventions Guttenberg really made. I was amazed by his technique of casting letters and ink making. He had to carve by hand each individual letter out of a solid metal block. He had to experiment by trial-and-error to find the right mixture of metals to make the type. He needed to find the right metal to make the type-mold out of. Then, after Guttenberg figured out how to make and assemble the new type, he was confronted with a paper problem. The paper used at the time was meant to be used with water-based inks, but water-based inks would not stick well or print clearly with the metal type. So, Guttenberg then had to experiment with oil-based mixtures until he found a suitable ink. These are a few of the examples of how much Guttenberg had to innovate to make the movable-type printing press work. I had no idea how much work he put into it to make it work.
I learned how important Guttenberg really was. I knew before that he was one of the most influential men in history, but I didn’t know how much he really innovated rather than just put together existing ideas.
I also had no idea how much of a miracle it was that 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon could be printed and bound so quickly. The printers worked at an unreal rate in order to print the requisite number of pages, and the binding was done in a miraculous amount of time. I know that God had a hand in the development and implementation of the printing press. The spread of the gospel worldwide needed such an invention. Through it, millions of copies of the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible have been printed and enlightened millions of lives around the globe. I gained a greater appreciation of printing and its impact on history and my own life.