Non-weapons of war, weapons of war

Public Libraries would be a great thing!

millions of people reading books for pleasure and growing in knowledge.

The inner circle could even seed some new book genre's into the matrix.

Like a proto- Science fiction books or fantasy.

These books will expand the imagination and allow for the truth to be more easily accepted.

Old earth must millions of books that some could be quietly added into the public libraries.

Yes, public libraries would be a great thing.

However, even with the Silverlode mines it might be an expensive idea.

I "think" the big push for public libraries (in our history) happened after printing presses moved from "human powered" to "steam or electric powered".

A single book currently on Safehold likely requires several man-hours to print.

So books will be expensive compared to the average worker's monthly wages.

While the Crown could afford to print the required books, in the middle of the current war might not be the best time to do so.

Alistair wrote:Public Libraries would be a great thing!

millions of people reading books for pleasure and growing in knowledge.

The inner circle could even seed some new book genre's into the matrix.

Like a proto- Science fiction books or fantasy.

These books will expand the imagination and allow for the truth to be more easily accepted.

Old earth must millions of books that some could be quietly added into the public libraries.

Found this on printing capacity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_p ... g_capacity

I suspect that the Safehold Printing Presses capacity are similar to the Stanhope press capacity of 480 pages per hour.

Now, if the Inner Circle pushes the idea of steam powered printing presses, then public libraries become more possible.

DrakBibliophile wrote:Yes, public libraries would be a great thing.

However, even with the Silverlode mines it might be an expensive idea.

I "think" the big push for public libraries (in our history) happened after printing presses moved from "human powered" to "steam or electric powered".

A single book currently on Safehold likely requires several man-hours to print.

So books will be expensive compared to the average worker's monthly wages.

While the Crown could afford to print the required books, in the middle of the current war might not be the best time to do so.

Alistair wrote:Public Libraries would be a great thing!

millions of people reading books for pleasure and growing in knowledge.

The inner circle could even seed some new book genre's into the matrix.

Like a proto- Science fiction books or fantasy.

These books will expand the imagination and allow for the truth to be more easily accepted.

Old earth must millions of books that some could be quietly added into the public libraries.

Steam printing presses are only part of the issue. Improving type setting techniques are as or more important, Drak.

Good point.

PeterZ wrote:Steam printing presses are only part of the issue. Improving type setting techniques are as or more important, Drak.

DrakBibliophile wrote:Good point.

PeterZ wrote:Steam printing presses are only part of the issue. Improving type setting techniques are as or more important, Drak.

Linotype anyone?
Step one is a rotary press (powered by anything), feeding these requires paper rolls rather than the older style sheets, meaning that the paper making process shifts from an artisan based process to a continuous process (with a resulting drop in the cost of paper (by a couple of orders of magnitude - cheap enough to use for toilet paper). Feeding pulp to these new paper mills requires shifting from rag paper to timber pulp, this requires either chemical pulping or mechanical pulping - mechanical pulping typically consumes over 70% of the total mill energy demand, chemical pulping (Kraft process) requires chemical recovery boilers for economic operation (scary devices that have killed their operations staff on a number of occasions and require advanced control systems for safe operation (I've worked on both)). Newsprint is one of the hardest papers to make due to its light gauge, 35 grams/m2 is not uncommon (compared to 80gsm for photocopy paper), with modern machines running at up to 1600 m/min (100km/h). (BTW toilet tissue is easier as it is generally multilayer (other than government spec, which has more in common with newsprint)).
Mechanically a paper mill's controls have more than a passing resemblance to a sheet steel mill (particularly the back end once the sheet is off the wire and self supporting).

AirTech wrote:Linotype anyone?
Step one is a rotary press (powered by anything), feeding these requires paper rolls rather than the older style sheets, meaning that the paper making process shifts from an artisan based process to a continuous process (with a resulting drop in the cost of paper (by a couple of orders of magnitude - cheap enough to use for toilet paper). Feeding pulp to these new paper mills requires shifting from rag paper to timber pulp, this requires either chemical pulping or mechanical pulping - mechanical pulping typically consumes over 70% of the total mill energy demand, chemical pulping (Kraft process) requires chemical recovery boilers for economic operation (scary devices that have killed their operations staff on a number of occasions and require advanced control systems for safe operation (I've worked on both)). Newsprint is one of the hardest papers to make due to its light gauge, 35 grams/m2 is not uncommon (compared to 80gsm for photocopy paper), with modern machines running at up to 1600 m/min (100km/h). (BTW toilet tissue is easier as it is generally multilayer (other than government spec, which has more in common with newsprint)).
Mechanically a paper mill's controls have more than a passing resemblance to a sheet steel mill (particularly the back end once the sheet is off the wire and self supporting).

I wonder if the existing water mills might be converted into paper wills? Using fossile fuels to run mechanical pulpers sounds wasteful and very dirty. Since water will be needed for the process anyway, why not place the process where water power is used?

Historically, the thing which springs mass production of printed material is Guttenburg's printing press which was a lot more primitive than what you guys have been discussing.

Iy can be said that Guttenburg was the real father of the Reformation. His invention spawned widespread literacy which in turn led to a blizzard of tracts, made possible placing the Bible in the hands of ordinary people, and yes, the initiation of libraries.

So maybe some of you guys are being unduly pessimistic. On fact there is reference to a librarian prior to sword of Schuler MTAT in Siddarmark. We don't know how widely the idea is implemented, but it is there.

Don

Well libraries predate the printing press so there has been a long time need for people trained in managing libraries. [Smile]

The question was concerning "public libraries" which can be defined as libraries that loan out books to the general public.

Most early libraries were places where people could come to read the books for research or other reasons.

"Lending" libraries are a modern invention that IMO depend on inexpensive books.

While the Safehold printing presses are likely more advanced than the Gutenberg printing press, IMO they aren't to the point of providing inexpensive books.

n7axw wrote:Historically, the thing which springs mass production of printed material is Guttenburg's printing press which was a lot more primitive than what you guys have been discussing.

Iy can be said that Guttenburg was the real father of the Reformation. His invention spawned widespread literacy which in turn led to a blizzard of tracts, made possible placing the Bible in the hands of ordinary people, and yes, the initiation of libraries.

So maybe some of you guys are being unduly pessimistic. On fact there is reference to a librarian prior to sword of Schuler MTAT in Siddarmark. We don't know how widely the idea is implemented, but it is there.

Don

Yes, libraries (and even library catalogs) go back almost as long as writing, to Babylonian times. There exists at least one cuneiform clay tablet which is an index for locating other tablets in a Babylonian government library. For official use only, of course.

The Archangels apparently gave to Safehold a printing press design which is somewhat more advanced than the Gutenberg press, but we don't have many details. However, the design is far too slow and laborious to produce enough books for large local libraries around the world. The existing libraries of Safehold are most likely on the order of dozens of books, with no lending, limited access, and primarily focused on the specific purpose of the library (such as guild libraries, government reference libraries, Church libraries) or privately owned by wealthy families. One exception is that there are probably widespread collections of the writings of the Archangels and of the Adams and Eves, since that was an important part of Langhorne's plan.