Making books is fun! (to watch)

[kenticser]

Aside from being very interesting (and fun!), I found this video very handy for teaching English: simple, but not too simple grammar, plenty of useful everyday phrases, all pronounced clearly and understandably. It's a great help for my students (and me).

[MaynardGK]

My grandfather came to New York from Europe and found work in a book bindery. I guess this was how he spent his workdays. Wow.

[thetree09]

woooo... is great know the old process

[wangtianthu]

technology in 1947 was not bad.

[MontagTheMagician]

Gee, to think people used to actually get up in the morning, go to work, and do something interesting and worth while. Instead of coddling these spoiled whiny dipshits with their ring tones, iPhones and Blackberries.

[theMzbettina]

wow, i am stunned! I can't believe what I was watching!

[Noitechan]

Impresionante...

[sebastian122]

The most amazing thing about this video is... I watched all of it. what was I thinking???

[hanamaho]

that is why the unemployment rate so high in US now!!!

[allaroundthemorning]

@hanamaho Yeah, machines are replacing workers now, lol.

[juanparraos]

Qué belleza de video.

[salvadoraugustus]

wow..nobody can see what a robotic work for poor workers??/..damn..better kill my self than having a job like this all my life

[picapicapress]

This video makes me feel terrible... I work in a book bindery now, in 2011, that is less technological than the old factory in this video. I wish I had machines like that to do the work for me.

[wildbunchdreamteam]

this is so hot!!!!!

[crunkss]

and even after all that North American labour, people STILL paid like 10 cents for one of those back then.

oh inflation...

[ProjectD13X]

@KEEPINGAGOODHEART yow! so sad the show had to come to an end :'(

[ProjectD13X]

who else got sent here by tobin?

[kpv22]

There's a song that samples the intro to this video. Anyone know what it is?

[hermeschbird]

I am the Ready Man!

[007clooneen]

As I understand it the reason that the men and the women (girls) had different jobs was because the really fine and delicate stuff like collating the pages was usually better done by women as men were more clumsy in this department just as the heavier work was more suited to the men. I can't understand why some people get steamed up over this. Political correctness is eating away the fabric of western society and we have become easy meat for those who wish to destroy it. Vive la différence !

[ClassicalBookworm]

Notice how the male workers are "men" and the female workers are "girls." No doubt their salaries were (and probably still are) adjusted accordingly.

[4usari]

it is so fun to go back to the beginins. thank you

[TisbearA]

No. TOO MUCH WORK.

O_O *admiration

[abwebpublicist]

LOL, "girls".

[ricktawny]

@sierinjsh Wow! So in 2075 someone else would be amazed by the way things are today. Thats crazy! Thanks

[fuckenaguru]

i enjoy watching others toil

[eeddrrff]

I wonder how many of those guys got lead poisoning from handling the lead type.

[daGrevis]

Impressive.

[ricktawny]

When was this video recorded? 1900?

[sierinjsh]

@ricktawny It says — 1947 in the beginning.

[Silvibook]

This is great! Thank you to whole of the workers in the book's world.

[ableite]

books should have to be really inexpensive nowadays. The old process involved a lot more workers, problems, etc. Today mostly few machines with less workers does everything and they are still expensive.

[stormshaman]

@ableite That's because cost is determined by demand, not cost of production.

[ableite]

@stormshaman Everything to increase profit.

[stormshaman]

@ableite That's how capitalism works.

[jstypo]

@stormshaman yeah dude, reap the benefits while slamming the system, offer no alternatives but more blah, blah, blah, the world continues to go round.

[stormshaman]

@jstypo *I'm* not slamming the system. I think it's fine to charge what people are willing to pay for something.

[bobon123]

@stormshaman I'm guessing you aren't an economist. Of course it's fine to charge whatever you like. However, costs are as important as demand to determine the prices, because the firms have more profits lowering the prices to increase the quantity: the optimal "price-quantity" choice is changed, the lower the costs the lower the prices, the higher the quantity, the higher the resulting profits.

If this isn't happening as much as expected, the firms are having a cartel. Illegal stuff.

[jsl151850b]

Also on YouTube..... Search for "Print on demand". It's laser jet that spits out soft covered books! The plan was a bookstore would print the book you purchased in the store!

[jsl151850b]

From the author's typewriter straight to the book factory!!?? I think a few steps are missing... Proofreading.... Editing.... Getting someone to pay the factory before the books were sold. Sorry about the quality of my comment.... Typed on my iPad.

[1968RIP]

Now I understand why there were so many missing pages on my old books. They were sometimes a bit sleepy!

[alansmisclass]

Notice not one person in that factory was obese. That's what Americans looked like in ancient times.

[celticmoon2006]

@alansmisclass Best comment ever.

[zeiriza12]

@alansmisclass was that comment really necessary? and beside, that has nothing to do with the video.

[dimpledapper]

@alansmisclass I saw some chunky people in that factory.

[Snottydick]

@darksofa They didn't always melt them down and they do turn up on the antiques market. I've seen them mostly for illustrations and for very old books.

[SPrintF1]

I studied graphic arts (printing) decades ago. I've done all of this. It was awesome, retro, and, today, totally worthless.

[zanycaswell]

I wonder where I could get some of those copper plates. It would be awesome to have a few pages of some of your favorite books.

[shibuya222]

Metal goes in, books comes out.. U can't explain dat!

[zetskee]

Copper is hard.

[andff]

Como os livros são feitos em 1947, bote complicado nisso!

[geolazenby]

The book is 'Banner by the Wayside' by Samuel Hopkins Adams, published by Random House in 1947.

[lvthomas]

This trimmer was the most satisfying part to watch. 

[jetsonjoe]

what a waste of metal...good thing we are all digital production now...

[darksofa]

@jetsonjoe They'd have melted the plates down once the print run was finished, to be reused for new books (thus why prints were a limited edition thing--they'd have to retype the plates to reprint it).

[SuperSmartAZ]

Those were not "primitive" conditions. They were the best the world had to offer.

[MrRiggyRiggs]

BOOKS! How do they work?!?!

[footage]

Better-quality video available at Internet Archive, from where this video comes.

[gentlefury]

There are actually still letterpress companies that do this.

Mass distribution is all computerized now, but you can find smaller letterpress companies that do it with old Kluges and such. It's an amazing process and really interesting...but man its boring work!

[fkylw]

@gentlefury I'd say it's tedious or monotonous but hardly boring work. You get bored cutting those plates and you'll lose a finger.

[notshi]

and this was why only the rich, privileged and educated could afford to read back then. more so if you go further back in history.

[erfmufn]

Gosh, it's amazing our human culture wasn't seriously retarded by the huge potential of error in that process and the publication of endless volumes of nonsense.

[Amerikaner25]

I wish MST3K would do this vid

[tomstieve]

I wish this would read to me at night. I'd be out in a minute.

[golbidi]

wow!!!!!

[caesiume]

If the Nazis had seen this video they would never have burned all those books.

[UltimatePokemo]

3:19 "Copper is hard." Orly? He says that in such a funny way...

[overOOview]

These people are sick. No book ever written is worth that much trouble.

[longlivekarachi]

@7:04 the commentator says "these girls..." LMAO

times have surely changed

[kokokoko886]

Never know how hard is to make a book...

[elgavilan2000]

0:21 <-- click that...intro is too damn long

[NSguy07]

WOW, no fat people.....

[elgavilan2000]

yep...people actually ate right and worked hard.

Oh but don't tell the fatasses...cause it's never their fault they're fat...

[SpiritWanderer50]

no tv to watch they worked

[camsta21]

Random, yet pretty interesting :-)

[elsengasimov]

thanks so much. what a amazing process. have u a video showing modern printing process

[spamsponge]

That is the funniest description blurb I have ever read on YouTube!

[Shangas]

Oh for the days of hardcover books with sewn pages, and gold-embossed titles!!

It's a pity they're almost never manufactured anymore these days. There's something beautiful about a bookcase full of hardcover books with gold-leaf-embossed titles.

[SimpleTemple2]

The personal computer made all this obsolete nearly overnight. My first summer job was at a Christmas card publisher. The LineOtype machine was musical with all the little brass matrices dropping down. It was like something designed by Rube Goldberg. I suppose that reference also dates me a bit. Hauling lines of type by the bucket to melt them down in a hot smelly cauldron wasn't much fun though. The Mac is a vast improvement.Thanks, Woz.

[blueshift12]

amazing vid.. thanks

[xGraceexRosex]

That was amazing! I really want to publish my (unfinnished) book one day, and seeing the process like that was really interesting!

[o0GammaRay0o]

This is INCREDIBLE! I am studying graphic design and I am currently working on the page imposition module of my course, I'm still confused as hell with page impositions but this is AWESOME. Thanks for the vid!

[LADYTRAVELER1]

I so enjoyed seeing the old process. I'm old enough to remember seeing this kind of film in school...on a film projector! Thanks for the memories!

[SilverMoonJoe]

Very educational how the old way did their printing. I'm sure that Mr. Guttenberg would it be proud of his humble beginning. Thanks for sharing this.

[stefanwoIf]

I think if Guttenberg saw this confangled contraption he would implode! Excellent video!

[overmind2]

It must have been hard to use that type of keyboard O_O

[jamiedoneill]

Why did the women and men have different jobs (which seem identically difficult / boring)?

[terratime]

Nearly fell over. Absolutely beautiful.

Is there one for making the illustration plates?

[overmind2]

probably there is a sketch artiest that draws the picture (or traces it) it wax. They do that all the time when making new currency coins.

[benjclark]

The backstop at the end designed to bump the corners of the covers sure explains a lot! :) I really enjoyed this one.

[frigodeure]

I'm a printer and it was very interesting to see the old way

[shuttayouface]

It would suck to have to type an entire story over again. Thats a terrible job.

[duraseya]

How interesting...!! Thanks for sharing the vid.