Story about my Father written by my Sister My father was a printer, as well as the Editor and Publisher of a local Chicago newspaper. Ink is in my blood. S Lave, may he be of blessed memory, was an English major at the University of Chicago. He started his professional career as a Substitute Teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. He confided in me that he had too many children to support on a teacher's salary. After working his father's trade of local groceries, he morphed into the Northtown Economist, where he worked side by side with my mom, R Lave, also of blessed memory. When the Near North Side neighborhood could no longer support a local newspaper through advertising revenue, S Lave went to the other side of the tracks, and starting printing other local and college newspapers. Hot type, what had been used for more than 500 years, was being replaced by cold type, generated by computers. My dad was on the cutting edge of that new technology. So, I feel a kinship with J. Gutenberg, who is given credit for changing the world by inventing a printing press that used moveable and replaceable typefaces. If patents were available in his lifetime, which was in the 1400's in Germany, he could have applied for one. While the technology may have been available from other sources, Gutenberg was the one credited with tying it all together to create a unique product. And what was it that prompted this invention? Financial demand. If a better mousetrap could be created, people would pay premium rates for the new service. Time and distribution are always elements in business that are in demand. Without a method of mass production, each original document had to be hand-lettered. This was a time-consuming process and the cost of a handmade book or document was out of reach of the proliterate, oops, The proletariat is the class of wage-earners in a capitalist society whose only possession of significant material value is their labor-power (their ability to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Gutenberg borrowed from metal-working to create letters and symbols that could be melted down and made into new letters and symbols when a job was completed. Gutenberg used wood block printing techniques and devised new ways to use ink. Later research has suggested that the printing process actually used cuneiform tablets, which explained minor variations of technique. But, it was the ability to mass-produce documents, before the stencil, before the copier and before the computer printer, that credit is given to Gutenberg. His first commercial document was a 42-line per page Bible, of which copies, yes, copies, are available for preservation and review today. The term incunabula refers to these original originals printed in the first 50 years after the idea of a printing press came about. All I can say is that Court documents follow you everywhere. Because he was not a financial wizard, Gutenberg lost a lawsuit so he lost his equipment and therefore lost his toehold on his destiny. | 
