Rob and I are always on the lookout for a unique experience. Today we went to the Paper Museum in Basel before we left in the afternoon.
There are 220 drinking fountains that continuously run. Many like this one feed the pool. So everyone basically has a neighborhood pool to cool off in.
There are four floors in the museum: paper, writing, printing, and book binding. The museum was well done with many hands-on experiences for everyone.
Paper
Rob’s family was in the paper industry, and he worked at Union Camp (now merged with International Paper) for 20 years.
Paper’s predecessors came from the 4th millennium BC. Man’s first written inscriptions begin to appear on wood, stones, and tree bark, and also on slate and clay tablets. Similar to paper was papyrus that was made from plants. Unlike paper, however, the fibres of the plants remain in their natural bonding arrangement.
Some 2,000 years ago, the Chinese invented paper. As a writing material it replaced its predecessors.
Papermaking found its way from China via the Arabian lands to Europe. Silk production, gunpowder, and spaghetti arrived by the same route.
Until the 19th century, paper was made almost entirely from old rags and old ropes made of linen, hemp, or cotton. First the rags were sorted according to material, color, and quality, then cleaned and cut into strips.
Preparing the rags was a task usually carried out by women. They cut the linen, cloth scraps, and old ropes into shreds, removed buttons, fastenings and seams, and sorted the materials according to their quality.
Such work with old linen and rotting rags was extremely unpleasant and a risk to the health of all involved. Many authorities imposed quarantine laws for old rags so epidemics would not be introduced.
The name of the ancient unit of measurement for paper is ream which is derived from the Arabic word rizma meaning a bundle or pack. It represents, as a unit of measure, 480 sheets of writing paper, or 500 sheets of printing paper. To this day, paper is sold in packs of 500 sheets. Additional units of measurement were as follows: 24 or 25 sheets = 1 quire, 20 quires = 1 ream, 10 reams = 1 bale. Rob calls 10 reams “one case”.
Writing
In the Middle Ages most people, including kings and emperors, were illiterate. The privilege of reading and writing was reserved for those who lived and worked in monasteries.
It took a monk or nun roughly a year to copy the Bible. They also decorated the pages, illuminated capital letters, and bound the finished work. Consequently, books were costly and very scarce.
Printing
When one thinks of the first printing, the name Gutenberg comes to mind. However, three things had to come together for this amazing invention.
Johannes Gensfleisch, known as Gutenberg, was a gentleman and goldsmith of Mainz (born before 1400 and died in 1468). After carrying out many experiments, he succeeded in discovering a system for printing books in a simple way.
His procedure for casting individual letters as metal characters, using them to assemble a text, and printing from them, survived almost unchanged for some 400 years, lasting well into the 19th century.
Gutenberg’s discovery of a book printing method required that many elements should come together, all of which had to contribute to the whole.
- Design of letters
- Engraving each letter as an individual character
- Casting the letters in quantity
- Deciding on the best metals to employ.
- How to build a press
- Formulating a suitable ink
- Learn about type-setting.
- Perhaps the most important innovation amongst these was his invention of a type casting device.
Books
“The List of Prohibited Books” was the official instrument of censorship of the Catholic Church from 1559 to 1966.
Created as a reaction to the Reformation, the Index listed works that were deemed dangerous and not to be read by faithful Catholics. The number of prohibited books increased rapidly, as quite often all the works of undesirable authors were added to the Index. For instance, the first edition published in 1559 listed all printed matter from Basel.
In this 1758 edition, the centuries-old ban on reading the Bible in the vernacular was lifted for the first time. Ironically, it is the Church that has placed the tightest restrictions on reading the Bible throughout history.
No wonder I meet so many Catholics who haven’t read the Bible. It’s a historical thing!!
We were so surprised to learn that every Swiss home is required to put a bunker in their basement … and it adds an additional $80,000 to the construction cost. This rule was abandoned in 2015 but perhaps will be reinstated as the reason was war concerns.
We arrived in Copenhagen by airplane. Rob is seeking SIM cards since our Google Fi plan is about to expire. Rob had done some research and the kiosk closed at 8:00. We arrived at 7:30 and he said that he was closed for the night. Why is that? “It’s Friday night and I always close early.” We decided to wait until we arrived in Sweden.
It was an easy ride on the metro to our hotel in the city center. The Danish people are very polite and helpful. They give up their seats readily to the older generation or mothers with children. That doesn’t often happen in the USA.
Our hotel was called CitizenM, and they do things differently. We self checked-in on the 7th floor.
All controls for our room from lights, room temperature, TV, and even housekeeping requests are done on an Ipad.
The bed takes up almost the entire room. There are no bedside tables. Everything is stored in large pull out drawers under the foot of the bed. The shower has chromotherapy. We are getting used to that!! The sink is in the bedroom.
We are learning how to navigate different types of hotels. Even the soap was curious. This kind of makes sense: one fragrance to jolt you awake and another fragrance to calm and soothe.
We ventured out to find something to eat. We tried two places, and we were told that the kitchen was closed. (This would never happen in Spain where they eat at 10pm or later.)
So we had to go to McDonalds … but it was quite an experience. See below.
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