Printing Press in Nauvoo

I've decided to blog each place we visited individually, I think it will help with keeping things in order.  The first stop is the Printing Press. Ja is holding a paper that is hot off the press.

We learned so much in the printing office. There were 2 newspapers that were printed here. The Nauvoo Neighbor and The Times and Seasons. The Nauvoo Neighbor was published once a week which took about 150 hours to make 600 copies. It was took so much tedious work to make one page of a newspaper! 

If you look on the right side in this picture, you will see upper and lower cases that hold the individual letters that are used to make words. The upper case holds the UPPER CASE letters and the lower case holds the lower case letters. Now you know where that wording comes from. The letters are at the end of a 2 inch wooden stick and they are very, very small. The missionary told us that the printer would memorize where each letter was in the case so he didn't have to search for the letter each time he needed it. The printer fits the letters into a wooden slot called a magazine. He would put the words in upside-down and backwards so they are the right way when things get printed. 

This is a picture of Ja pressing the stamped ink onto the newspaper. In the bottom-right corner you can see the layout of the newspaper. It looks like a really big rubber stamp with a lot of words. The printer would have inked the stamp them moved it over to the press, which Ja is doing. The press ensures the paper gets an even stamp of all the words.