On October 15, 2015, Appleton's Paper Industry International Hall of Fame will be inducting six new figures into the hall of fame. One of them is a historical figure from China who can be considered China's answer to Gutenberg. Gutenberg is frequently cited in the West as one of the most important inventors of all time for giving us the world's first book printed with movable type, a remarkable achievement from around 1455. As with many inventions long thought to have had European origins, there's a touch of Eastern flavor in this one, for Gutenberg's Bible cam 142 years after the world's first mass-produced printed book made with movable type, the large Book of Farming (Nong Shu) from China, printed in 1313 by Wang Zhen.

Wang Zhen was a Chinese official who recognized that vast amounts of agricultural technology scattered across China needed to be preserved to help all of China reduce famine and be more productive. He took a Chinese invention, movable type, and improved upon it to make a practical way to print an entire book. He used carved wooden blocks for each character, and developed a sophisticated way of arranging them on two rotating tables to allow typesetters to quickly find needed characters to place them in his press. The Nong Shu was printed and preserved many notable inventions in China, including an early form of a blast furnace driven with a reciprocating piston attached to water works, something long that to be a later European invention.

Recognizing Wang Zhen for his important role in the advance of printing is a fitting step for the Hall of Fame, and I look forward to many more Asian inventors, scientists, and business leaders being recognized in the Hall of Fame in future years. The historical contributions of China in numerous fields have received far too little attention, and I'm delighted to see folks in Appleton taking the lead in rectifying this problem. Kudos to the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame!

Labels: Appleton, China, hall of fame, paper, paper industry, printing

What does Johannes Gutenberg have in common with Henry Frambach of Kaukauna (1840-1921) or John Swanson of Appleton (1917-2004)? These three men, with two others, will be inducted to the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame on Sept. 23, 2010 in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Henry Frambach was a 
pioneer papermaker who built and ran six paper or pulp mills in Wisconsin and Michigan. Frambach was instrumental in bringing an advanced groundwood process to Wisconsin in 1872 which helped accelerate the US paper industry. He obtaiined fourteen U.S. patents. One interesting part of his career was being the manager for paper making exhibit at the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893e.

John Swanson was a famous professor at the Institute of Paper Chemistry, where he served from from 1941 to 1982. (The Institute later moved to Georgia and became part of Georgia Tech as the Institute of Paper Science and Technology.) He was an expert in the chemistry of surfaces and colloids and used his expertise to help advance papermaking from a mysterious art into a science.

Gutenberg, I understand, was some guy from Germany who had something to do with early non-electronic media (maybe early precursors of the Kindle and iPad?), apparently using some kind of printing technology to create reading material that had to be physically picked up to be accessed. Go figure. Well, I guess that's cool, too.

There are two other inductees: Friedrich Gottlob Keller (1816-1895, Germany) who helped develop ways to use trees for papermaking (it was his process that Frambach brought to Wisconsin and further refined), and Jasper Mardo (1921-1997, Vancouver, Canada), a leader and educator who brought about many advances in knowledge and practice in papermaking.

Labels: education, Kaukauna, paper