Los Banos Rotary Club History
Tells Of Early Day Printing

Charles L. Palmer of Fresno, who handles advertising and public relations for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in this district, provided an interestingly different program at the Rotary Club luncheon Tuesday noon, talking about his favorite hobby—Early Day Printing.

Palmer is probably the state's foremost authority on early day printing types and equipment and in the pursuit of his hobby he has gathered up a large collection of printing types, presses and equipment that were used in the publishing of the state's first newspapers and the printing of the state's first legal documents. The historical value of the collection is such that provisions have been made for its eventual transfer to a permanent museum under the suspices of the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

Briefly tracing the history of printing through the ages, Palmer explained development of the Roman alphabet, and the gradual transfer of symbols to letters of the alphabet that would represent individual sounds; and the eventual development of the full alphabet by the Romans, who first used the letters for inscriptions on public buildings in Rome and other Italian cities. From this point man gradually learned to carve letters on wooden blocks, from which he made crude prints.

Guttenberg, a German scientist and printer, is credited with being the first person to cast and provide for the rapid alignment of movable types, and his first work, the Guttenberg Bible, published in 1455, is today still considered one of the finest examples of printing in the world. His style of type differed from the Roman letters in that he followed the style of that time generally used for hand lettering of manuscripts. His press was a crude wooden affair and his tools equally primitive. Even the paper was laboriously made by hand.
The first printing press was brought to the United States in about 1620, the speaker said, but it wasn't until the early 1700s that the printing industry really became established in this country. It rapidly spread westward and in 1946 the first newspaper. The Californian, was printed in this state, at Monterey. The press was later moved to Sacramento, to Stockton, to Sonora and finally to Columbia, where it was destroyed by fire.

Ladies' Party

President Francis Buck announced there would be no noon luncheon next Tuesday, in view of the ladies' night party at the elementary school auditorium Tuesday evening, where the Pasadena Players will present a comedy play, "But Not Goodbye."

Another night meeting of the club is slated November 30, when the Rotary and Lions meet for a joint dinner at the Veterans' Memorial hall.

November 12, 1948

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