It was accordingly arranged that Martin Duttlinger, who was the most trusty of their workmen, should be charged with the mission of buying a Bible of Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim, who was known to have books for sale; and Martin was accordingly fitted off. After his departure, affairs went on with the firm much as usual, save that they felt the impulse which the resolve of engaging in the noblest enterprise on earth could not fail to give; and who can doubt that the smile of God’s countenance rested on them, lightening their toil? [Illustration: ANCIENT PRESS.] Gutenberg and Faust advised much together respecting the improved printing machine they were adjusting, and Schoeffer made rapid improvement in his particular branch of the art. Gutenberg’s press was very simple in construction,--a board acted on by a screw, like a cheese-press. On this board the type was placed inclosed in a frame, then inked; the paper was then laid over them, and the screw turned by a lever with the hand. In constructing this press, he had two upright posts of great strength, seven feet and a half high, placed four feet apart, and fastened together at the top and bottom by two stout crosspieces. In this frame an iron screw was made to work, by means of two parallel additional crosspieces, about a foot and a half apart, connecting the perpendicular posts. From about the middle of each of these upright posts, three feet from the floor, a slide projected, called a rib; these posts were parallel to each other, and firmly fitted, to bear a great weight. But these two points of the press,--the _screw_ and the _slide_,--let us see of what use they were. A table was made to run in under the frame and out, the slide supporting it in place of legs. The screw worked in a box, called a hose, by means of a bar or lever inserted in it; the toe, or lower end of the screw, working in a sort of cup fixed upon a large block of dense wood, having the face planed smooth, and called the platen. By turning down the bar, the screw forced down the platen, which was fastened to it, just as far as it descended; when the screw was raised, the platen was also raised. The frame or chase which contained the type being fixed upon the table, it was made to slide backwards and forwards as was needed. For example, when the type was ready to be pressed, having been previously inked, and the paper laid upon it, the workman slid it under the platen; and after the screw was turned down, and the platen had pressed it, or the printing was done, he slid it out. The inking balls were constructed of a variety of things, and at length the printers used those which were made of sheep’s felt. A sheet of paper being placed upon the type, the form was slid directly under the platen; and this being pressed down by a handle turning the screw, the paper was printed.