How Are Books Made COLOSSAL QUESTIONS

Have you ever stopped in wonder to yourself how are books actually made? Let's find out on today's episode of Colossal Questions. Books have been around for many thousands of years though ancient versions weren't exactly books by our modern-day standards. Ancient civilizations first started writing on just about anything they could scribble on. Stone, clay, tree bark, metal sheets, and bones were all used to write down information. It was the ancient Egyptians who first used paper-like material called papyrus that was made by weaving tight flattened stems of the papyrus plant. Eventually they began gluing several sheets of papyrus together to form scrolls, which were basically just long piece of papyrus or any other kind of paper that's rolled up for storage. Eventually these scrolls led to the codex, the first ancient evolution of written information that starts to look like book as we know it. To make codex, sheets of papyrus or other paper-like material were stacked up, cut to size, bound along one edge, and usually protected between two covers that were made of stronger material, usually wood or leather. Since each one was handmade and handwritten, books in that era came in all shapes, sizes, and styles. Some could be simple while others were extremely ornate, depending on the time and effort put into making them. Paper making dates back to the ancient world in China, but it wasn't until the 100s AD that court official of the Han Dynasty named Cai Lun came up with an improved recipe for paper that made it lighter, cheaper, and more durable. China is also where the first movable type printing machines were invented. For the first time, page full of characters could be printed out then reprinted again and again without someone doing it by hand. At first, this printing tech was mostly limited to China and Korea, but around the 1450s, inventor Johannes Gutenberg introduced the printing press to Europe likely influenced by rumors of the printing machines in Asia. The printing press was really big deal because for the very first time, all of Europe and the rest of the Western world was now about to mass produce books for the very first time. Bookmakers no longer needed to break their backs painstakingly handwriting page after page only to end up with few completed by day's end. The printing press could spit out well over 3,000 pages every day and without the writer's cramp. Nowadays the text of book is printed on big oversized sheets of paper. Those sheets are sliced down smaller then divided into organized stacks. Those stacks are folded in half and sewn together. The folded and sewn stacks are cut down to their final size and affixed to the spine of the book with glue. If you look close at the spine of book, you'll probably be able to see the little folded stacks that make up the whole. And that's all she wrote for now because who knows what the future holds for books. We started making them by hand then spat them out of machine. Now we read them digitally. In 100 years, well, your guess is good as mine.