A Musical Connection Between Letterpress and Christmas

Many people already know that music for the familiar Christmas carol Hark! the Herald Angels Sing is credited to Felix Mendelssohn.

Through a series of messages on the LETPRESS mailing list, I found out just recently that the original Mendelssohn work was written to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Johannes Gutenberg’s development of a workable system of printing with moveable type.

This work was played June 24th 1840 in the marketplace in Leipzig as part of a Gutenberg festival, and consisted of four parts, the second of which became the Chritsmas carol. The music was written for four male singers and two small brass orchestras, with the footnote (courtesy of Google Translate):

The second small orchestra must be placed at a great distance from the first to make it the same as an echo replies

Parts of the score have a call-and-response structure and Mendelssohn added this note to ensure the responses would sound distant. Clearly this was designed for the open-air venue in which it was first performed!

In adapting the music in 1855 to hymn lyrics by Charles Wesley, William Hayman Cummings took the main melody from the second part, omitting the central bridge, producing the carol as we now know it.

A MIDI sequencing of the original second part can be heard on YouTube, and there is more information on this music on Wikipedia.

 

 

A Minecraft black hole

Lily has taken a liking to playing Minecraft, and I’ve been sucked into it as well. We have 6 computers networked together here at our home and store, so it made sense to set up a network server so we could play the game anywhere and have the same “world” to play in.

Just playing the game can be quite a time suck, but so was setting up the server. Although the game itself is quite well documented, some of the issues relating to setting up the server have poor or incorrect advice. This is often the result of formulaic answers being passed from one person to another with no understanding of how they work.

Fundamentally, Minecraft is a Java program, so when it is running on MS Windows, it shows in the task listings as java.exe or javaw.exe. The server is, however, available as either a Java program or as a native Windows executable. It turns out that the latter just invokes Java with the proper arguments to extract the Java code from the executable file itself.

When the server is first run, it writes several files to contain options, settings, and its world data. This is one place where the documentation I found was wrong. It claimed that on most systems, this information was written to the current directory, but that on Windows, it was written to the directory that contained the .exe file. This is incorrect. Although Windows gives this appearance, it is actually because when you run a .exe file from Window Explorer, the process’s current directory is set to the location of the .exe file. Thus, the program is indeed writing to its current directory (as on most other systems), but that current directory does not necessarily match the one that the program was run from. As a result you can use Shortcut files or batch script files to keep the installation location of the server code clean and store the data elsewhere. On my system (which is Windows 7) I installed the server program at Program Files (x86)\Mojang\Server alongside the client Minecraft.exe file, and the data in ProgramData\Local\Minecraft_Server.

I wanted this to run as a true server, which would be available anytime the computer was up, so I used NSSM to run the server as a proper Windows Service which you can start and stop using the Service Management console. This had the built-in ability to set the process current directory as mentioned above, and the service appears as an instance of javaw.exe running.

Next came the problem of connecting to this server from another computer. Windows Firewall to the (not) rescue. WF is itself has rather limited rules capability: You can set a default (to accept or reject) for network connections not covered by a specific rule, and the specific rules can select by IP address, port, traffic type (UDP or TCP), user, and program to decide whether to accept or reject network traffic. There is a different rule set for outbound and inbound traffic, with the former typically set to allow pretty much anything through.

It seems that when there is no specific rule for new traffic and the default rule rejects it, a “helpful” window appears on the screen asking whether the traffic should be permitted or rejected. This window would be truly helpful if it specified all the connection information (port, IP address, etc) and allowed the rule it makes to be tailored to the need. But instead, it always results in either an “allow all” or “deny all” rule for the particular program.

Problems come in when the program is a general language interpreter like Java, because this means the program identity (if any) in a rule is somewhat useless: it cannot distinguish javaw.exe running Minecraft from javaw.exe running some other (perhaps hostile) software.

You can’t make a rule to allow the Minecraft server to accept connections on port 25565 but deny all other traffic to java.exe because there is only one level of rule override. That override level cannot be used because non-Minecraft traffic will cause the “helper” will leap in and create another blanket accept or reject rule. The latter, being non-specific, would include Minecraft traffic and, were it a Reject rule, would override any Allow rule, even one with more specific criteria.

As a result of this “helper” our various computers already had an assortment of allow-all, deny-all, or no rule at all (and thus default deny) for javaw.exe.

The firewall logging also was no help. It appears that when a program accepting incoming traffic is blocked by the firewall, this happens when it first tries to accept the connections. The program is put in a sort of quarantine, and any later incoming connection attempts are treated as if no one were listening for them. This in turn means they do not appear in the firewall log as denied packets; they are just packets sent to a port no one is listening on. The quarantining of the program is not logged either. The net effect is that there is nothing in the log to explain why the incoming packets aren’t working.

This is one place where repeating of rote information flooded out any attempt I made to find help using Google. Most people who set up a server want to do this so other users (their friends, typically) can connect to their server and play with them. Trying to do this requires a whole other set of fiddling to arrange that traffic coming from the Internet at large is directed to the correct computer within their local network, none of which has anything to do with Windows Firewall.

So for now, my server has a specific rule allowing incoming TCP connections on port 25565 to the javaw.exe program (I could also make it user-specific to the user that the server is running as). Next time I try running some other Java program that wants network access, the “helper” will leap in and, depending on how I answer, put in a rule allowing any Java program to have any network traffic, or denying all such (and overriding my specific rule).

One solution for me to try is to use a feature of the file system to make a hard link to the javaw.exe file called, say, JavaForMinecraft.exe. If the server run using this file name instead of java.exe shows the alternate file name on its process, I could make a specific rule that uses this alternative program name, and rules generated by the “helper” for javaw.exe would not interfere.

Then there is a whirlpool of confusion swirling around Mojang accounts, Minecraft accounts, Windows accounts, Minecraft Profiles, and Worlds, but that might be the subject of another article.

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More bookcloth remnants

My trip to the Niagara area last month included a stop to get more assorted pieces of bookcloth. We finally got the cloth stored in our rack and have some samples for making an updated sample sheet.

IMG_7560Those two that look black (second from left and near centre) are both actually very dark blue. Most are a lightweight linen texture, but a couple have a heavier smooth finish. We have about 3m of each of these, but some of them were the end of the roll and can be as short as ½m.

Marbling from Heart & Hand

It has been a while since Heart & Hand, but I finally took pictures of all the marbling we made that day.

The colour balance is a bit off on this photo. I fixed it for the rest.

The colour balance is a bit off on this photo. I fixed it for the rest.

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A bit of an experimental design on the upper left, and a big bubble flaw lower left.

Lily did the lower two sheets in this photo.

Lily did the lower two sheets in this photo.

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A fiery feather design upper left along with bouquet, get-gel, and stone patterns

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Four bouquet patterns in greens and yellows, and a bit of red in one.

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Another stone pattern and one more green-yellow bouquet.

We had one more sheet that Lily made with the help of one of the show visitors, but that sheet was purchased on the spot by one of the other exhibitors (and delivered later, once dry). All these 18×24″ sheets have been added to our stock of marbled paper for sale.

Steamed Stems Results

Yesterday, we held our Steaming Stems session with mixed results.

The weather was great: It was right around the freezing point, and the morning was bright and sunny. Later it clouded over but there were still a few sunny breaks. Light winds meant working outside would not be bone-chilling. This contrasts with Cleveland, where the Morgan Conservatory had to postpone their kozo harvest because of heavy snow over the past few days.

The first disappointment was that no one dropped in to visit. I guess there aren’t many paper makers close enough to us to make the trip. The fact that we’re terrible at publicity doesn’t help either…

IMG_7570Our first (small) problem was that our propane tanks both had a lump of sod frozen to their bases and would not stand upright.

I found this out early enough that by laying them on their sides in the sun, the sod was thawed and could be knocked off by the time I needed the propane.

 

IMG_7569Our cooking pot was made up of a large stainless steel stock pot with lid, a grille on legs to keep the stems out of the water, and an extension pipe to make the pot tall enough for the stems.

I had made the grille the same morning by welding together some scraps of expanded steel mesh and round steel rod.

The extension pipe is made from two sections of 6″ round heating duct joined lengthwise to make a 12″ tube. Because of the geometry of the locking seams I had to add a few pop rivets to hold it together. This turned out to be a perfect fit in the pot.

The harvesting and stem preparation was pretty straightforward:

I used long-handle pruners to cut the stems off the plants. The stem that has leaves on it had died in the fall because an animal had eaten all the bark around its base.

I used long-handle pruners to cut the stems off the plants. The stem that has leaves on it had died in the fall because an animal had eaten all the bark around its base.

The   cut stems from both plants, ready for cooking prep.

The cut stems from both plants, ready for cooking prep.

I'm using a smaller pair of pruners to trim all the side branches off the main stems. This will allow the stems to be bundles up to fit them in the steamer. Some of the larger side branches were also cooked. Normally, I try to reduce the number of side branches by removing suckers through the growing season, but this year they got away from me.

I’m using a smaller pair of pruners to trim all the side branches off the main stems. This will allow the stems to be bundled up to fit them in the steamer. Some of the larger side branches were also cooked.
Normally, I try to reduce the number of side branches by removing suckers through the growing season, but this year they got away from me.

Here's all of this year's harvest, including both the stems just cut and also the stems that died early in the year.

Here’s all of this year’s harvest, including both the stems just cut and also the stems that died earlier in the year.

We moved inside to cut the stems to a length that would fit the steaming pot.

We moved inside to cut the stems to a length that would fit the steaming pot.

The stems to steam, from four different years (L-R): 2014 (4.9kg green), 2013 (2.45kg dry), 2012 (1.25kg dry) and unknown previous year (1kg dry). As it turned out the last bundle was not used because it did not fit into the pot.

The stems to steam, from four different years (L-R): 2014 (4.9kg green), 2013 (2.45kg dry), 2012 (1.25kg dry) and unknown previous year (1kg dry). As it turned out the last bundle was not used because it did not fit into the pot.

The cooking setup included a propane cooking ring with a shield to keep the wind away. The pot was filled with tap water up to the level of the grille.

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IMG_7625IMG_7624I should have cut the stems a bit shorter. The extension pipe slid further into the cooking pot than I had expected, so the overall height of the pot was shorter than I had planned for. A bit of aluminum foil came to the rescue, though, making a cover that sealed well to keep the steam in.

We let the stems cook for a few hours, checking them occasionally to ensure the flame had not blown out and that there was enough water in the pot.

In the meantime we had lunch and did some yard work.

This is where things started to get a bit worrisome. Although the pot seemed to be cooking fine, with a steady stream of steam coming out from the edges of the foil lid, there did not seem to be much change in the appearance of the stems. After four hours of cooking the top ends of the stems did not appear substantially different than when they went in. Nevertheless I turned off the burner and took the bundles of stems into the workshop.

Once I had them in the shop and cut open the bundle, I tried peeling a few stems. They really didn’t seem to peel any easier than they did before cooking. You could start peeling a strip of bark, but the strip would become narrower and shallower (leaving the deeper bark layers on the stem) until it broke off.

The only places that seemed affected by the cooking were the very bottoms of the stems, where they might have been in, or at least splashed by, the boiling water.

Altogether, the whole effort appears to be an unqualified failure. I’m left to consider what might have gone wrong:

  • Mulberry and kozo are not the same plant; the chemicals that bind the bark to the stem are different enough that steaming loosens the bark on one and not the other.
  • Four hours is not enough steaming time.
  • Despite appearances, the steamer was not developing full heat inside. All the applied heat was being lost with steam condensing on the walls of the pot and the steam never displaced all the air out of the pot.
  • I need to cut the stems shorter, or modify the pot extension so it does not slide so far into the pot.

There isn’t much I could do about the first problem, except to replace my mulberry plants with true kozo. The observation about the bases of the stems being cooked suggests that I should try boiling the stems rather than steaming them. I will probably try cutting some of the stems shorter to fit the pot and boiling them in the next few weeks.

If the third issue is the problem, I could add some sort of insulation blanket to the sides of the pot. It would have to be a fireproof material because of exposure to the burner flames near the bottom. A welding blanket might do the trick. It retrospect, I have an infrared thermometer that I could have used to measure the side temperature of the pot to see if heat loss is a problem.

The 30th Annual OCADU Book Arts Fair

book-arts-fair-poster-2014On Saturday, November 29th 2014, OCAD University’s Printmaking Department will hold its 30th annual Book Arts Fair in the Great Hall at 100 McCaul Street in downtown Toronto. The show is open from 10am to 5pm and the folks there will be showing and selling their wares, which include handmade books, paper, prints and small press publications. Admission is by pay-what-you-can donation ($5 is suggested).

As in the past 15 years or so, the Papertrail will have a table or two selling some of our bookbinding supplies, handmade paper, and marbled paper.

More photos and additional information are available at the Fair’s Facebook page.

A Busy Day on the Road

I spent last Thursday traveling around the Niagara area and south of Hamilton, doing various book arts things.

My first stop was the Annual General Meeting of the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum in Queenston. This group has been having some organizational problems for the past few years, but it looks like they may have found their way out of the woods again and the outlook at the meeting seemed positive. There were only about a dozen people there, and all but myself and one other person seemed to be board members, making for a slightly odd atmosphere. One would hope that at a general meeting, the regular members would outnumber the board!

At the end of the meeting several more people arrived for a dedication ceremony. Don Black has donated a couple of pieces of equipment to the museum: a Ludlow cabinet filled with No.11 (Goudy) matrices, and a Pilot tabletop press. These were dedicated to the memory of Donn Purdy and Bill Poole, both of whom were important in keeping letterpress alive as a craft in the area. In addition to Don, Ruth, and Craig Black, there were relatives of Donn and Bill (whose names I have unfortunately forgotten), plus various other letterpress folks from the Toronto and Niagara area including Nicholas Kennedy (Trip Print Press) and Gordon Sisler.

After the ceremony, everyone hung around to chat for a while and look at the collection. I had not been to the museum for about ten years, and I found that there seemed to be a lot more equipment than on my last visit, especially in the basement.

My next stop, after gas for the car and lunch for myself, was Van Huizen Bookbinding in Saint Catharine’s, to replenish our stock of bookcloth. Tony was a bit busy that afternoon so I didn’t have much time to talk, but I bought a few metres of over a dozen colours of bookcloth. We still have to get these unl0aded from the car, organize them onto our own shelves and refresh our sample sheets.

My third stop was to pick up some stereotype mats I found on Kijiji, but the evening before I had forgot to finalize the place and time to meet the seller. All I knew was that it was in the area of Caledonia (southwest of Hamilton) and I probably had some e-mail with the proper location. Unfortunately I had failed to bring along sufficient electronica (as Audrey calls it). I had the (dumb) cell phone and our laptop with its power brick (its battery is dead), but for some reason the GPS wasn’t in the car. Many of the coffee shops and fast food restaurants offer free Wi-Fi, but it turns out that most of them don’t provide any power outlets, making the laptop useless. I tried calling Audrey on the cell phone but there was no answer. So I headed out purely based on my memory of the area, and eventually I stopped for tea at the Tim Hortons in Cayuga and behold! Outlets at some of the tables! I went online for a map and found I was quite close to my destination, and that I had an e-mail from the seller giving directions. It turned out that Cayuga was actually the closest town to his location.

I drove to this guy’s farm, where he had one barn converted to a workshop. Most of it was filled with mothballed machine tools, but it also contained some letterpress equipment for his adult son to use until he can afford some work space in Toronto. While I was there his son was working on cleaning up a Heidelberg Windmill. He showed me around and we chatted for a while, then I went though his stereo mats and picked out some that I found particularly interesting. I didn’t have enough cash, so I drove back to Cayuga in a sudden downpour, found an ATM and back to the farm to pick up and pay for the mats.

In case anyone is interested, he still has a gas-fired stereotype caster for sale. In the shop this came from he says there is also a Miehle flatbed cylinder press, which he estimates to weigh about 4 tons.

On the way home I managed to muddle my way through the rain and dark to Brantford, where I ate dinner. Once I found Highway 24 I was in familiar territory and headed home. Next time I’ll be sure I have the GPS!

Steaming Mulberry Stems

It seems that last year’s intent to steam the bark off our mulberry stems for making paper did not amount to any action. There are some things that just don’t happen if all you plan is to do it when you get around to it.

So this year, I’ve chosen Saturday, November 15th, as the day we’ll be processing this year’s crop along with any stems we can find in storage from previous years. No excuses this time!

Anyone who is interested is invited to drop by to see, or even help with, this process.

The proposed schedule is as follows:

  • 10am: Start setup. Harvest this year’s crop of stems and gather previous year’s stems from storage
  • 11am: Get steamer up to heat while preparing the stems for steaming
  • noon: Steaming should be started by now, so lunch break
  • 1pm: Start stripping and cleaning the bark. I expect the fresh stems will be ready for stripping first
  • 5pm: Done cleanup

You’ll notice a lot of time between starting the stripping and finishing the cleanup. If we have a good crowd this should give plenty of time for talking about paper making, marbling, letterpress, or anything else that strikes our fancy.

That schedule is pretty flexible and is expected to drift a bit depending on weather and how much talking we do. The harvesting and steaming will be outside but the rest of the activities will be in our shop, out of the November chill.

The last time I did something like this was at the original Branson Banana Bash in November 2009. Then we were harvesting and steaming Mimi Aumann’s kozo stems. Things will be a bit different this time since we are using mulberry plants which, although related to kozo, are definitely a distinct species. This will be a bit of an experiment to see how mulberry behaves, and also how stored stems from previous years work.

We will have some light refreshments and snacks so if you think you might attend, e-mail or phone us (519-884-7123) so we know how much provisions we need. But even if you can’t call ahead, drop by anyway!

 

The local Maker Club

Aside from my peripheral involvement at KwartzLab, I have also recently been going to meetings of the local Maker Club with Lily. These meetings are held regularly at THEMUSEUM in downtown Kitchener on the second Wednesday of each month, but there was also a special project meeting last weekend.

IMG_7528The regular meeting last night had a hallowe’en theme, of course. The kids made “spiders” by stitching two cloth gloves together with stuffing inside and decorations outside. We kept the thumbs on our gloves, so Lily’s spider has mouth parts as well. There was also a second project, to make a mask from cutout card stock. The standard pattern was a bit large for Lily and I had to spend some time adjusting the shapes so we only had time to get partway through that one.

IMG_7532On the weekend, we made a simple gumball dispenser from pine boards and a canning jar. The kids got to use (with the help of a parent) power tools including a scroll saw, belt sander, drill, hole saws, and a power screwdriver. To dispense the gum, just give the disc a full turn and the gum will fall out of the hole. Everything was decorated with acrylic paint, except the disk where markers were used instead to avoid jamming the insides with paint.

Over the weekend, 41 gumball machines were made during four crafting sessions.

Refurbishing the Sigwalt Press

The Sigwalt press we recently bought was dirty, the paint was chipped and worn thin in places, and there were a few spots of rust as well. It also had no roller trucks and the gripper spring was bent out of shape.

The roller trucks were easy to make on the lathe from round steel stock. They are ¾″ diameter (to match the rollers) and have a ¼″ centre hole. They are just a little under ½″ thick, to use up the space between the saddles and the ends of the covering.

Rather than just clean this press superficially, I took it (almost) completely apart and refinished it. There was no fancy detailing to worry about covering or duplicating so it was just a matter of cleaning and painting the parts. Disassembly was fairly easy: most of the parts are held together by ¼″ rods which can be easily tapped out with a small hammer and pin punch. All but one of the rods have a chisel gash near one end; the burr gives the rod enough grip in its hole to keep it in place when the press is used. One exception is the gripper rod, which is held captive by the gripper cam being trapped between two bumps on the platen frame. A pin holds the gripper cam to its rod.

There were also four retainer rings to remove. These were just heavy wire formed into a small hoop which is crimped into a groove on the rod. I used a screwdriver to pry them open enough to slide them off the end of their shafts.

This press uses a rubber disc to provide some tension to hold the bed in place against the impression screws. The old disc was hard as rock, but I found a rubber bumper that was ⅜″ thick and 1″ diameter to replace it.

Everything except the grippers (which are brass) and the two nickel-plated parts went into a degreasing bath, following by a rust-removing bath. There were two small casting flaws which had been filled (probably at the factory) but the filler came off as I cleaned the parts. I refilled these with some “steel” epoxy putty. I blended some gloss black rust paint with a bit of matte to cut the shine a little, and repainted all the cast parts. That got me to this stage, pretty much ready for reassembly.

Pretty much ready to reassemble. What's not disassembled? The newly-made trucks are on the form rollers, the pin that drives the form roller yoke is still in place, and so is the pawl that rotates the ink plate, along with its pin and spring. The gripper spring (just below the left end of the form rollers) still needs to be bent back into shape.

Pretty much ready to reassemble. What’s not disassembled? The newly-made trucks are on the form rollers, the pin that drives the form roller yoke is still in place, and so is the pawl that rotates the ink plate, along with its pin and spring. The gripper spring (just below the left end of the form rollers) still needs to be bent back into shape.

Once the spring was re-shaped, everything was ready to reassemble. The first time I put in the gripper pawl and shaft I had forgotten the grippers themselves, so I had to take that apart a bit to get the grippers on. Other than that, things went together as easily as they came apart. One of the rods wasn’t holding in place well enough, so I struck its gash again with a chisel to raise the burr a bit. The retaining rings could easily be crimped back into place by squeezing them with pliers.

With everything together and well oiled, but still no chase, here’s the result.

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I will be making a chase from some ⅜×⅝″ cold-rolled steel. The little wedges on the sides which catch on bumps inside the rails on either side of the bed will probably have to be hand-tuned to hold the chase in the right position on the bed.

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