Chapter 50: Revolution in Clay and Wood: Building the First Movable Type Prototypes

Four months of relentless effort, countless trials and errors, and absolute focus had transformed young Cyrus into a complete researcher. During this period, his clay workshop, once merely a place for paper production, had now become a laboratory for creating humanity's most revolutionary invention of that era: movable type printing. With a tireless mind, he worked day and night on the ideas he had brought from his modern memory, and his trusted nurses, with obedience and astonishment, accompanied him on this path.

Given the technological limitations of the time, Cyrus decided to focus on wooden movable type. Wood was an abundant material in the Zagros, and carving it, though difficult, was feasible. To achieve the necessary precision in carving small and uniform letters, he realized the need for new carpentry tools that did not exist at the time. Cyrus, using modern engineering principles, set about inventing several specialized carpentry tools. These tools included very fine chisels and gouges, small planes for smoothing wood surfaces, and even a rudimentary hand drill for creating precise holes in wooden pieces. He built these tools with the help of simple craftsmen working in the workshop, and this itself was another innovation in the industry of that era.

After the tools were built, the crucial stage of character creation began. Small and uniform pieces of suitable wood were selected. Then, using the chisels and delicate blades that Cyrus had designed, scribes and nurses, under his supervision, engraved the letters of the New Persian language in relief onto these small wooden pieces. Each letter was a separate mold, meticulously carved to ensure uniformity and clarity for printing. This work required immense skill and patience, but Cyrus placed great emphasis on precision.

With the letters ready, it was time for the printing process. Cyrus designed a simple wooden frame in which the movable type could be arranged systematically to form lines and pages. The letters were secured in this frame using wedges or small wooden pieces to prevent them from shifting during printing. This composition of letters was itself a new skill that was taught to the scribes.

Then, ink was uniformly applied to the raised surface of the arranged letters. Cyrus used an ink he had optimized himself by combining soot, tree gum, and water, so that it would be dark and adhere well to the wood. Finally, the freshly produced paper sheets were placed over the inked letters. To transfer the image, Cyrus had designed a rudimentary press device. This press consisted of a flat, heavy wooden plate that, with a lever or manual force, applied uniform pressure onto the paper, transferring the image of the letters onto it.

The first time Cyrus, with indescribable excitement, pulled a sheet of paper from under the press, his heart overflowed with joy. The clear and uniform lines of New Persian were imprinted on the smooth surface of the white paper. This was the first example of movable type printing in this part of the world; an invention that, in that ancient era, seemed beyond any magic and promised a great revolution.

How did this invention work? This simple yet complex device operated by carving individual letters that could be reused, instead of carving the entire page (like woodblock printing). This "movable" capability of the letters allowed scribes, after printing one page, to remove the letters from the frame and reuse them to compose a new page. This drastically increased the speed of book production and made it possible to print countless copies, at a much lower cost and in less time.