I watched the television programme and it was great. I feel that I learned a lot from watching it.
One point of interest was that a punch was made for a letter e, then a matrix was made and some sorts cast in type metal, reusing the same matrix.
Yet, as I understand it, there is no direct evidence that Gutenberg used reusable matices. The notion that he did might be a backwards-in-time extrapolation from later technology.
The reason that I say that is because of the research mentioned in the following thread.
My own idea, purely hypothetical based on that research is that maybe the reason that Gutenberg used so many ligatures was that they were a cost-saving idea, simply because using them meant that fewer matrices (each of them non-reusable) were needed.
One particular item in the programme was when they unpacked that metal type which had arrived from the United States.
I wonder from where it came.
William Overington
15 April 2008