Technology Porn for Book Lovers: A 1940s Guide to Printing

Letter by letter, line by line, page by page, an archival documentary from Encyclopaedia Britannica Films reveals how a manuscript becomes a book. Clunky machines mold words out of molten metal, stamp out pages, and trim paper. All the while a team of humans shuttle materials from machine to machine. The 10-minute reel, courtesy of the Prelinger Archive, covers each step of the painstaking process.

For more films from the Prelinger Archive, visit http://archive.org/details/prelinger.