Q2612a cartridge
ink technology, computers & printers

Democracy and Printer Ink.

Where Would We Be Now without...?

Wasn’t there a frustrated British King who promised his kingdom for a horse? How many times has experience taught you that success never depends on the big picture? Yes, the devil is in the details, and you know your success always turns on the tiniest of tiny details. Ink, for example!

Of course, you never think about ink. You take it for granted; pretty much like you assume your windshield washers always will have fluid and your cell phone will stay charged long enough for that one important call. You take your printer similarly for granted, assuming it will spring to life when you push “control-P,” and it will deliver your document exactly as you imagined it. What if your cell phone did not hold its charge? What if you ran out of ink? What if your printer just up and quit?

Were it not for ink, some of history’s greatest, most important technological advances would have meant nothing.

Incredible inventions

Everybody claims that, until the personal computer emerged sometime in the mid-1980’s, the printing press was mankind’s greatest invention. Not much contest…until you stop to consider where Gutenberg would be without ink for that mammoth press. So what if you have plates, rollers, presses, and torque. Without ink, you have just vague impressions, and you find yourself instructing the cloistered monks to continue their calligraphy. Imagine his friends beholding Gutenberg’s wonderwork poised to print a Bible and wondering: “Uh, dude, we really admire your workmanship and all, but won’t you need, uh, ink?”

Other historians maintain that development of movable type for printing presses aided the rise of democracy in Europe and North America, because it provided for quick and accurate dissemination of information and analysis people needed to make informed political decisions. How would Americans have remembered the Maine without movable type; how would movable type have rendered the Maine’s destruction a war-worthy even without ink? William Randolph Hearst and his assorted heirs certainly owe a great deal to movable type in assorted sizes with bold and italic included in the boxes. But does anyone pause to wonder where democratic free or “yellow” presses would be without ink. Imagine the more modern among Hearst’s many women admirers inquiring, “Bill, sweetie, I’m sure I would simply adore your newspaper, but how will you print it without ink?”

Finally, American historians point out that the nation’s “manifest destiny” depended in large measure on the use of printed currency. Because the original Americans had no notion of a money economy, they could not calculate value as their European visitors did. Trusting the treaty-makers at their word, they frequently accepted currency in exchange for food, blankets, and other prairie essentials. Without ink, no currency; without currency, no manifest destiny!

Check your printer ink. Your manifest destiny may depend on the cartridge remaining fresh and full.

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