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00:00Please.
00:03Mm-hm.
00:13Well, hey, what are you eating?
00:15Do you say book or book?
00:17I say book, but I think it's a bit like potato-potato.
00:20Oh, it's book or book, really.
00:22What do you say?
00:23I say book.
00:24You're a book. Are you a book person?
00:26I'm not a book person, no.
00:28I want to get into it, but I just... I don't know.
00:31Do you know a really good place to start?
00:32Yeah.
00:33Have you got a children's section in here?
00:36Rude.
00:39But most Brits do love a good book.
00:42Every year we buy over 200 million of them.
00:46Throw in digital and audio books
00:49and you've got an industry worth over £7 billion a year.
00:53So, where better to find out
00:56how to make a bumper order of a bestseller
00:59than one of the biggest book factories in Europe?
01:05This palace of print in Suffolk is absolutely huge.
01:10And it's home to super-sized machinery...
01:13I know I'm a bit of an engineering geek,
01:15but that is seriously impressive.
01:18..that transforms paper...
01:20Woo!
01:23..into page turners.
01:25Hot of the press, here we go.
01:27It's such a bestseller
01:28that I've roped in me factory mucker, Cherry.
01:31I bought you the gift of words...
01:33..to help out.
01:35That is a thing of beauty.
01:37And Ruth Goodman is finding out
01:41how a young Frenchman
01:43opened up a whole new world of reading.
01:46So, Dave, when did you learn to read braille?
01:49The big moment for me was when I became a dad
01:52and I wanted to read the bedtime story.
01:59This place knocks out a mind-boggling
02:02three million books every single week.
02:04And we're going to show you just how they do it.
02:07Welcome to Inside the Factory.
02:34This is the Clay's Factory in Bungie.
02:37And they've been making books on this very site
02:39for well over 200 years.
02:43Is that a map?
02:45Find my way around the gap.
02:48Across this vast 14-acre site,
02:51more than 850 people work around the clock
02:55seven days a week.
02:57Do you actually print any A to Zs?
03:02Because that will cover that right.
03:04All right, I don't hear you.
03:06The factory combines cutting-edge technology
03:08with traditional bookmaking methods.
03:12Printing a mind-blowing 160 million books a year.
03:16From upmarket hardbacks to holiday paperbacks.
03:23So, if a book's appeared on the bestseller list,
03:26there's a good chance it was made here.
03:29Why?
03:30One of their publishers is Penguin Books,
03:36whose Clothbone Classics range includes novels
03:39like Robinson Crusoe and Dracula.
03:43Hardbacks with a luxurious fabric cover.
03:47Today, we're following production of an all-time favourite.
03:52Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice,
03:58brought to you by Bolton's Answer to Mr Darcy.
04:04For those of you who haven't read the book
04:07or seen any of the adaptations on the telly,
04:10it's a love story between the strong-willed Elizabeth Bennet
04:14and one Mr Darcy.
04:18You must have heard of him.
04:20Tall, handsome, high-vis vest.
04:25It's a classic.
04:32My story begins not with the arrival of a horse-drawn carriage,
04:36but a great big lorry.
04:40At Intake, where I'm meeting Printing General Manager David Hansy.
04:46How are you, Dave? How are you, pal?
04:47You OK? You all right? Good to see you.
04:49Good to see you.
04:50Who's overseeing the delivery of a crucial component.
04:54So, I've noticed we're indoors.
04:56We are, yeah.
04:57First time I've seen that with an HGV, doers shut.
04:59Why is that?
05:00So, obviously, paper doesn't like getting wet.
05:03Yeah.
05:04So, we always try and unload inside.
05:06The paper is quite well protected,
05:08but we don't want to get the rabbers wet.
05:10Right, OK.
05:11Don't want to get it wet.
05:12What are these? Rolls or what?
05:13Yes, these are reels.
05:14Reels?
05:15For paper. Right.
05:16And this paper is for our cloth-bound classics.
05:17So, these reels, which are like massive toilet rolls,
05:20how many of them are on there?
05:22On there at the moment, there's 46.
05:2446. How many books is that?
05:25About 50,000 books.
05:2750,000? Yeah.
05:28Yeah, yeah.
05:29Wow.
05:30Oh, we'd better get them off.
05:31Get them off.
05:33As the forklift springs into action,
05:36the clock on my very own production of Pride and Prejudice begins.
05:43These reels of paper for my Penguin Classic...
05:46Nice bit of driving, that.
05:48..were produced in Sweden,
05:50and we're following them into the Wuerhaus
05:52on the last stage of the 970-mile journey.
05:58You can't stop doing this, Dave.
06:04I like that.
06:05So, Paddy, what we've got here,
06:06these reels are a premium paper.
06:09They weigh 750 kilos each.
06:12Each one of these reels will give us
06:141,380 copies of Pride and Prejudice.
06:18That's a lot of Mr Darcy's.
06:19That's a lot.
06:20And if you take this off and roll that paper out
06:23like a massive Andrex puppy,
06:26how long does it stretch?
06:27This would stretch for 7,600 metres,
06:31so just over 7.5 kilometres.
06:33Right.
06:34And the reference to Andrex puppy,
06:36other toilet rolls are available.
06:39Right, Dave, you've got the paper out.
06:42Talk me through it, pal.
06:43What we need to do is just look at some samples here.
06:46Right.
06:47Just to give you a bit of an idea of what the differences are.
06:49So if you feel that, Paddy...
06:51That's your holiday read.
06:53That's right.
06:54And that's what we use for our paperback books.
06:56Like you said, Paddy, the stuff you take on holiday,
06:59the stuff you buy at a train station, that sort of stuff.
07:02How thick's that?
07:04That is 115 microns.
07:06I don't even want...
07:07I don't even want to sully me hands with that, Dave.
07:09Get rid of that.
07:10The other product is our premium cream paper.
07:13This is a bit of me.
07:14I've got to say, Dave,
07:15and this tells you a lot about the reading material I look at,
07:19I have never, ever felt paper like that on any of the books.
07:24To be fair, they've all got pictures in,
07:26but I've never felt that quality.
07:29Paddy, this is our premium product.
07:31That's the highest grade paper that we offer here.
07:34140 micron thickness.
07:36So the overall experience is quality.
07:39140 microns.
07:41140 microns.
07:42Now you're talking...
07:44This is a bit of me, this, Dave.
07:45I love a bit of detail.
07:47So, the paper in your holiday read is about as thick as a human hair,
07:52but these extra 25 microns...
07:55Premium cream.
07:57..make a world of difference.
08:00Pride and Prejudice.
08:02We want to print this on a premium product
08:05to give the reader the experience of the book
08:09that they would have read 100 years ago.
08:12Love that.
08:13So it's all about the feel, the thickness, the weight,
08:15everything about the book is from this paper.
08:18Right, what's next?
08:20Well, we need to get this paper into the factory
08:23and get it on the printing machine.
08:24Go on, mate, I'll follow you.
08:26Lovely stuff.
08:30Premium paper for a top book.
08:34Pride and Prejudice was first printed in 1813,
08:38and has been a bestseller ever since,
08:41with 20 million copies sold.
08:47Meanwhile, her very own Elizabeth Bennet
08:50is finding out how the factory gets Jane Austen's words
08:53onto the page.
08:55She makes a good Elizabeth, does cherry.
08:58Refined, classy.
09:00Hang on.
09:01It'll as were jeggings.
09:03This place is absolutely enormous and packed with books.
09:12My idea of absolute heaven.
09:15Right, I think I know where I'm going.
09:17I think it's this way.
09:20To get the text for Paddy's order,
09:22I've been sent to the office above the factory floor.
09:25I'm looking for an Amy.
09:27To meet account controller Amy Philsell.
09:30Hi.
09:31Hi.
09:32So, Paddy's got the paper.
09:34Yep.
09:35I need some words,
09:36because without the words,
09:37he's just got a lot of loo roll.
09:39Exactly, and I've got them.
09:40You've got the words?
09:41I have.
09:42Here we've got Penguin,
09:43and they will come to me with their order.
09:45They've sent the PDF across to us.
09:47So, what's the next stage after this?
09:48What we do is we check the order.
09:50So, as we can see here, we've got 480 pages.
09:54Tick.
09:55It's got the right amount of pages.
09:56Yep.
09:57And for this printing, they've requested 20,000.
09:59Sounds a lot.
10:00Is that a lot or not very much?
10:01Yeah, it is a huge amount,
10:02and especially because it's the 66th printing.
10:07For this batch of Austin's Classic,
10:09the factory uses computer software
10:13and something called an imposition
10:16to take the words from the PDF
10:18and prepare them for printing.
10:21I don't want to be an imposition,
10:22but what is an imposition?
10:23So, the imposition is a process
10:25where we put the pages in a specific order
10:28to make sure that when the pages are printed
10:30and folded, they're all in order.
10:32Surely the order is...
10:34One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
10:36and continue.
10:37So, can you work out this?
10:38Whoa!
10:39Whoa!
10:40The way the pages are laid out for printing...
10:42Someone can't count!
10:44Look at that!
10:46..is completely different to the order you'd find in a book.
10:49462, 19, one, three...
10:54The computer has taken the 480 pages from the PDF
11:01and arranged them to print on Paddy's 1.2-metre-wide rolls of paper
11:09in what looks like a totally random order.
11:12I've got 16 pages here, but, as you can see, they're not in order.
11:17We've got pages on the back.
11:19Oh, it's all over the place.
11:21All over the place.
11:22What we do, once we've printed the text and we fold, fold again,
11:27once it's then cut, it's all in order.
11:31It's like magic.
11:32When printing on an industrial scale,
11:35it's far faster and more economical
11:38to print on large sheets of paper,
11:40which are then folded and cut.
11:43So, you can't do one, two, three, four,
11:45because then if you fold it, there'll be one, sixteen, five, two hundred.
11:50Exactly.
11:51So, you need to have pre-thought about
11:55where those numbers are going to sit once it's folded?
11:58Exactly.
11:59What a puzzle!
12:02To produce the 480 pages of our book
12:05requires a total of ten different impositions.
12:10Back in the day,
12:11it would have taken a lot of time and careful thought.
12:13The system's done it all for us.
12:15It would take me my entire lifetime to figure out 480 pages.
12:19There would be no Jane Austen.
12:21In fact, there'd be no books at all.
12:25Until the 1880s, books were printed
12:27with metal typesetting blocks of text,
12:30which had to be arranged by hand.
12:32A slow and laborious process.
12:38Today, our factory uses a much faster method called lithography,
12:43which substitutes individual typesets
12:45for large sheets of 0.3 millimetre thick aluminium called plates.
12:50In charge of transferring the text from our impositions to the plates
12:56is Ivan Adcock.
12:58Ivan, lovely to meet you.
12:59Hi, Terry.
13:00So now we're ready to make a plate in our enormous machine.
13:03Would you like to give me a hand?
13:04Yes, please.
13:08In your body.
13:09In the body.
13:10Bring it round.
13:12Easy does it.
13:14Nice, drop the middle down.
13:16Gosh.
13:18So we're going to put words onto these plates?
13:21We are indeed.
13:22Why is one side shiny and the other side a matte turquoise colour?
13:27Because it's a sheet of aluminium.
13:30Right.
13:31With a photosensitive coating on it, which can be altered by a laser.
13:35OK.
13:36So we're going to push it into the machine.
13:40Smooth.
13:41All right.
13:42So at the end, bosh.
13:44Bosh.
13:45Bosh indeed.
13:51Is it super fast?
13:52It's super fast.
13:56The old fashioned typeset method would have taken 10 days to prepare the text for our novel.
14:03Whilst this machine transfers the 124,713 words of Pride and Prejudice in just 20 minutes.
14:12Oh, look.
14:13It's here.
14:15The laser bakes the blue thermosensitive polymer onto the aluminium in the shape of the text,
14:22which will attract the ink during the printing process.
14:27Whilst the rest of the blue layer is washed away by specialist chemicals and then with water.
14:33There are words on this plate.
14:36The plate now contains the 48 pages from the first of 10 impositions.
14:41And will be used to print our order of 20,000 books.
14:48So if you get it wrong at this stage.
14:51We'll get it wrong 20,000 times.
14:53I mean there's so much pressure on you.
14:55Yes.
14:56So where does this perfect plate now go?
14:58It's going to go on the trolley and then be taken down to press.
15:01Are we then done?
15:02No, we've got another nine plates to make.
15:04Another nine to do?
15:05Yeah.
15:06Let's get on with it.
15:07OK.
15:09The remaining nine plates will complete the 124,000 words, give or take, you'll need to print our book paddy.
15:18That's a lot of words.
15:23While you crack on with the plates, Cherry, my giant reels of top quality paper are trundling through the factory.
15:30Two, reel loading.
15:37OK Paddy.
15:38Oh my gosh.
15:40Where Dave's got a reel.
15:41Steady as she goes.
15:42Sorry.
15:43Challenge for me.
15:45Oh, nearly.
15:47Nearly Paddy.
15:48Here we go again.
15:50Loading the paper into position.
15:53Oh, I'm over the other side now Dave, what are you doing to me?
15:56Ready for printing.
15:58Come on, let's be happy.
15:59Here we go.
16:02That's perfect.
16:04Jane Austen will be proud.
16:06Come on Dave.
16:09So that's the enormous reel sorted.
16:13But where do we turn plain paper?
16:17Into Pride and Prejudice.
16:21Look at that.
16:22I know I'm a bit of an engineering geek, but that is seriously impressive.
16:29This high-tech Hulk is the biggest printing machine in the place.
16:39It is actually staggering.
16:41It's 18 metres long, 6 metres high and weighs 100 tonnes.
16:52That's eight double-decker buzzies.
16:55What would Jane Austen make of this?
16:58So Paddy, this is one of our 16 printing presses.
17:03This one is the most advanced, the biggest, the fastest and the newest.
17:08And the newest.
17:09This machine is capable of producing 960 pages a second.
17:14Wow.
17:16So technically, we can print one copy of that book in half a second.
17:22One copy of Pride and Prejudice in when?
17:26Half a second.
17:28My word.
17:30That is proper.
17:32I can't, you can't get your head around that.
17:33So this particular order is for 20,000 copies, Paddy.
17:37This machine will get all of that done in four hours.
17:41What we need to do is show you.
17:43Let's go and get the plates.
17:45With Cherry?
17:46Yeah.
17:47Oh, have you met her?
17:48No.
17:49Dave, word of advice, never look into her eyes.
17:54Here she is.
17:55Here she is.
17:57Hey, you!
17:58Hello, Cherry!
18:00I bought you the gift of words, but it took me ages.
18:03It was really complicated.
18:05Can you please look after it?
18:06I'll look after it.
18:07On your way out, I've got my eye on a Jackie Collins.
18:10Save it for me.
18:11Alright, have fun.
18:13Here we are, Dave.
18:15There she goes.
18:17The plates are loaded into their own special lift.
18:22Gotta say, Dave, lovely casters.
18:25Because they're too big to go up the stairs.
18:29Not a problem for me and Dave, though.
18:34We're at the heart of the press now.
18:36The machine will guide the plate on
18:39and it clamps that plate onto the cylinder
18:42using the bends that you can see on the plate.
18:45Oh!
18:46Oh!
18:47There she goes!
18:48So it's now clamped the front part of the plate
18:51and then it'll take it in,
18:52it'll push the back part of the plate in,
18:54clamp it,
18:55and then we're ready to print.
18:57Beautiful!
18:58Ten plates are needed to print Pride and Prejudice
19:01and they're loaded up in sets of two.
19:05The first is attached to a cylinder here above the press
19:08and it's per to a second cylinder below.
19:12And the bendy plates will then wrap around the cylinders.
19:16Is it printing on both sides at the same time?
19:19Absolutely.
19:20So on this plate we've got 48 pages of text.
19:24Right.
19:25The plate below, which will go on at the same time,
19:28has got 48 pages of text.
19:30And what we'll do, we'll print together.
19:32So as the paper comes below our feet,
19:35we'll print on both sides,
19:3748 and 48.
19:39So plates are loaded,
19:41paper's loaded,
19:42when are we going to start doing a bit of printing?
19:44That's what we need to do now Paddy,
19:45we need to go downstairs and make a start.
19:47About time Dave.
19:53Oh yes.
19:54Love this Dave.
19:55Absolutely.
19:56So what we're going to do now,
19:57we're going to get printing Paddy,
19:58we're going to start everything up.
19:59It's going to get incredibly loud,
20:01that's why we've got these on.
20:02Yeah.
20:03So we're ready, here we go.
20:05Exciting.
20:07Are we going to get covered in ink?
20:08No, it should be alright.
20:10Right.
20:11I don't mind a bit on top of the head,
20:12cover the greys.
20:13Oh.
20:14Okay, now we're printing.
20:17Oh, here they go!
20:18Look at that!
20:32Wow!
20:34We're printing 48 pages here,
20:37and we're printing another 48 pages
20:40on the other side of the paper as well.
20:42Absolutely mind-blowing.
20:46My word!
20:50The pages of my books are whizzing past
20:52at an incredible 40,000 pages a minute.
20:57Oh!
20:58Typo!
20:59This is amazing,
21:00but I want to see how you actually get it down on the page.
21:01That's where we're going to go next, Paddy.
21:02So we'll head upstairs and we'll explain it to you.
21:03After you, sir.
21:05After you, sir.
21:06It's a complicated process, so Dave's set up a little demo.
21:11Ah!
21:12Ah!
21:13A simplified version of what's going on inside the massive printing press.
21:16Our props include an aluminium plate,
21:18smaller than the ones in the machine,
21:19with just one gorgeous word written on it.
21:20Yeah.
21:21So, Paddy, because we can't look inside the machine when it's running...
21:22Yeah.
21:23..we thought we'd get you to do a demonstration
21:24on how light works.
21:25Yeah.
21:26Lightography actually works.
21:27Yeah.
21:28Lightography is all about water.
21:29Yeah.
21:30Yeah.
21:31So, Paddy, because we can't look inside the machine when it's running...
21:34Yeah.
21:35..we thought we'd get you to do a demonstration
21:37on how lithography actually works.
21:40Yeah.
21:41Lightography is all about water.
21:43Yeah.
21:44And that's what's going on inside the massive printing press.
21:47Our props include an aluminium plate,
21:50smaller than the ones in the machine,
21:53with just one gorgeous word written on it.
21:55Water.
21:56Yeah.
21:57And ink, which is oil-based.
21:58Right.
21:59We've got our water and we've got our ink.
22:02First thing we need to do is emulate what's happening on the machine.
22:06So, we need you to get some of this ink and get that onto this rubber roller
22:13and we can get it in the same condition that it'll be on the machine.
22:16Okay, Paddy?
22:17I've got to ask you, if you ever want to get out of this industry,
22:20blue pizza.
22:22Blue pizza.
22:23This is fantastic, pal.
22:24I need a badge.
22:25I'm all over this.
22:26I need a badge.
22:27Look at that get it off.
22:28That's enough, Paddy.
22:29Oh, plenty.
22:30All right, okay.
22:31So, we'll turn it on.
22:33Oh, love that.
22:36On there with that.
22:37That's right.
22:38So, this just lifts off.
22:39Yeah.
22:40And all we want you to do is roll that over there nicely
22:43and make that all nice and inky.
22:45Just like inside the printing press, the rubber roller applies a layer of ink to the aluminium plate.
22:55Look at that.
22:56Obviously, we've got our ink on it now, but the ink has just gone everywhere.
23:00In this container here, Paddy, we've got our water.
23:03Yeah.
23:04We want you to lightly clean that ink off.
23:09Oh, it's coming.
23:10Oh, I see it.
23:11The oil-based ink clings to the blue text part of the plate due to a special chemical coating, but the water is repelled.
23:23So, we've got the inky part on Paddy.
23:26Yeah.
23:27And the grey area around the plate is literally cleaning off because the ink is only staying on the blue parts.
23:35I honestly would never have believed it until I seen it that you could wipe that ink off and it'd stay on that bit.
23:40What we need to do now is apply some paper to it.
23:43Yeah, straight on.
23:44Straight on.
23:45And then we just need to apply some pressure to it.
23:48Bit of that.
23:49Light.
23:50Perfect.
23:51So, we now pull that off.
23:53Right.
23:54Oh, there she is.
23:56So, what you can see there is there's a problem.
23:58Wrong way round.
23:59Wrong way round, yeah.
24:01Luckily, the clever press has an extra process that prints our books the right way round.
24:08So, inside the machine Paddy, that plate that we looked at earlier is in contact with a rubber roller.
24:15Here we have a sample of that.
24:17Yeah.
24:18Rubber.
24:19We're going to print onto this rubber sheet.
24:22Instead of the plate printing straight onto paper, giving us back to front text, the ink is applied onto a large rubber cylinder, which then transfers it onto our paper the right way round.
24:37There you are, pal.
24:38OK.
24:39So, we now flip this over.
24:41What we're going to do now is put another sheet of our paper onto here.
24:46Right.
24:48Once again.
24:49Burn pressure.
24:50A little bit of pressure.
24:56That's what we want.
24:58Beautiful.
24:59All right, Paddy.
25:00I want that framed in here when I leave, Dave.
25:03I want you to take that home and put it on your fridge.
25:06Right.
25:07OK, I will do.
25:08Yeah.
25:09And to think, all of that is happening inside the press at a rate of 40,000 pages a minute.
25:17Let's get these off, Dave, and give these a little wash, eh?
25:20Let's go this way.
25:21Can't see a thing with these.
25:23Right.
25:26After all that, I need a break.
25:28While you lot join Ruth, who's finding out so people with sight loss can enjoy books like Pride and Prejudice.
25:39I'm in search of a fantastic story about a young Frenchman in the 19th century whose legacy has changed the lives of millions.
25:50If there's one thing that almost all of us take for granted, it's our eyesight.
25:56The ability to read words and immerse ourselves in stories.
26:02Which is why this is so vital.
26:04This system of raised dots called Braille allows you to read by touch.
26:12To find out the origins of Braille, I'm meeting Dave Williams.
26:17Hello, Dave.
26:18Chair of the Braillists Foundation.
26:21Nice to meet you.
26:22So, Dave, you've been blind since birth.
26:26When did you learn to read Braille?
26:29Oh, when I was very young.
26:31I went to a specialist school in the 1980s and I really didn't recognise its value until I became an adult.
26:41And I guess the big moment for me was when I became a dad and I wanted to read the bedtime story.
26:47And before Braille, what on earth would it have been like for somebody who was blind in, say, I don't know, 1800?
26:55Your career options would have been fairly limited.
26:58You might have been taught some crafts like, you know, basket weaving or something like that.
27:03But a lot of blind people would just kind of go out begging, you know, and that was the truth of it.
27:08By the early 19th century, there had been attempts to create books for blind people, such as this copy of the Bible, using raised standard lettering.
27:22A lot of these letters feel very similar to me.
27:25So, like, a Q and an O would feel very similar, a 5 and an S.
27:29So this would be very, very slow to read.
27:32So when does this change start to happen between something that is just big raised type into something that works better?
27:41The real breakthrough was a young French schoolboy, Louis Braille.
27:47When he was very young, Louis had an accident.
27:51Subsequently, he lost all his eyesight and was sent away to be educated in Paris.
27:57And he was very bright, an intelligent boy.
28:00While still in school, Louis devised a new system of up to six raised dots, which could fit perfectly under a fingertip.
28:10And combinations of those six dots can be used to represent any letter of the alphabet.
28:17The letter B, it's just two dots above each other, so you can feel that.
28:21And then you've got the letter Y, which is five dots kind of arranged,
28:25and you can feel the differences between the characters instantly.
28:28I mean, he did this while he was still a teenager?
28:31Yeah, he was 16 years old when he developed Braille,
28:34and obviously struggled to get it adopted straight away.
28:39I mean, yeah, who's going to listen to a 16-year-old?
28:41Well, right.
28:44Braille wasn't officially adopted in France until 1854,
28:48two years after Louis died at the age of 43.
28:51And it wasn't until 1870 that it was formally recognised in Britain, championed by a man called Thomas Armitage.
29:05So who was this Thomas Armitage?
29:08He was a physician, but sadly he began to lose his eyesight and had to stop practising.
29:13And after a period of recuperation, he wanted to help other blind people.
29:18So he visited many blind people in their homes to find out about the challenges that they were facing that time.
29:24And one of the challenges was access to the written word.
29:28So in 1868, he founded an association which became RNIB.
29:37By the 1860s, there were multiple competing reading methods.
29:42So Armitage convened a panel of finger readers to choose the best reading and writing system for the whole blind community.
29:49Hello!
29:51Here we are.
29:52And 150 years later, we're testing some of these methods with students from the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford.
30:07So what do you make of yours, Nafis?
30:09I just cannot make head or tail of what it is.
30:11This is like an alien language, sort of.
30:14The beauty of braille lay in its clarity.
30:20Most of the alternatives use their own set of 26 characters, which could be difficult to tell apart by touch.
30:29You've got all sorts of different shapes, whereas braille, you've just got the six dots.
30:33The Armitage committee came to the same conclusion, deciding that braille is best in 1870.
30:48The 1890s saw the invention of braille-based writing machines.
30:52In the following decades, typewriters were adopted by schools for the blind.
30:56And a hundred years later, braille has been adapted for the 21st century.
31:05So you can use this device the same as a laptop.
31:08And I could read what I've done.
31:09Where all those little white dots are.
31:11Yes.
31:12I could run a finger over there and instantly be able to pick it up.
31:15There's so many ways of having voice-activated devices these days.
31:18Do we think braille has a place in the future?
31:21Yes.
31:22Absolutely.
31:23It always will, I think.
31:25I think always.
31:26The world would be a totally different place without braille, I think.
31:3216-year-old Louis Braille's invention is now employed globally in 133 different languages.
31:40And it remains not only relevant, but essential, whether you need to write an email or write a book.
31:50What an amazing story.
31:52A world of reading opens up through the fingertips.
32:00Back in the boot factory.
32:02Look at that.
32:10I'll just find out what book it is.
32:14Oh, I can't quite see it.
32:19We're two hours into the production of my 20,000 copies of Pride and Prejudice.
32:27The plates are spinning at an incredible nine and a half times a second.
32:32Producing nearly 10 million pages for my batch of 20,000 books.
32:39To feed the beast, 720 metres of paper are passing through the press every minute.
32:47That's about 300,000 words a second.
32:53But the sheet's over 120 centimetres wide.
32:57My word!
32:59Far too big for a bedtime read.
33:01Look at that!
33:03So, it needs chopping into something more manageable.
33:07This part of the machine does a very important role.
33:10So, that big sheet of paper you saw downstairs Paddy, we're now cutting that into three ribbons here, putting them all on top of each other.
33:19And that's the start of putting all the pages in the right order for the book.
33:24The engineering, the speed, everything about it is mind blowing to me.
33:28So, Paddy, the three ribbons here are all travelling off in this direction and going into the folder.
33:34This is where Cherry's in-position puzzle comes into play.
33:43Inside the folder, the ribbons of paper are cut into two 55 centimetre long sheets.
33:50Then they're placed on top of each other, creating a six-sheet stack, which is then folded in half and folded in half again, giving us a 24-sheet booklet called a section.
34:07And with text on both sides of the paper, that means a total of 48 pages.
34:16All at a rate of 600 sections a minute.
34:20Oh!
34:22Beautiful!
34:23Coming out like this, all folded up, all pristine, all in order.
34:40That is an absolute treat to see, but can I pick one of them up and just, I trust you, or can I just double-check?
34:46Absolutely, Paddy, help yourself.
34:47Any one I want.
34:48Any one you want.
34:49Oh, I've always wanted to do this.
34:50Hot of the press, here we go.
34:52Pride and Prejudice, there it is.
34:55Yep, Jane Austen.
34:57Some are upside down, though, at the top.
34:59Let's take this sheet over here and we'll show you how it works.
35:03Right.
35:04Not another convoluted demo, is it, Dave?
35:07What I'm struggling to get my head round here, Dave, is we've got page 391 and then page 6 above it.
35:14How's it getting put in the right order?
35:18Basically, Paddy, this is two books.
35:20Hang on, that's two books together?
35:22That's two books together.
35:24We're printing one book here and here is a completely different book.
35:27This is what we call head-to-head printing.
35:30So doing it this way means it takes half the time to bind the book.
35:34Dave, this whole process is absolutely mind-boggling.
35:39I'm looking at it there going, hang on, why is the introduction next to 397?
35:45So we have the first 48 pages and the last 48 pages of the book.
35:50All that will become much clearer, Paddy, when you go through and sit, Ben, put together in the bindery.
35:56Dave, sticking on the paper theme, why don't we go and find a paper cup, put a tea bag in it and some hot water, a bit of milk, sit down for a bit.
36:06I think that's a great idea. Come on, I'll take that with us, we'll have a little read.
36:10Just like Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship, making books is a complicated affair.
36:18We've got our words printed on the page, but how do we actually see them?
36:24Time for Cherry to get a lesson on the science of science.
36:28There's nothing better than getting stuck into a good book, but I'm guilty of taking my eyes for granted.
36:39So I'm hoping optician Rupin Hirani can help me understand how they work.
36:44Hello Rupin, lovely to meet you.
36:48Lovely to meet you too.
36:49I absolutely love reading, but I've always wondered, how do your eyes read the words on the page?
36:56So the most important thing about seeing and reading is light.
37:00Without light you're not going to be able to detect anything from your eyes.
37:03Don't try reading in a dark room, it's not going to work.
37:05So I can use this model to show you.
37:08So imagine the eye cut into half.
37:10No thank you.
37:12As light first approaches the eye, it strikes this tissue called the cornea,
37:17and that makes up this clear dome that sits on the front of the eye.
37:22After passing through the cornea, the light then travels through the pupil,
37:28before hitting the lens.
37:30The lens changes in length, altering how the light is focused onto the retina at the back of the eye.
37:43What does the retina look like?
37:45I can show you.
37:49Come and take a seat just at this machine here.
37:51Okay.
37:52So what do these amazing machines do?
37:54So this one in particular is going to allow us to take a photo of your retina.
37:57So it's like a huge fancy camera?
37:59Yeah, pretty fancy.
38:01So when you're ready, if you kindly place your chin on that chin rest.
38:04So I can see what looks like space invaders.
38:08Rupin is using a retinal imaging camera, increasingly common in opticians, to look at the back of my eye.
38:15So this is an image of your retina, and that's the layer at the bottom there where all your light receptor cells are.
38:21So I'm now looking at the part of my body that helps me to see.
38:25Correct.
38:26When we read, our eyes take in the light from the white background around the black words, and this hits the light receptor cells on the retina.
38:35These receptors transform the light into electrical impulses, which pass along the optic nerve running from the retina to our brain, which turns the impulses into words.
38:48When we're looking at the individual words and scanning through, we're not actually going letter by letter.
38:54We're scanning the page continuously with small rapid eye movements.
38:58If you look at my eyes when I'm reading, you'll see where there's micro movements going on as I read down the paragraph.
39:03It's not smooth at all. It's really stoppy-starty.
39:06Our brain will perceive the image nice and smooth. It'll paint it all together.
39:12Our brain gets better at recognising words the more we read, which increases reading speed.
39:18But what happens as we age? Many of us find our eyes struggle to focus. But why?
39:26With time, the lens within the eye becomes less and less flexible. So you can see here, it's quite soft and jelly-like.
39:35With time, it gets stiffer and stiffer, and it gets to a point where it's rock hard and we label it crystallised.
39:41No, it will actually crystallise.
39:44So just like all the collagen in our body, it loses its elasticity and unfortunately will become stiff and won't be able to focus at all.
39:52People start to notice symptoms of it when you're in your mid-30s, and it intensifies when you're in your early 50s.
39:59We will all face this blur as we get older, called presbyopia. It's sometimes also known as age-related long-sightedness.
40:08The lens can't adjust as well as it once did to focus. It means the light doesn't fall onto the retina itself, but it falls slightly behind it.
40:18This means an out-of-focus image is sent to our brain. Unless, of course, we succumb to specs.
40:26We can use a convex lens, which is thicker in the centre, which will bend the light more so and make up for the deficit of your natural lens and make sure that light hits the retina.
40:37So glasses can help focus the light to the correct part of my eye, making sure that image is clear.
40:43Yeah.
40:46So the need for reading glasses will eventually affect most of us, but there are some things that can be done to help, or at least delay the inevitable.
40:56How do I look after my eyes as I get older?
40:59Protecting your eyes from UV is key, so this lens actually becomes stiffer faster with more UV exposure.
41:05So good UV protection sunglasses?
41:08Absolutely.
41:09Anything else?
41:10Making sure from a young age you develop good habits, like taking regular breaks from reading, not holding things too close, which puts a lot of strain on your eye muscles.
41:18Including phones?
41:19Including phones, and especially at night, make sure your lights are on.
41:23So once you've had your eyes checked, the most important thing for reading is good light.
41:30It's no coincidence that opticians are busiest in the autumn, when shorter days and darker evenings cause people to realise their eyes are straining.
41:39So how are my eyes going?
41:42Well, you don't need glasses just yet. There are small changes that are happening, but it's something we'll just monitor regularly for you.
41:48Something to keep an eye on?
41:49Absolutely.
41:52Pass with flying colours. Good to see, Gerry.
42:00I have to admit, I'm not seeing this bookmaking process too clearly.
42:04It's an impressive business, but my word, it's complicated.
42:10All ten sections are printed and folded, and now it's time to get them shifted to the next stage of production.
42:18But unlike Mr Darcy, I'm not too proud to ask for help.
42:22I've got to know what that is.
42:27What's your name, sorry?
42:28Charlotte.
42:29Charlotte.
42:30Paddy, nice to meet you.
42:31Nice to meet you.
42:32Thanks for letting me have a go on, you sucker.
42:33You're all right.
42:34I don't like that, Charlotte.
42:35Welcome to the future, everyone.
42:37And how do I get it off?
42:39Just push this down.
42:40Down.
42:41Yeah, and then pull this bit up.
42:42There you go.
42:43I'm getting one.
42:44Charlotte.
42:45And how do I get it off?
42:46Just push this down.
42:47Down.
42:48Yeah, and then pull this bit up.
42:49There you go.
42:50I'm getting one.
42:51Charlotte.
42:52That's been the highlight of my day.
42:55Thank you very much.
42:56I'll hand it back over.
42:57Love that.
43:00I could stay here all day.
43:03But I'm bound for the Bindery.
43:05Where my sections will be joined together to become books.
43:13I'm meeting Bindery manager, Dean Notley.
43:16Heyo, Dean.
43:17How are you, Pally?
43:18You okay?
43:19Hello, Paddy.
43:20How are you?
43:21I'm good, thanks.
43:22But please tell me your bit is a little less complicated than Dave's.
43:25Well, I can't fill you any guarantees for that.
43:27But we'll take you through the process.
43:29All right.
43:30Just follow me over a step.
43:31Over here, yeah.
43:32Yep.
43:33Oh.
43:34Lovely technique, Dean.
43:35I like that.
43:37Found her.
43:38Lovely action.
43:39Great.
43:40So, this part of the binding line is called the gatherer.
43:43As you can see, we've got all the 20,000 text sections for Pride and Prejudice laid out on the back of the gatherer.
43:50Yep.
43:51This is section one, which I believe you helped produce.
43:56This whole side, compared to what I've just been doing with Dave, feels a little bit more old school.
44:01These binding lines haven't really changed much over the last few decades.
44:05Yeah.
44:06The speeds have increased slightly.
44:07The first thing we have to do on the gatherer is these guys load in section one onto the belt.
44:13That is then fed into what we class as a gatherer box.
44:17This is the first of the ten sections I saw emerging from the folding machine.
44:22And they're still joined top to tail as two books.
44:26We have a drum with a couple of grippers on there, which then pulls it down into the tri at the bottom.
44:35I can see it, though.
44:36Then goes on to section two.
44:39So, section two is fed in the sign.
44:41Yeah.
44:42It's fed through.
44:43That goes on to section two.
44:45This is section three.
44:47I was gonna say, I bet you the next one's four.
44:50Oh, I'm getting it now, Dean.
44:52You're getting it now.
44:53I'm getting it now.
44:54Section three.
44:55Section four.
44:56Yeah.
44:57Section five.
44:58Section six.
44:59We'll get to the end here now.
45:00Get to the end here.
45:01This is section ten, which then means that your book has been fully collated.
45:05And then if you look down here, I'll show you what I need.
45:09Oh.
45:10So, there we have your collated book with the ten sections.
45:16Look at that.
45:17That's the first time I've seen it all together like that.
45:21Yep.
45:22Now, you've got your ten sections, but obviously you've got one book there.
45:28This is two, innit?
45:29So, there's two books in one section.
45:32So, you've got the one book there and the other book here.
45:35Let me show the people at home.
45:37See?
45:38There.
45:39And then we go...
45:42Amazing!
45:43When does it actually get chopped in half where it's just one book?
45:47Well, that's further down the process.
45:49Come on, Dean.
45:50Let's get to it.
45:53Dave assured me his method of printing two books at once makes the binary process twice as fast.
46:00So, let's check it out, Dean.
46:01First, two coloured sheets called end papers are glued to the back and front.
46:10The spine of the book is trimmed.
46:13A layer of adhesive is applied, followed by a strip of material called crepe, which helps the glue hold the pages together.
46:21Finally, the two books are separated.
46:27A saw cuts them in half, forming single volumes at a rate of 7,000 an hour.
46:37And the edges of the pages are trimmed.
46:40And here they come.
46:49Look at that.
46:51Five to a pile.
46:52My beautiful books.
46:56This is the first time I've actually seen a book without another bit stuck on the end.
47:03Yeah.
47:04So, that's the shape everybody recognises.
47:07I'm dying to pick one up, but I can't, can I?
47:10You can, yeah?
47:11Oh!
47:12Here we go.
47:13Oh!
47:14Now, then.
47:15This is...
47:16This feels lovely.
47:17Still warm.
47:18Nearly a complete book.
47:20Everything's looking tickety-taboo.
47:22The only thing that's missing...
47:25Cover.
47:26Actually, we call them cases, Paddy.
47:28Cases.
47:29Cases.
47:31That's right, Paddy.
47:32Paperbacks have covers.
47:34Hardback books have cases.
47:36And I'm definitely on the case.
47:41In this magical factory of books, deep down in the basement, is a wonderful land exploding with colour.
47:50Our Penguin Classics have a luxury finish, covered in vibrant fabric.
47:56King of this domain is binding manager Alfie Boggis.
48:02Alfie, lovely to meet you.
48:03Hi.
48:04Nice to meet you.
48:05All of these rolls that you see here are what we use for the actual Clothbound Classic Series.
48:09So, you'll see a range of different colours here.
48:11We've got 32 in total.
48:12So, we'll be using this one today, which is called an olive green.
48:17Oh, that's such an amazing colour.
48:19Beautiful.
48:20The 100 metre long roll of cloth is a durable fibre called rayon, made in Holland from wood pulp, and dyed to create a fabric with a paper backing.
48:32So, where do we start?
48:33First, we need to cut this cloth.
48:34OK.
48:35So, if you'd like to pick that roll up and come with me.
48:36Really? Me?
48:37Me.
48:38No probs.
48:39Brilliant.
48:40No probs.
48:41In charge of the 48-year-old cloth cutting machine is Gary West.
48:46How do we cut a book cover?
48:48If you put this handle here, I'll put it into gear.
48:50Into gear?
48:51Are we doing a driving lesson?
48:52Er, cutting a book.
48:53OK.
48:54Press the green button.
48:56Off she goes.
48:59Six sharp steel discs cut down firmly every second.
49:04Is she basically a massive fancy guillotine?
49:09Pretty much, yeah.
49:10OK.
49:11The 135 centimetre wide cloth is cut into smaller rectangles.
49:1734 centimetres by 23.
49:20Oh, look.
49:21We've got the beginning of our book cover.
49:23We have, yep.
49:26One roll is sliced into 1,500 covers.
49:31But cloth alone is not enough.
49:33We're making a hardback book.
49:36So we need some backing from A.D. Stokes.
49:39He runs a machine called The Case Maker.
49:44Where soft cloth and stiff board come together to form our book cover.
49:49All right.
49:50Let's feed The Case Maker.
49:53And there she goes.
49:55The cloth enters the machine and is glued on a roller.
49:59Sheets of board are fed in from the other side, along with a more flexible paper spine.
50:08The cloth is folded and glued around the inside edge of the board.
50:12And there we go.
50:13Finished case.
50:14That is beautiful.
50:15It's still warm.
50:16Half the press.
50:17You can see all the corners are folded in.
50:18It's glued perfectly.
50:19It's folded perfectly.
50:20But it is missing a few bits.
50:21That is a short read, isn't it?
50:22Yes, so there's a little bit of magic that needs to happen now.
50:23Where do we go to get the magic?
50:24Go to the blocker.
50:25Okay.
50:26Davina Catamull is the wizard who adds the glittering design and that all-important title.
50:31Davina!
50:32Hello, Jerry.
50:33These are missing a few bits.
50:34Yep, I can help you with that.
50:35Load them on the belt.
50:36All right.
50:37The text and imagery are printed in the top of the board.
50:39It's folded perfectly.
50:40It's folded perfectly.
50:41It's folded perfectly.
50:42But it is missing a few bits.
50:43That is a short read, isn't it?
50:44Yes, so there's a little bit of magic that needs to happen now.
50:46Where do we go to get the magic?
50:47Go to the blocker.
50:48Okay.
50:49Davina Catamull is the wizard who adds the glittering design and that all-important title.
50:51Davina!
50:52Hello, Jerry.
50:53The text and imagery are printed onto the fabric with material called foil.
51:00Let's hold these two green buttons together.
51:02Double buttons?
51:03Double buttons.
51:04Best day ever.
51:08Oh, wow.
51:09Look at that.
51:16So I can see that the covers are being picked up and moved into here.
51:20Is this like a big stamp?
51:22Yeah, so we're actually stamping an image into the font there.
51:28The layer of foil is fed between the cover below and a heated stamp above.
51:37The cover is pushed up against the stamp, transferring the design onto the olive cloth, a process called blocking.
51:44This is an example of the brass I've got stuck up on the hot plate.
51:50So this is what you use to stamp each cover.
51:53Yep.
51:54That is a thing of beauty.
51:55It is.
51:56Look at the detail.
51:58Do you know what?
51:59This is actually a work of art on its own, isn't it?
52:01It is.
52:02The highlight of this design is an intricate column of elegant swans.
52:09Oh, look.
52:11Does that get the Davina stamp of approval?
52:13It sure does.
52:14Wow.
52:15It's perfect.
52:16Not a dodgy swan.
52:17Look at that.
52:18No dodgy swan there.
52:19That's a very happy gaggle of swans, isn't it?
52:21It is.
52:22Ready for production.
52:23Wow.
52:24Thank you so much.
52:25Alfie, look.
52:26All the magic.
52:27Who came up with that design?
52:28It's so beautiful.
52:29So Coralie Brickford-Smith is the actual designer for the book.
52:32And why swans?
52:34The designer will actually read the novel.
52:36I think it just takes the pride that runs throughout the book.
52:40Oh, so the swan represents the pride in the Pride and Prejudice.
52:44Exactly right.
52:46Pride and Prejudice was one of the first cloth-bound classics
52:50designed back in 2008.
52:53I mean, look at it.
52:54So beautiful.
52:55Who wouldn't want to have that in your house, on your show?
52:58That is a work of art in itself.
53:02It certainly is, Cherry.
53:04And you shouldn't judge a book by its cover,
53:06but that's a ten out of ten.
53:19Cherry's done a grand job there,
53:21so I'm on my way from the bindery
53:24to the finishing area.
53:26To meet her.
53:29Ah, here she is!
53:31They've kept you busy today.
53:32What have you been doing?
53:34Look at this.
53:35Look at this.
53:36Love that.
53:37Oh, beautiful.
53:38It's so complicated.
53:39Isn't that amazing?
53:40That is absolutely stunning.
53:42So the swan represents the pride in Pride and Prejudice.
53:45It's really good.
53:46Right?
53:47I appreciate all your hard work today.
53:49I just give you so much.
53:50Thank you, but now I'd like you to clock off
53:52and I'm going to take all the glory.
53:54Are you on the case?
53:55I've got it covered.
53:56Oh, my God!
53:58Have that.
53:59I reckon this could be the last chapter of my boot production.
54:07With binding and distribution manager, Paul Bullen.
54:12Heyo, Paul.
54:13Hello, Paddy.
54:14I've seen the cases.
54:15They look absolutely magnificent.
54:18I feel as though we're at the final third act here.
54:21The last bit.
54:22Yeah.
54:23We're now going to apply the cases that Cherry would have seen
54:26being made earlier today.
54:27This is like a big moment in the whole process this, Paul,
54:31because it's all going to marry together now.
54:34This is the time when it all comes together, the final product.
54:37Yes.
54:38And we're getting near now to what I like to call the birth of the boot.
54:42The birth of the boot.
54:43We're in the operating theatre.
54:45One more push.
54:46One more push is coming.
54:48Love that.
54:53For the final push, my books are carried into a machine called the splitter.
54:58Sounds painful.
55:00But all it does is open the book in half.
55:03So the endpapers of each get an even coating of glue.
55:06Before they're inserted into their cases.
55:09Further along, a pair of rollers apply pressure to both sides of the boot.
55:15Ensuring everything's glued tightly together.
55:24As they come off all the way round, we will then go to this section.
55:32And here we are.
55:33Yes.
55:34At last.
55:35Yes.
55:42Do you want to have a look at one?
55:43Yes, I do.
55:44Thank you, Paul.
55:45Look at that.
55:46Completed.
55:47Beautiful.
55:48Do you know, right from the beginning, it's a long and technical process,
55:53but the paper, the premium cream, everything in the right order, all the chapters where they should be, and that beautiful case.
56:04Just like the story of Pride and Prejudice, it's all come together perfectly.
56:14It's a work of art, that, and I think now I've got a new appreciation of books.
56:19That is fantastic.
56:20Thank you very much.
56:21Oh, you're a gentleman, sir.
56:22Thanks, Paddy.
56:23Right, I want to have a read.
56:25In a bit.
56:27In keeping with the famous first line of this classic book.
56:32It's a truth universally acknowledged, that all roads lead to dispatch.
56:41And before I go home, it's only right I should escort my copies off the premises.
56:47Oh, fantastic.
56:49Helping me is distribution manager Ian Hardy.
56:53You all right, Ian?
56:54Good, thanks. Yourself?
56:55He's in charge of this massive warehouse that can contain up to five million books at a time.
57:04Here we go. Look at that.
57:07Is that lorry just full of our books?
57:09So, Paddy, on there you've got your 20,000 books for your order.
57:1220?
57:13But as well as that, there'll be another 20,000 to 30,000 of other titles on there to fill the lorry.
57:18Do you know what amazes me?
57:20Obviously, Pride and Prejudice, it's a classic.
57:23But it's not exactly a new book, so 20,000?
57:28Who's even buying them?
57:2910,000 of these are going straight out to the US.
57:32The US can't get enough of these titles.
57:34Bill of a classic.
57:35The other 10,000 will go straight from here to our publishers' distribution warehouses
57:39and then be distributed nationally from there.
57:41So long, Mr. Darcy.
57:43Keep the classics alive.
57:45Thank you very much, Ian.
57:46Thank you, Paddy. Great.
57:47My work here is done.
57:48Thirteen and a half hours after I took delivery of those massive rolls of paper,
57:58my copies of Pride and Prejudice are leaving the printers.
58:05From the factory in Suffolk, our love story travels to a distribution centre in Essex,
58:12before heading out to boot worms all over the UK.
58:17And our classic tale is enjoyed across the world from the USA to Australia.
58:24Well, that was a very complicated process, but it was amazing to see the craftsmanship,
58:33attention and care given to a 200-year-old love story.
58:38And long may it continue.
58:40See you next time!
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