William Carey's "Fire":
"From the printing press at the mission came translations of the Bible in Bengali, Sanskrit, and other major languages and dialects. Many of these languages had never been printed before; William Ward had to create punches for the type by hand. Carey had begun translating literature and sacred writings from the original Sanskrit into English to make them accessible to his own countryman. On March 11, 1812, a fire in the print shop caused £10,000 in damages and lost work. Amongst the losses were many irreplaceable manuscripts, including much of Carey's translation of Sanskrit literature and a polyglot dictionary of Sanskrit and related languages, which would have been a seminal philological work had it been completed. However, the press itself and the punches were saved, and the mission was able to continue printing in six months. In Carey's lifetime, the mission printed and distributed the Bible in whole or part in 44 languages and dialects."
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carey
Much more extensive:
"All the workmen had left one evening, and only Ward remained at his desk, when suddenly clouds of smoke burst from the type room into the office. Joined by others, Ward closed all the windows and had water poured in through the roof for four hours, with every hope of being able to put the fire out. At the end of this time a friend, who had come to help, foolishly opened a window, and the air rushing in set the whole building in flames. By midnight the roof fell in, and the column of fire leapt up towards heaven, while the members of the mission family sat silent in front.
"The work of ten years was gone in a few hours, the types for fourteen Eastern languages melted into lumps of lead, ten printed versions of the Bible, and Carey's priceless translations burnt together with twelve hundred reams of paper.
"Marshman went himself to Calcutta the next morning to break the news to Carey, and he was so stunned by it that for some time he could not utter a word.
"When in the evening they got back to the smoking ruins, they found to their great delight that Ward who was busy clearing up, had found uninjured many of the punches and moulds used in making type.
"We understand what stuff Carey was made of, when we learn that without wasting a day he set to work to make new translations and to cast fresh type; and within a month the press was busy once more turning out Bibles.
"It was hard to begin all over again the books that had taken him years to translate; but Carey found that he could do the work much better the second time. Other good also came out of this trouble. The fire made Carey famous through Europe, and men all over the world wished to help as far as possible to replace the loss. The actual loss in money, which was £10,000, was made up in England in fifty days, and £800 was given by one congregation in India."
From chapter 6: http://www.wholesomewords.org/children/bcarey11.html
Jordan |