Johannes Gutenberg and a grape press: We can read!
Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press is one of the world’s greatest achievements. And it's all because he saw grapes being juiced.
Others, notably men from China, Korea and the Netherlands, have received credit for coming up with the idea of moveable type. But none came up with a printing press, till Johannes Gutenberg.
In 1436, a German goldsmith, businessman and book lover invented a machine that could mass-produce written words. Johannes Gutenberg was the man, his machine the printing press. Gutenberg used wooden characters that he could reposition and secure inside a box, or "galley." He coated the characters with ink and pressed them against a sheet of goatskin: applied to the skin were neatly spaced, aligned characters forming words and sentences.
Freeing the scribes!
No longer would scribes have to write each character by hand: entire documents could be printed using Gutenberg’s moveable type.
Scribe, Unsplash
During a visit to the Rhine Valley, Gutenberg had admired a grape press that squeezed juice for wine. He adapted this screw-like fruit press. Now the press could rub ink off of his wooden characters and onto a page, The press wrung water out of the page, as the page slid through it.
His technology would change printing, reading, and research forever. A member of southern Germany’s extremely wealthy Gensfleisch family, he rendered the printed word available to the masses, not just the privileged. In the 1400s, because they were individually written by hand, books could cost as much as a farm (inventors.com).
Like many inventors, Gutenberg did not enjoy immediate success. He used wood characters only because he knew that to make them out of metal, which would last longer and transfer ink better, would be too arduous. Next, he tried sand casting, another way to make the characters. He poured metal into sand, which when cooled, formed characters; but they were irregular and required tedious tweaking. Trying various mixtures, he finally blended the metals lead, tin, and antimony, and after three decades of experiments, had a substance that would produce clean, finished characters (library.thinkquest).
He cast 290 of them and smeared them with ink made from linseed and soot (web.mit.edu). He was ready to print his first book. There were 28 individual pages, which the buyers would bind for themselves (library.thinkquest), (web.mit.edu).
1450, and printing was changing BIG time: Here comes the Bible, for all
The year was 1450, and printing was about to change drastically and permanently. Success fueled Gutenberg’s motivation, which led him to print the immensely popular Gutenberg bible, the first bible ever printed in the world and the first book ever printed in Europe. Today, about 49 of these Gutenberg bibles are believed to exist. One of pre-Gutenberg printing’s loveliest aspects was its hand-drawn calligraphy and illustrations. The scribes drew them methodically and artfully. Gutenberg wanted to keep the hand-drawn look as he designed his characters; in fact, he spent much more time designing characters than he did printing documents (library.thinkquest).
Teenager with book, by Seven Shooter
Immediately following his invention of the press, the demand for printed material exploded. Once a luxury enjoyed only by the very rich, books were being devoured by women, children, the poor, and the working class. Information spread rapidly and widely, changing what people knew, believed, and thought. Today, in 2023, we still owe thanks to the man who loved reading enough to chase his goals and make information accessible.
References
Retrieved February 19, 2010 from http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112389/gutenberg.htm.
Retrieved February 19, 2010 from http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/a/Gutenberg.htm.
Retrieved February 19, 2010 from
