Who invented the printing press

Why subscribe? • The ultimate action-packed science and technology magazine bursting with exciting information about the universe • Subscribe today and save an extra 5% with checkout code 'LOVE5' • Engaging articles, amazing illustrations & exclusive interviews • Issues delivered straight to your door or device Humans are naturally curious and creative, two traits that have led our species to many scientific and technological breakthroughs. Since our earliest ancestors bashed a rock on the ground to make the first sharp-edged tool, humans have continued to innovate. From the debut of the wheel to the launch of Mars rovers, several of these key advancements stand out as especially revolutionary. Some inventions are thanks to one eureka moment, but most of our most pioneering inventions were the work of several innovative thinkers who made incremental improvements over many years. Here, we explore 20 of the most importantinventionsof all time, along with the science behind the Wheels were invented circa 3,500 B.C., and rapidly spread across the Eastern Hemisphere. (Image credit: James Steidl via Shutterstock) Before the invention of the wheel in 3500 B.C., humans were severely limited in how much stuff we could transport over land, and how far. The wheel itself wasn't the most difficult part of "inventing the wheel." When it came time to connect a non-moving platform to that rolling cylinder, things got tricky, according to David Anthony, a professor of anthropology at Hartw...

The printing press, invented by German goldsmith Johann Gutenberg in 1448, has been called one of the most important inventions in the history of humankind. For the first time, the device made it possible for the common man, woman, and child to have access to books, which meant that they would have the unprecedented ability to accumulate knowledge. Before the invention of the printing press, the majority of books were written and copied by hand. Block printing was becoming more popular, which involved carving each page of a text into a block of wood and pressing each block onto paper. Because these processes were so labor-intensive, books were very expensive, and only the rich could afford them. Believed to have been born in Mainz, Germany, in approximately 1399, He started working on a device that would make it possible to print texts using movable blocks of letters and graphics. These blocks, used with paper, ink, and a press, would make it possible to print books much faster and more cheaply than ever before. He used metals that he was familiar with – lead, antimony, and tin – to cast 290 blocks of letters and symbols, and he created a linseed- and soot-based ink of the consistency he believed to be ideal for printing on handmade paper. He adapted a wine press that allowed him to slide paper in and out of it and to squeeze water from the paper after printing. He tested his moveable type machine by printing a Latin book on speech-making in 1450. When this endeavor was su...

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Discover how Johannes Gutenberg's printing press increased the literacy and education of people in Europe Johannes Gutenberg, in full Johann Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, (born 14th century, Gutenberg was long thought to have also invented the punch-matrix system of i) for his type to have been cast that way. Some scholars now think that the punch-matrix system emerged several years after Gutenberg’s death. Life Gutenberg was the son of a patrician of Mainz. What little information exists about him, other than that he had acquired skill in metalwork, comes from documents of financial transactions. Some of his partners, who became aware that Gutenberg was engaged in work that he kept secret from them, insisted that, since they had advanced him considerable sums, they should become partners in these activities as well. Thus, in 1438 a five-year contract was drawn up between him and three other men: Hans Riffe, Andreas Dritzehn, and Andreas Heilmann. It contained a clause whereby in case of the death of one of the partners, his heirs were not to enter the company but were to be compensated financially.

Johannes Gutenberg is usually cited as the inventor of the printing press. Indeed, the German goldsmith's 15th-century contribution to the technology was revolutionary — enabling the mass production of books and the rapid dissemination of knowledge throughout Europe. However, the history of printing begins long before Gutenberg's time. Chinese monks and blocks Nearly 600 years before Gutenberg, Chinese monks were setting ink to paper using a method known as block printing, in which wooden blocks are coated with ink and pressed to sheets of paper. One of the earliest surviving books printed in this fashion — an The carved wooden blocks used for this early method of printing were also used in Japan and Korea as early as the eighth century. Private printers in these places used both wood and metal blocks to produce Buddhist and Taoist treatises and histories in the centuries before movable type was invented. While earthenware movable type was used by several other Chinese printers throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, Sheng's movable type didn't go mainstream in China or elsewhere until many centuries later. In the 14th century, Wang Chen, a Chinese government official of the Yuan Dynasty, independently created his own set of movable characters out of wood. His motivation for developing this new method of printing was the publication of a voluminous series of books on agriculture, titled "Nung Shu." "Nung Shu" was eventually printed in 1313 using tried-and-true woodblock me...

However, it remains true that the printing press was not Gutenberg’s original invention. In fact, there were actually predecessors to the printing press that were created in Asia centuries before Gutenberg’s time. The earliest printing technology involved carved wooden blocks that were inked and then pressed Then, in Korea, there was a similar technology in use in 1234. This technique consisted of pressing characters into wooden blocks by using a flat surface and an inked pad that was transferred to the wood. However, it is Gutenberg’s technology that brings us the iconic printing presses we know today: he made three major improvements on existing techniques when designing his printing press. • Firstly, he used movable type which could be reused. • Secondly, he came up with a method to print from both sides of the paper simultaneously. • And thirdly, he developed an oil-based ink that would not smudge. These three improvements made the printing press a viable and efficient way to produce large quantities of text. The technology quickly spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world, revolutionizing the way information was disseminated. When Was the Printing Press Invented? Bi Sheng was the inventor of Chinese movable type printing. He was a government official during China’s Song Dynasty (960-1279). Bi Sheng is credited as the inventor of a method that involved carving characters into pieces of clay, which were then baked and assembled into shape. The Bi Sheng printing...