The Invention Of The Printing Press
No other event in the history of humans has influenced them more that the invention of the printing press constructed by Gutenberg. The ways in which the printing press affected the growth and development of the human race are almost to numerable to count.
Johann Gutenberg is believed to have been born in the German city of Mainz in the year 1400. Only thirty documents give accurate accounts of his life and of these there are only three which refer to printing. Gutenberg worked as a goldsmith and gem cutter as a young man and had learned about metallurgy. Gutenberg first designed type that would space evenly on a page and also look pleasing to the eye. His first type was cast of the metals lead, antimony, and tin and consisted of two-hundred and ninety separate symbols. Gutenberg also had to find an ink that would not fade or be to thick and came up with the combination of boiled linseed oil and soot. Gutenberg adapted a wine press for printing that was waste high and had a rolling tray so that he could slide the paper in and out. The press would also enable him to also squeeze water out of the damp paper while printing at the same time. The Gutenberg Bible, printed in 1455, was the first Bible ever printed and the first book ever printed in Europe. Gutenberg printed two-hundred copies of this book which was known as a 36-line Bible for the number of lines that were on each page.
Gutenberg’s invention sparked many religious revolutions with his invention that allowed the common man to posses a Bible for his own interpretation. The printing press allowed knowledge and ideas to be passed from one man to the other and paved the way for schools and media.
