What invention allowed an individual farmer to do the work of five hired hands?
The press press is a device that allows for the mass production of uniform printed matter, mainly text in the form of books, pamphlets and newspapers. Created in China, the printing press revolutionized society there before existence further adult in Europe in the 15th Century by Johannes Gutenberg and his invention of the Gutenberg press.
When Was the Printing Press Invented?
No i knows when the first printing press was invented or who invented information technology, but the oldest known printed text originated in People's republic of china during the first millennium A.D.
The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist book from Dunhuang, China from around 868 A.D. during the Tang Dynasty, is said to be the oldest known printed volume.
The Diamond Sutra was created with a method known equally cake press, which utilized panels of manus-carved wood blocks in contrary.
Some other texts take survived from Dunhuang too, including a printed calendar from around 877 A.D., mathematic charts, a vocabulary guide, etiquette teaching, funeral and wedding guides, children'south educational material, dictionaries and almanacs.
It was during this menses of early printing that rolled-up scrolls began to be replaced by book-formatted texts. Woodblock press was also used in Japan and Korea at the time, and metal block printing was also adult at some indicate during that period, typically for Buddhist and Taoist texts.
READ MORE: seven Ways the Printing Press Changed the World
Bi Sheng
Moveable type, which replaced panels of press blocks with moveable individual letters that could be reused, was adult by Bi Sheng, from Yingshan, Hubei, China, who lived roughly from 970 to 1051 A.D.
The start moveable type was carved into clay and baked into difficult blocks that were then bundled onto an iron frame that was pressed confronting an iron plate.
The earliest mention of Bi Sheng'south printing press is in the volume Dream Pool Essays, written in 1086 by scientist Shen Kuo, who noted that his nephews came into possession of Bi Sheng's typefaces later on his death.
Shen Kuo explained that Bi Sheng did not utilize wood because the texture is inconsistent and absorbs wet too easily, and likewise presents a trouble of sticking in the ink. The baked clay cleaned-upwards better for reuse.
By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, which ruled from 1127 to 1279 A.D., books had become prevalent in society and helped create a scholarly class of citizens who had the capabilities to become civil servants. Massive printed book collections also became a status symbol for the wealthy grade.
Wang Chen
Woodtype fabricated a comeback in 1297 when Ching-te magistrate Wang Chen printed a treatise on agriculture and farming practices called Nung Shu.
Wang Chen devised a procedure to make the forest more durable and precise. He so created a revolving table for typesetters to organize with more efficiency, which led to greater speed in printing.
Nung Shu is considered the world's first mass-produced book. It was exported to Europe and, coincidentally, documented many Chinese inventions that have been traditionally attributed to Europeans.
Wang Chen's method of woodblock blazon continued to be used by printers in Cathay.
Johannes Gutenberg
In Europe, the printing printing did not appear until 150 years after Wang Chen'due south innovation. Goldsmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg was a political exile from Mainz, Deutschland when he began experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, French republic in 1440. He returned to Mainz several years later and by 1450, had a printing machine perfected and prepare to use commercially: The Gutenberg press.
Gutenberg Press
Integral to Gutenberg's design was replacing wood with metal and printing blocks with each letter, creating the European version of moveable type.
In order to make the type available in large quantities and to different stages of printing, Gutenberg practical the concept of replica casting, which saw letters created in reverse in brass and then replicas fabricated from these molds by pouring molten lead.
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Researchers have speculated that Gutenberg actually used a sand-casting system that uses carved sand to create the metal molds. The letters were fashioned to fit together uniformly to create level lines of letters and consistent columns on flat media.
Gutenberg's process would not have worked as seamlessly equally it did if he had non made his own ink, devised to affix to metal rather than wood. Gutenberg was also able to perfect a method for flattening press paper for use by using a winepress, traditionally used to press grapes for wine and olives for oil, retrofitted into his press press pattern.
Gutenberg Bible
Gutenberg borrowed money from Johannes Fust to fund his project and in 1452, Fust joined Gutenberg as a partner to create books. They set about press calendars, pamphlets and other ephemera.
In 1452, Gutenberg produced the 1 book to come out of his shop: a Bible. Information technology's estimated he printed 180 copies of the ane,300-paged Gutenberg Bible, as many equally 60 of them on vellum. Each folio of the Bible independent 42 lines of text in Gothic type, with double columns and featuring some letters in color.
For the Bible, Gutenberg used 300 carve up molded letter blocks and 50,000 sheets of paper. Many fragments of the books survive. There are 21 consummate copies of the Gutenberg Bible, and 4 complete copies of the vellum version.
Gutenberg's Subsequently Years
In 1455, Fust foreclosed on Gutenberg. In an ensuing lawsuit, all of Gutenberg'due south equipment went to Fust and Peter Schoffer of Gernsheim, Federal republic of germany, a former calligrapher.
Gutenberg is believed to accept continued printing, probably producing an edition of the Catholicon, a Latin lexicon, in 1460. But Gutenberg ceased any efforts at press after 1460, peradventure due to dumb vision. He died in 1468.
Peter Schoffer
Schoffer made utilise of Gutenberg's press as soon as it was acquired, and he is considered to be a technically amend printer and typographer than Gutenberg. Within two years of seizing Gutenberg'south printing, he produced an acclaimed version of The Book of Psalms that featured a three-colour title page and varying types within the volume.
One notable particular well-nigh this edition is the inclusion of a colophon for the very start fourth dimension in history. A colophon is the section of a book that details publication information. Ten copies of this edition of The Volume of Psalms are known to nonetheless exist.
Printing Spreads Through Europe
The spread of press as a trade benefited from workers in Federal republic of germany who had helped Gutenberg in his early printing experiments and then went on to become printers who taught the merchandise to others.
After Germany, Italia became the next recipient of Gutenberg's invention when the printing press was brought to the country in 1465. By 1470, Italian printers began to brand a successful trade in printed matter.
German printers were invited to fix up presses at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1470, and the librarian there chose books to be printed, mostly textbooks, for the students. By 1476, other German printers had moved to Paris and set up private companies.
Spain welcomed German printers in 1473 in Valencia, spreading to Barcelona in 1475. In 1495, Portugal invited printers to Lisbon.
Gutenberg'due south invention was brought to England in 1476 by William Caxton, an Englishman who had lived in Bruges, Belgium, for years. Caxton went to Cologne to acquire to print in 1471 in order to set up a press in Bruges and publish his own translations of various works.
After returning to England, he set upwardly a press in Westminster Abbey, where he worked as a printer for the monarchy until his death in 1491.
Printing Press Changes the World
The worldwide spread of the press printing meant a greater distribution of ideas that threatened the ironclad power structures of Europe.
In 1501, Pope Alexander 6 promised excommunication for anyone who printed manuscripts without the church's approval. Twenty years later, books from John Calvin and Martin Luther spread, bringing into reality what Alexander had feared.
Furthering that threat, Copernicus published his On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, which was seen equally heresy past the church building.
Past 1605, the first official newspaper, Relation, was printed and distributed in Strasbourg. Newspapers appeared all across Europe, formalizing the printing press' contribution to the growth of literacy, education and the far-reaching availability of compatible information for ordinary people.
Sources
The Invention of Printing. Theodore Depression De Vinne.
500 Years of Printing. South.H. Steinberg.
Printer's Error: An Irreverent History of Books. Rebecca Romney.
Scientific discipline and Culture in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Paper and Press. Joseph Needham, Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin.
Cambridge Illustrated History of Cathay. Patricia Buckley Ebrey.
Source: https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/printing-press
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