Printing press
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In the Far East, movable type and printing presses were known but did not replace printing from individually carved wooden blocks as in the Diamond Sutra of AD 868, a Buddhist scripture, the first dated example of block printing [1]. From movable clay type and from movable metal type[2], processes much more efficient than hand copying. The use of movable type in printing was invented in 1041 AD by Bi Sheng in China. Since there are thousands of Chinese characters, the benefit of the technique is not as obvious as in European languages. Nevertheless, the movable type did spur additional scholarly pursuits in Song China and facilitated more creative modes of printing.
Although probably unaware of the Chinese printing methods (with substantial evidence for both sides of argument), Gutenberg refined the technique with the first widespread use of movable type, where the characters are separate parts that are inserted to make the text. Gutenberg is also credited with the first use of an oil-based ink, and using "rag" paper introduced into Europe from China by way of Muslims.
Previously, books were copied mainly in monasteries, where monks wrote them out by hand. Obvously, books were therefore a scarce resource. While it might take someone a year to hand copy a Bible, with the Gutenberg press it was possible to create several hundred copies a year, with two or three people that could read, and a few people to support the effort. Each sheet still had to be fed manually, which limited the reproduction speed, and the type had to be set manually for each page, which limited the number of different pages created per day. Books produced in this period, between the first work of Johann Gutenberg and the year 1500, are collectively referred to as incunabula.
Gutenberg's findings not only allowed a much broader audience to read Martin Luther's German translation of Bible, it also helped spread Luther's other writings, greatly accelerating the pace of Protestant Reformation.
In China, there were no texts similar to the Bible which could guarantee a printer return on the high capital investment of a printing press, and so the primary form of printing was wood block printing which was more suited for short runs of texts for which the return was uncertain.
While the Gutenberg press was much more efficient than manual copying, the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of the steam powered rotary press (invented in the United States by Richard M. Hoe) allowed thousands of copies of a page in a single day. Mass production of printed works flourished after the transition to rolled paper, as continuous feed allowed the presses to run at a much faster pace.
Therefore, the movable type has been credited as the single most important invention of the millennium.
Printing press
Industrial
Later inventions in this field include:
- Lithography
- Offset printing
- Desktop publishing
- Electronic publishing (on CD-ROM or online)
- Computer printer
Related articles
- Typography
- David Bruce
- George E. Clymer
- William Clowes
- National Print Museum of Ireland
- Flexography
- Anilox
![[Main Page]](/web/20040402164733im_/http://en.wikipedia.org/upload/wiki.png)