Printing Press

Printing presses have hastened progress on every continent, but the times of the earliest presses and their development varied widely.

Johann Gutenberg (1398—1468) invented the first printing press in Germany. The year was 1440, according to most historians. That press, on which the famous 42-line Gutenberg Bible was printed, is credited with having had a profound influence on Western Civilization.

Before inventing the printing press, Gutenberg had been a goldsmith, a gem-cutter, and an engraver. The key to the success of his invention lay in the single-letter, movable type. The type was made by pouring melted metal alloys into molds.

However, the germ of the basic idea of all printing is found in the engraved seals used in China to make impression in soft clay in the third century BC. Nearly 800 years later, the Chinese put ink on their carved blocks of ideographs, applied paper, and rubbed the back of the paper to make the impressions. The oldest known truly printed piece (AD 768—770) comes from Japan. It is a Buddhist charm, and 1 000 000 copies were printed in the first edition.