The Printing Press: Impacting the World

1. The Printing Press:Impacting the World

2. Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg 1398 -1468

3. Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg • Born to a wealthy merchant family in 1398 in the city of Mainz, Germany. • Early life unknown • Was never financially successful • Johannes studied at the University of Erfurt in 1419. • In 1448, using a loan from his brother-in-law Arnold Gelthus, Gutenberg began developing a moveable type printing press.

4. By 1450, the Gutenberg printing press was in full operation printing German poems. • Not until 1504 was Gutenberg credited for inventing typography • With the financial aid of Johann Fust, Gutenberg published his 1282 page Bible consisting of 42 lines per page. • This bible was commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible and is considered the first mass-produced book in history due to 180 copies printed!

5. Gutenberg’s Printing Press’ Timeline • 1398 was born , Mainz Germany • 1419 Studied at Erfurt University, Germany • 1448 borrowed loan from Arnold Gelthus • 1450 Printing Press operation in full swing • 1469 Printing Press brought to England • 1476 Printing Press craft is perfected • 1638 Printing Press brought to Cambridge, MA • 1690 Printing Press is perfected in Germantown PA

6. William Caxton& English Literature The printing press was first brought to England by William Caxton in 1469 in order to sell books to English nobility. The first piece of English printing, A Letter of Indulgence by John Sant, ushering in a new era for English literature. The first book printed was History of Troy, which had great success and allowed Caxton to craft his own printing press in Michaelmas, England in 1476.

7. Printing Press Arrives in America British Settlers often established printing presses to provide spiritual text for colonists. One of the first presses set up was located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Printers often produced their own paper using the same techniques used in England. In 1690, William Rittenhouse (Rittenhausen), a German printer who learned fine Dutch paper making practices, revolutionized American printing when he established the first American paper mill in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Printers now had access to cheaper paper and more time to work on their trade.

8. Despite news of Gutenberg’s printing press spreading throughout Europe, people did not adapt quickly. In the 15th century, literacy was confined to a small elite group of the wealthy. A small percentage of people who could read, therefore the demand for books was small. The practice of hand-copying books, which was done for centuries by monks and scholars produced a low output of expensive books with many mistakes. Still, the early printing press was slower and more expensive than hand-copying. Written word was still preferred and relatively cheap, portable, and a rapid method for storing and transmitting information.

9. In the 17th century it was necessary that printers begin exploring sources 0f paper because the worldwide production of paper lagged behind the capability of the printing press. • In America when the printing press became popular it led to paper shortage which hurt newspaper businesses. • In order to fix this shortage, linens from mummy wrappings were imported from the East. • Mummy wrappings and rags were mixed and turned into pulp to create mummy paper. • On average, the linens from a single mummy could supply two average 17th century Americans for a year! • It came with a downside however – brown/dark discoloration, oil. And botanical residue, while also angering archaeologists due to the decreased supply.

10. The most effective paper is made from pulped plant fiber which originated in China in 105 A.D. When the process spread to Europe from the Arabs in the sixteenth century, Europeans used the pulp of cotton and linen rags because they were available in large quantities Beginning in 1850, paper producers began to use wood as the primary source of plant fiber because it was abundant. However, wood grinders at the time were not effective enough to produce pulp: there were often solid chunks of wood which led to low quality paper.

11. The Hoe Press • The greatest printing press improvement came from Richard Hoe in 1847 when he engineered a rotary printing press. • Instead of laying movable type on a flat bed, the type was set onto the outside of a large cylinder. Paper was then placed on a flat bed. • When the cylinder was rotated, paper would feed into the machine with high pressure between the flat bed and cylinder, thus allowing contact for the ink to be imprinted onto the paper. • This inventory further improved the press, called the Hoe press or lightning press, by adding another cylinder. In addition, using even more cylinders, Hoe devised a machine that could print of both sides of a continuous piece of paper patented by France’s Nicholas Louis Roberts in 1798.

12. How do you think the printing press affected religion, science, thought, language, or social classes?

14. Science & Technology Printing press relied on the use of ink. Dating back to 15,000 B.C.E. humans reordered on surfaces such as cave walls, tree bark, stone, clay, wood ,wax, metal, papyrus, vellum, parchment, and paper! Printers were constantly looking for new material due to the insufficient surfaces being printed on. Expenses were high in cost for certain materials and deteriorated quickly i.e.; Papyrus, (compressed sheets of Egyptian reed stalk), Vellum and parchment (prepared skin of cow, lamb, goat, and sheep).

15. Science • Allowed the acquisition of new and radical ideas. • Facilitated communication between scientists. • Helped to usher in the Scientific Revolution (The Scientific Method). • Standardized information.

16. Literacy Rates & Material Demand Skyrocket. • As the population became more literate and the newspaper became more popular into mid-eighteenth century, the demand for printed material skyrocketed. • People were interested in reading the news! • The first breakthrough came in 1812 when Friedrich Koenig and Friedrich Bauer invented the steam-powered press. This press was able to print 1,100 newspapers per hour, approximately four times the speed of manual presses.

17. Religion • Most laity (ordinary people) required interpretation of the Bible by church officials. • The advent of cheap, widely-available Bibles allowed many to interpret the Bible for their self. • Moveable type allowed the spread of Martin Luther’s Reformation of the Catholic Church.

18. Thought • Means of permanently recording information. • Allowed spread of information to be much more rapid. • Increased access to prior information, which could be expanded upon. • Exact citing of references (one author, one work, one piece of information).

19. Language is another important consideration to printing. Printers who used moveable type printing presses had to hand lay each letter that they wanted to print; thus, the printer needed to cast each letter to be able to print. • Moreover, the same letter was often used multiple times for each press indicating that it is necessary to cast many of the same letters. • A language with more letters, such as Chinese, requires a vaster base set of letters compared to a language such as English. Movable type for languages that have fewer letters is easier to replace and manufacture.

20. Language • Standardized language in Europe. • Written materials were not common or sufficiently circulated to provide a standard of proper writing styles. • Dialect and spelling conventions that made their way into print became the standard. • Most other dialects and variant spellings died out over time.

21. Social Class • Created a Middle Class from the peasant society. • Hand printed books were only affordable to the Upper Class. • Affordable books allowed Lower Class to become educated and gain rights. • Before moveable type, it was impossible to change social standing.

22. Think of an invention from the 20th or 21st century that you think has had an impact on the spread of knowledge that is most similar in scope to that of the printing press.Be prepared to defend your answer by giving reasons to your choice.