Printing press

Printing press
A recreated Gutenberg press at the International Printing Museum in Carson, California
ClassificationMachine
ApplicationPrinting
InventorJohannes Gutenberg
Invented1440 (584 years ago) (1440)

A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the cloth, paper, or other medium was brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink and accelerated the process. Typically used for texts, the invention and global spread of the printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium.[1][2]

In Germany, around 1440, the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press, which started the Printing Revolution. Modelled on the design of existing screw presses, a single Renaissance movable-type printing press could produce up to 3,600 pages per workday,[3] compared to forty by hand-printing and a few by hand-copying.[4] Gutenberg's newly devised hand mould made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities. His two inventions, the hand mould and the movable-type printing press, together drastically reduced the cost of printing books and other documents in Europe, particularly for shorter print runs.

From Mainz, the movable-type printing press spread within several decades to over 200 cities in a dozen European countries.[5] By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than 20 million volumes.[5] In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies.[5] By the mid-17th century, the first printing presses arrived in colonial America in response to the increasing demand for Bibles and other religious literature.[6] The operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of printing and lent its name to a new medium of expression and communication, "the press".[7]

The spread of mechanical movable type printing in Europe in the Renaissance introduced the era of mass communication, which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information and (revolutionary) ideas transcended borders, captured the masses in the Reformation, and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. Across Europe, the increasing cultural self-awareness of its peoples led to the rise of proto-nationalism and accelerated the development of European vernaculars, to the detriment of Latin's status as lingua franca.[8] In the 19th century, the replacement of the hand-operated Gutenberg-style press by steam-powered rotary presses allowed printing on an industrial scale.[9]

  1. ^ For example, in 1999, the A&E Network ranked Gutenberg no. 1 on their "People of the Millennium" countdown Archived 29 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine. In 1997, Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg's invention as the most important of the second millennium Friedman, Robert, ed. (1998). The Life Millennium : the 100 most important events & people of the past 1000 years. Life Books, Time Inc.; Distributed by Bulfinch Press. p. 166. Retrieved 20 March 2024.; the same did four prominent US journalists in their 1998 resume 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking The Men and Women Who Shaped The Millennium Archived 3 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. The Johann Gutenberg Archived 14 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine entry of the Catholic Encyclopedia describes his invention as having made a practically unparalleled cultural impact in the Christian era.
  2. ^ McLuhan 1962; Eisenstein 1980; Febvre & Martin 1997; Man 2002
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wolf 1974, 67f. was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ch'on Hye-bong 1993, 12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean (1976). The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800. London: New Left Books. Quoted in: Anderson, Benedict. Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo. Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico, 1993. ISBN 978-968-16-3867-2. pp. 58f.
  6. ^ Bertold, 1970, pp. 20, 26, 39,
  7. ^ Weber 2006, p. 387:

    At the same time, then, as the printing press in the physical, technological sense was invented, 'the press' in the extended sense of the word also entered the historical stage. The phenomenon of publishing was born.

  8. ^ Anderson, Benedict: Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo, Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico 1993, ISBN 978-968-16-3867-2, pp. 63–76
  9. ^ Gerhardt 1978, p. 217