Blog Post #4, The Printing Press

     

    The Printing Press was a machine that would give the opportunity of mass production of uniform printed matter, which would apply for books, pamphlets and newspapers. This would change the world for years to come and eventually spark newer ideas and inventions stemming from the original printing press. It is unclear when the first printing press was established but Johannes Gutenberg began working with his invention in 1440, and later fully finished it in 1450. The Gutenberg press was interesting because he used a lot of different materials to help him invent the machine, including using metal over wood, and “a sand-casting system” that had used carved sand to create metal molds according to History.com Editors. Gutenberg also made his own Ink and historians say if he had not done that his invention may have not worked. Gutenberg also had a couple of projects of his own on his printing press. Using this machine, he would be able to print out a bible, where he would use up to 300 individual letter blocks and 50,000 pieces of paper. For me it is interesting to see how our printers now would take a lot less than on the printing press and it is interesting to see how it has transformed into what we have now with printers. Guttenberg's invention would spread around Europe, in places such as Italy and Spain.  

    The Printing Press would obviously change the world forever and ever and impact further inventions and ideas. History. Com writes that from Guttenberg's invention a Global Network had been established , where sailors would go around local ports and print pamphlets where they could take them around the world. So, it is interesting to see the aftereffects of the invention and how people would start using it in those times. Something that stood out to me about the after impact of the invention and something that you can tie to modern times, is how this invention could take jobs away from workers. History. Com states that before the printing press, scribes were very valuable and had a huge want, and there would be these trained artisans to go out and hand copy and illuminate manuscripts. This is super interesting because it's exactly something you will see nowadays, for example: factory workers that are being replaced by all these high-tech and advanced machines. You can look at it as the invention of the printing press had started the replacement of all human work. All of this would lead to a new development of printers which would change the industry forever.  

image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Press_skeen_1872_with_description.png/220px-Press_skeen_1872_with_description.png \