Drew's Media Spot: Each One Teach One: The Printing Press

Paper, and printing, is not even close to being a new concept. The Printing Press, that has led us to every information renaissance in the past 700 years, wasn't the first model. Centuries of innovation led to the Printing Press we know so much about. First came the ancient wine and olive press which utilized a large wooden handle to press a hefty wooden screw. This heavy machinery was attached to wooden block words. This invention led to a similar medieval printing press. The problem with this was that the wood would split after a few print. I was also painfully slow, with production at 250 sheets a minute. These ideas came from the east, along with he paper. The whole world was racing to find a better, easier, quicker way to produce written word.

The beginning of the 15th century ushered in a new era of art and thought, The Renaissance was coming. As this period spread to Spain, Germany, France, and England there was growth and economic prosperity as a result of peace and the decline of the plague and famine. The world was waiting for new good things to happen again.

The block printing method had made its way to Europe around the 13th century and since then innovators had been working and perfecting new ways of printing. The first to get it just right went by the name Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg was a nobleman from Maiz, Germany who worked as a goldsmith and stonecutter. This profession, which had been passed down for generations, is arguably what led him to the winning design of the printing press. Much like the previous presses there were levers and pulleys, but this one was newly mechanized. In addition the blocks were now individual letters that could be rearranged in sentence order. They were made from an alloy mixture of lead, tin, and antimony, a Gutenberg special. The first known mention of Gutenberg and his press was in 1439 in Strasberg.

This period of Renaissance was heavily defined by the monarchy and the church. Men were receiving new humanistic educations that were meant to prepare them for careers in the church or in civil life since there weren't as many wars to fight or people to heal.

The printing press only enhanced this education. The efficiency of the press made books much less expensive so people of many different social casts could afford them for the first time. There was also time to print books about cooking, science, art, as well as philosophy and new religious ideas. It created space for a new social, political, and economic thought wave. The printing press ushered in an"informational revolution" much like the Internet did hundreds of years later. Because of printing, new ideas were spread, and made or accessible, then ever before. The Printing Press forever effected information, especially in the church and in science, as we know it today.

book printing