The Printing Press   1450's

Until the printing press was invented in the 1450's, every book had to be hand-written. (I bet those scribes got some awful writer's cramps!) A printing press is a machine that automates the process of creating books. The press swipes ink across a raised surface and presses it against sheets of paper. Johannes Gutenberg, a businessman from Germany, is said to have invented the printing press in the early 1450's. For many centuries, the Catholic Church was producing most of the books that were available at the time, by hand-copying each one. But then things began to change. Paper was developed and proved to be a good alternative to the animal skin -- or "vellum" as it was called -- that had been available until then. As well, more and more people were learning to read, so the demand for books increased. The scribes simply could not keep up. Gutenberg's machine used individual letters, hand-carved out of metal, that could be removed and re-positioned for each page in a book. Then he would sweep ink over the letters and "press" them on to the paper. Sometime around 1450, Gutenberg succeeding in building his first printing press and began printing bibles in Latin. Unfortunately, they were very expensive: the first bible that Gutenberg produced sold for 30 florins each, or about three years' salary. But the invention was an instant hit and soon many people were printing, and the price of books came down. Lots of people were able to buy them, and this forever changed the way people were able to learn. Today, the printing press is still being used, although the technology of the last 20 years is slowly making the printing press obsolete. But there remain a few daily newspapers that still use the basic design that Gutenberg imagined over 500 years ago.