Gutenberg's Printing Press - Daily Dose Documentary

Gutenberg’s Printing Press

Johannes Gutenberg stands beside his famous printing press innovation.

While block printing techniques first arose in 868 Tang Dynasty China, the first moveable type was developed around 1040 by Northern Song Dynasty inventor, Bi Sheng, who carved type into clay before baking it into hard blocks that were then arranged onto a frame and pressed against an iron plate. Offering a hint of the intellectual revolution to come, during the Southern Song Dynasty of 1127 to 1279, access to books created an intellectual class in China, while massive book collections became a status symbol of the wealthy class.

Improved Techniques

In 1287, Wang Chen developed a process that made wood type more durable and precise, creating a book on farming practices that became the world’s first mass-produced bestseller. Lagging behind the Chinese by a century and a half, Goldsmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg began experimenting with printing techniques in 1440 Strasbourg France, creating moveable type from metal rather than wood, at the same time devising a method of replication casting, by creating reversed letters in brass before producing large quantities of available type using molten lead.

Even More Refinements

He also perfected his own ink that stuck to metal rather than wood, while developing a method to flatten paper using a winepress. Returning to Mainz Germany in 1450, after years of political exile, Gutenberg began producing his now famous Bible in 1452. By the time of his death in 1468, his invention had spread throughout large parts of Europe, creating a revolution in written knowledge and literacy that sparked the Age of Enlightenment in the late 17th century, thanks to an explosion of easy access knowledge that elevated the minds of nobility and laypeople alike.

Another Revolution Emerges

Now that the world has been consumed by yet another historic revolution—this time in computing and Artificial Intelligence—the realms of human knowledge have pushed far beyond anything Gutenberg could have imaged, making Gutenberg’s printing press, an aha moment in man’s ability to spread the word.