original template by Ray Lam, Fall 97

revised template by Rachel Shorey, Spring 98

In 1452 Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press. Gutenberg had the idea of utilizing techniques of metalworking, such as casting, punch-cutting, and stamping, for the mass production of books. Most of his life was devoted to the development of this idea. He was born into a noble family in Mainz, Germany where he was trained in goldsmithing. At the age of 33 Johannes went to Strasbourg for twenty years, and this is where he presumably got the inspiration to build the printing press. After returning to Mainz in 1453, he began to work on the 42 line Latin Bible. The first test of the printing press, the Latin Bible, was completed on August 15, 1456. This was the first mass production of books ever made on Earth.

The printing press is a slab on which you could put letters. When the letters have ink, the printing press can write a page in seconds. Before the printing press almost all books were written by hand by the monks. This was a very painstaking process and if there was a need for more than one copy of a book, they would have to write again. Once you put the letters on the printing press, you could make an endless number of copies instead of having to rewrite it. The printing press was one of the most important steps forward in technology for the human race. It made possible libraries, magazines and series of books. This was not possible before the printing press.

It was a cold stormy night in Mainz, Germany and Johan Gutenburg sat down to a cup of cold coffee. He had just come back from a long journey in southern Europe and was extremely tired. Being a goldsmith was very difficult work because he did not live in a wealthy area. Luckily he had inherited money from his parents who had been rich. As he sat drinking his coffee he thought about books. Johan wondered if there was a faster and less expensive way to make books than to hire monks to write them. As he was pondering the idea of having magician write books with their minds, a piece of iron on the ceiling fell and hit him on the head. After he came to, he went to a mirror to wipe the blood off. He noticed that the iron piece had left an indentation of an A on his forehead. Following his examination at the mirror he went to bed. Suddenly, without warning, he awoke in the middle of the night. He realized that if a piece of metal could make an impression on his head then it could make an impression on a piece of paper with ink.

The next day he reported in sick and pulled out his drafting paper to try to design something that would write books faster. He was making and throwing away designs until late in the afternoon when he designed one that he thought would work. He knew a machine maker where he could get a prototype made very inexpensively. While he waited for the next month and a half for the prototype, he could not get any work done at the goldsmithing shop because he was so nervous.

When he saw the crate with the finished prototype come to his house, he almost hit the ceiling, but did not, fearing more iron pieces falling and hitting his head. Everything was there. Even the metal pieces used for letters had been molded. All he had to do was test it. It worked perfectly. He was able to write what a monk would write in a day in about five to ten minutes. After the final press was made, the first book he mass produced was the Latin Bible in 1455. After this he went on to bigger and better things, selling printing presses all over the world and making books easy to find and buy. Unfortunately this fame went to his head and he later went on to be a very conceited person who would never thank the people who helped make him famous.