What is Printing Press ?

It is no coincidence that was also a time of enormous change in cultural and religious change across the continent. These would ultimately change the course of Europe's history and culminate in the Protestant Reformation.

Never before had intellectual and religious leaders had a means of spreading their teachings beyond a limited congregation at any one time. Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant movement, would quickly take advantage of this

The printing press "meant more access to information, more dissent, more informed discussion and more widespread criticism of authorities,” observes the British Library.

According to Mark U. Edwards (Harvard Divinity School), the printing press provided a means to "shape and channel mass movement [in ideas]". Simply put without the printing press it is unclear whether the Reformation would ever have occurred.

Between 1500 and 1530, Martin Luther produced literally hundreds of pamphlets in German - a total of 20% of all pamphlets produced at the time

By using the printing press in this manner the Catholic church lost it hegemonic control of written materials and, more importantly, made it near impossible for them to halt the spread of 'heretical ideas'.

This is important for many reasons but ultimately it can be seen as an enormous shift in political thinking that would forge the later technological and societal development of the nations of Europe. It was, to borrow a phrase, "a really big deal".

The first books to ever be printed on Gutenberg's press was his, now famed, Gutenberg Bible. These became incredibly popular and a total of 200 copies were produced in short order.

In fact, they were so popular that many were sold long before they had actually been printed.

The contents of his bible were based on the versions currently circulating around the Rhine area of Germany between the 14th and 15th centuries. His version would become the de facto standard version for bibles thereafter and would form the template for all future biblical texts.

The printing press would ultimately lead to some major reforms across the continent. The rapid production and easy spread of standardized texts would provide thinkers (religious, scientific or otherwise) a means of mass-producing texts and spreading them with relative ease.

its creation books could be mass-produced on a scale that hand-written texts simply could not compete with in terms of volume and price.

Printing presses would dramatically reduce the cost of book production and, with easier access to texts, consequently dramatically increase the literacy rates of Europe's citizens.

It also laid the foundations for facilitated research and scientific publishing, which birthed the Renaissance movement. The importance of this cannot be underestimated for the history and development of Europe and the world at large.

The printing press demolished centralized control and censorship of published materials and allowed new ideas to literally 'spread like wildfire' in a manner never seen before.

It also led to new professions and trades being developed from printers becoming artisans to proofreading and, arguably graphic design, to name but a few becoming wholly new occupations. Occupations that still exist to the modern day.

The modern world would be a very different place without Gutenberg and his printing press.

Printing press, machine by which text and images are transferred to paper or other media by means of ink. Although movable type, as well as paper, first appeared in China, it was in Europe that printing first became mechanized.

The earliest mention of a printing press is in a lawsuit in Strasbourg in 1439 revealing construction of a press for Johannes Gutenberg and his associates.

The invention of the printing press itself obviously owed much to the medieval paper press, in turn modeled after the ancient wine-and-olive press of the Mediterranean area.

A long handle was used to turn a heavy wooden screw, exerting downward pressure against the paper, which was laid over the type mounted on a wooden platen

In its essentials, the wooden press reigned supreme for more than 300 years, with a hardly varying rate of 250 sheets per hour printed on one side.

Metal presses began to appear late in the 18th century, at about which time the advantages of the cylinder were first perceived and the application of steam power was considered.

By the mid-19th century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected a power-driven cylinder press in which a large central cylinder carrying the type successively printed on the paper of four impression cylinders, producing 8,000 sheets an hour in 2,000 revolutions.

The rotary press came to dominate the high-speed newspaper field, but the flatbed press, having a flat bed to hold the type and either a reciprocating platen or a cylinder to hold the paper, continued to be used for job printing.