The Printing Press

 According to History, Johannes Gutenberg is credited to inventing the printing press around 1436, although he was far from the first to automate the book-printing process. Gutenberg’s adaptation, which was a screw-type wine press that squeezed down evenly on the inked metal type, was the key to unlocking the modern age. With this newfound ability to inexpensively mass-produce books on every imaginable topic, revolutionary ideas and priceless ancient knowledge were placed in the hands of every literate European, whose numbers doubled every century. The printing press helped pull Europe out of the Middle Ages and accelerate human progress through Global News Networking being launched, powering the scientific revolution, and allowing voices to be heard. German religious reformer, Martin Luther has a famous quote that sums up the role of the printing press in the Protestant Reformation: “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one”. Known for nailing his “95 Theses” to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. This document contained a list of everything he thought was corrupt about the Roman Catholic Church.

 Thanks to the printing press, Luther’s documents 

were being printed in London as quickly as 17 days later. English Philosopher Francis Bacon who’s credited with developing the scientific method, wrote in 1620 that the three inventions that forever changed the world were gunpowder, the nautical compass and the printing press. Elizabeth Einstein wrote a book in 1980’s about the impact of the printing press, expressing that it’s biggest gift to science wasn’t the speed at which ideas could spread, but the accuracy with which the original data was copied. Before the Printing Press, scribes were in high demand. Bookmakers would employ dozens of trained artisans to painstakingly hand-copy illuminate manuscripts. By the late 15th century, the printing press had put this unique skill set out of business. This led to the idea that machines were “stealing jobs” from workers. However, there was now a huge demand for print material that spawned the creation of an entirely new industry of printers, brick-and-mortar booksellers and enterprising street peddlers.