Printing press

A printing press or printing press, a mechanical press, with which an image, typically a text, is transferred onto a printing material by means of a colored printing form, whereby an imprint is formed. The invention and spread of the printing press, which are widely regarded as the most significant event of the second millennium AD, revolutionizing the communication and information sector and initiated as a transmitter and multiplier of knowledge and ideas largely a world era of early modernity.

The entire printing process was developed in 1440, the Holy Roman Empire of the German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg; Gutenberg modified existing techniques such as the screw press and led to groundbreaking own inventions together to form a closed pressure system. Using its specially created Handgießinstruments could be produced for the first time movable type quickly and accurately in large quantities, a key prerequisite for the efficiency of the whole printing.

The mechanization of the art of printing led to the first assembly line- like mass production of books in history. A single printing press during the Renaissance was on a working print 3,600 pages, compared to forty by hand printing method and a few by copying; Works of spiritual or secular authorities like Luther or Erasmus were sold hundreds of thousands of time in their lifetime.

Starting from a single place Mainz in Germany, the knowledge of printing spread within countries in Europe only a few decades to over two hundred cities in a dozen of. In 1500 the spread over the whole of Western Europe had already produced printing presses over 20 million printed works. With the further spread of the new printing technology, the total production increased in the course of the 16th century by tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies. The maintenance of a print shop went with the operation of a printing press associated so much so that the name of the device is transferred to the new media arm of the press. Already in 1620 wrote the English statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon, that the printing press had given all over the world the things a new face.

Since its inception, the printing press was also considered as an art form and exercised the high aesthetic and artistic demands devoted himself, as in the famous Gutenberg Bible. Nowadays include incunabula of the best kept treasures of large libraries.

The unprecedented impact of the printing press in the wake of Gutenberg to the long- term development of the history of Europe and the world is difficult to capture in its entirety. Analytical approaches include the idea of ​​a real book printing revolution and the emergence of the Gutenberg Galaxy. The wide availability of the printed word at affordable prices promoted the education of the masses and laid the foundation for the emergence of modern knowledge society.

In Renaissance Europe of letterpress rang with movable type, the age of mass communication, a, which was accompanied by a profound social transformation process: the relatively unhindered access to information and ( revolutionary ) ideas overcame state borders, captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the traditional power of the political and religious elites; the steep increase in the literacy rate broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and spiritual upbringing and strengthened the voice of the emerging middle class. Across the continent led the growing cultural self-confidence of the peoples of the emergence of a proto - nationalism, in favor of the vernacular languages ​​was given additional impetus by the gradual displacement of Latin as the lingua franca.

Numerous detail improvements to printing presses were invented and used. In the 19th century took place with the introduction of steam-powered printing presses and presses the transition to industrial mass production. Printing presses and machines spread around the world and the Western printing technology became the basis for mass printing of our time.

• 3.1 mass production and dissemination of the printed book
• 3.2 spread of information and ideas

History

Economic conditions and intellectual climate

The rapid economic and socio-cultural development at the end of the Middle Ages offered favorable conditions for Gutenberg's invention: the entrepreneurial spirit of early capitalism fostered economic thinking in the economy and provided the rationalization of traditional handicraft production feed. The demand for books increased by the growing need for education and the increasing spread of the ability to read in the circles of the middle class in such a way that the conventional, time-consuming method of copying by hand the demand could no longer cover. In this situation, the decentralized state of the late medieval world opened some leeway in order to promote individual solutions without intervention of political and religious instances.

Technical factors

At the same time, the development of a number of medieval products and technological processes had progressed so far that their use for printing purposes was potentially interesting. Gutenberg's merit is to have this far-flung products and processes identified in their value to the printing press, they are brought together to form a complete and functioning system pressure and perfected by a number of its own fundamental inventions and innovations:

The screw press makes it possible to exert direct pressure on a flat surface. Introduced by the Romans in the 1st century AD, they could look back to Gutenberg's time on a long history of diversification: As a wine it was in the Mediterranean as medieval agriculture to Saftwinnung from vines and oil extraction from olive seeds and other oil seeds use. Spindle presses were used in urban textiles as cloth presses very early. Gutenberg may have been inspired by the paper presses which took place since the late 14th century in the German lands dissemination and operated by the same mechanical principle.

By Gutenberg took the basic design for his printing press, he could mechanize the printing process, a crucial prerequisite for the mass production of printed works. However, the Print set different requirements on the machine as the squeezing. Gutenberg adapted the construction in such a way that the crucible to the paper a compression pressure exerted, which was uniform and bouncy at the same time. To speed up the entire process, he introduced a flat and movable lower table on which the sheets could be changed quickly.

The idea of movable type was not entirely new in the 15th century; at least since the 12th century appeared in Europe sporadic references to the knowledge of the typographic principle. Medieval examples of typographical text production, so the consistent reuse of letters to create a whole text, ranging from Germany ( Prüfening consecration inscription ) on Italy ( altarpiece of the Pilgrim II ) to England ( letter tiles). However, the practical suitability of the different techniques ( punches, punches and sequencing of single letter) was too low to be widely prevail can.

Gutenberg is to improve the printing process significantly by established setting and printing as two separate work steps succeeded. By profession, he poured forth a goldsmith his letters metal from a lead alloy, which turned out for the high pressure as so suitable that it is still used today. Was made possible the mass production of metal letters by his key invention of a special Handgießinstruments, the exquisitely suited for fast reproduction of identical types. The use of the Latin alphabet introduced thus represents a tremendous advantage because the typesetter so any text using only could reproduce about two dozen letters.

Another important factor, the low impact on the emergence of such spread of printing was the codex format, were published in the books since Roman times. In a centuries- long process, which is considered to be the most significant development in the history of the book before the invention of printing itself, the codex had the ancient scroll at the outset of the Middle Ages ( around 500 AD ) completely displaced. The Code has over the scroll considerable practical advantages: it is more convenient to read ( by pages scrolls ), compact, cost-effective and, above all, in contrast to the role recto and verso are used for writing and printing.

A fourth development was the rapid mechanization of medieval paper production. The introduction of water-powered paper mills that are occupied safely from 1282 allowed European papermakers a strong increase in production and replaced the laborious manual work as practiced in China and the Muslim world. The number of paper-making centers rose in the late 13th century in Italy steeply, where the stock price dropped to one-sixth of parchment and further decreased; about a hundred years later also took in Germany the first paper mills to operate on.

However, the final breakthrough of the paper seems to have been written object depends less on the rapid spread of printing with movable type. In this context, it is revealing that parchment codices, whose quality is considered as a writing as second to none, yet accounted for a substantial part of Gutenberg's edition of the 42-line Bible. Only after many attempts succeeded in Mainz, to overcome the difficulties which brought about the conventional water- based inks by wetting the paper, and to find a composition for an oil-based ink, which was suitable for high quality printing with metal type.

Gutenberg press

Book Printing Revolution

The printing revolution ( Elizabeth Eisenstein: " Printing Revolution") as a historical key event can be detected in its quantitative dimension, by focusing on the mass production of books and the spread of Gutenberg's printing technology is directed. The printing press can also be examined in terms of their importance as a multiplier of information and ideas, and how their use so contributed to the transformation of European and world society.

Mass production and dissemination of the printed book

The invention of the mechanical printing press with movable type led to an explosion of European book printing activities within only a few decades. Starting from a single print shop in Mainz ( Germany ) widened the art of printing to the end of the 15th century from no less than 271 cities across Central and Western Europe. Already around 1480 printer had, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Bohemia and Poland started operations in 110 locations in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands; from this time, it is believed, there was the printed book in common use in Europe.

In Italy, an early center of the ' black art ', and 1500 printers have been opened in 77 cities. By the end of the following century had been active in 151 different places of the country's total nearly three thousand printer. Despite the wide spread soon began to emerge production centers; so had a third of the Italian printer of Venice.

By the year 1500 printing presses throughout Western Europe had produced more than twenty million printed works. In the following century the total circulation rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies.

European printing press around 1600, had a print capacity of approximately 3,600 pages per workday. For comparison: In the Far East, where presses were unknown and only driver manually prints were made ​​, the daily production did not exceed the threshold of forty.

The huge pressure available capacity meant that individual authors could now ascend to true bestsellers: from the works of Erasmus (1469-1536) alone were sold during his lifetime at least 750,000. At the beginning of the Reformation princes and Pope were surprised by the revolutionary potential of the ground pressure alike: Alone in the short period from 1518 to 1524 climbed the book production in Germany increased sevenfold in the height; 1518-1520 circulated in the country 300,000 printed copies of Luther's treatises.

The enormous time savings through the typographical text production as well as the drastic reduction in production costs prepared the publication of the first newspapers the field ( see relation), which presented the public with a completely new source of information.

Lasting legacy of the time are the incunabula, sustaining pressure works from the 15th century, belonging to the treasured core component of many renowned libraries in Europe and North America.

Spread of information and ideas

Stanhope press

The British politician and inventor Charles Stanhope built around 1800 a first iron printing press.

Pressure capacity

The table below lists the performance of various maximum printing presses on the hour.