Johannes
Gutenberg, who
passed away on 3 February 1468, was a German craftsman and inventor who
originated a method of printing from movable type. Elements of his invention
are thought to have included a metal alloy that could melt readily
and cool quickly to form durable reusable type, an oil-based ink that could be
made sufficiently thick to adhere well to metal type and transfer well to
vellum or paper, and a new press, likely adapted from those used in producing
wine, oil, or paper, for applying firm even pressure to printing surfaces. None
of these features existed in the European technique used up to that time for
stamping letters on various surfaces or in woodblock printing.
Gutenberg’s printing press was considered a history-changing invention,
making books widely accessible and ushering in an “information revolution.”
Gutenberg was long thought to have also
invented the punch-matrix system of casting metal type (in which a
character engraved on one end of a hard metal rod, the punch, was used to
strike an impression into a softer metal plate, the matrix, into which
molten metal was poured to form any number of virtually identical pieces of
type). However, in the early 2000s a computer-aided analysis of Gutenberg’s
printed work showed that there was too much variation in characters of a given
sort (e.g., the letter i) for his type to have been cast that way.
Some scholars now think that the punch-matrix system emerged several years
after Gutenberg’s death.
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