Engineer
Johannes Gutenberg
YOH-hah-nes GOOT-en-berg
Mechanical Engineering
Johannes Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and printer who built the press most directly ancestral to the modern one in Mainz around 1440, combining movable metal type with a mechanical press adapted from wine and paper pressing. Movable type printing had been independently invented earlier in China, where Bi Sheng developed ceramic movable type around 1040, but Gutenberg's combination of metal type, oil based ink and a mechanized press was the version that made rapid, high volume book production practical in Europe for the first time.
Facts
Disputed
Birth YearGutenberg's exact birth year is not recorded; 1400 is the conventionally cited estimate based on guild registration records. Johannes Gutenberg
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FAQs
What happened to Gutenberg's printing business?
Fust foreclosed in 1455 and took his equipment.
In 1455 Johannes Fust foreclosed on Gutenberg. In the lawsuit that followed, all of Gutenberg's equipment went to Fust and Peter Schoffer, a former calligrapher from Gernsheim, Germany.
Connections
Associated With
Developed the movable-type printing press mechanism that mechanized text reproduction.
In Field
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Held Differently
Movable Type Printing, Inventions Why this is disputed. Independently developed movable metal type and a mechanical press in Europe roughly four centuries after Bi Sheng's earlier ceramic movable type in Song-dynasty China.
Invented
Source Printing Press (Wikipedia)
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
In the Other Atlases
Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Sources
1. A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954View the Source Printing Press (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationInvented: Printing Press, Lead section
The printing press was invented by the German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, and its subsequent global spread revolutionized literary production and communication during the early modern period.
Invented: Printing Press, Infobox: inventor
Johannes Gutenberg
View the Source Johannes Gutenberg (Wikipedia)
In Group: Printing and Typewriter Inventors, Lead paragraphQuote, In Group: Printing and Typewriter Inventors, Lead paragraph
was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-type printing press
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