The+Printing+Press+(Emily+6-2)

**The Printing Press**

Johannes Gutenberg made the printing press in about 1440. Johannes Gutenberg was born in Mainz in 1398 and died in 1468. Gutenberg worked in a mint before he started to work on the printing press and some people think that is where he got his skills to help invent the printing press. The printing press was originally made in German. After a while other languages were used on the printing press.





Gutenberg invented a mold which was a lot of letters that were all the same size and made of hot metal.

When the letters had been made then you would make words and sentences for whatever you were writing. Then you would lay your sentences on a frame and put ink on the piece of paper. First Gutenberg had made water base ink but the ink wouldn’t stick to the type so he made ink that had oil in it because oil is a little sticky. To make the ink black Gutenberg added copper, lead, and other metals too. Then you put a piece of paper over a frame. Then a flat wooden plate would be lowered onto the piece of paper by turning a wheel on the side of the printing press. The printing press could print about 300 pages every day. The printing press was about six feet tall.

Gutenberg kept his invention the printing press a secret. But Gutenberg needed to borrow money to make the printing press so he asked to borrow money from three men but the men wanted to make sure that they would get their money back. But because Gutenberg wouldn’t say what he was making the men sued him. In the end he was forced to tell his secret, but was so sure that people would copy his idea that he would “disappear” for long periods of time.

The printing press changed history. Before the printing press books were hand written so they cost a lot of money. But when the printing press was invented children started to learn to read because more books were being made so they were less expensive. Without Johann Gutenberg we might not have a more advanced “printing press” today.



The first words written on the printing press were "and then there was light".



Sources: Johann Gutenberg By: Michael Pollard The Printing Press By: Ann Heinrichs The Renaissance By: Tim Wood www.wikpedia.com www.mce.k12tn.net www.learner.org www.writinggreen.blogspot.com www.mr_sedivy.tripod.com www.ideafinder.com www.inventers.about.com www.library.thinkqueat.org www.gutenberg.de.com www.nwlink.com www.peachtree-online.com www.cicsworld.org

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