JOHANNES
GUTENBERG: THE MAN BEHIND PRINTING PRESS
BY ADNAN MANZOOR, CIVIL, 2ND SEMESTER
Who knows “ Jhonnaes Gutenberg ” not many, but the
sad part of it is that even the educated people from different parts of the
world don’t know this name. The man often credited with the invention of printing press without which of
our so called modern life would not have been as it is . Gutenberg was born in
1400 AD in the city of Mainz Germany. A blacksmith, goldsmith, & publisher
by profession, Gutenberg is the man who introduced printing to Europe. He was
the youngest son of the upper class merchant Gensfeisch Laden and his second
wife Else Wyrich.
In 1411, there was uprising in Mainz
against the Patricians (Aristocrats)
& more than a hundred families were forced
to leave. As a result, Gutenberg
with
his family moved to Eltville. He is assumed to have studied at the University located
somewhere in Berlin. Although not much is known about his life, but his
contribution as is recognized universally was developing a movable type of
printing press. Gutenberg developed a metal alloy printing press which was much
improved than earlier versions and he used oil based printing ink for it.
Before Gutenberg, Chinese and Koreans had
excelled in the field of printing but he is important principally because he
combined all the elements of printing into an effective system of production.
Now when we think of mass production in printing, Gutenberg was no less than a
genius here he too what he developed was not a single gadget or device, but a
complete manufacturing process which could print hundreds of copies at a time.
Gutenberg died at the age of 60 in the same
city where he was born. His work, “Gutenberg’s Bible”, was printed in 1454 AD.
“ The measure of a man’s greatness
is not the number of servants he has, but the number of people he serves.”
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