Microsoft Word Image 5 The Rotary Printing Press [obi]. docx

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Image 6.5 
 
THE ROTARY PRINTING PRESS
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The German goldsmith, Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1398–1468), invented moveable-type printing 
using a heavy mechanical press, a special alloy for the type, and an oil-based ink. In 1453, he 
employed twenty printers who out-produced hand-copiers nine fold. Europeans thus gained 
access to vastly more printed material than any people in history, with extraordinary 
consequences in science, ideas, and every aspect of the life of the mind. The image below is of a 
rotary printing, which was invented in 1847. The rotary press was much faster and, along with 
the automatic typesetting machine (1886), it fueled a new printing revolution—this one enabling 
ordinary people in Western societies to buy a wide variety of books and periodicals. 
For a link to the image’s original location online, click 
here
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Image provided courtesy of Old Book Illustrations, from
Dictionnaire encyclopédique Trousset
(c. 1890).