Show merica merican n joins in honoring johann gutenberg who gave the world the invention of 0 printing from movable SCOTT WATSON newspaper union fe american can press d dur ir 1940 IS is paying horne home johann guten to ge who y years ears ago in a I 1 workshop in the free d strasbourg now in invented the art the mod makes poss possible ible ws paper li lenbergs enberg s inal invention antton the very of a t technique ech for od ig from lead individual b earing bearing ind individual let emch can be arranged lines for the printing of sand sentences makes possible sible for you to read I 1 is s on this S p page age wide celebrations honor he father of printing in pews newspapers papers are actie actively ay 1 are being held d dur r 1940 throughout the 0 boyear se year W le hemisphere p e r e as the re result lt t y e out outstanding stand I 1 ng promotional I 1 0 of D douglas bugl C ric bian an of tho the invention of bg anniversary committee te lie international association tinting tang house craftsmen Crafts an ration a ti on mad made e up of i g foremen and its and leaders of other MC lc arts groups of gutenbergs bation lion can best be evaluated looking backward into t the he S I 1 before tho the invention of ling bg there were books b be e G tenberg gutenberg U invented printing i movable types but each of bad 0 to o be laboriously la orlou sly handed by a scribe be or copyist ichi ha were required to produce aak ok the size of the average ei 1 when a scribe completed work rork ho he had not the several asand and copies that make up an toa on today but only one co copy py iliew ow for or his efforts the price pric e his js single ingle copy had to include several leveral years salary for the ie e the cost of parchment on ch the book was written and it expensive materials plus 61 t A man who owned a book the e days before Gut gutenberg enber 9 bed ed an object of curiosity to his ebors bibles were so ex ui lye deeven eden few churches could rd a copy because of the rocity and costliness of books re ft was no popular education as know it today and many sue all business busi neBs men in the days ye re gutenberg could neither d cor write they had to call scribes to perform ie simple emple tasks for them inventor born in mainz ahan gutenberg the invent alan 0 an economical process of 14 which made possible lie ilic education and the modern ts paper was born orn of aristo tio tic parents in the free city mainz about the year 1400 4 g his youth he was forced ee mainz and seek refuge in 33 bourg about a hundred s down the rhine because uprising of tradesmen and amen wen against the aristow lic famil families les in his native city here we is evidence that guten I 1 was engaged in his printing Ci ments in strasbourg at 4 las 83 early as 1430 this fact to light in testimony lawsuit it at strasbourg in 1439 ws was occasioned over a part P dispute in this court settled in favor of guten a witness for the inventor lied ed that thre eyears previous ad been paid a sum of money y lor for what had to do with ling en the inventor invent or stated his ling experiments at 9 81 he had may many principles ideas at his disposal which id d assure the success of his ivors acors he had a counter of i the printing press in the IS that had been used for Is es in vineyards for or the ling ing of grapes to make wine its which were being used e eartis artists ts of the period would e to metal and with slight alion serve as printers in 1 the year A D the se i tsai lun invented pad ild although it ft took a thou years rears for the secret of pa snaking to r reach each eu europe rope were ere paper mills in all parts PO by the ti alne ne of guten gute n raper gave the inventor invent or pensive material on which t and d did dd away with the ve P parchment ar cament on an which ee n printed the costly roan man t books chinese had also invented less of wood block print aich 11 was known in europe I 1 time me of gutenberg by av w and cumb cumbersome ersome proc ie portions of a wooden bearing earing text or pictures or which ich wen to appear on a we ere cut away the carved thil Is block w was s inked with color ink a sheet of paper ea atop the inked sura I 1 nd the text or pictures printed sprinted upon the paper balg S the back of the sheet sheat g i A the first printing press such as the one used by johann guten berg who SOO years ago invented printing as we know it today con coll strutted ted almost en entirely ol of wood the inked form was placed on the drawer board of the in the press foreground a sheet of paper was placed over the types and the form pushed under tile the press pressure was applied by the turning of the iron bar and screwing the platen or suspended flat surface against the paper and types only single page impressions a day could be printed with this press modern newspaper presses can call turn out complete newspapers every hour with a padded block it was m much uch more practical for the chinese because of the thousands of symbols in their written lan ian guage to carve out an entire page and then dispose of it after using it than to work out a system for the use of movable types there is evidence that the chinese had experimented with movable or individual types before the time of gutenberg but they had to abandon them because of the multiplicity of symbols in their language there is no evidence that knowledge of these chinese experiments ants with movable types reached europe before the time of gutenberg the latin donatus it is interesting to note that among the very first products of gutenbergs printing press were 17 successive editions of tha donatus a latin grammar so called from the name of its author this inexpensive printed book enabled schoolboys of the early renaissance to speak and write the language which was then the universal language among educated people in every country in europe contrary to popular opinion he completed the printing of these editions of the latin donatus before lie attempted to start work on his az I 1 X earliest known portrait of gutenberg front from a copperplate engraving published in paris in 1584 courtesy ludlow typo type graph company farst famous gutenberg bible w which aich is sometimes erroneously referred to as the first printed book what is believed to be the earliest still existent specimen of printing produced by gutenberg is the fragment of a german poem on the last judgment it was printed ranted about 1445 1440 and and of of R it there ther is preserved for posterity only two sides of one leaf measuring about three and one half by five inches because of its subject matter it Is known to students of printing as the frag I 1 ment of tile the world judgment afeei gutenberg had developed his elpe experiments with printing to a stage of practicable perfection he returned to ills his ar around aund 1440 native city of mainz following his return to mainz gutenberg started n making plans plan for production of hi his s first bible all of the wealth left him by his aristocratic father h had ad been used up experiments and in his earlier on order to carry out P production ro of this bible gutenberg was forced make two large loans from to johann fust it a capitalist pit alist of mainz in 1455 1454 1 5 the same afar at ar in which Is believed to have been completed demanded fust bible the famous repayment of his hia loans plus interest gutenberg was unable to meet busts demands and as tile the result of a lawsuit which followed gutenberg was dispossessed of his work shop ond and printing equipment and the exclusive right to his invention following the tragic court battle with fust gutenberg is known to have set up another smaller printing shop and to have printed a latin dictionary and at least one other edition of 0 the bible the inventor however never prospered in this enterprise and in his last days he was dependent on a financial pension granted him by the archbishop of mainz presumably for his work in pioneering printing after wresting the printing shop and equipment from gutenberg eust bust took with him into partnership a lad named peter who had been one of the scribes of the manuscript books and later one of gutenbergs helpers the firm of fust and was an outstanding financial success and went on to produce some of the most beautiful books of the fifteenth century friend claims press following gutenbergs death early in 1468 the press and equipment in his possession at that time were claimed by a friend dr konrad fl flumere who had bought them for him no one knows where the father of printing is buried there was wag a story that his body had been interred in the church of st francis at mainz but a search for it several years ago proved unavailing gutenbergs claim to the honor of being the inventor of printing with movable types has been questioned in the past and the claims of some rival contenders based largely on legend have been advanced however no competent historian today questions the specific documentary evidence on which rests the tame fame of johann gutenberg although gutenberg never received the financial rewards of the and the fords and many other inventors of 01 this modern era he undoubtedly had the satisfaction faction in his last days of seeing mankind carrying ing on t the work he had so successfully vo pioneered in the twilight of his life ile he saw printers he had trained go into italy and switzerland to establish the first presses there the seventeenth century saw the rise of the most powerful modern manifestation of gutenbergs invention in the form of the printed newspaper the very first printed newspaper in the world was started in germany in 1612 A newspaper began publication in england in the year 1622 americas first printed newspaper to go beyond one date of publication was the weekly boston news letter which first saw the light of day on april 24 1704 the day of the month appears to be a good one on which to start a newspaper for on january 24 1775 there appeared benjamin townes philadelphia evening post americas first dally daily newspaper townes paper had previously been a weekly publication from these pioneers have descended s the thousands of american ameris new newspapers shapers apers sp including this one which have had and are daily exerting such a profound influence on the lives of everyone every word printed in these modern mods newspapers during printing paintings prin tings s an anniversary ary year of 1940 0 is a monument to the inventive genius of johann rautenberg gutenberg |