Gutenberg's innovations were three things -- the adaptation of the press,
oil-based inks and the metal alloys that could withstand repeated
impressions. And those wouldn't have mattered if not for the coincidental
invention of mass production of paper, which was in part due to the
availability of lots of unwanted clothing -- rags -- due to the Black Death,
crop failures and such.
Gutenberg's invention of the printing press is like Wozniak's invention of
the personal computer -- he assembled it from others' inventions and make a
few key contributions such as the SWIM chip.
Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of Andrea Leistra
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 9:36 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Most Important Invention
On Wed, 14 Feb 2001, Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten wrote:
> Patrick Schlichtenmyer schreef:
>
> > Well, my personal vote would have to go to Gutenberg's Printing
Press.
> > Within the last 500 years it has revolutionized the world in which we
> > live in a way that would have been unlikely otherwise.
>
> Didn't the Chineese have a printing press a long time before Gutenberg?
Yes. It was the movable type that distinguished _Gutenberg's_
printing press, and that allowed for the revolution in printing.
--
Andrea Leistra [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"If you can keep your head while all those about you are
losing theirs, perhaps you have misunderstood the situation."
-- Daniel Keys Moran, _The Long Run_
