Silvia Tiberio - Amazing Inventors: A2 (Collins Amazing People ELT Readers)

c.14001468

the man who invented the printing press

I invented a machine to print books the printing press. After my invention, books were cheaper and easier to make. Books spread ideas around the world. I started the information age. But during my life, no one valued my work.

I went to school in Mainz, Germany. When I was young, there were very few books because it took several weeks to make just one copy. Books were written by hand, usually by priests . They wrote with a quill a pen made from a birds feather and it wasnt always easy to read their handwriting. I asked myself, Can I invent a machine to put words on paper? A machine can make more books in less time.

My training as a goldsmith gave me good ideas for a printing press. I started my experiments in Strasbourg in 1436. I had a girlfriend and we were engaged, but I didnt have very much money. So I couldnt get married and do my experiments as well. I had to choose should I get married or continue my work on my printing press? It was so hard to decide that I couldnt sleep at night. Finally, after a lot of thinking, I told my girlfriend, Im really sorry, but I cant get married. I need the money for my experiments.

It was a difficult time. In my town, people had a bad opinion of me. My girlfriend was so angry that she took me to court because I broke my promise. And I was so poor that I had to borrow money to buy materials for my experiments.

In 1440, after four years of hard work, I invented a printing press that worked. It was a wooden press with movable type. To make it work, I made small metal letters and put them in a wooden block . I used the same block to make several copies of the same page. My system was called movable type because you could move the letters from one place in the block to another.

I was very pleased with my invention, but businessmen werent interested in it. In 1444, I decided to open my own workshop . I printed some poems and in 1448, I printed the calendar for the year. I earned some money, but I couldnt pay off my debts .

Johannes Gutenbergs printing press

In 1450, I met Johann Fust, a rich man who gave me 8,000 guilders . His daughters husband, Peter Schffer, started to work with me in my business. Soon my printing press was working again. I did some small jobs for example, I printed some poems.

Next, I wanted to do something big, so I borrowed more money from Fust and printed the GutenbergBible . It was a very beautiful book with 42 lines per page. But the cost of making each bible was much higher than the money I got for selling it. Soon my money problems were much bigger than before. My debt was very big now 20,000 guilders.

My situation was very bad, but things got worse when, in 1455, Fust took me to court. He said, Gutenberg borrowed some money from me to print books and used it to pay for other things! This was not true, but to my surprise, he won the case !

In one day, I lost everything my workshop, my machine and all my materials! The court gave them all to Fust. He used my printing press to open a new printing company with Schffer. Without my machine, I couldnt work or pay off my debts.

After several years, I started printing again, but there was a lot of competition then. There were more than 100 printing companies in Germany and there were printing companies in France and Spain, too. And they all used my idea the movable type system.

My machine changed the world, but no one thought my work was useful during my life. The printing press was a very important invention. With books, people could read and learn. With books, people could share political ideas and ideas about technology. My printing press started the information age.