Johannes Gutenberg was born in Germany in 1398. He was born into an upper middle class family of merchants. Not much is known about his early life except that around 1418 his family was no longer in Mainz and he eventually moved to Strasbourg. Records have shown that Gutenberg was at one point in the Strasbourg militia,was possibly a goldsmith, and had knowledge on how to polish gems. Eventually Gutenberg moved back to Mainz and borrowed money to invent a machine that would drastically change the production of books.
Gutenberg is well known for his movable printing press. His invention was derived from the screw type wine presses from the Rhine Valley. His first movable press had wooden or metal letters. Ink would be rolled over the block letters and pressed onto a sheet of paper. The block letters were held in place by a wooden frame.This made publishing mass quantities of books cheaper. Gutenberg is credited with printing the first Bible with the movable type.
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