History

Developments in the Movable Technology 


TECHNOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Research Question: How has the movable print technology changed over time since its invention?

Thesis Statement

The technology of movable print has changed since its inception in the 11th century to mod- ern day. This paper will give the account of the transformation of movable print since 11th century to the modern day and how it impacted the lives of the people during the various stages of civilization.

Annotated Bibliography

Crompton, Samuel Willard. The Printing Press: Transforming Power of Technology. New

York: Infobase Publishing, 2004.

This book provided the history of development of the printing press from the ages of scribes, scrolls, and parchment, to early printing in China, Japan, and Korea to the age of every man his printer and the personal computer. It describes the processes of development and change that happened at every stage of development. It also gives an account of how every develop- ment impacted the people who lived during that time and covers all the times stated in the thesis statement. The thesis statement is to give account of the transformation of the technol- ogy of printing, this book will provide the necessary resources.

History World. HISTORY OF PRINTING. 2001. http://www.historyworld.net/about/ sources.asp?gtrack=pthc(accessed November 4, 2016).

This article looks at the history of printing from the earliest recorded time when it was in use and discuss the changes it went through and the impacts it were having on different ages. Special interest is paid to the periods when it made significant impacts to the civilization like the 11th century when the movable print was discovered in China and 14thcentury when Gut- tenberg made his inventions to the modern age. This article is considered as an important re- source in this paper because it provides information that is needed to details and is prepared by a worldwide history website.

McLuhan, Marshall, W Terrence Gordon, Elena Lamberti, and Dominique Sche. The Guten- berg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011.

The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man is a book that was published by the University of Toronto. This book links the history of development of printing press to the ef- fects it had in the society especially to the Europeans. The authors states that the technology was not simply an invention but the mean by which people are re-invented. The authors gives the significance of the invention of movable type. The author documents myriad of impacts that the invention of the movable prints had on the society. This book was used as a resource for this research paper it gives the development of the movable type and the impact it had on different generations as it evolved.

Park, Hye Ok. "The History of Pre-Getenberg Woodblock and Movable Type Printing In

Korea." International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2014: 9-16.

This article presents the early history of printing technology in Korea since its inception around 7th century to around 14th Century when Guttenberg revolutionized movable prints. This article is consistent with the thesis statement since it discusses the developments in printing before 14thCentury and of course pre-1700. Although there have been arguments that movable print started at China, this paper presents evidence that Korea had its own form of development. The article also looks at how the technology was used to active exchange in- formation and knowledge during that time. This article is acceptable for use because it is pub- lished at an international journal and it is peer-reviewed.

Smith, Scott S. Gutenberg's Press Roused A Learning Revolution Innovate: His printing rolled out words for the world. November 12, 2013. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/ detail/detail?sid=123a6705-65dc-4161-91c3-300b100e412b %40sessionmgr107&vid=1&hid=103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU %3d#AN=91922357&db=bth(accessed November 5, 2016).

This article presents, in details, what Gutenberg did to the technology of movable print. Ac- cording to this article, Gutenberg did not invent the printing press, rather, he used others’ cre- ations like the ink, movable metal type, as well as simple paper press and improved them. The article discusses what Gutenberg did with the creations and the contribution that his new creation could achieve. The article states that he produced a complete system that could mass-produce any text. This article is important for this research paper because the technolo- gy addressed in this paper was built around Gutenberg as he made the first printing. This is in line with the thesis.

The development in Movable Print Technology

Printing is as old as 2nd to 8th century when printing was done by engraving texts on stones. Around AD 175, the emperor of China had ordered scholars to carve the six classics of Confucians on stones. The scholars, instead of having these expensive carvings, they could then lay pieces of papers on these carvings and rub them all over with charcoal or graphite to take away white letters on a black background. This technology developed better among the Buddhists and not the Confucians. In 750, the Buddhists in Korea made the earliest known document, sutra, on a single piece of paper. Japan could then experiment on mass circulation. In 768, Nara the Buddhist empress commissioned a huge edition of a lucky charm or prayer. Through this experiment, a million copy were that took six years and distributed to pilgrims. The first book was printed in 868 AD in China (History World 2001). This was a scroll that was 26 ft. long and a foot high made of sheets of paper glued together at their edges. The text was of the Diamond Sutra and had added distinctions on the first sheet. It was also the first printed illustration. These types of printing were made for religious purposes and were com- missioned by the dynasties for the purpose of conserving the religious beliefs for posterity. After this technology, the following technology would be cutting round the characters on pieces of wood that happened between the 9th -11th century (Crompton 2004). The white areas on the page were carefully cut away until the remaining parts of the flat surface represented the shapes to be printed whether a text or images. The Chinese practiced publishing around 10th-11th century. The Chinese had made prints from wood blocks, the Confucians classics were published for the use of scholar officials as well as huge number of Buddhists and Daoistworks.

The movable type could then be invented in the 11th century. This was a necessary step before printing could become an efficient medium to disseminate information (Park 2014). Separate ready-made characters or letters which could be arranged in the correct order for a particular text and then reused were made. This concept was experimented by Chinese as early as 11th century. However, two considerations made the experiment not practical; Chi- nese script had so many characters that type-casting and type-setting was very complex and Chinese printers cut their characters in clay and then fire them and the substance was too fragile for the purpose. Nevertheless, this challenge could be overcome in Korea in the 13th Century when the Koreans established a foundry that was cast movable type in bronze.

Bronze was sufficiently strong for repeated printing as well as dismantling and resetting for a new text. The Koreans made the earliest known book printed from movable type using this technology around 1377. This was a collection of Buddhists that was used as a guide for stu- dents. The existing volume of the published work remains and shows the date of its printing as well as the name of the priest who assisted in compiling the type (History World 2001). During this time, the Koreans were using the Chinese texts and encountered many problems prompting them to invent their own alphabet around 1443. At the same time, coincidentally however, Gutenberg was experimenting with his movable type in Europe that could take ad- vantage of an alphabets for more than 200 years.

Gutenberg Contribution to Movable Print

Even though Gutenberg made what became as one of the most important discoveries in Europe and worldwide, it started as a controversial adventure. The first mentions of his printing technology, happened around 1439 when he was sued by his business partners in Strasbourg where a witness described his stock as press and a supply of metal type. Later on around 1450, Gutenberg borrowed 800 guilders and used his printing equipment as the secu- rity. One of his very important contributions was the development of printing press that could apply a rapid but steady downward pressure. He also mastered the complex stages, with his experience with metal, in the manufacture of individual pieces of types helping him to create a master copy of each letter and developing a suitable allow in which to cast hem. This came before the work of arranging the individual letters, aligning and spacing them in a forme to hold them firm and level to facilitate the transfer of ink evenly to the paper. This was the ba- sics of printing work (McLuhan, et al. 2011). The success of Gutenberg culminated in the making of the publication of full-lengthBible in Latin. A book known as the Mainz psalter was the first book to be made in this technology. The new technology spread so fast.

Bibliography

Crompton, Samuel Willard. The Printing Press: Transforming Power of Technology. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2004.

History World. HISTORY OF PRINTING. 2001. http://www.historyworld.net/about/ sources.asp?gtrack=pthc (accessed November 4, 2016).

McLuhan, Marshall, W Terrence Gordon, Elena Lamberti, and Dominique Sche. The Guten- berg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011.

Park, Hye Ok. "The History of Pre-Getenberg Woodblock and Movable Type Printing In Ko- rea." International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2014: 9-16.

Smith, Scott S. Gutenberg's Press Roused A Learning Revolution Innovate: His printing rolled out words for the world. November 12, 2013. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/ detail/detail?sid=123a6705-65dc-4161-91c3-300b100e412b %40sessionmgr107&vid=1&hid=103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU %3d#AN=91922357&db=bth (accessed November 5, 2016).

Comments: Always double space academic papers. Thesis is not quite there – needs to be to the point and taking a position (“movable type led to increased literacy” or “movable type caused the religious reformation…”) (see: http://www.umuc.edu/current-students/ learning-resources/writing-center/writing-resources/index.cfm). I did not review the written portion (which I am guessing is part of your mid-term paper) but I did notice you were not using Chicago style in your citations (see: http://sites.umuc.edu/library/lib- how/chicago_examples.cfm).

Grade: 88