History
Although the knowledge of casting soft metals in moulds was well established before Johannes Gutenberg's time, his discovery of an alloy that was hard, durable, and would take a clear impression from the mould (because it did not shrink as much as lead alone when cooled) represents a fundamental aspect of his solution to the problem of printing with movable type. (His other contributions were creation of inks that would adhere to metal type and a method of softening handmade printing paper so that it would take the impression well.)
The enormous effort to create an alloy with the characteristics needed in an ideal type metal is often underestimated.
Read more about this topic: Type Metal
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If usually the present age is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.”
—Josiah Royce (18551916)
“Dont you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, theres never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why its a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
—Howard Estabrook (18841978)
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)