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Jan 1, 1436
The Printing Press
Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith and inventor, created the printing press, a large wooden and/or metallic device used to produce printed pages at unbelievable speed...well, at the time. It consisted of many blocks with the mirrored version of each letters/character within them. Gutenburg had also created his unique oil-based ink, as opposed to the previous water-based ink. http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/mcdonald/incunabula/gutenberg/ -
Steam Rotary Press
Richard March Hoe aspired to make some changes to the previous flat printing press that the company had been using in order to improve efficiency when he took over his late father's company. He created the steam rotary press, which consisted of a large rotating cylinder. Because of its high output rate, many commercial/industrial companies (specifically newspaper companies) began to use it. https://aehistory.wordpress.com/1843/10/08/1843-steam-powered-rotary-drum-printing-invented/ -
Xerox
Chester Carlson, the creator of the Xerox machine, revolutionized the printing industry during the information era. It introduced the ability to copy pages, and it was able to produce many, many pages in such short period of time that many offices around the world adopted its use. It took the concept of the rotary press and "electronified" it, dealing with photoreceptors, toner (which is the "ink"), electric fields and such. https://www.xerox.com/en-us/innovation/chester-carlson-xerography -
Inkjet Printer
Once Inkjet printers entered the market, printers had started to appear in consumers' homes. It became a uniform thing to own a printer at your house. Quality of printing had increased because of the better technology, and due to its method of injecting little droplets of ink onto the white paper, revolutionizing the Xerox machine and making it much more compact, colored ink had started to come into play. http://www.castleink.com/category/73/Inkjet-Printers-A-History-Lesson.html?language=en -
3D Printer
Believe it or not, the 3D Printer is much more older than you think. The very first commercial 3D printer was based on a vat photopolymerization technique called 'stereolithography'. It was created by Charles Hull, and it was not like traditional printers. It turns 3D models into real objects by building up the object in extremely small layers. Although it seems like such a revolutionary innovation, we're still working towards perfecting it. http://www.explainingthefuture.com/3dprinting.html
