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Jan 1, 1440
Johannes Gutenberg made the first working prototype of the printing press.
Although Gutenberg began designing this machine in 1436, he had only established the basics of the printing press by 1440. The environment was effected by the toxic inks that were used which let off harmful fumes which endangered peoples safety and the natural atmosphere. The printing press also affected society by helping the literate demographic increase drastically. http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/mcdonald/incunabula/gutenberg/ -
Jan 1, 1450
Johannes Gutenberg created the Metal Movable Type.
The metal movable type let printers rearrange and reuse the same type over and over again, which woodblocks could not do. Some effects on society that the metal movable type had were that it helped preserve ideas and make information more reliable. The metal movable type had been adapted by changing the blocks with the letters on it from wood to metal so that printing would be efficient and reliable. http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/gutenbergmovable.html -
Fredrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer built the first steam powered printing press
The purpose of this printing press was that it would require less man power to print what was needed. This socially effected the world by allowing news and information to be spread even quicker and and cheaper than ever before. https://www.psprint.com/resources/printing-press/ -
Richard March Hoe invented the steam powered rotary drum printer
The new innovation used a revolving cylinder that the paper ran underneath, which decreased the amount of time needed for a printing job. This socially effected society by revolutionizing communication. There was also a major increase in literature and the information that the public was receiving. https://www.britannica.com/technology/rotary-press -
Chester Carlson made the first Xerox printer
Carlson originally created a process called electrophotography, which was a six step process which transfered an image from one surface to another. In society, this was a dramatic innovation of the printer because for the first time people could not only print letters and other characters but intricate pictures and images as well. http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/xerography-electrophotography -
David S. Lee invented the daisy wheel printer
The daisy wheel printer was a printer that used a disk made of plastic or metal which had characters standing out along the outer edge of the disk. These printers did not affect society as much because they were noisy and slower than the other more advanced printers, as the daisy wheel could only print from 10 to about 75 characters a second. http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/d/daisy-wheel-printer.htm -
Hewlett-Packard created the LaserJet 4
The LaserJet 4 was the first printer to ever have 600 by 600 dots per inch resolution on a laser printer. This socially effected society because this printer at first was only used commercially and not available for home consumers but soon after was released to the public as well but for incredibly high prices. http://inventors.about.com/od/famousinventions/fl/History-of-Computer-Printers.htm
