[Sca-cooks] moveable type

[ranvaig at columbus.rr.com]

According to a book that I read, Gutenberg's discovery was not 
movable type as such, so much as his method using masters from which 
the type was cast.  Type wears out, and you need many copies of each 
letter.  His invention made printing practical, by letting him carve 
each letter once, and cast copies as needed.

Ranvaig


>There is no evidence that Gutenberg's moveable type was anything 
>other than an independent invention.  There is no way to really tell 
>where he got his ideas, because very little is known of his life.
>
>No matter how he got the idea, it was the making standardized type 
>of die cast metal that made the idea great.  When I first learned to 
>set type in my uncle's shop some 500 years after Gutenberg, we were 
>using the same kind of lead type with one exception, a groove along 
>the bottom side so you could tell at a glance if you were setting 
>the type properly.
>
>Bear
>
>>Is there any indication in your reading of how Gutenberg learned of 
>>moveable type?
>>
>>Cordelia Tose