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The Invention of the Printing Press and Its Impact on Society
How movable type took shape in East Asia and in Gutenberg's Mainz around 1450, how printing spread through Europe, and what it did and did not change.
Communication and Computing
Printing and Writing
Movable type, pencils and typewriters.
The Development of the Laser Printer: A Fast and Reliable Printer
How a laser printer works, from the charged drum to the fuser, and why this design made fast, dependable office printing possible compared with older machines.
The Development of the Laser Printer: From Laboratory Experiment to Commercial Use
From Chester Carlson's 1938 dry-copying experiment to the first laser printers of the 1970s and 1980s, with the disputed credit for who was first explained.
The Forgotten History of the First Typewriter
A look at the many writing machines built before Sholes and Glidden, from an 1714 English patent to the Malling-Hansen writing ball, and why priority is disputed.
The History of the Typewriter Keyboard: From Mechanical to Electronic
Where the QWERTY layout came from, why the usual jamming explanation is debated, and how keyboards moved from typebars to electronic switches and touchscreens.
The History of the Typewriter: From Mechanical to Electronic
How typewriters gained motors, the IBM Selectric and memory, then gave way to word processors, and what happened to typing pools along the way.
The History of the Typewriter: From Shorthand to Modern Machines
How the typewriter joined shorthand in the late 1800s office, brought women into clerical work and created the typist and the stenographer as new jobs.
The Invention of the Pencil: A Simple yet Effective Writing Tool
From the graphite found in England's Borrowdale valley in the 1500s to wood-cased pencils, Conte's clay-and-graphite method and factory production.
The Invention of the Printing Press: A Game Changer in History
Johannes Gutenberg's Mainz workshop, the loans from Johann Fust, the lawsuit of 1455 and the 42-line Bible, with East Asian printing placed in context.
The Invention of the Printing Press: A Game-Changer in Communication
How early print shops worked, and how pamphlets, broadsides and news sheets changed the speed and reach of information across Renaissance and early modern Europe.
The Invention of the Printing Press: A Revolutionary Game Changer
How printing carried Martin Luther's writings and the Reformation across Germany and Europe, and how printed texts also fed scientific and religious debate.
The Invention of the Typewriter: A Writing Revolution
How Sholes, Glidden and Soule's Milwaukee design became the Remington typewriter of 1873 to 1874, how it worked, and who the first office users were.
The Revolutionary Impact of the Printing Press (1450s)
What the decades after the 1450s brought: rapid growth in books, new readers, maps, schoolbooks and science, and how uneven the spread of literacy still was.
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