History & CultureHow it works
How Gutenberg's press worked, and what was actually new.
Movable type already existed in China and Korea. Gutenberg's trick, around 1440, was the hand mould: a steel punch stamps a letter into copper, you pour lead alloy into that matrix, and in seconds you have an identical piece of type. Add oil-based ink that sticks to metal and a screw press modelled on wine presses. Output: 3,600 pages daily.
Useful: The real invention is often not the product but the tool that makes it in bulk.
Source: en.wikipedia.org