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Screw-Press Printing Press
The screw press is a flatbed printing device that uses a threaded screw to generate even pressure, easier to control than earlier lever or wooden-wed…
Timeline
- c. 1550–1620German-speaking lands · GermanyPrinting craftsmen combined threaded screws with a platen, allowing the movable-type forme to be transferred onto paper under even pressure, improving the consistency and efficiency of large-batch printing and laying the mechanical foundation for the expansion of publishing in the 17th century.
- 1631–1640Europe · EuropeIn the 1630s, the screw press became standard equipment in Europe's leading printing workshops, used to print astronomical tables, natural philosophy treatises, religious polemical pamphlets, and commercial printed matter, accelerating the cross-regional circulation of knowledge.
- c. 1650–1800European publishing and instrument-manufacturing network · EuropeIron frames, more precise screws, and automated paper-feeding devices appeared in succession, allowing the screw press to retain an important position even before the Industrial Revolution, until the rise of steam-powered rotary presses.
Sources
- Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Cambridge University Press, 1979 — Elizabeth L. Eisenstein (1979)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Printing press https://www.britannica.com/technology/printing-press