Why You Can Read Today (Thank This 600‑Year‑Old Machine)

Описание: Why You Can Read Today (Thank This 600‑Year‑Old Machine)

Most of us grow up assuming reading is universal — a basic skill everyone learns. But for thousands of years, almost no one could read. Books were rare, expensive, and copied by hand, making literacy a privilege reserved for the elite. This video explores the invention that changed all of that: the printing press.

We’ll dive into the long history of writing, from ancient clay tablets and Egyptian hieroglyphs to medieval manuscripts painstakingly copied by monks. You’ll see why books were so scarce, why literacy remained low for centuries, and why Europe struggled to develop printing technology even though earlier forms of printing existed in China and Korea.

Then we uncover the surprising reason the printing press took so long to emerge: a technological bottleneck in alloymaking. Gutenberg’s breakthrough wasn’t just a press — it was a complete system of metal movable type, oil‑based inks, precision molds, and mechanical engineering. This combination finally made it possible to mass‑produce books quickly and cheaply.

From there, everything changed. The printing press sparked mass literacy, accelerated the spread of ideas, fueled the Scientific Revolution, empowered the Reformation, standardized languages, and laid the foundation for the modern world of education, newspapers, and mass communication. The reason you can read today traces directly back to this invention.

If you’re interested in medieval history, technological revolutions, early printing, Gutenberg, movable type, or the history of literacy, this video is for you.

Image citations:

Gutenberg bible - By Raul654, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

Upper Lusatia Library photo - Ralf Roletschek CC BY-SA 3.0

Greek library photo - Photo Claude TRUONG-NGOC CC BY-SA 3.0

Nyc library - Diliff CC BY-SA 2.0

Xerxes Cuneiform - Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0

Luxor Hall - MusikAnimal CC BY-SA 4.0

Chinese printing block - BabelStone CC BY-SA 3.0

Metal types - G.Mannaerts CC BY-SA 4.0

Single type - Daniel Ullrich, Threedots CC BY-SA 3.0

Type matrix - ActuaLitté CC BY-SA 2.0

Johannes coin - Berlin-George CC BY-SA 4.0

Various Inks - Hannes Grobe CC BY-SA 3.0

Printing Map Europe - NordNordWest CC BY-SA 3.0

Gutenberg Bible - Karl Thomas Moore CC BY-SA 4.0

Gutenberg Bible - NYC Wanderer (Kevin Eng) CC BY-SA 2.0


Forest Walk by Alexander Nakarada (CreatorChords) | https://creatorchords.com
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