Information Technology Reference
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carved, they would be fastened together. After the surface was inked, a blank page would
be printed by pressing the blocks down on the inked surface.
In the late Middle Ages, explorers brought back from China the technology for
manufacturing paper in mass quantities. By the fifteenth century paper gradually began
to replace parchment in less expensive European codices.
1.4.3 Gutenberg's Printing Press
In 1436 Johannes Gutenberg began work on a printing press that would imprint pages
using movable metal type rather than wood blocks, and in 1455 work was completed on
Gutenberg's famous “42 Line Bible.” Soon other printers were using the same technology
to produce codices. The principal customer of these publishers was the Church. Hence
most early publications were religious topics and pamphlets.
The printing press proved itself to be a powerful tool for mass communication dur-
ing the Reformation. Martin Luther did more than nail his 95 theses to the door of a
church—he published them. Between 1517 and 1520, more than 300,000 copies of Mar-
tin Luther's publications were sold [40]. In the next 50 years, the number of religious
tracts produced by Protestant reformers would outnumber those of their Catholic op-
ponentsbyafactorof10to1.
1.4.4 Newspapers
The printing press made possible the establishment of newspapers. Newspapers pro-
vided an important new way for private citizens to get their points of view heard. A free
press serves as a powerful counterweight to government and its desire to manage the
flow of information. It is not surprising, then, that there is a long history of government
censorship or suppression of newspapers.
The first English-language newspaper appeared in Great Britain in the 1600s.
Throughout most of the seventeenth century the government controlled the press by
licensing approved newspapers and suppressing the rest. However, in 1695 Parliament
declined to renew the Licensing Act, paving the way for a free press in England.
In America, newspapers helped to unify the colonies. As colonists read newspapers
published in other colonies, they came to realize what values and concerns they shared
with other colonists up and down the Atlantic seaboard. In this way newspapers played
an important role in swaying American public opinion toward favoring independence
from Great Britain.
1.4.5 Hypertext
The July 1945 issue of the Atlantic Monthly contained a visionary paper, “As We May
Think,” written by Vannevar Bush, who had served as director of the Office of Scientific
Research and Development in World War II. In the paper Bush noted, “The world has
arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to
come of it” [41, p. 102]. He described many ways in which technology can solve impor-
tant problems. One of the problems he focused on was that of information retrieval. He
pointed out how difficult it is for scientists to keep up with all the research results that are
 
 
 
 
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