erians in Babylon around 2500 B.C. The Sumerians had already invented the oil lamp for lighting but other uses for oil began to be realized. As Romano (2005, p. 40) describes it, ôSoot and ælamp blackÆ were used as black pigment for ink for woodblock printing in China.ö Oil was also used in paint and inks in what would become a prime basis for the printing process for centuries. Printing would remain largely a hands-on craft until the advent of the printing press.
Technology has always revolutionized printing, even when ancient cultures went from writing on stone to writing in clay. Perhaps few inventions of their time revolutionized any aspect of life as the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1456 revolutionized publishing and society, (Facts, 2005). Before GutenbergÆs invention, printing of each book or publication had to be done painstakingly by hand. This left intellectual life largely in the hands of the church and wealthy aristocracy. Printing made it possible to produce in weeks more than one individual could print by hand in a lifetime. Invented by Gutenberg in 1456, the printing press relied upon olive oil presses used by farmers. As one historian shares, ôThe first printing press used a heavy screw to force a printing block against the paper below. An operator worked a lever to increase and decrease the pressure of the block against the paper,ö (Facts, 2005, p. 1). This invention made mass printing and circulation of literature possible, revolutionizing society as the era of the Enlightenment was fueled by this intellectual sharing beyond the church and court.
The printing press went through changes over the years but this system of printing stayed in vogue for three hundred years. In the 19th century, new technologies and method
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