NATURAL SCIENCE: INVENTIONS, THE PRINTING PRESS

Hello kids!!!

Last  time in Natural Science we were talking about machines and how they help us by making our work easier.

Today we are going to have a look at the invention of the printing press.

We already know that History begins with the use of a writing system but at the beginning the first writers used a tool similar to a knife to write on clay tablets. Not very easy, is it?

Later people began to use ink to write on papyrus (papiro in Spanish) made from a river plant or on parchment (pergamino in Spanish) made from animals skin. A bit easier. But imagine they had to write everything by hand. Most of the books were written by monks at monasteries and it took long time to write them.

But in the year 1,450 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. This invention allowed to write many books in short time. And the same letters could be used many times to print different books. Later on the printing press was mechanised and we had a mass production of books. It was an information revolution!!! 

We still read books, newspapers and magazines made by a printing press. But the revolution continued and nowadays we can read electronic books (e-books). This means that we can have a personal library in a small computer. Amazing, isn't it?

Here you have two short videos that tell us about the History of the book. Enjoy!!!

In your Natural Science book you can see more pictures at pages 98 - 99 and I'd like you to read the story at pages 100 - 101 and do exercise 2 at page 101.