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The perilous face behind it all
https://alchetron.com/Johann-Carolus

Who is this daring man?

Born in Muhlbach-sur-Munster in 1575, Johann Carolus spent a lot of his life surrounded by books. Initially working as a bookbinder’s apprentice, Carolus continued to advance upwards becoming a bookseller, newspaper scribe then made his way to the top tier… printshop and newspaper owner.

Luck and motivation

Carolus married Anna Fröhlich, who became his lifelong business partner in addition to being his spouse. Together they purchased a massive printing house containing three printing presses, letters, loads of paper and a warehouse filled with unbound books. During the year 1604 new and aspiring businessmen were in a high demand so Carolus decided to hire 7 employees to work for him. They began small by delivering small-scale amounts of news to people. Not knowing if people would even want to pay for it, in order to make an actual profit they needed a larger scale of customers. Printing 4-6 pages every week, the earliest weekly printed newspaper “Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien” (Account of all distinguished and commemorable stories) was born. Luckily enough for the couple, their new company was thriving.

Original title page (1605) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Relation_Aller_Fuernemmen_und_gedenckwuerdigen_Historien_(1609)_(cropped).jpg

The machinery that made it all happen

The original ‘printing press’ was actually established in China by Bi Sheng. Using individual baked clay letters, moveable type was founded. It wasn’t until more than 150 years later that the European version of moveable type was manufactured. Created by German inventor and goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg, the printing press is a machine created in 1436 that enabled the mass production of books and literature. By pushing paper against an inked moveable type material, this invention is able to transfer text/ images from the type onto the paper. It has helped equip society with the power to easily spread knowledge and news throughout cities.

A printing press in action
https://www.britannica.com/technology/printing-press

Nobody even reads newspapers now….

Although not very popular amongst the new generation, newspapers are very notable utensils that help to spread and share information to the general public. Being one of the finest links between the government and its people, it has helped citizens become well informed and up to date on social and economic issues taking place around the world. Newspapers also carry an array of art topics, job listings, comics, events and holidays, new laws, crosswords, discoveries, advertisements and political issues. Coming from trusted sources, they hold every ounce of information you may need to hear and contains heavily researched topics with every miniscule detail.

Use of the printing press
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johannes-Gutenberg

Header image; https://imgur.com/gallery/09YgFJw