The man who invented bookselling

 James Lackington was the London’s greatest bookseller. His bookshop - The Temple of the Muses - was one of the first modern bookstores. James recognized the value of books at an early age. With his friends he looked for cheap poetry or plays to educate himself and understand the world. He was a shoemaker so when years later he moved to London he opened up a shop in which he sold books and shoes. Late 18th century London was a time of change, more people were learning  how to read. Back then books were pretty expensive and Lackington wanted to find a way for them to be affordable. He succeeded by running a cash only business and reducing the prices of books to sell them at high volume. In 1794 he was able to move into a huge shop, which became a tourist attraction. James Lackington revolutionized bookselling and we can experience that every time we enter a bookstore.

Source:

https://lithub.com/the-man-who-invented-bookselling-as-we-know-it/

Typewriters

 The beginning of typewriters goes back to 1714 when Henry Mill filled a patent for a machine or a method to transcribe letters progressively one after another. But the first machine was actually created by Pellegrino Turri in 1808 for his blind friend. Later began the commercialization of the typewriter and a huge amount of inventors in Europe and United States worked on them in 19th century. The most influential was the Sholes & Glidden Type Writer that appeared in 1874. Christopher Latham Sholes was one of the main creators. It was a decorative machine with flowers painted on it. It also introduced the QWERTY keyboard which is with us till this day. Since then typewriters have been through a lot of changes and even though they seem hard to work on some people still love this alternative to modern day writing ways.

Source:

https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-history.html

The book covers

During the Renaissance books were very precious objects because of their content and form. The first book covers were decorated with gold and gems or materials such as leather or silk. Till the end of the 15^th century books were binded for their protection. They were closed with leather or metal clasps, which later went out of fashion. That was one step closer towards the books we know today – usually smaller and easier to carry. Later in 1820s with the introduction of new machinery mechanical book binding changed the way the books were covered and materials were swapped to less expensive ones. That’s when the meaning of a book cover began to shift – it wasn’t only protecting it but also advertising its content. After the II World War book industry became more competitive, the covers we’re used to express the style and genre of the authors work and helped with attracting more sales. Book covers are with us till this day and play an important part in the history.

Sources:

https://www.grapheine.com/en/history-of-graphic-design/history-of-book-covers-1

https://buzbooks.com/the-history-and-evolution-of-the-book-cover/

Gutenberg's printing press

 As we know printing plays a major role in the history of books and discoveries from around the world. Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press was a combined effort of several discoveries and inventions (like the ones I wrote about last time) but it was the  key to unlocking the modern age. The printing press was invented around 1436. It was built around a screw-type press with an added matrice on which symbols and characters could be arranged in any way. It was way easier than the woodblock printing in which a selection of symbols had to be craved from a block of wood. Guttenberg’s invention was very helpful during the Italian Renaissance, when classic texts were retrieved. It was a colossal moment in the history, which shows us how important was the invention of the printing press.

Source:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/news/printing-press-renaissance