"Rather, key innovations in what would become revolutionary printing technology began in east Asia ... The printing press is often said to have been created by Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, around 1440 AD ... At least, this is how the story is rendered in most books ..."
I didn't realize that most books still render it this way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type , for example, has "The world's first movable type printing technology for paper books was made of porcelain materials and was invented around 1040 AD in China during the Northern Song dynasty by the inventor Bi Sheng"
As I understand it, Joseph Needham did a lot of work to make Europeans aware of the long history of Chinese science and technology, predating European use.
eesmith•49m ago
I didn't realize that most books still render it this way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type , for example, has "The world's first movable type printing technology for paper books was made of porcelain materials and was invented around 1040 AD in China during the Northern Song dynasty by the inventor Bi Sheng"
As I understand it, Joseph Needham did a lot of work to make Europeans aware of the long history of Chinese science and technology, predating European use.
Ahh, volume 5, part 1 ("Paper and Printing") of his magnum opus "Science and Civilisation in China", 1985 - https://archive.org/details/sciencecivilisat0005need_pt01/pa... .