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The Creative Muse: Stories of Creativity & Innovation

Madhukar Shukla


  • Preface
  • Introduction

    STORIES:

  • Discoveries about Creativity
  • Laws Of Planetary Motion
  • Electricity From Clouds
  • Band-Aid
  • Pneumatic Tyres
  • Gummed Paper
  • The Trap Of Paradigm
  • Invention Of Sewing Machine
  • Just-In-Time System
  • Transmission of Nerve Impulses
  • Printing Press
  • Dangers Of Locomotives
  • Flashlight
  • Lawn Mower
  • Phonograph
  • Rubber Heels
  • The Periodic Table
  • Discovery Of Electromagnetic Fields
  • The Tao Of Physics
  • Congenital Impact of Rubella
  • Typewriter
  • The Theory Of Evolution
  • The Benzene Ring
  • The Wreck Of Titanic
  • Wagner's Rheingold
  • Underwater Construction
  • Search For The "Hidden Likeness"
  • Fermi & Nuclear Fission
  • Cash Register
  • Discovery Of Current Electricity
  • Cure Of Diabetes
  • Boolean Algebra
  • Principle Of Photosynthesis
  • Ball Point Pen
  • The X-Ray
  • The Fuschian Functions
  • Safety Glass
  • The Creative Triggers
  • Why Aeroplanes Cannot Fly
  • The "Brownies" Of Stevenson
  • The Blunder That Founded 3M
  • Invention Of AC Motor
  • Discovery Of Teflon
  • Toynbee's The Study Of History
  • Inventors' Blindness
  • The Excitement Of Creativity
  • Electric Fan
  • How Typhus Gets Transmitted
  • Proof Of The Big Bang
  • Mathematical Theory Of Chance
  • Coleridge's Kubla Khan
  • Vulcanisation Process
  • Structure Of The Crystals
  • The Compulsion To Create
  • 3M's Post-It Note Pads
  • Ice Cream Cones
  • The Structural Theory Of Atom
  • IBM And Computers
  • Helicopter
  • How Experts Resist Ideas
  • Creative Reveries Of Enid Blyton
  • Predictions In Gulliver's Travels
  • Float Glass Technology
  • Principle Of Immunisation
  • Journey Into Unknown
  • The Genius Of Karl Fredrich Gauss
  • Jean Coceteau's The Knights Of The Round Table
  • Neon Light
  • Transistor Radios
  • Precocious Minds?
  • The Masterpiece Of Sir Walter Scott
  • The "Fraud" That Changed The World
  • The "99% Perspiration"
  • Xeroxing
  • The Poem Of Stephen Spender
  • The Anatomy Of Inspiration
  • Travellers' Cheques
  • Edison's Fraud
  • Awe, Wonder And Alienation
  • The Logic Of Irrational

  • Epilogue: Themes & Patterns

    • Printing Press


    The reason why the printing press could be invented was because its inventer, Gutenberg was interested in making Bible available to masses. Till the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Bible was copied by hands by monks, which took time, and only the chosen few, the churchmen and the aristocrats, had a Bible of their own.

    There was , of course, a process of printing available, but it was cumbersome. To print a picture or text, it was engraved on a block of wood, and was thoroughly wetted with a brown distemper-like substance. Then a sheet of damp paper was laid on the block, and the back of the paper was rubbed with a dabber of burnisher until the impression of the carved relief was transferred to it. Since by this method each sheet of paper could be printed only one side, the sheets had to be pasted on their blank sides.

    Gutenberg's inspiration that mass printing is possible came from playing cards, which were printed by the above process. What could be done by cards could also be done with large pages of writing. The only problem was how to create a way of making printing possible on both the sides. Gutenberg struggled with the problem, failed to arrive at any satisfying solution.

    Around this time, he visited a wine orchard during harvesting season. While watching the wine press in operation, he was struck by the fact the when the black grapes were crushed by the press, they left imprints on the sides. All he had to do was to transfer the same principle to create a printing press. And so, in a flash, "God had revealed to me the secret that I demanded of him."

    Gutenberg's invention of the movable type created radical changes. The most affected was the monkdom. Some time afterwards the Abbot of Sponheim wrote a lengthy treatise arguing that monks "should not stop copying because of the invention of printing." Of course, to ensure that his treatise got the wide readership it deserved, the Abbot had it printed using Gutenberg's invention.


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