ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

laurens janszoon coster

Laurens Janszoon Coster is a person from a long time ago who lived in a place called Haarlem in the Netherlands. Some people think that he might have been the first person to invent a special machine called a printing press. This machine was very important because it could make lots of copies of books and papers very quickly and easily.

But, we're not quite sure if Coster was the one who really invented the printing press because there's another man named Johannes Gutenberg who lived in Germany around the same time who also made a printing press. So, it's possible that both of them made the machine at the same time all on their own.

Even though we don't know for sure who made the first printing press, we do know that it was a very important invention that helped spread knowledge and ideas all around the world. Today, we still use printing presses to make lots of copies of books, magazines, and newspapers quickly and easily.