back to about 3000 BC. The first ancestors
of books were Egyptian papyrus
rolls. The rolls consisted of a long strip
of paper made from a type of water grass
called papyrus. Other ancient forms
were made of clay tablets, sheets of animal
skin, or bundles of bamboo. The
Chinese invented paper around AD 100.
In Europe people continued to use animal
skins, called vellum or parchment
long after that. The first papermaking
equipment reached Europe in the 1300s.
Early books were difficult to produce.
The text was written by hand.Many
books made in Europe and in the Islamic
world had elaborate drawings. As a
result, books were expensive and hard for
most people to get. Only wealthy,
powerful people and certain scholars and
religious leaders read these early books.
The invention of printing changed that.
In about 1450 a German craftsman
Offset printing is one method of printing.
Text and images appear on a printing plate
(left), which is used to print the book pages.
The stack of printed sheets (right) are ready
to be cut and folded into signatures.
A man works on restoring one of the oldest
copies of the Koran, the holy book of Islam.
Many old books need repairing as they
have started to fall apart over the years.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Book and Bookmaking 109
named Johannes Gutenberg invented a
special type of printing press.
Gutenberg’s press used metal type, or
letter shapes made from metal.
Gutenberg arranged the metal type in
trays to spell out words and sentences.
Then he spread ink onto the metal type
and pressed the trays against sheets of
paper. The trays could be used again
and again.
Gutenberg’s type and press could print
many books quickly. By the 1500s thousands
of printing shops were producing
millions of copies of books. Books
became available to ordinary people for
the first time.
Today books are published in every language.
Personal computers have allowed
people to publish their own books.
Many books can be read or downloaded
from the Internet. This has made books
easier to get than ever before.
#More to explore
Gutenberg, Johannes • Paper • Printing
Boomerang
A boomerang is a curved throwing stick.
People use boomerangs as toys or as
weapons. The Aborigines, the native
people of Australia, have long used boomerangs
for hunting and warfare.
There are two types of boomerangs:
returning boomerangs and nonreturning
boomerangs. Returning boomerangs are
lightweight and have a special curved
shape. A returning boomerang flies in a
circle and comes back to the thrower.
An illustration in an old manuscript shows how books were made long ago. The few
people who knew how to read and write copied the text by hand.
A guide in Australia shows how to throw a
boomerang.
110 Boomerang BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
People use returning boomerangs for
sporting events and as toys.
Nonreturning boomerangs are not toys.
Ancient peoples used them for killing
prey or enemies. This type of boomerang
is much straighter than a returning
boomerang. It cuts through the air in a
wobbly way.
True boomerangs are found mainly in
Australia.However, people in ancient
Egypt, southern India, and other cultures
also used boomerang-shaped weapons.
Some Native American groups used
boomerang-shaped weapons for hunting.
The first boomerangs were made from a
single piece of carved wood. The carver
heated the wood in hot ashes and then
bent it to get the right shape. Today
boomerangs used for sports are often
made of plywood or fiberglass. Their
shape can be very different from the
curved shape of traditional boomerangs.
#More to explore
Aboriginal Peoples
Boone, Daniel
The American frontiersman Daniel
Boone blazed a trail through the Cumberland
Gap, a pass in the Appalachian
Mountains. His trail opened theWest to
settlement and made him a hero.
Daniel Boone was born in Pennsylvania
on November 2, 1734.He had little
schooling, but he learned to read and
write.He also learned blacksmithing,
weaving, hunting, and trapping. When
he was about 16, he moved with his
family to the North Carolina frontier.He
hunted and trapped in the wilderness.
Boone first passed through the Cumberland
Gap into Kentucky in 1767. In
1773 Boone tried to settle in Kentucky
with his family, but an Indian attack
forced them to turn back. Two years
later a company hoping to make Kentucky
a new colony hired Boone to open
a trail through the gap. The trail Boone
cut was called the Wilderness Road.
Boone built a new settlement, Boonesborough
(now Boonesboro), at the end
of the trail.
Boone became famous as a frontiersman,
but he was still poor. He owned
none of the land he helped open to
settlement. He moved around with his
family, working various jobs. He continued
to hunt and trap. Boone died in
Missouri on September 26, 1820.
#More to explore
Appalachian Mountains • Cumberland
Gap
A detail of a painting from 1851 shows
Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the
Cumberland Gap.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Boone, Daniel 111
Bosnia and Herzegovina
For most of the 20th century Bosnia and
Herzegovina was a part of the country of
Yugoslavia. A civil war in the 1990s
