This page from the first edition of the Gutenberg bible, printed in 1454, shows the rigidity of the grid produced by moveable type, and the resultant use of hyphens to compensate for the consistant word spacing. There are over 30 hyphens on this page, including several strings of four or more in a row; this would never be acceptable in typesetting today. However, the ability to easily word-space (change the space between words within a single line) would require the invention of the Linotype in 1886.
Click here for more on the printing of the Gutenberg bible.
