Great post! As Blackford discusses, railroads really changed the way people lived, traveled, and did business. Before the railroad, the best form of transportation was by canal. Canals took a lot of money to build, and as such were prime places of inve…
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Comment on The Rise of Coal Technology – Harris by aarong
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Great post! Coal really became the fuel of industry in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. With the supply of wood in England rapidly declining, people began searching for a better, more populous source of heat. Beginning with surface coal in the M…
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Comment on Early Iron Making in America by aarong
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Great post Gabriel! Metalworking certainly is an interesting process. Just like in today’s society, the majority of goods produced during the 18th and 19th century either had metal parts or were produced using metal parts. In order to metal to make these parts, iron had to be separated from any contaminants in order to produce the strongest result. As Lewis states, blacksmiths first employed the use of the bloomery, which was relatively effective, but did not produce well-purified iron. The blast furnace, while more expensive, produced much more iron of a higher quality and at a faster rate. This technology really began to open up the metalworking industry, resulting in cheaper, stronger iron and therefore cheaper, higher-quality products.
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Comment on Steam Engine Origins by aarong
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Great post! The format is awesome. The steam engine was definitely used differently in different cultures. Just as gunpowder was used for celebratory purposes in China and for weaponry in the west, the steam engine was used more as an entertaining toy …
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Comment on Cardwell, “Galileo” (Father of the Scientific Method) by aarong
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Tejas,
Great post! Galileo really was the father of the scientific method. He used logic and a process of asking questions to quantify aspects of nature that people had previously simply taken for granted. Galileo was able to postulate forces in equilibrium and of inertia more than 45 years before Sir Isaac Newton published “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica”, which discusses gravity and the laws of motion that bear his name. I find is particularly interesting that Galileo worked to improve simple machines such as levers and pulleys, which people had depended on for centuries previously.
Medieval Military Tech (I and II)
The Great Stirrup Controversy by Aaron George
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In 1962, historian Lynn Townsend White Jr. altered the way the medieval-era system of feudalism was viewed as a whole forever through the publishing of his book “Medieval Technology and Social Change”. In his book, White proposed that the introduction of the stirrup to society resulted in a much more cavalry-dependent army. This lead to…
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Comment on Summary of Carlson’s “The Romans,” by Chris Selby by aarong
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Chris,
Your summary fully encompasses Carlson’s points. Rome as a civilization was great at adapting and using the technology and culture of other civilizations. The Romans did gain much of the aspects of their religion from the Greeks, along with technologies such as ships and military tactics. As Carlson discusses, the Romans were able to expand their empire because of their military technologies and road systems. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans used their technologies for practical purposes, such as building arches to make longer bridges and aqueducts or metallurgy to improve tools and weapons.
Transition to Medieval Tech
Landels “Power and Energy Sources in Ancient World” by Aaron George
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With the advent of the first steam engine in the early 1800s, followed by the harnessing of electric power a few decades shy of the 20th century, modern man began to rely heavily on machines as a source of power. Run by steam, electricity, or combustion, one modern machine can do the job of many men…
Agricultural Rev
Wendorf “Ancient Harvest on the Nile” by Aaron George
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Dr. Fred Wendorf was an anthropologist of great prominence during the 20th century. Wendorf’s work at Wadi Kubbaniya in Egypt cast into doubt many of the traditional theories on what many believe to be the greatest technological revolution in history; the rise of civilization as early humans turned from hunting and gathering to domestication of…
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