Evolution of Technology : Evolution of Technology Gavin Mackay


Stone Age: Stone Age Mesolithic Neolithic Fire Stone tools and weapons Clothing Outrigger boat technology Music Organized warfare Shift from Nomadic to settlement Evidence – tools, cave paintings, and other prehistoric art * No Written evidence


Copper and Bronze Age (3000 B.C.): Copper and Bronze Age (3000 B.C.) Neolithic included development of agriculture, animal domestication and permanent settlements Need for metal smelting first copper then bronze


Iron Age: Iron Age 1200 B.C. Europe Middle East 600 B.C. in China Improved tools and weapons Last major step before written language


Ancient Civilizations: Ancient Civilizations Egyptian Technology (3200 B.C. – 332 B.C.) Egyptian inventions ramp and lever Paper from papyrus Pottery Wheel (first thought to be invented in Iran in 4,000 B.C.) Introduced by foreign invaders and used by Egyptians for chariots Also shipping and lighthouses developed


Slide8: Chariot


Slide9: Siege Weapon


Tribal Europe: Tribal Europe 1,000 – 500 B.C. German tribes in Bronze age Celts in Iron age Time of hellstat culture colliding with military and agriculture practices of Romans


Ancient Greece (1,200 – 323 B.C.): Ancient Greece (1,200 – 323 B.C.) Heron of Alexander makes basic steam engine Archimedes screw Ballistag Crossbow to siege weapons Simple analog computers Antikytheric mechanism for calculation of astronomical positions


Ancient Greece (cont’d): Ancient Greece (cont’d) 150 – 100 B.C. Watermills, wind mills Global pioneers in three of the four known means of nonhuman propulsion (4th is sail)


Slide13: Archimedes


Slide14: Watermill Windmill


Rome (750 B.C. – 500 A.D.): Rome (750 B.C. – 500 A.D.) Sophisticated agriculture Laws of individual ownership Advanced stone masonry technology Road building exceeded only in 19th century Military engineering, civil engineering Spinning and weaving Mechanical reaper (forgotten in dark ages) First to build amphitheatre, aquaducts, public baths Stone bridges, vaults and domes


Rome (cont’d): Rome (cont’d) Concentrated sand which contained cystalline grains and some buildings have lasted over 2,000 years Urban Roman life included multi storey apartment blocks street paving, public flush toilets, glass windows and floor and wall heating Some technologies lost in middle ages and reinvented in 19th and 20th centuries


Slide17: Amphitheatre


India: India Indus valley civilization 5,300 – 1,700 B.C. Early cities Takshasilla University (students from all over Asia: Persians, Greek, Chinese) Perfumes Vegetable dyes


China (1,600 B.C.): China (1,600 B.C.) One Scottish researcher believes China made many first known discoveries Seismological detecting machines, matches, paper, sliding calipers double action pistons pump, multi tube seed drill, the wheelbarrow, suspension bridges parachute, natural gas as fuel, magnetic compass, raised relief maps, propeller Solid rocket fuel (1150)


Inca (Empire 1438 to 1538 AD): Inca (Empire 1438 to 1538 AD) Stone work (one ton piece) Irrigation canals Hydroponics


Maya (1200 B.C. – 900 AD): Maya (1200 B.C. – 900 AD) No metallurgy or wheels invented but complex writing and astrological systems


Medieval: Medieval Medieval backward step but mechanical clocks, spectacles and vertical windmills


Renaissance: Renaissance Age of exploration; European colonization of the Americas, Africa, Australasia Rediscovered civil code


Industrial Revolution: Industrial Revolution Mid 18th and early 19th century Began in Britain and spread throughout the world Manual labor replaced by industry and manufacturing of machinery Started with textile industry, iron making and use of coal as an energy fuel, transportation (canals, improved roads, railways, and steam power)


Slide27: Steam Engine


Slide28: Steam Locomotion


Slide29: Steamship


19th Century: 19th Century Iron clad steamships, machine tools Second industrial revolution with rapid development in chemical, electrical, petroleum and steel technologies


History of Digital Computing: History of Digital Computing 1940s (WW2) Parallel activities in USA, Britain and Germany On valve driven digital computers although some decimal programming also designed Transistors invented in USA in 1947 1890 Tabulation Machine company formed to cope with census taking, this company became IBM Word processing introduced in 1970 allowing operator users


Slide32: What Next?