MECHANIZATION:
THE CLOCK AND PRINTING
Though machines of some sort were used from the
earliest recorded times, the Middle Ages took
mechanization to a new level. Windmills and waterwheels captured the power of
nature to perform every day tasks such as milling grain and irrigating crops. A
very significant step that took mechanization into a different arena was the
development of machines that produced only information. The first of these is
the clock. The second is the printing press.
Weight-driven Mechanical Clock
Invention
of
Technical
problem: falling weights accelerate
The
escapement mechanism
: foliot and balance
weight, vertical verge with palettes
For later spring-driven clocks: stackfreed and fusee
Printing from Movable Type
Hand
copying in demand in Renaissance, but labour intensive
Paper-making
introduced in
Johann
Gutenberg (1400-1468)
Goldsmith
in
A
brief biography of Guentberg: http://fecha.org/gutenbergbio.html
The
Gutenberg Bible,
1455 (a date to remember)
Matrix
with interchangeable mould
Capital
intensive
Specialization
of labour
A
brief description of Gutenberg’s process: http://www.gutenberg.de/english/erfindun.htm
A
short biography fo Gutenberg
with links to sample pages from his earliest Bible: http://www.graphion.com/guten.html
Influence of Printing Press on Science
More
texts available, to a wider audience
Biology
enhanced with printed illustrations (woodcuts)
Publishing
scientific discoveries became the norm
Interest
in new knowledge (e.g., from exploration)
Encylcopedic Naturalists of XVI
Publication
in Latin of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and the Herbal of Dioscorides
New
plants and animals brought back to
Galenicals -- vegetable drugs, described and pictured
Otto Brunfels of Mainz (1489-1534) made first collection of realistic plant figures (1530)