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 Northern Europe (ca. 1286)

     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 Europe by 1300 (linen rags)

 

     Johann Gutenberg (1400-1468)

         Goldsmith in Mainz, Germany

         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 Europe by explorers

     Galenicals -- vegetable drugs, described and pictured

            Otto Brunfels of Mainz (1489-1534) made first collection of realistic plant figures (1530)