Task Performance in Science

Technology & Society

THREE INVENTIONS OF MIDDLE AGES

Submitted to: Maam Princess Eponla

Submitted by: Wendy M. Ravino
 INTRODUCTION TO MIDDLE AGES

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages (or medieval period) lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It
began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of
Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western
history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself
subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.
During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as
technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and the Medieval Warm Period climate
change allowed crop yields to increase.
The Late Middle Ages was marked by difficulties and calamities including famine, plague, and war, which
significantly diminished the population of Europe; between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a
third of Europeans. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the
interstate conflict, civil strife, and peasant revolts that occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological
developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages and beginning the early
modern period.
 WATER MILLS

Water and windmills have been known to have been employed since antiquity but tidal mills seem to be
an exclusively Medieval innovation. Recent studies have found that the earliest examples of these mills
date from the 6th Century AD in Ireland, but they may have been utilized in Roman London - but this is
speculation. Some still exist today from the period including the vertical-wheeled mill located at
Kiloteran near Waterford, EIRE. They are even mentioned in the famous Doomsday book of 1086.
Water mills use a turning wheel spoked with water-catching paddles to generate power to operate
machines like grinders and saws and were first developed by the Greeks before being used throughout the
Roman empire. Though they were invented hundreds of years before the Middle Ages, their numbers
exploded during this time. By around 1000 A.D. there were tens of thousands of mills harnessing river and
tidal power throughout England, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
 EYEGLASSES

As someone born with poor eye sight, I am particularly thankful to 13th-century Italians for coming
up with eyeglasses. They were first documented in the early 1300s, with early models made to be held up
by hand or pinched on the nose. It wasn't until the 1700s that designs featuring arms that bent around the
nose became widely used. Life for billions of people around the world (including this author) would be a
dismal, blurry affair if not for the humble eyeglasses. Roger Bacon made the first definitive reference
to eyeglasses in the 13th Century. They appear to have first been developed in Italy by one Alessandro di
Spina of Florence. This is supported by a sermon given by a Dominican Friar called Giordana da Pisa in
the late 13th Century.
 THE HEAVY PLOUGH

Early ploughs were, more or less, a pointy stick dragged behind a draft animal, cutting
lightly through the soil. A farmer would walk along with the plough and lift the plough blade so
that it didn't get caught on rocks or roots. These ploughs were fine for lighter soils but had trouble
in harder soils. Enter the heavy plough, which uses wheels to support a heavier plough blade. The
exact place and time of the first use of the heavy plough are not inconvertible known, but it's safe
to peg its introduction to somewhere in Asia around 200 A.D. The Romans were rocking the heavy
plough not too long after that, and by roughly 600 AD, the rest of Europe was on board. Farmers
were able to open up extensive new fields thanks to the heavy plough, boosting crop yields and
population numbers (aka all of our distant relatives).
 CONCLUSION

That in this task, the presented three inventions from the Middle Ages are widely known and used,
it led to the total development of the society and shown significant improvement throughout times.
The Watermills are important and truly can help the society by the means of power tanneries, blast
furnaces, forge mills, and paper mills which evolved into the machinery used in todays by the society in
different factories and facilities.
And for the invention of the eyeglasses, it significantly improves the quality of life for the visually
impaired people of the society up to this day - as the writer will attest.
And last, the heavy plough was a pretty major breakthrough in the history of humankind and
allowed people of the society to grow crops in soils too hard for hand digging and to greatly expand their
fields.