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Historical Antecedents in The Course of Science and Technology
Historical Antecedents in The Course of Science and Technology
INTRODUCTION
This lesson will give light to the development of Science and scientific ideas in
the heart of the society. It explores the dynamic interactions between different societal
factors on science and technology. Along with the discussion of this antecedent during
the ancient period, Middle Ages and modern ages, it also discussed Philippine invention
and innovations. It is goal of this lesson to articulate ways by which society is
transformed by science and technology.
ANCIENT TIMES
The first civilization emerged in Sumer, the southern region of ancient Mesopotamia
(Iraq and Kuwait) about 3500 B.C.E. Between the desert of Arabian Peninsula, running
from the eastern Mediterranean cost to the plains of great Tigris and Euphrates rivers
lays a fertile soil that generated several features characteristic of civilization including
system of farming, writing, expanded cities, complex social structure, distinctive
religious beliefs and artistic styles. It was so flat that it was open to invasion, leading to
the rise and fall of the empire.
Many technical innovations are attributed to the Sumerians. Among these are:
1. Cuneiform is the first form of writing developed by Sumerian. It
was a system that utilizes word pictures and triangular symbols,
baked on clay tablets, which were turned into symbols and
gradually transformed into phonetic elements. It recorded data,
generated scientific knowledge and promoted trade.
SAILBOAT
Source:
https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/mes
opotamia-history/top-10-sumerian-
inventions-followed-many-civilizations/
Babylonian Civilization
A civilization derived from Sumerian culture around 1800 B.C.E. the Babylonian
Empire arose and again unified much of Mesopotamia. This empire was headed by
Hammurabi which sets the Hammurabi’s law. The Babylonians went on to greatly
influence Mesopotamian culture. More importantly, they had a great impact on the
history of western civilization. Among the most important contributions of Babylonia are
the first ever positional number system; accomplishments in advanced mathematics;
laying the foundation for all western astronomy; and impressive works in art,
architecture and literature.
One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was built on the banks of the
Euphrates river. It may never have existed except in the imagination of Greek poets and
historians although archaeologists claim to have found the remains of its walls. Most
scholars attribute its construction to King Nebuchadnezzar II to console his Median wife,
Amytis, who missed the mountains and greenery of her home land. The Gardens didn't
really "hang" but were built on terraces which were part of the ziggurat and was irrigated
by water lifted up from the Euphrates. There is not a single mention of a "hanging
garden" in the Babylon cuneiform record but this is probably because it was considered
part of the ziggurat structure and not a separate entity in itself.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon
Egyptian Civilization
Egyptian civilization formed by 3000 B.C.E along the Nile River. They benefited
from trade and technological influence from Mesopotamia, but they produced a very
different society and culture. More stable that Sumer and protected from the main
invasion route by desert, Egyptian civilization flourished for more than 2000 years
before beginning to decline about 1000 B.C.E.
Source:
https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/
egypt-history/top-10-inventions-
discoveries-ancient-egypt/
GREEK CIVILIZATION
Greek civilization began to take shaped around 800 B.C.E. on the peninsula and island
of Greece and in the surrounding territory in the eastern Mediterranean.
1. Water mills have been used all over the world for the
purpose of metal shaping, agriculture and, most
importantly, milling. This in turn led to the production
of edible food staples like rice, cereals, pulses, flour,
and so on.
Source: https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/greek-history/
ROMAN CIVILIZATION
Roman and Greek achievements in science and technology were closely intertwined but
somewhat Roman had more focused on engineering. Roman used and copied Greek
Science, monumental architectural styles, sculpture and drama.
CHINESE CIVILIZATION
Science and Technology development arose in this era. Among these are:
Source:
https://www.ancienthistorylists.co
m/china-history/top-18-ancient-
chinese-inventions/
MEDIEVAL AGES
The Medieval Era, often called The Middle Ages or the Dark Ages, began just
before 500 A.D. following a great loss of power throughout Europe by the Roman
Emperor. The Middle Ages span roughly 1,000 years, ending around 1450 A.D.
https://www.google.com/search?q=image+of+great+cathedral
https://www.google.com/search?q=image+of+astrolabe&rlz=
4. Printing. Spreading knowledge and information was a very slow process before the
invention of typography. Johannes Gutenberg developed the first mechanical printing
machine in the 1440s. The first printed book was the Bible in 1456 with a run of 150
copies.
5. The telescope was invented by Dutchman
Hans Lippershey. In 1610, using his improved
design, Galileo Galilei was able to prove that
the Earth revolved around the Sun. This
confirmed the ideas of the Polish astronomer
Nicolaus Copernicus but it angered the
Catholic Church who had adopted the idea that
the Earth was at the center of everything.
https://www.google.com/image+of+telescope+d
uring+medieval+period&tbm=isch&source
6. The microscope Looking at small things became possible when a Dutch maker of
spectacles, Hans Janssen and his son, put glass lenses together in 1590 to make a
primitive microscope. Anton van Leeuwenhoek took this invention a step further in 1676
with a magnification of 270 times and discovered tiny single-celled creatures in pond
water. Ultimately, this helped our understanding of microorganisms and disease.
https://www.google.com/search=image+of+microscope+in+the+mwdieval
7. Lightning conductor In1752, Benjamin
Franklin, the American statesman, philosopher
and scientist proved that lightning was a form of
electricity when he flew a kite in a thunderstorm.
Around 1754, Franklin and the Czech scientist,
ProkopDiviš independently developed the lighting
conductor to protect buildings from being hit and
damaged by lighting.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNY
8. Mechanical clock
8. Eyeglasses.
When eyeglasses were first produced, they were known as iteros ab oculis ad legend or
“glasses that are for reading. Physical evidence for the use of spectacles during the
Concave glass is used to correct nearsightedness, so that the rays of light are diverged.
Convex lenses are used to aid the correction of farsightedness, so that the light rays are
converged. Cylindrical lenses used to correct astigmatism were invented by Sir George
Airy in 1825.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNY_ eye+glassestheir+uses+inmiddle+age
MODERN ERA
Steam power. This era saw the development of steam engines to power factory
machinery. Heating water in a boiler to make steam to power a vehicle was a major
technological advance. James Watt is recognized as the inventor of the steam engine in
1765. Water could be pumped out of mines and industrial processes speeded up.
George Stephenson’s, Rocket was the first locomotive to pull heavy loads a long
distance. This led to the rapid expansion of railways throughout Britain and the world.
The combination of iron and steam paved the way for the great Victorian engineering
projects of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He designed bridges, tunnels, viaducts and
ships.
https/www.
.historyhit,com/key imventions
https://www.google.com/search1C1CHNphotography
Typewriters were a very good way to write books. Typewriters were much more
comfortable than writing in hand. This helped the industrial revolution by allowing people
to write manuals for the workers and mass produce them much more easier.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz+impact+of+typewriter
Telegraph
Samuel F. B. Morse created the telegraph in 1836. This invention changed the
face of communication. Instant communication became possible between the east and
west coasts and allowed people to know what was happening. This would revolutionize
media and personal. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid
between stations communication. The telegraph revolutionized long-distance
communication.
Each new communications technology has had a greater impact on society than
the one before. The telegraph changed society indirectly, by transforming the workings
of government and industry. But the telephone and radio had direct impacts on people's
working and social lives.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYAbS35jACg&q=i+imaget+of+telegraph
Sewing Machine
Elias Howe created the sewing machine in 1844. This forever changed the way
clothes were made and allowed the mass production of clothing. Before this it was most
common for women to make all of the clothes for their families. Only the very wealthy
could afford to have a tailor or seamstress make custom clothing of the latest fashion. It
was later improved upon and patented by Isaac Singer
https://ww
w.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYwAOgib6wBw&qsewing+machine
Power Loom
Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom in 1785. It dramatically changed the
way cloth was woven by making it much easier. It would take almost another fifty years
and several alterations by other inventors before it would become commonly used.
The power loom, which partially automated textile weaving, was one of the most
important inventions of the Industrial Revolution. The loom and
associated equipment went into operation in 1817, and with Lyman's encouragement,
Gilmour made his design freely available to other mechanics
https://www.google.com/search?q=power+loom+image&rlz=1C1CHNY
Power looms reduced demand for skilled handweavers, initially causing reduced wages
and unemployment. Protests followed their introduction. For example, in 1816 two
thousand rioting Calton weavers tried to destroy power loom mills and stoned the
workers.
https://www.google.com/search?
rlz=1C1CHNYiimage+of+bulb+in+second+industrial+re
volution&tbm
The telephone. This is an invention that made money. Alexander Graham Bell was the
first in the race to patent a machine in 1876 that you could use to talk to someone on
the other side of the world. Admittedly, it was initially from one room to another. The
message was “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you”. A year later in 1877 he set up his
company and demonstrated long distance calls.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYimage+of+telephone+in+second+industrial+revolution
The motor car. Until the 1860s all prototype motor cars were steam driven. German
inventor Nicolas Otto created an improved internal combustion engine in 1876 and this
is still the way cars work today. In 1885, the first car, the Benz Patent Motorwagen, was
developed by Karl Benz. It was a long time before cars became common. Petrol, a
cleaning fluid, was only available from the chemist. Famous names such as Rolls Royce
and Henry Ford developed the technology; Rolls Royce for the rich and Henry Ford for
the man in the street.
https://w
ww.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNY_ imageof+motor i+second industrial+revolution
The movies. It has been only just over one hundred years since the first movie, or film,
was shown by the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière at the Grand Café in Paris. The
terrifying film was entitled The Arrival of a Train at Ciotat Station. In 1889, George
Eastman pioneered celluloid film with holes punched in the side so that the movie
camera could show the film precisely frame by frame.
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ps://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNY_image+of+movies++in+second+industrial+revolution
Communications Radio waves travel in all directions at an incredible 300 000 km per
second. The German physicist Heinrich Hertz was the first to prove they existed but it
was Guglielmo Marconi who set up the world’s first radio stations to transmit and
receive Morse code. In 1896, he sent the first message across the Atlantic from
Cornwall to Newfoundland. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909. It was
not until 1915 that engineers were able to transmit sound effectively. The first clear
television pictures to be transmitted were sent by Scottish-born John Logie Baird. He
founded the Baird Television Company Limited and worked on programs for the BBC
(British Broadcasting Corporation).
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYof+communication+radio+in+second+industrial+revolution
Flight. At the turn of the century, in 1903, two bicycle repairmen from Ohio, Wilbur and
Orville Wright built and flew the first really successful airplane near Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina. From that time progress was rapid and the military advantages of flight were
realized in WWI.
https:
//www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYi+image+ofcommunication+radio
Rockets and space flights. The earliest rockets were used in China in the 11th century
but by the 19th century speed and accuracy were much improved. Knowledge of
astronomy meant that scientists knew the relative movements of the planets in relation
to the Earth. A Russian mathematics teacher, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the first
person to draw up plans for space stations and air locks to allow space walks. He
correctly calculated that a rocket would have to travel at 8 km per second to leave the
atmosphere and that liquid rocket fuel would be essential. American scientist Robert
Goddard not knowing of Tsiolkovsky’s ideas, independently developed liquid fuelled
rockets from 1926. Ultimately, NASA took up the challenge but the Russians eventually
won the race to put a man into orbit. Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in 1961. In the US,
NASA scientists redressed the balance in the space race with their moon landing in
1969.
https://www.google.com/search?
rlz=1C1CHNYspace+flights+in+second+industrial+revolution
The atomic bomb. Science and technological advances can be seen as good or bad.
The invention of gunpowder must have seemed like that. In 1932, physicists John
Cockcroft and Earnest Walton did the impossible. They proved Albert Einstein’s theory
of relativity and unlocked the secrets of the atomic nucleus. Splitting the atom was a
brilliant scientific achievement. However, It allowed scientists to develop the atomic
bomb that was used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan to end the WWII in
1945.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYatomic+bomb+
+in+second+industrial+revolution
After the WWII new discoveries and advances in science and technology came thick
and fast. Plastics were developed for the first time. In 1949, the first practical
programmed electronic computer ran mathematical problems.
It fitted into one room! In the 1960s, the electronic silicon chip was invented, computers
became smaller and more powerful. In 1984, the CD was born and the digital revolution
began.
The worldwide web has given us access to billions of documents with information
and images as well as online shopping and banking.
Mobile telephone technology means we have instant contact with friends and family.
During this period, there have also been huge advances in genetics since the discover
of the structure of DNA in 1953 .
Today, genetic engineering and nanotechnology show fast growth trends and, also, are
big business