Page 34 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

technology—overview 1811

Invention is the mother of
necessity. • Thorstein Veblen
(1857–1929)

ships and knowledge Christopher Columbus (1451– North America soon followed Britain’s lead, but the rest
1506) crossed the Atlantic in 1492, and Vasco da Gama of Europe and Russia lagged behind until the late nine-
(1460–1524) reached India six years later. teenth century. India and Latin America imported
machines and technicians, but not the engineering culture
Gunpowder that would have lessened their dependence on the indus-
Gunpowder was first used in China in the thirteenth cen- trial nations. Of all the non-Western nations, only Japan
tury for flame throwers and fireworks. In the fourteenth began industrializing before 1900.
century, Europeans and Turks began casting large cannon Meanwhile, a second wave of industrial technologies
that could hurl iron cannonballs and destroy the walls of appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
fortified cities. Artillery gave a great advantage to cen- turies, mainly from Germany and the United States.
tralized states like those of the Ottoman Turks, the Inventors found ways of mass-producing steel—
Mughals in India, and the czars of Russia.Western Euro- formerly a rare and costly metal—at a cost so low that
peans were the first to build smaller naval cannon and it could be used to build bridges and buildings and even
ships strong enough to withstand the recoil of guns in thrown away after use.The German chemical industry,
battle, and with these they quickly dominated the Indian founded to produce synthetic dyestuffs, expanded into
Ocean and the waters off East and Southeast Asia. fertilizers, explosives, and numerous other products.
Electricity from batteries has been used since the 1830s
The Industrial Age to transmit messages by telegraph, but after 1860 gen-
(1750–1950) erators and dynamos produced powerful currents that
Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, a new set of could be used for many other purposes. In 1878,
technologies, which we call industrial, began to transform Thomas Edison (1847–1931) invented not only the
the world. Industrialization had four defining character- incandescent light bulb, but also the generating stations
istics: an increased division of labor; the mechanization and distribution networks that made electricity useful
of production and transportation; energy from fossil for lighting and later for electric motors, streetcars,
fuels; and mass production of goods and services. Each and other applications. In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi
of these had been tried in various places before—for (1874–1937) created the first wireless telegraph, the
example, books were mass produced from the sixteenth ancestor of radio.
century on—but it is the combination of all four that The beginning of the twentieth century saw the intro-
defined true industrialization. duction of two other technologies that revolutionized life
Industrialization began with the British cotton textile in the industrial countries and, later, in the rest of the
industry, which used machines powered by flowing world. In 1886 Karl Benz (1844–1929) and Gottlieb
streams to produce cloth in large quantities at low cost. Daimler (1834–1900) put an internal combustion
At the same time, abundant coal was used to produce engine on a “horseless carriage.” In 1913 Henry Ford
cheap iron. The most spectacular invention of the eigh- (1863–1947) began building his Model T on an assem-
teenth century, and the one that distinguished the British bly line, making cars so inexpensive that even workers
industrial revolution from all previous periods of rapid could afford them. By the 1920s, automobiles were com-
change, was the steam engine, improved by the condenser mon in the United States. After the mid-century, they
JamesWatt (1736–1819) patented in 1769. By the mid- became common in Europe as well.
nineteenth century, steam engines were used to pump The other revolutionary invention was the airplane.
water, turn machines, and power locomotives and ships. The brothers Wilbur (1867–1912) and Orville (1871–
The new industrial technologies spread to other coun- 1948) Wright were the first to fly in 1903. They were
tries, but very unevenly.Western Europe and northeastern soon followed by others on both sides of the Atlantic.