tailieunhanh - An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology part 4

An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology part 4. This one of a kind encyclopedia presents the entire field of technology from rudimentary agricultural tools to communication satellites in this first of its kind reference source. Following an introduction that discusses basic tools, devices, and mechanisms, the chapters are grouped into five parts that provide detailed information on materials, power and engineering, transportation, communication and calculation, and technology and society, revealing how different technologies have together evolved to produce enormous changes in the course of history | INTRODUCTION sharpened flints set into the blade with bitumen. At an oasis near the Dead Sea as at other places a village grew into a city this was Jericho with fortified walls and buildings at first of reed and mud then of unbaked clay until baked brick was used between 8000 and 6000 BC. Barley and millet were also grown and harvested see Chapter 16 . As well as the already domesticated dog the sheep the goat and the onager a form of ass were added to the domestic animals. Pottery was made not only by the old method of smoothing together coils of clay but also on the newly invented potter s wheel. Copper was used for ornaments in Egypt about 4000 BC see Chapter 1 . It came Into more general use for making tools 1000 years later at about the time that tin which could be alloyed with it to make bronze was discovered in Mesopotamia. Iron was not discovered as a useful material until about 1500 BC see Chapter 2 . Social influences of copper and iron The social implications of copper and iron were very different. Copper as later bronze was something of a rarity and consequently expensive when it had been worked into a tool or weapon by someone with the skill and knowledge to do so. It came too at a time before there was an establishment a hierarchy of king and priest and counsellor. Wealth was the only uncommon denominator and wealth could be equated with worldly success in the business that mattered most success in agriculture. Copper tools and weapons thus became available only to the powerful to those who were already wealthy and had the effect of increasing their power and multiplying their wealth. It thus tended to create an elitist society in which the majority who formed the lower ranks were still confined to grubbing the earth with tools of bone and wood and stone. It was socially divisive helping only the rich to become richer in creating the small agricultural surpluses that were to be at the foundation of subsequent cultures. The technology of ironmaking and