Materials The earliest materials used by humans were bone, horn, shell, and stone. Metals were rare or difficult to obtain, although forms of bronze and iron were in use from 6000 BC, and 1000 BC, respectively. In the 15th century the blast furnace was introduced, enabling the production of cast iron, but the process remained expensive until the English ironmaker Abraham Darby substituted coke for charcoal in 1709 - ensuring a plentiful supply of cheap iron at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Rubber, glass, leather, paper, bricks, and porcelain underwent similar processes of trial and error before becoming readily available. From the mid-1800s entirely new synthetic materials began to appear. First dyes, then plastic and the more versatile celluloid, and later drugs were synthesised.	Power and Machines The only power available to prehistoric people was muscle power, augmented by primitive tools such as the wedge and the lever. These are very simple examples of "machines" - devices that allow a small force (the 'effort') to overcome a larger one (the 'load'). There are four basic machines: the inclined plane (ramp); the lever; the pulley; and the wheel and axle. All other machines are combinations of these four basic types. In 3600 BC, the Sumerian people who lived in what is now the Middle East, used crude wheels - wooden slabs with rounded corners. In about 3000 BC people in Asia were using carts which had two solid wheels joined together by an axle. Later, people discovered how to reduce the friction between the wheel and axle by putting grease between them. In about 1750 BC lighter wheels with spokes radiating from a central hub were made in Egypt. Ball bearings were invented in the 19th century, reducing friction between the wheel and the axle; they are small steel balls fitting between the hub and the axle. The domestication of animals about 8500 BC, and the invention of the wheel around 3000 BC, paved the way for the water mill (1st century BC) and the windmill (12th century AD).
Transport and Aerospace Until the 1700s no one had travelled faster than a horse could run, or faster than a ship could be blown by the wind. But with the Industrial Revolution, speed became important for trade. The Industrial Revolution was a period from the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s, of rapid industrial growth that began in England and soon spread to many other countries, including the USA. For a long time, England was a society of farms and small businesses. Most goods were made by hand, usually in the worker's home and often by the whole family. But, as bigger machines came into use, people began working in factories. Factories with complex machinery became common in the cities. Savery's steam engine was invented in 1698; it was used to pump water out of mine shafts. Water was boiled, producing steam, which passed into a chamber where it was cooled by cold water so that it condensed. This made a vacuum which pumped the water up to a tank above the mine. It wasn't until 1712 that an alternative source of power became available: the steam engine, built by English inventor Thomas Newcomen. In the textile industry, Kay's Flying Shuttle (1733) made weaving much faster and led to Hargreaves' invention of the spinning Jenny, enabling the spinners to keep up with the weavers. Next, a spinning machine was made by Arkwright which was operated by water power. Later, the most notable inventions were: the balloon (1783), the steamship (1807), the steam railway (1825), the dynamo, (1831 by the English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday ), the four-stroke cycle used in the internal combustion engine (1876 by the German scientist Nikolaus Otto), the motor vehicle (1885), the airplane (1903, piloted by the Wright brothers), and the helicopter (1909, the first vertical takeoff flight made in a prototype helicopter). In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the assembly line to manufacturing and was able to produce a Model T in 12.5 hours. The car sold for $850. In 1913, he modified the process by creating a moving assemble line. The time to build a Model T dropped to 93 minutes and the cost fell to $440. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4th, 1957 - the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth in space. The American astronauts Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin went to the moon aboard Apollo 11; Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon, on July 20th 1969.	Communications and Electronics No one knows when language began. Perhaps people first began to speak by imitating natural sounds such as bird cries or the sound of animals. Written forms of words came thousands of years later - picture signs - over 5,000 years ago. The development of writing enabled knowledge to be recorded and passed on through space and down through time. There have been two major communications revolutions in the last 500 years: in 1450 the German printer Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press with movable type; by 1500, about 8 million books had been printed in Europe, and now, books are available to virtually everyone. The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The transmitter (mouthpiece) consists of a carbon microphone, with a diaphragm that vibrates when sound waves fall on it. These vibrations compress grains of carbon to a greater or lesser extent, altering their resistance to an electric current passing through them. This varies the strength of the electric current, which travels along the telephone lines to an electromagnet in the receiver, creating a varying magnetic field which vibrates a metal diaphragm next to it, causing sound waves very similar to the original sound waves at the sender's mouthpiece. In the past 100 years, inventions such as photography, the telephone, sound recording, radio, television, and computers and the Internet, have enabled the communication of text, sound, and pictures at almost instantaneous speeds around the world. Hot Chocolate! During World War II, researchers at a secret Massachusetts laboratory tested high-frequency magnetic waves - microwaves - for use in radar. A researcher was working near a magnetron (the device that produced the waves), and he noticed that the chocolate in his pocket was melting - even though the pocket felt cool. Curious, he subjected other foods to the microwaves. The researcher, Percy Spencer, built on his discovery to develop the first microwave oven.
Modern Technology The first atomic bomb was exploded in the 1940s, and the nuclear power industry developed subsequently. Concern over the depletion of non-renewable power sources such as fossil fuels, and the pollution they cause, has led to the investigation of renewable sources of energy, especially solar energy, wind energy, and wave energy. Technology has also created such problems as technological unemployment and environmental pollution. Since World War II, technology has been increasingly applied at the microscopic level. The 1980s saw the growth of genetic engineering, enabling the production of synthetic insulin and growth hormones. Recent advances include the development of computers, the Internet, the invention of the laser and new synthetic substances, improvement in medicines, and space travel and exploration.	Computers Originally large, complex machines filling rooms, Computers are now familiar at work, home, and school, as desktop personal computers (PCs). They also exist as very small devices called microprocessors, to control electronic equipment and machinery, e.g. car engines; and as much larger devices such as supercomputers, used to model and predict weather, earthquakes, nuclear explosions, etc. They communicate with other electronic devices to receive data, store and manipulate them (using mathematical and logical calculations specified in a sequence of instructions called a program), and transmit the results. e.g accept a sequence of numbers typed in at a keyboard, and plot a graph of them on a visual display unit, or monitor. Space Exploration Space exploration is the investigation of physical conditions in space and on stars, planets, and natural satellites through the use of artificial satellites, space probes, and manned spacecraft. Although studies from earth using optical and ,radio telescopes had accumulated much data on the nature of celestial bodies, it was not until after World War II that the development of powerful rockets made direct space exploration a technological possibility. The space age began on October 4th, 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. The first space flight by a human was on April 12th, 1961. Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, orbited Earth once in the Vostok 1 spacecraft.

Materials

Pictures/monitoring.jpg The earliest materials used by humans were bone, horn, shell, and stone. Metals were rare or difficult to obtain, although forms of bronze and iron were in use from 6000 BC, and 1000 BC, respectively.

In the 15th century the blast furnace was introduced, enabling the production of cast iron, but the process remained expensive until the English ironmaker Abraham Darby substituted coke for charcoal in 1709 - ensuring a plentiful supply of cheap iron at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Rubber, glass, leather, paper, bricks, and porcelain underwent similar processes of trial and error before becoming readily available. Pictures/technician.jpg From the mid-1800s entirely new synthetic materials began to appear. First dyes, then plastic and the more versatile celluloid, and later drugs were synthesised.

Power and Machines

The only power available to prehistoric people was muscle power, augmented by primitive tools such as the wedge and the lever. These are very simple examples of "machines" - devices that allow a small force (the 'effort') to overcome a larger one (the 'load'). There are four basic machines: the inclined plane (ramp); the lever; the pulley; and the wheel and axle. All other machines are combinations of these four basic types.

In 3600 BC, the Sumerian people who lived in what is now the Middle East, used crude wheels - wooden slabs with rounded corners. In about 3000 BC people in Asia were using carts which had two solid wheels joined together by an axle. Later, people discovered how to reduce the friction between the wheel and axle by putting grease between them.

Pictures/wheel.jpg In about 1750 BC lighter wheels with spokes radiating from a central hub were made in Egypt. Ball bearings were invented in the 19th century, reducing friction between the wheel and the axle; they are small steel balls fitting between the hub and the axle.

The domestication of animals about 8500 BC, and the invention of the wheel around 3000 BC, paved the way for the water mill (1st century BC) and the windmill (12th century AD).

Transport and Aerospace

Pictures/trackingdish.jpg Until the 1700s no one had travelled faster than a horse could run, or faster than a ship could be blown by the wind. But with the Industrial Revolution, speed became important for trade.

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s, of rapid industrial growth that began in England and soon spread to many other countries, including the USA. For a long time, England was a society of farms and small businesses. Most goods were made by hand, usually in the worker's home and often by the whole family. But, as bigger machines came into use, people began working in factories. Factories with complex machinery became common in the cities.

Savery's steam engine was invented in 1698; it was used to pump water out of mine shafts. Water was boiled, producing steam, which passed into a chamber where it was cooled by cold water so that it condensed. This made a vacuum which pumped the water up to a tank above the mine. It wasn't until 1712 that an alternative source of power became available: the steam engine, built by English inventor Thomas Newcomen.

In the textile industry, Kay's Flying Shuttle (1733) made weaving much faster and led to Hargreaves' invention of the spinning Jenny, enabling the spinners to keep up with the weavers. Next, a spinning machine was made by Arkwright which was operated by water power.

Later, the most notable inventions were: the balloon (1783), the steamship (1807), the steam railway (1825), the dynamo, (1831 by the English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday ), the four-stroke cycle used in the internal combustion engine (1876 by the German scientist Nikolaus Otto), the motor vehicle (1885), the airplane (1903, piloted by the Wright brothers), and the helicopter (1909, the first vertical takeoff flight made in a prototype helicopter).

In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the assembly line to manufacturing and was able to produce a Model T in 12.5 hours. The car sold for $850. In 1913, he modified the process by creating a moving assemble line. The time to build a Model T dropped to 93 minutes and the cost fell to $440.

The Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4th, 1957 - the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth in space. The American astronauts Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin went to the moon aboard Apollo 11; Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon, on July 20th 1969.

Communications and Electronics

Pictures/commstower.jpg No one knows when language began. Perhaps people first began to speak by imitating natural sounds such as bird cries or the sound of animals. Written forms of words came thousands of years later - picture signs - over 5,000 years ago. The development of writing enabled knowledge to be recorded and passed on through space and down through time.

There have been two major communications revolutions in the last 500 years: in 1450 the German printer Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press with movable type; by 1500, about 8 million books had been printed in Europe, and now, books are available to virtually everyone.

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The transmitter (mouthpiece) consists of a carbon microphone, with a diaphragm that vibrates when sound waves fall on it. These vibrations compress grains of carbon to a greater or lesser extent, altering their resistance to an electric current passing through them. This varies the strength of the electric current, which travels along the telephone lines to an electromagnet in the receiver, creating a varying magnetic field which vibrates a metal diaphragm next to it, causing sound waves very similar to the original sound waves at the sender's mouthpiece.

Pictures/fiberoptic.jpg In the past 100 years, inventions such as photography, the telephone, sound recording, radio, television, and computers and the Internet, have enabled the communication of text, sound, and pictures at almost instantaneous speeds around the world.

Hot Chocolate!

During World War II, researchers at a secret Massachusetts laboratory tested high-frequency magnetic waves - microwaves - for use in radar. A researcher was working near a magnetron (the device that produced the waves), and he noticed that the chocolate in his pocket was melting - even though the pocket felt cool. Curious, he subjected other foods to the microwaves. The researcher, Percy Spencer, built on his discovery to develop the first microwave oven.

Modern Technology

Pictures/windpower.jpg The first atomic bomb was exploded in the 1940s, and the nuclear power industry developed subsequently. Concern over the depletion of non-renewable power sources such as fossil fuels, and the pollution they cause, has led to the investigation of renewable sources of energy, especially solar energy, wind energy, and wave energy. Technology has also created such problems as technological unemployment and environmental pollution.

Pictures/electronmicroscope.jpg Since World War II, technology has been increasingly applied at the microscopic level. The 1980s saw the growth of genetic engineering, enabling the production of synthetic insulin and growth hormones.
Pictures/surgery.jpg Recent advances include the development of computers, the Internet, the invention of the laser and new synthetic substances, improvement in medicines, and space travel and exploration.

Computers

Originally large, complex machines filling rooms, Computers are now familiar at work, home, and school, as desktop personal computers (PCs). They also exist as very small devices called microprocessors, to control electronic equipment and machinery, e.g. car engines; and as much larger devices such as supercomputers, used to model and predict weather, earthquakes, nuclear explosions, etc.

They communicate with other electronic devices to receive data, store and manipulate them (using mathematical and logical calculations specified in a sequence of instructions called a program), and transmit the results. e.g accept a sequence of numbers typed in at a keyboard, and plot a graph of them on a visual display unit, or monitor.

Space Exploration

Space exploration is the investigation of physical conditions in space and on stars, planets, and natural satellites through the use of artificial satellites, space probes, and manned spacecraft. Although studies from earth using optical and ,radio telescopes had accumulated much data on the nature of celestial bodies, it was not until after World War II that the development of powerful rockets made direct space exploration a technological possibility.

The space age began on October 4th, 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. The first space flight by a human was on April 12th, 1961. Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, orbited Earth once in the Vostok 1 spacecraft.

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