Chapter 58: Shaping the World: The White Technological Revolution Part One: Early Inventions and Firearms The world today is dominated by technology as never before. It is impossible to travel anywhere without seeing some vestiges of or manifestations of technological wizardry which have shaped all life on the planet today, particularly those innovations developed at the time of the Industrial Revolution. While this fact is commonly known and countless books and works have been written on the subject, all have ignored one crucial feature of this astonishing technological revolution: the plain facts are that the great technological innovations which have set the pace for the entire world are exclusively the product of a tiny minority of Whites. This fact, like so many other unpalatable truths in history, is ignored because of the political implications it carries: it is possibly the most politically incorrect view which can be made, although the facts leave any objective observer with no other option but to arrive at this inescapable conclusion. Ancient Origins of Technology While it is often claimed that the modern technological age began with the era of the Industrial Revolution, the reality is that many of the technologies which have shaped the modern world pre-date the era of the Industrial Revolution by sometimes hundreds of years. This is not to down play the importance of the Industrial Revolution, which in itself was a period of perhaps 200 years which saw science and technology leapfrog in terms of development, but merely to put things into perspective: that much of the knowledge sharing and ability which created that explosion of genius was only possible because of earlier developments. Ancient Inventors Archimedes (287-212 BC) was a Classical Greek inventor who defined the principle of the lever and is credited with inventing the compound pulley. During his stay in Egypt, he invented the hydraulic screw for raising water from a lower to a higher level. He is best known for discovering the law of hydrostatics, often called Archimedes' principle, which states that a body immersed in fluid loses weight equal to the weight of the amount of fluid it displaces. He also invented the catapult and the first "laser beam" - a system of mirrors he developed for the kingdom of Syracuse which focused the suns' rays on invaders' boats and set them on fire - the basic principle behind a magnifying glass. Ctesibius (3rd century BC) was a Classical Greek inventor who won fame for his invention of a number of devices using the pressure created by air and water. He used water weights, or containers made heavy by filling them with water, and compressed air, to construct an air-powered catapult. His most famous invention was the great improvement he made to the ancient Egyptian clepsydra, or water clock, in which water dripping into a container at a steady rate raised a float that carried a pointer to mark the hours. He equipped the float with a rack that turned a toothed wheel and made the clock work a number of adornments: whistling birds, moving puppets, ringing bells, and other gadgets. The accuracy of Ctesibius's water clock was only eventually surpassed in 1657 by the pendulum clock of Dutch inventor Christiaan Huygens, but the spirit of Ctesibius's clock still survives in the cuckoo clock. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was not only a great artist but also a stunningly advanced inventor whose surviving documents and manuscripts are filled with designs for many of the machines regarded as 19th or 20th century inventions, but were in fact modeled in his 16th century plans. These designs included: portable bridges; cannons; armored vehicles; a submarine; an underwater diving suit; and models for aircraft. Computers The history of the development of an item regarded as on the cutting edge of modern technology - the computer - serves as another excellent example of how the development of modern technology predates the era of the Industrial Revolution. The first computer - a machine which could do mathematical equations - was built as early as 1623 by the German scientist Wilhelm Schikard. He built a machine that used 11 complete and 6 incomplete sprocketed wheels that could add and, with the aid of logarithm tables, multiply and divide. In 1642, the Frenchman Blaise Pascal, invented a machine that added and subtracted, automatically carrying and borrowing digits from column to column. The 17th century German mathematician, Gottfried Leibniz, designed a special gearing system to enable Pascal's machine to do multiplication as well. The first programmable computer was developed in 1804 when the Frenchman, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, invented a spinning loom which used punched cards to program preselected patterns. Jacquard was rewarded by Napoleon Bonaparte for his work, but was forced to flee Lyon when he was attacked by weavers who saw themselves being replaced by his invention. His looms are however still used today, especially in the manufacture of fine furniture fabrics. The British mathematician and inventor, Charles Babbage, started building, but never completed, two astonishing computers called the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. The latter became the basis upon which all modern computers were developed. Babbage never managed to finish building his machines - although all the plans were completed - because of financial constraints. Many of the ideas surrounding Babbage's computers were recorded by his friend, Augusta Ada Byron, the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron. Ada's conceptual programs for the Engine led to the naming of a programming language (Ada) in her honor. Although the Analytical Engine was never built, its key concepts, such as the capacity to store instructions, the use of punched cards as a primitive memory, and the ability to print, were taken by others and can be found in many modern computers. The German American, Herman Hollerith, developed a device which could electronically create and read the punched cards developed by Jacquard. Hollerith's tabulator was used for the 1890 US census, cutting the counting time to a quarter of the previous census time. Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company eventually merged with other companies in 1924 to become the world famous IBM company. The precursor to the modern digital computer came in 1936, when the British mathematician Alan Turing developed the Turing Machine - a device looking like a typewriter that could process equations without human direction. From this machine the idea of buttons and keyboard for a computer was developed. In the 1930s, the American mathematician, Howard Aiken, developed the Mark I calculating machine, which was built by Hollerith's IBM. This electronic calculating machine used relays and electromagnetic components to replace mechanical components. Aiken also introduced computers to universities by establishing the first computer science program at Harvard University. During the Second World War, computer technology leapfrogged, with the British developing a massive analogue computer in secret to be able to read the encrypted German field signals. The first successful digital computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), was invented by the American, John Mauchly, at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945. Many of ENIAC's first tasks were for military purposes, such as calculating ballistic firing tables and designing atomic weapons. Mauchly and a partner formed their own company, and produced the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC), which was used for a broader variety of commercial applications. In 1948, at Bell Telephone Laboratories, American physicists Walter Houser Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Bradford Shockley developed the transistor, a device that can act as an electric switch. The transistor had a tremendous impact on computer design, replacing costly, energy-inefficient, and unreliable vacuum tubes. From then on the science has leapfrogged: the development of integrated circuits in America in the late 1960s by a number of scientists enabled the miniaturization of the computer and led ultimately to the modern word processor and personal computer so common today. The Industrial Revolution Britain has the distinction of being the mother of the first modern Industrial Revolution, which started at the end of the 18th century. Because British scientific and technical genius provided the impetus, that country became known as the workshop of the world, with its technological wonders being exported to all corners of the earth. European Inventors and their Inventions John Napier (1550-1617) was a Scottish mathematician who invented the first system of logarithms, described in his book Canonis Descriptio (1614). He also invented mechanical systems for performing arithmetical computations, described in his book Rabdologia (1617). Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) was an English architect, scientist, and mathematician, who apart from many great buildings, designed and invented a weather clock, the forerunner of the barometer; and undertook pioneering work in the development of blood transfusion. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726) was an English scientist who worked out an all-encompassing mechanical explanation of the universe resting upon the law of universal gravitation. His work was so far reaching that it was still used in the 20th century when space exploration was planned. Samuel Crompton (1753-1827) was an Englishman who invented the spinning mule, a machine that was able to spin cotton into thread finer and faster than was possible with hand spinning. Foolishly he sold the design for the machine for a mere 60 pounds. While it became the most important machine in the British textile industry, Crompton lived in dreadful poverty until the British Parliament voted him 5000 pounds in 1812, in recognition of his innovation. John Kay (1704 - 1764) was an Englishman who invented the Flying Shuttle in 1733. The flying shuttle greatly increased the speed of weaving and permitted picking to be performed by one person. He also invented an improved combing, or carding, device. Attacked by weavers who saw his invention as taking away their jobs, Kay fled to France where he died in poverty. Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-92) was a British inventor who designed a spinning frame in which cotton fiber was spun into thread in 1769. Edmund Cartwright (1743-1823) was an Englishman who invented the power loom in 1785 - an automated hand loom which provoked violent reaction from manual laborers. Cartwright also invented a wool-combing machine (1789) and a steam engine fueled by alcohol (1797). He was awarded 10,000 pounds by the British Parliament in recognition of his innovations - the power loom made the British Industrial Revolution possible. James Hargreaves (1720- 1778) was an Englishman who, in 1764, invented the Spinning Jenny (named after his daughter) which made possible the automatic production of cotton thread.
James Watt (1736-1819) was a Scottish inventor who won renown for his development of the first viable steam engine, a device which had originally been invented by the English engineers Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen. The first steam engines were thundering devices which were used to pump water from mines. Watt's first patent, in 1769, greatly improved the mechanical flaws of the first steam engines and provided for a host of innovations such as steam-jacketing, oil lubrication, and the insulation of the steam generating cylinder. Watt also invented the rotary engine for driving various types of machinery; the double-action engine, in which steam is admitted alternately into both ends of the cylinder; the steam indicator, which records the steam pressure in the engine; the centrifugal or flyball governor which automatically regulated the speed of an engine; and an attachment that adapted telescopes for use as land surveying equipment - a device still in use today. The electrical unit, the watt, was named in his honor. Edward Jenner (1749-1823) was an English physicist who pioneered the use of vaccines, most notably against smallpox. Louis Jacques Daguerre (1789-1851) was a Frenchman who invented the daguerreotype method of photography which used metal plates, which was, until the development of roll film, the most common form of photography. Joseph Niepce (1765-1833) was a Frenchman who invented the first process for capturing permanent photographic images. In 1826, he successfully made the first surviving permanent photograph, of the courtyard of his house, using a bitumen-coated pewter plate. Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-99) was a German chemist who invented the spectroscope and discovered spectrum analysis which led to the discovery of the elements cesium and rubidium. Bunsen also discovered (1834) the antidote that is still used today for arsenic poisoning. Although his name was given to the Bunsen burner, he did not develop that device. He did however invent a number of other devices, including: the ice calorimeter; the filter pump; and the zinc-carbon electric cell.
Ernst Werner von Siemens (1816-92) was one of a family of German engineers who founded the firm bearing his name. He invented a number of devices of his own accord, including the electric dynamo and the use of gutta-percha, an elastic, rubberlike substance, for insulating cables. He also built the world's first electric train and tram in Berlin in 1879. Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867) was a British physicist who developed the gas burner used in scientific laboratories which later became known as the Bunsen burner. His other great inventions include: benzene; electromagnetic induction; and the laws of electrolysis which bear his name. Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) was the British inventor of a revolutionary process for the manufacture of steel, patented in 1856. Richard Trevithick (1771-1833) was a British mechanical engineer and inventor who is regarded as the father of railway travel. In 1796, he developed the first mobile steam engines, vastly improving James Watt's steam engines, and by 1801, had transported the first passengers on one of his steam engines. By 1804, his steam engines were running on tracks and the age of rail travel had arrived. In 1829, a new locomotive designed to carry both passengers and cargo was designed by the British engineer George Stephenson. This engine, known as the Rocket, stimulated the building of other locomotives and the extension of railway lines even further. The same year the first locomotive engine was sent to North America from England.
Above: As shown in this illustration of the London and Greenwich railway line in 1833, the first railway carriages were shaped like horse carriages: the train also transported real carriages on flat bed cars.
Alfred Nobel (1833-96) was a Swedish inventor who devised military weapons such as mines, torpedoes, and dynamite. Gugielmo Marchese Marconi (1874-1937) was an Italian electrical engineer who won fame as the inventor of the first practical radio-signaling system. In 1897, he formed Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd., in London and in 1899, established radio communication across the English Channel between England and France; in 1901, he first sent signals across the Atlantic Ocean between England and North America. During World War I, he was in charge of the Italian wireless service and developed short-wave transmission as a means of secret communication. Vlademar Poulsen was a Danish inventor who developed the first tape recorder in 1898, using a magnetized steel tape in what he called the telegraphone. The magnetic tape common today in tape recorders was developed in Germany during the Second World War. Louis Pasteur (1882 - 1895) was a French scientist who is best remembered for the development of the process of pasteurization, the sterilization of milk and other substances. He also founded the science of microbiology and developed vaccines for a wide number of diseases including anthrax and rabies.
Gregor Mendel (1822 -1884) was a German monk who discovered the laws of genetics through research with garden peas. Mendel described the patterns of inheritance in terms of seven pairs of contrasting traits that appeared in different pea-plant varieties. He observed that the traits were inherited as separate units, each of which was inherited independently of the others. He found that each parent has pairs of units but contributes only one unit from each pair to its offspring. The units that Mendel described were later given the name genes. He published his findings in 1866, and they became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance. Louis Lumiere (1864-1948) was a French pioneer of motion photography who, with his brother Auguste, invented an early motion picture system and made the first proper film in 1895, showing it to the public in that same year: the first cinema show in the world. North American Inventors and their Inventions Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). Apart from his contributions to the American War of Independence and the writing of the American constitution, Franklin also won fame for devising the first anti-pollution measures with devices to control smoking chimneys and in 1744, invented the Franklin stove, which furnished greater heat with a reduced consumption of fuel. His most famous discovery came in 1747, when he proved that lighting was an electrical phenomena. He also invented the lightning rod. John Fitch (1743-98) developed the first American steamboat in 1787. Fitch's craft, for which he patented in America and France in 1791, made up the first regularly scheduled steamboat line. Eli Whitney (1765-1825) is best known for his 1793 invention of the cotton gin, a machine that would separate the seeds from the fibers of the short-staple cotton plant - work previously done laboriously by hand.
David Bushnell (1742-1824) built the first submarine in 1775. Called the Turtle, the one-passenger craft was a tarred, oaken sphere banded with iron and powered by hand-operated propellers and pumps. Designed for military use, its armament was an outside gunpowder bomb with a time fuse. George Henry Corliss (1817-1888) invented the Corliss valve in 1849, which regulates the flow of steam into an engine cylinder. The concept was then used in all valve operated engine systems. Gail Borden (1801-1874) invented the process for condensing milk and conserving foods. John Ericsson (1803-1889). Swedish born, Ericsson was the co-designer of the steam locomotive, the Novelty, which was the main competition to George Stephenson's Rocket. Although Ericsson's design failed mechanically during a race between the Rocket and the Novelty, it was the first locomotive to travel a mile in under a minute. Ericsson's other great inventions include the screw propeller for ships (until then all ships had used oars or paddlewheels), with the first screw driven ship, the Francis B. Ogden, being launched in 1837. In 1870 Ericsson patented the first solar powered engine which used sunlight to boil water and create steam which could drive machinery. Charles Goodyear (1800-1860) who in 1839, discovered (by accident) that when rubber and sulfur are heated together at a high temperature, a rubber with desirable properties results. This process, called vulcanization, is still the basis of the rubber-manufacturing industry. Elisha Gray (1835-1901), who became one of the more tragic inventors in American history when he literally handed in his patent for the telephone a few hours after Alexander Graham Bell handed in his: the credit for the telephone went to Bell, although Gray's device had been developed simultaneously. In 1888, Gray patented a facsimile telegraph system; and he founded the Western Electric Company. John Moses Browning (1855-1926) invented some of the most widely used weapons in the history of firearms and developed several important improvements for guns, including breech-loading, automatic-loading, and repeating rifles and shotguns. Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890-1954) developed several electronic circuits and systems that were crucial to the development of radio, including the regenerative circuit (1912) and the frequency modulation (FM) radio broadcasting system. The regenerative circuit amplified weak radio signals and revolutionized the range of radio broadcasting. The FM broadcasting system is in common use today. Lee De Forest (1873-1961) designed a number of the earliest wireless radio and telegraph transmitters. His most important invention, however, was a type of vacuum tube that De Forest called the audion, and which today is known as the triode. The triode was the key component of all radio, radar, television and computer systems until its replacement by the transistor in the early 1950s. John Deere (1804-86) designed the steel ploughshare in the 1830s, replacing the cast iron version. The company he formed in Illinois became famous for the manufacture of all farming implements. Charles Edgar Duyera (1861-1938), who with his brother, James Frank Duyera, built the first successful petrol powered automobile in America in 1894. George Eastman (1854-1932) who in 1884 patented the first film in roll form to prove practicable; in 1888 he perfected the Kodak camera; in 1889, Eastman invented flexible transparent film, which allowed the development of the motion picture industry.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). His inventions include: the practical electric light bulb; an electric generating system; the phonograph, a sound recording device using a round cylinder - he would later adapt it to record on a flat disc - the record player; and the motion picture projector or Kinetoscope. By synchronizing his phonograph and Kinetoscope, he produced, in 1913, the first talking moving pictures. In 1882, he developed and installed the world's first large central electric-power station, located in New York City. He also developed a commercial version of the battery; the mimeograph, the microtasimeter (used for the detection of minute changes in temperature), and a wireless telegraphic method for communicating with moving trains. Altogether, Edison patented more than 1000 inventions. Sherman Mills Fairchild (1896-1971) invented several cameras and was the first to come up with the idea to have enclosed cockpits on aircraft. He also invented the radio compass and hydraulic brakes and hydraulic landing gears for aircraft. He founded the company, Fairchild Industries, in New York. Richard Jordan Gatling (1818-1903) won renown as the inventor of the Gatling gun, the first repeat firing machine gun which proved instrumental in American and later world history. Elias Howe (1819-67) who won fame when, in 1837, he designed, and, over the next nine years, built the sewing machine, for which he took out a patent in 1846. He then went to England, returning a few years later to find that the a man by the name of Isaac Singer had stolen his patent and had started mass manufacture of the sewing machine under the Singer trade name. Howe pursued Singer in court, during the course of which unfounded charges of anti-Semitism were made against Howe by Singer, who was Jewish. After several years, Howe won: Singer was ordered to pay the inventor royalties on all Singer sewing machines ever produced, and Howe retired a wealthy man. Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958). Kettering invented some of the most recognizable items of modern life. They include: the electric automatic starter which he built specifically for automobiles, but later used for many other applications; the first electronic cash register, developed while he was working for the National Cash Register (NCR) company; the first engine powered electricity generator, today widely used where ever mains electricity is not available; quick drying automobile paint; high octane and leaded petrol; a nonpoisonous coolant for refrigerators; and the first practical engine for diesel locomotives. Herbert Edwin Land (1909-91), who won fame through his work in polarized light: he developed a new kind of polarizer, which he called Polaroid, by aligning and embedding crystals in a plastic sheet. Starting his own laboratory at the age of 19, he started the Polaroid Corporation in 1937, which developed infrared filters, dark adaptation goggles and target finders. In the late 1940s, the corporation produced the first self-developing Polaroid Land camera. Hiram Percy Maxim (1869-1936) was one of a family of inventors: his father invented the Maxim machine gun and cordite. Other Maxim inventions included an electric automobile in 1897; and silencer devices for rifles and air compressors. Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809-1884) invented the first successful reaping machine in 1831. The technical innovations in this machine contributed greatly to the development of modern agriculture and have been included in every successful reaper manufactured since. The garden lawnmower is based on his original invention. Samuel Morse (1791-1872) won fame for his inventions of the electric telegraph and the Morse code. In 1843 the U.S. Congress appropriated $30,000 for Morse to construct an experimental telegraph line between Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Maryland. The line was successfully installed, and on May 24, 1844, Morse sent the first message: "What hath God wrought!". Graves Otis (1811-1861) pioneered the construction and manufacture of steam-powered elevators. He founded the Otis Elevator Company. George Mortimer Pullman (1831-97) designed the first railway sleeping coach. His factory developed into its own town, Pullman in Illinois. Christopher Sholes (1819-1890) invented the first practical typewriter in 1867, perfecting a design which had first been attempted in 1714, by Henry Mill in England. The development of the machine was incredibly difficult: no less than 76 attempts had been made between the time of Mill and Sholes' successful design. In 1873, Sholes signed a contract with the Remington Arms Company, a gun manufacturer, to build and market the typewriter. Sholes developed the "QWERTY" keyboard still in use in modern English language computers to overcome the problem of typewriter keys sticking at the point of contact with the ribbon: the keys for the letters that most often appear in combination in the English language are located far apart. Elmer Ambrose Sperry (1860-1930), patented more than 400 inventions including: the electric-arc light; electric streetcars; improvements to electric motors; the gyrocompass; the gyropilot for steering ships; the automatic gyropilot for stabilizing aircraft; and electrically sustained gyros that control submarine and aerial torpedoes. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a Croatian born American electrical engineer who in 1888, designed the first practical system of generating and transmitting alternating current for electric power. In 1895, Tesla's alternating-current motors were installed at the Niagara Falls power project. George Westinghouse (1846-1914) who won fame for inventing the railway frog, a device permitting trains to cross from one track to another. In 1868, he invented the device for which he became most famous, the airbrake. Chester F. Carlson (1906-1968) invented xerography, an electronic dry-copying process for the reproduction of images or documents, now called photocopying. Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was a Scottish born American inventor who won fame for inventing the telephone; his other great invention which was just as important but for which he is not widely know, is the aileron, used in every aircraft. He founded the Bell Telephone Company and his descendants founded the National Geographic magazine.
Paper Often the allegation is heard that paper was invented in China or Egypt. In neither of these two civilizations was paper used: in China a textile based parchment was used, and in Egypt bound reeds - papyrus - was made into parchment. The very earliest documents in Europe were also captured on material parchment - but there is no evidence that this development was transmitted from the East to Europe. In Europe, the process to make a textile thin enough to be comfortably used, meant a laborious process of pulping thicker scraps of textiles by hand. This process was revolutionized in 1798 by the French scientist Nicholas Louis Robert, who invented the first mechanical paper pulping machine. The raw material was still crude textile. Robert's machine was improved by the British stationers and brothers Henry Fourdrinier and Sealy Fourdrinier, who in 1803, produced the first of the machines that bear their name. Only in 1840, was the process of producing paper from ground wood developed in Europe, and the idea of adding chemicals only took place in 1850, creating the modern paper making process which has lasted to this day. In 1850, the German Friedrich Gottlob Keller devised the first method of making paper from wood pulp. In 1852, the Englishman Hugh Burgess, improved upon the process by mixing the wood pulp with chemicals, and in 1867, the American chemist C.B. Tilghman, started adding sulfites during the pulping process. Finally, as late as 1879, the Swede C.F. Dahl, perfected the use of wood by adding yet another chemical. Paper is thus purely an European invention, despite popular belief to the contrary. Printing
As with paper, the allegation is often heard that printing was invented in China. This is also untrue: in China a simple system of pattern inking had been developed in which a strip of material was lain against a water based painted picture. This only worked for very basic patterns and was consequently was not widespread. There is also no evidence that this technique was ever exported anywhere as it had virtually no applications. In Europe, printing was developed entirely independently after long thought on how to speed up the process of book copying: Johann Gutenberg, of the German city of Mainz, invented the technical aspects of printing in 1450. Basing the design of his machine on a wine press, Gutenburg developed the use of raised and movable type and from the start used oil based paints. The invention of the printing press revolutionized the spread of knowledge: a printing press was built in Venice in 1469, and the city had 417 printers by 1500. In 1476, a printing press was developed in England by William Caxton; in 1539, the Spaniard Juan Pablos set up an imported press in Mexico City, Mexico. Stephen Day built the first printing press in North America at Massachusetts Bay in 1628, and helped establish the Cambridge Press. By the end of the 1400's, 1,000 new books were being published per year by Europe's book printers. By 1815, the number had climbed to 20,000 per year. The Non-white world's wealthiest city, Constantinople, under the Ottoman Turks, did not acquire its first printing press until the year 1726, and by 1815, the grand total of all the books published in Constantinople in the preceding 89 years, was only 63 titles. Gunpowder AND Guns
The first written reference to gunpowder - and how to make it - appears in the writings of the 13th century English monk Roger Bacon, belying the oft held theory that it was developed in China and exported to Europe. In fact, the Chinese has what they called "fire powder" - an inflammable chemical which they used in bamboo tubes to make clay pellet firing 'rockets." A 14th Century German monk, Berthold Schwarz, was the first person to use gunpowder to fire a substantial projectile, and can rightly be given the title of inventor of the firearm. Schwarz was preparing gunpowder in a closed vessel called an apothecarys mortar when the mixture ignited and blew the pestle from the mortar. The use of mortar for a type of ordnance commemorates this occasion.
The oldest Chinese canon dates from 1332, whereas in Europe, the oldest cannon found so far dates from 1300, which was made in Sweden. European cannon are also depicted in a 1326 manuscript on war by Walter de Millimete of England. Gunnis cum telar - guns with handles - showed up in the 1350s, marking the emergence of the personal firearm. Gunpowder factories had been established in England and Germany in 1334 and 1340 respectively. The Automobile The first self propelled vehicle, a three wheeled steam-powered engine designed to move artillery pieces, was developed in 1769, by the French Army officer Captain Nicolas Joseph Cugnot. The next steam engines were developed in England but soon were running on tracks, as with Richard Trevithick's successful engines. Steam cars became popular in America during the very early 20th century, with the most famous vehicle being the Stanley Steamer, built by American twin brothers Freelan and Francis Stanley. A Stanley Steamer established a world land speed record in 1906 of 205.44 km/h (121.573 mph). Manufacturers produced about 125 models of steam-powered automobiles, including the Stanley, until 1932. Internal Combustion Engines The German engineer Nikolaus Otto (1832-1891) invented the first four stroke internal combustion engine in 1876, which rapidly replaced the steam engine as the primary source of power in virtually all applications, and paving the way for the development of the automobile. Jean Joseph Lenoir (1822-1900) was a Belgian-born French inventor famous for producing the first one cylinder internal combustion engine powered by kerosene in 1859, and the first internal-combustion-powered car. Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) was a German engineer and inventor who assisted in the development of the Otto gasoline engine. In 1887, he patented the Daimler engine, a high-speed internal-combustion engine that was an important step in the development of the automobile. Daimler and German inventor, Wilhelm Maybach, mounted a gasoline-powered engine onto a bicycle, creating a motorcycle, in 1885. In 1887, they manufactured their first car, which included a steering lever and a four-speed gearbox. Another German engineer, Karl Benz, produced his first gasoline car in 1886. In 1926, Daimler, Maybach and Benz were to join together to form the Mercedes Benz brand name. Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913) was yet another German engineer who designed and invented the diesel engine in 1897, which is a heavy oil engine used most commonly in ships, although its applications later spread to all manner of vehicles. Tarred Roads Modern tarred roads were the result of the work of two British engineers, Thomas Telford and John Loudon McAdam. Telford designed the system of raising the foundation of the road in the center to act as a drain for water: eventually this design became the norm for all roads everywhere. The highway, or freeway, was popularized by the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, and the first such major Autobahns were built during the 1930s in Germany. The Autobahn system was copied everywhere in the world. Chapter 58: Part Two: Part Two: Electricity and to the Moon All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999. Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden. |
