Forum Freshman
Joined: 11 May 2008
Posts: 16
|
My explication of conditions for an industrial revolution: When
advances in a science or subscience (usually in physics) become
politically-effective, a Technology develops. When a Technology
becomes cost-effective an Industrial Revolution begins. Efficient
Roman water and wind mills, described by Vitruvius (below), could
have replaced slave labor, but wasn't politically-effective for
the Roman empire, and only became so for Middle AGES monks (below).
Americans seem unaware of the endowments of "slave-power" gracing
our daily lives from automation and computing and other technology.
Perhaps that's because historians and teachers don't mention any
"Industrial Revolution" except the one circa 1776. But there have
been several. We're now seguing into another Industrial Revolution!
In the great Alexandrian Period (332BC-420AD) steam cars lurched
down the streets and giant robots moved arms under steam propulsion,
scaring the faithful. Imperial Roman engineers developed efficient
windmills and water mills (For example, in the first century B.C.,
Roman engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c. 80–70 BC, died after
c. 15 BC) described the undershot water wheel. Efficient watermills
and windmills could have replaced the slave-power of the time.
But, with no theoretical mechanics to show this and give hope of
improvements, slavery continued in Europe for hundreds of more years.
You may read in (translated) "The Medieval Machine: The Industrial
Revolution of the Middle Ages, by Jean Gimpel, 1977, that, in
the 12th century (A.D.), began what should be called THE MECHANICAL
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. Monks -- desiring to raise their food and
other needs, yet have time for prayer and meditation -- were given
special permission by the Pope to read pagan texts showing how to
build watermills and windmills. In that century and the next, these
mills spread across Europe. (The Domesday Book of 1086 lists 5624
water-wheel driven mills in England south of Trent, or about one
mill for each 400 persons.) Clearly, further extension of these
mills would have eliminated much of the slavepower then existing,
but "the lesson" was still not obvious enough. (The Amish are still
mostly "stuck" in The Mechanical Revolution -- as shown in the 1985
movie "Witness" -- rejecting benefits of succeeding Revolutions.)
This MECHANICAL INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (described above) waned with
"The Black Death" (bubonic plague), peaking in 1348. The Black Death
was caused by the dearth of cats to control the rat population. For
centuries, superstitious people had killed cats, alleging them to
be the "familiars" of witches. (Cat eyes can catch any light
in a dark room or cave, Also, in cold climes, stroking a cat invokes
static electricity, and the sparks scintillate in the dark.) One
Pope even advocated exterminating cats. So, by the middle of the
14th century, dearth of cats allowed the rat population to multiply
to epidemic proportions. The rats carried fleas. And the fleas
carried the Plague, which In five years, killed twenty-five million
persons, one-third of Europe's population. In some regions, fifty
percent of the population died in "The Black Death". Many regions
lacked blacksmiths, coopers, wheelrights,and other craftsmen.
Training had been oral. Having allowed monks to read "pagan" books,
The Church now allowed more general reading of "pagan" books,
initiating The Renaissance. (Tell this to teen-agers who "want to
work with their hands", asking why they need reading skills!)
In 1776, Scot James Watt (1736-1819) installed two of his steam
engines, initially used in mining. This same year, John Wilkinson
(1728-1808) used a steam engine to activate an efficient blast
furnace for iron-making. By end of century, there were twenty-four
blast furnaces in England. THE THERMODYNAMIC INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
had begun. It exploded via timing explosions of gasoline-engines
in the "automotive" revolution in America and Europe. In 1788,
French Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) published his "Mechanique
analytique", using work of Swiss Leonhard Euler (1707-83) and the
calculus of variations to present an alternative to Newton's laws
of physics. From this point on, enough mathematics became available
to "ripen" the >Mechanical Industrial Revolution, to further THE
THERMODYNAMIC INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION and to prepare for THE
ELECTRICAL INUDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. English George Greene (1793-1841)
was a self-taught miller. His "Essay on the mathematical analysis
to the theories of electricity and magnetism" introduced many powerful
tools to pure mathematics and to applied mathematics. In particular,
Greene created the concept of potential, from which a force can be
derived. (And "Greene's Function" was used in the 1940's by American
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) in developing an alternative to the
quantum theory approaches of German Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)
and Austrian Erwin Schrödinger(1887-1961.) 1821 saw publication
of "Cours d'analyse de l'Ecole Polytechnique", by Augustin Marie
Cauchy (1789-1857), putting "calculus" on a firm foundation, a
major step in resolving "The Second Crisis in The Foundations of
Mathematics". Cauchy defined irrational numbers such as the square
root of two as an unending sequence of rational numbers, each as
simple as "an Egyptian fraction". German Karl Friedrich Gauss
(1777-1855) -- considered "the greatest of mathematicians" -- in
1833 collaborated with physicist Wilhelm Weber to develop an
improvement on the electric telegraph of Samuel Morse (1781-1872).
The applied mathematics Gauss developed for this, along with that
of George Greene, prepared the way for the great work of
Clerk-Maxwell and THE ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. In 1845,
English Michael Faraday (1791-1867) discovered diamagnetism and
paramagnetism, and related light to magnetism by discovering that
a magnetic field affects polarization of light in crystals. So
Faraday proposed that light may be waves of electromagnetism.
In 1855, Scot William Thomson (1824-1907) (knighted as Lord
Kelvin) developed a theory of transmission of electric signals
through submarine cables, and later directed laying of the
Trans-Atlantic Cable System. A big advance towards THE
ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. In 1860, Scot James Clerk
Maxwell (1831-1879) -- independently of work by German Ludwig
Boltzmann (1844-1906) -- developed study of statistical
properties of molecules in a gas -- a great advance in THE
THERMODYNAMIC INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. (Texts today speak of
"Maxwell-Boltzmann" statistics. It was shifting from these
to "Fermi-Dirac statistics" and "Einstein Bose statistics"
which initiated one of the greatest advances in quantum
theory.) 1861-1865, American Civil War (a.k.a. War Between
The States), over issue of Slavery and States' Rights --
was a war between two Industrial Revolutions: THE
THERMODYNAMIC INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION of "The North" and
THE MECHANICAL INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION of "The South".
In 1882, the Pearl Street Station of American Thomas
Edison (1847-1931) lighted New York City -- THE ELECTRICAL
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION had begun. Actually, an
ELECTRO-MECHANICAL INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION -- ELECTRIC
CIRCUITS CONTROLLED BY MECHANICAL SWITCHES AND RELAYS
DATING BACK TO THE MECHANICAL REVOLUTION. In 1883,
Irish physicist George Francis Fitzgerald (1851-?) noted
that Maxwell's theory of electromagnetic waves indicates
that these waves can be generated by PERIODIC VARIATION
OF AN ELECTRIC CURRENT. This same year -- despite general
scepticism among physicists -- German Heinrich Hertz
(1857-1894) used an induction coil to generate and detect
radio waves, as Maxwell and Fitzgerald had predicted.
In 1902, using antenna of his own design, Italian
Gugliermo Marconi (1874-1937) transmitted radio signals
across the Atlantic Ocean, from Cornwall in Britain, to
Newfoundland in Canada. THE ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION was about to begin. (ELECTRONICS is THE
CONTROL OF ELECTRICITY BY ELECTRICITY, rather than
by MECHANICAL means, such as RELAYS and MECHANICAL
SWITCHES.) In 1920, the first radio station, KDKA
in Pittsburgh, PA, began broadcasting -- THE
ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION had begun. We are
now going into the NANO-PHOTONIC INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION -- nanines the size of ATOMS ("nano-level"),
photines controlled by PHOTONS rather than ELECTRONS.
CAn you distinguish other industrial revolutions?
(To learn more of this Google("Chronology+jonhays"). I
invite comment/argument. |
|
