CONTENTS x Gliders 621 The Wright brothers 622 European pioneers 624 Military and commercial applications 626 The inter-war years 629 The Second World War 632 Demise of the flying-boat 633 Expansion of civil aviation 634 Introduction of jet propulsion 634 Jet airliners 637 Supersonic commercial aircraft 639 Jet-supported flight 639 Helicopters and rotary wings 641 Convertible and hybrid aircraft 644 Recreational aircraft and gliders 644 Man-powered flight 646 13. Spaceflight 648 John Griffiths Black powder rockets 648 Spaceflight pioneers 649 Vengence Weapon Two 649 Post-War research 651 Manned spaceflight and the space race 652 Satellite technology 656 Probes to the moon 658 Probes to the planets 659 Launch vehicles 661 PART FOUR: COMMUNICATION AND CALCULATION 663 14. Language, Writing, Printing and Graphic Arts 665 Lance Day Language 665 Writing 666 The invention of printing 669 The growth of printing 671 Technological innovation in the nineteenth century 674 Colour printing 681 Office printing 682 Optical character recognition 684 CONTENTS xi 15. Information: Timekeeping, Computing, Telecommunications and Audiovisual Technologies 686 Herbert Ohlman Introduction 686 The evolution of information technologies 687 The timing of inventions 691 Timekeeping 694 Counting, calculating and computing 698 The telegraph 710 The telephone 717 The gramophone 720 Radio and radar 725 Photography 729 Facsimile and television 743 Communications satellites 746 Information storage today 748 PART FIVE: TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY 759 16. Agriculture: The Production and Preservation of Food and Drink 761 Andrew Patterson Introduction 761 Hunter gatherer to farmer 762 Arable farming 767 Sowing 772 Fertilizers 774 Pest control 775 Weed control 777 Crop rotation 779 Harvesting 779 Farm traction 787 Dairy farming 791 Poultry farming 796 Food preservation 796 Conclusion 801 17. Textiles and Clothing 803 Richard Hills Introduction 803 Textile fibres 804 Early textile processes 808 The Middle Ages 812 The seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries 818 CONTENTS xii The industrial revolution 823 The nineteenth and twentieth centuries 835 Velvet, towelling and carpet weaving 845 Knitting machines 846 Lace machines 848 Sewing machines 848 Man-made finishes and fibres 849 Clothing manufacture 850 Sewing 851 Fastenings 852 Waterproof clothing and elastic 853 Cleaning 854 Footwear 854 18. Building and Architecture 855 Doreen Yarwood Primitive building 855 Trabeated construction 857 Masonry 859 Advanced timber construction 861 Brick and tile 866 The arch 872 The vault 874 The dome 879 Cantilever construction 882 Roofing 883 Plaster 885 Concrete and cement 886 Iron and glass 893 Modern industrial construction 899 19. The Domestic Interior: Technology and the Home 902 Doreen Yarwood Surfaces, coverings and decoration 902 Furnishings and furniture 906 Heating and lighting 911 Washing, bathing and toilet facilities 917 Cleaning in the home 922 Laundering 928 The kitchen and cooking 934 Plastics in the home 947 CONTENTS xiii 20. Public Utilities 949 R.A.Buchanan Introduction 949 Water supply 950 Power supply 957 Waste disposal 962 Roads and postal services 963 Telegraph and telephone services 964 Conclusion 966 21. Weapons and Armour 967 Charles Messenger Prehistoric weapons 967 The bronze age and classical era 968 The Dark Ages 971 The age of chivalry 972 The introduction of gunpowder 975 The Renaissance 976 Seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 978 The industrial age 983 The First World War 989 The Second World War 998 Weapons today 1006 The Contributors 1012 Index of Names 1018 Index of Topics 1033 xiv PREFACE Dr Johnson wrote, ‘A man may turn over half a library to make one book’. In the present case around a score of writers have turned over about as many libraries to make this Encyclopaedia. The Book of Proverbs states, ‘God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions’. Whatever one may think about Charles Darwin’s ‘Descent of Man’, it is a fact that man walked upright, giving him a pair of hands which he could use for manipulation, rather than ambulation, and his cranial capability enabled him to evolve many inventions. This book tells the story of these inventions from stone axe to spacecraft, from cave dwelling to computer. The objective has been to simplify the study of the History of Technology by putting into the hands of the reader, be he or she student or layman, a single volume telling the whole story in twenty-two chapters, each written by an acknowledged expert. The content and layout of this book are based on an analysis of human needs. From earliest times man has existed in a fundamentally hostile environment and has had to use his wits in the struggle for survival. From the start, this has involved his remarkable power of invention. Other primates, such as chimpanzees, have been known to add one stick of bamboo to another to enable them to reach and hence to enjoy a banana otherwise out of reach. Many species of birds show remarkable ingenuity in the construction of their nests, while insects like the ant, the wasp and the bee display a constructive capacity which could be mistaken for genuine creativity, but these examples are no more than instinctive and isolated responses to a set of circumstances peculiar to the species. Only God knows why man is the only species of animal capable of inventive thought and equipped with the dexterity to make practical use of his ideas. The Encyclopaedia had its inception during the period when I was Executive Secretary of the Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology, and worked from an office within the Science Museum in London’s South Kensington. In this position I was able to call upon a host of specialists, many of whom are members of the Society, and some also on the curatorial staff of that excellent institution. Thus while the conception, chapter contents and planning were my PREFACE xv responsibility, the execution of the work was dependent on the contributors. I would like to thank them all for keeping to my original plan and layout, only adding topics that I had inadvertently omitted, and for the excellent chapters that they have written. The final text has benefited enormously from the work of Mrs Betty Palmer who has laboured hard and long to cut out duplications, correct errors and generally shape the disparate typescripts into a uniform and coherent style. I would like to record my thanks to her, as well as to Jonathan Price and Mark Barragry of Routledge for their patience, good humour and encouragement. My gratitude must also go to the proof readers John Bell, George Moore and Jenny Potts and to the indexer, Dr Jean McQueen, whose work has contributed so much to the usefulness of the Encyclopaedia. I would like also here to acknowledge the generosity of the Trustees of the Science Museum for permission to reproduce over 60 of the illustrations contained in this book and thank the staff of the Science Museum Photographic Library for their assistance in tracking down photographs sometimes specified only vaguely. Lastly I would like to thank my wife for her patience and forbearance. The period of gestation of this book has been longer than the others I have written and has caused a greater amount of paperwork to accumulate around my desk than usual. She has put up with it all with admirable fortitude. Ian McNeil Banstead, Surrey To the memory of THOMAS NEWCOMEN who built the first engine to work without wind, water or muscle power 1 INTRODUCTION BASIC TOOLS, DEVICES AND MECHANISMS IAN McNEIL THE PLACE OF TECHNOLOGY IN HISTORY It is strange that, in the study and teaching of history, so little attention is paid to the history of technology. Political and constitutional history, economic history, naval and military history, social history—all are well represented and adequately stressed. The history of technology is neglected in comparison yet, in a sense, it lies behind them all. What monarchs and statesmen did in the past, how they fought their wars and which side won, was largely dependent on the state of their technology and that of their enemy. Their motivation was more often than not economic, and economic history and the history of technology can surely be considered as twin hand-maidens, the one almost totally dependent on the other. So far as social history is concerned, the lot of the common man, as of his king and his lords, was usually directly related to the state of technology prevailing at any particular time and place, whatever political and economic factors may also have been of influence. Technology is all around us: we live in a world in which everything that exists can be classified as either a work of nature or a work of man. There is nothing else. We are concerned here with the works of man, which are based on technological and, to some extent, aesthetic factors. It is a sobering thought that every man-made object of practical utility has passed through the process of conception, testing, design, construction, refinement, to be finally brought to a serviceable state suitable for the market. Aesthetics may have entered into the process of development and production at some stage, increasingly so in our present consumer age, although from a glance at some of the products on the market, one might well question the makers’ artistic sensibility. It is even more sobering, however, to try to contemplate a world in which one had absolutely no knowledge of history, of one’s own country or of the world at large. It . CONTENTS x Gliders 621 The Wright brothers 622 European pioneers 624 Military and commercial applications 626 The inter-war years 629 The Second World War 6 32 Demise of the flying-boat 633 Expansion of civil. McNEIL THE PLACE OF TECHNOLOGY IN HISTORY It is strange that, in the study and teaching of history, so little attention is paid to the history of technology. Political and constitutional history, . monarchs and statesmen did in the past, how they fought their wars and which side won, was largely dependent on the state of their technology and that of their enemy. Their motivation was more often