24._SCIENCE_AND_TECHNOLOGY

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

* Development of technology and science

- science - it is the study of the structure and behaviour of the physical World

- methods: watching, measuring, doing experiments and theories

- technology - practical use of scientific discoveries

- inventions - something made, which has never been made before (unique, extraordinary)

- it can be divided into 3 branches: scientific and technical, economic, society and socials

1. The birth of technology (2 million years BC)

- the birth of ‘technology’ was when the first human, Homo Habilis, made sharp cutting edges from stone

- they used the metals such as lead or copper

- the Iron Age was built on a hard, strong and versatile metal, iron

- the wheel became the most important invention of all time, By 2000 BC wheels had spokes, and then rapid

development occurred with waterwheels and windmills to provide power

2. New Inventions (9th - 18th century)

- many inventions were brought to Europe by other countries

- gunpowder - it was come from China

- printing - spreading knowledge and information was a very slow process before the invention of typography

- Johannes Gutenberg developed the first mechanical printing machine in the 1440

- the first printed book was the Bible

- the telescope

- the microscope - looking at small things became possible when a Dutch maker of spectacles put glass lenses

together to make a primitive microscope

- this helped our understanding of microorganisms and disease

3. The First Industrial revolution (1760 - 1840)

- this era saw the development of steam engines to power factory machinery

- steam power - heating water in a boiler to make steam to power a vehicle was a major technological advance

- James Watt is recognised as the inventor of the steam engine

- water could be pumped out of mines and industrial processes speeded up

- the steam engine and others technical advances made possible the replacement of traditional

agrarian economy by one dominated by machinery and manufacturing

- photography - the French inventor spread on a pewter plate and an exposure of eight hours in bright sunlight,

produced the first permanent picture

4. The Second Industrial Revolution (19th century - 1945)

- the Electric light - Thomas Edison’s electric light bulbs were the best and by 1879 they would last for hundreds

of hours, much longer than any of their rivals, they were also cheap

- to sell bulbs, energy was needed, so Edison’s Electric Company built their own power station in NY

- The telephone - this is an invention that made money

- Alexander Graham Bell was the first in the race to patent a machine that you could use to talk to

someone on the other side of the world

- the motor car - until the motor car was invented, prototype motor cars were steam driven, horse power

- the invention of the internal-combustion engine enabled Karl Benz to create the first petrol-driven car

- petrol, a cleaning fluid, was only available from the chemist

- famous names such as Rolls Royce and Henry Ford developed the technology