Medieval Timeline• 1000-1200

– The horizontal loom appears in Europe in the 11th century, and in mechanized form in the 12th century.

– The first artesian well in Europe was dug in Artois (hence the name) in 1126. – Percussion drilling was first used in 1126 by the Carthusian monks. – Tidal mills first appear in Europe. – Rat traps are seemingly well-known by the 1170's. – The first usage of glass mirrors is recorded around 1180. – Windmills first recorded in 1185. – Spectacles are invented in Italy in 1285. – Arabic numbers start being mentioned in manuscripts around the start of the 13th century. – Cakes of hard soap enter general use.

• 1100-1300 – Paper is first mentioned in Europe in the early part of the 12th century. – Knowledge of magnets and magnetism available in Western Europe by 1140. – The compass is in use in Western Europe by the middle of the 12th century. – Estimated urban population in 1212 AD. – First illustration of a wheelbarrow in the first third of the 13th century.

Population of Medieval Europe according to Carlo Cipolla

Region 1000 1300 1500 1700

Balkans - - 7 8

Low Countries - - 2 3

British Isles 2 5 5 9

Danubian Countries - - 6 9

France 5 15 16 19

Germany 3 12 13 15

Italy 5 10 11 13

Poland - - 4 6

Russia - - 10 18

Scandanavia - - - 3

Spain and Portugal - - 910

Horizontal Loom and the Textile Industry

Villard de Honnecourt

• c. 1220s-1230s?

• 33 parchment leaves containing approximately 250 drawings

• Architect and Engineer

• Elevated Social Status

• A Transitional Figure Linking Vitruvius with Leonardo

C.P. Snow – The Two Cultures

• “Two groups comparable in intelligence, identical in race, not grossly different in social origin, earning about the same incomes, who do not communicate at all, and have so little in common….”

The Mechanical Clock: The Key Machine

• Su Sung and his astronomical clock tower, 1090 A.D.

• Giovanni di Dondi, 1348-64

• A case of uniting the mechanical arts with the liberal arts – C.P. Snow again!

Quote from Lewis Mumford – Technics and Civilization

• “the clock, not the steam engine, is the key machine of the modern age…at the very beginning of modern technics appeared prophetically the accurate automatic machine….In its relationship to determinable quantities of energy, to standardization, to automatic action, and finally to its won special product, accurate timing, the clock has been the foremost machine in modern technics: and at each period it has remained in the lead: It marks a perfection towards which other machines aspire.

1) Battery, providing the power2) Integrated circuit, controlling the quartz and the stepping motor3) Oscillating quartz, dividing the time4) Trimmer, regulating the frequency5) Stepping motor, transforming the electrical impulses into mechanical power6) Gear train, activating the hours, minutes, seconds hands7) Analog display

Chip Scale Atomic Clock

Time to Pray

• “the regular striking of the bells brought a new regularity into the life of the workman and the merchant. The bells of the clock tower almost defined urban existence. Time-keeping passed into time-saving and time-accounting and time-rationing. As this took place, Eternity ceased gradually to serve as the measure and focus of human actions.”