1. The Seven Technological Ages of Man
OVERVIEW
The Seven Technological Ages of
Man

2. Technological Ages of Man
Man, The Hunter, Masters Fire
The Farmer, The Smith, The Wheel
The First Machine Age
Intimations of Automation
The Expansion of Steam
The Freedom of Internal Combustion
Electron Controlled

3. Man, The Hunter, Masters Fire
THE FIRST AGE
Man, The Hunter, Masters Fire

4. Man, Hunter, Masters Fire
Material Ages
Early Tools
Fire
Stone Age Tools

5. Material Ages

6. Early Tools Pre - Homo erectus / Sapiens Ramepithecus
14,000,000 ybp - No Tools
Related to great apes
Australopithecenes
2,500,000 ybp - Walked upright
Taung Man, Oldurai Gorge, Tanzania
Dr. Louis Leakey (1925)

7. Basalt Side-Chopper

8. Fire Making Fire Using Fire Homo-erectus (600,000 BC)
Charcoal layers in caves, China
Man’s greatest accomplishment ?
Tasmanian & Andamanese tribes
Using Fire
Meteors, volcanoes, spontaneous combustion, etc.
Early tribal societies tended a fire

9. Fire (continued) Uses of Fire Warmth, cooking, protection, curing
Focus of tribal life
Hollowing out logs
Firing pots, bricks, tiles
Extraction of copper & iron
Working of tools, weapons, ornaments
Bases of metallurgical eras
Making of glass

10. Fire (continued) Making Fire Impacting flint and iron or iron pyrites
Occurred by chance ?
Needs addition of fuel
Generation of heat from friction
Hard stick (fire drill)
Softwood block (hearth)
Intellectual - addition of weight, string, bow

11. Fire Drills First elementary machines ? Multi-components
Translation to rotation
Mechanical advantage with flywheel
Bow later turned lathes in Iron age
Bow later used as a weapon in late Stone age (Tunisia)
First engineers ?

12. Fire Drills (continued)

13. Stone Age Tools Properties First Industry ?
Density, hardness, durability
Self-sharpening in some instances
Difficult to manufacture
First Industry ?
Tools-to-make-tools (5,000,000 ybp)
Hammer stones & anvil stones (Tanzania)

14. Stone Age Tools (continued)
Chronology
Pebble tools (2,600,000 ybp)
Bi-faced hand axes (500,000 ybp)
Pebbles and quarried natural rock
Blade tools (< 35,000 BC)
Flakes of flint, chert, or obsidian
Variants are gravers, shaves, planes, drills
Grinding & polishing (< 12,000 BC)
Region dependent (basalt & epidiorite)
Peaked before Bronze age

15. Stone Age Tools (continued)
Production Processes
Basic core and flake tools
Pressure flaking
Percussion flaking
Highly skilled trade (industry ?)
Grinding and polishing
Wetted sandstone or similar
Sand was used as abrasive powder
Final burnishing with a skin/hide

16. The Farmer, The Smith, The Wheel
THE SECOND AGE
The Farmer, The Smith,
The Wheel

17. Farmer, Smith, Wheel Social influences of copper and iron
The Common ground
The wheel
Glass
Gearing
Early machines in Egypt
Greece & Rome
The Dark ages

18. Introduction Nomadic hunter to agricultural villager
End of last ice age brought life (10,000 BC)
Wild wheat and goat grass
Wheat, barley, & millet was harvested
Villages grew to cities
reed & mud, unbaked clay, baked brick
Animals were domesticated
Copper, tin, & bronze (Mesopotamia)

19. Social Influences of Copper & Iron
Cause
Copper and Bronze were expensive
Skill Craftsman
Metals were used for ornaments
Society was a hierarchy
Ironmaking & forging was complex
Iron was inexpensive
Effect
Metal tools expensive
Farmers used wood, stone, & bone tools
Elitist Society
Small agricultural surpluses
Democratic metal
IRON AGE

20. The Common Ground Metallurgy became the common ground
Society needed food
Farming community needed tools
Metal workers became skilled craftsmen
Mining of Ores (Copper, Tin, Iron)
Construction of Furnaces & Crucibles
Bellows (3,000 BC) from skins/hides
Transportation (wheel !) industry grew

21. Plough Not possible in Copper age Improvement of hoe for tilling
Caschrom - lightweight man-plough
Animal-drawn plough (3,000 BC)

22. Egyptian Hand Digging Instrument (1500 BC)

23. Tools From Early Metallurgy
Plough
Copper Nails & Rivets (Egypt, 2500 BC)
Iron nails used in ships
Woodscrews (Roman, 400 AD)
Shears (Egypt, 4500 BC)

24. The Wheel Used for transporting heavy loads Evolved from potters wheel
First was stone ?
Solid wood
Spoked
Axle - Egyptian war chariot

25. Transporting Heavy Loads

26. Stretcher

27. Sledge

28. Ur (3,500 BC)

29. Mercurago

30. Mercurago

31. Egyptian (1500 BC)

32. Assyrian (700 BC)

33. Greek (400 BC)

34. Etruscan (400 BC)

35. Roman (300 BC)

36. Etruscan (300 BC)

37. Plaustrum (200 BC)

38. Roman (100 AD)

39. Leonardo

40. Pneumatic Studded (1907)

41. Gearing Purposes Friction - no teeth (Aristotle, 384 BC) Materials
Wood - large units transmitting power
bronze or brass - timekeeping, astronomy
Lanthorne & trundle
Helical gears (Robert Hooke, 1666 AD)

42. Early Machines in Egypt
Hero of Alexandria (BC/AD)
Lever (3000 BC)
Wheel & Axle (3000 BC)
Wedge (3000 BC)
Pulley (700 BC) - Not used in pyramids
Screw

43. Chinese Cast iron (350 BC) Double-acting box bellows Steel (100 BC)
13 centuries before the west
Double-acting box bellows
Steel (100 BC)
Papermaking (100 AD)
Gunpowder
Little technology transfer to west despite “Silk Road”

44. Greece Heavily dependent on slaves Great builders Architecture
Scientists instead of technologists
Mathematics, Astronomy, Philosophy
Not great inventors
Archimedes
Horizontal waterwheel (Norse mill)
0.5 horsepower

45. Architecture - Parthenon

46. Horizontal Waterwheel

47. Roman Heavily dependent on slaves
Vertical waterwheel (Vitruvius, 180 AD)
3.0 horsepower
Bridges & roads
Aqueducts
Water usage
270 liters per person per day
Lead pipes
Fall of Roman empire

48. Vertical Waterwheel

49. Roads & Bridges

50. Aqueducts

51. Dark Ages Fall of Roman empire (450 AD)
Contact between Rome and Britain ended
Roman roads, bridges & aqueducts died
Societies depended less on slaves
England (250 people per watermill)
Early applications
Corn milling, beer making, forge hammers and bellows
Later applications
water lifting & irrigation, saw mills, lathe drives, wire drawing

52. Dark Ages (continued) Wind Power (1100 AD) Agriculture
Post Mill (Normandy, 1180 AD)
Tower Mill (1300 AD)
Netherlands (1500 AD)
Agriculture
Horse collar
Nailed iron horseshoes
heavy wheeled plough and harrow

53. Dark Ages (continued) Textiles Universities founded (Italy, 1200 AD)
Rope driven spinning wheel
Weaving technologies (1300 AD)
Universities founded (Italy, 1200 AD)
Start of a period of higher learning
Beginning of engineering discipline ?

54. THE THIRD AGE
The First Machine Age

55. The First Machine Age
Timekeeping
Optics
Crank
Print

56. Timekeeping

57. Chronology Gnomon (Egypt, 1500 BC) Obelisk Sundial Waterclock
Sandglass
Mechanical / Pendulum
Electronic

58. Gnomon

59. Sundial / Obelisk Problems with Gnomon Thin short rod
Did not work at different latitudes
length and direction of shadow varied
Exact position of sun’s center
Placed perpendicular to ground
needs to be perpendicular with axis of rotation

60. Waterclocks & Sandglasses
Reset periodically
Environment dependence
Variations with age
Inaccurate

61. Vitruvius (150 BC)

62. Schott

63. Cingalese

64. Sand-glass

65. Mechanical Clock Regulating device Distribution mechanism
Creates oscillations
Needs energy to stop from running down
weight or spring (watch)
Distribution mechanism
Supplies energy in correct amount and at correct time
Holds energy and allows energy to escape at the correct time - escapement
Indexing & Gearing
Translates time to space

66. Hero of Alexandria

67. Verge & Foliot

68. Anchor Escapement

69. Standard Weight Clock

70. Alarm Clock

71. Pendulum Clock Isochronous motion Galileo (1583) Vincenzo (1649)
Huygens (1675) & Robert Hooke
Regulating hair spring

72. Pendulum Clock

73. Huygens (1675)
Regulating spiral

74. Giovani di Dondi (1364)

75. Electronic / Atomic pico-second Electronic Atomic
quartz crystal produces a constant current when excited
compressed to produce constant frequency
Atomic
Excitations of electrons in Caesium molecule

76. Caesium Atomic clock

77. Optics Telescope Microscope Surveyors quadrant (1631)
Johannes Lippershey (Middleburg, 1608)
By accident - no knowledge of optics
Manufactured & sold in London (1609)
Microscope
Inventor unknown
Zacharius Jansen, Galileo (1614)
Surveyors quadrant (1631)
Earliest - Joseph Lusuerg (Rome, 1674)

78. Crank Conversion of rotary & reciprocating motions
Cam - Hero of Alexandria
Crank & connecting rod (1430)

79. Crank & Connecting Rod

80. Print Greatest invention of Middle ages
Johannes Gutenberg (Germany, 1440)
Invention of paper reached Germany in about 1320
Cutting of punches from brass, punch copper plate, pour molten iron
Development of inks
First book (Caxton, 1474)
By 1500, 1050 presses in Europe

81. Screw Press

82. Intimations of Automation
THE FOURTH AGE
Intimations of Automation

83. Intimations of Automation
Coinage - first mass production ?
Factory system
Interchangeability of components
A computer too early

84. Coinage As early as 600 BC Coin Blanks (1000)
Sheet of metal, hammered, then cut
Bramante (Florence, 1500)
Utilized screw press
Rolling mills
Boulton (Soho, 1797)
Utilized power from steam engine

85. Factory System Began with print shops and mints
Textile industry (late 1700’s)
Flying shuttle (Kay, 1755)
Water frame (Arkwright, 1790)
Spinning Jenny (Hargreave, 1760)
Mule (Crompton, 1788)
Power Loom (Robert, 1825)
Primarily operated by steam

86. Factory System (continued)
Industrial cities
Coal and oil in addition to steam
No need to locate industry by a river
Britain
Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Nottingham, Birmingham
Metal-working industries
Machines create more machines
lathes, boring, milling, shaping, slotting, planing, grinding, & gear-cutting

87. James Watt’s Micrometer (1772)

88. Henry Maudslay’s Screw Cutting Lathe (1797)

89. Interchangeability of Components
Beginning of mass production
Locks
Joseph Bramah (1790)
Required accuracy in production
Barrel of lock fits casing of another
Smooth bore flintlock muskets
Eli Whitney (1798)
Supplied US govt. with 15,000
Required 8 years

90. A Computer Too Early Charles Babbage Difference Engine (1833)
Professor of Mathematics, Cambridge
Difference Engine (1833)
Special purpose calculating machine
Analytical Engine (>1834)
Universal calculator
Engine ?
Power by steam (no foresight)
Purely mechanical with highly precise gearing and machining

91. Difference Engine (1833)

92. THE FIFTH AGE
The Expansion of Steam

93. Pre-Steam Francesca della Porta (1606) Otto von Guericke (1654)
Suction caused by condensing steam
Ability to draw up water
Otto von Guericke (1654)
Two teams of 8 horses can’t pull apart copper sphere made of two halves
Blaise Pascal (1648)
Weight of column of air is less at elevation
Robert Boyle (1660)
Gas laws

94. Steam Engine Hero of Alexandria Newcomen (1712) Watt
21 inch dia. piston (12 strokes per min)
10 gallons of water 51 yards per stroke
Low efficiency
Watt
Condense steam & create vacuum
Separate condenser (1769)
Double-acting engine (1782)
Rotative Engine (1781)

95. Newcomen (1712)

96. Development of Steam Trevithick (1799) Fulton (1807)
High pressure steam
Fulton (1807)
Clermont on Hudson river
Sirius crossed Atlantic (1830)
Intercontinental Railway

97. The Freedom of Internal Combustion
THE SIXTH AGE
The Freedom of Internal Combustion

98. Chronology Huygens utilized gunpowder in piston and cylinder
Etienne Lenoir (1859)
Coal gas as fuel with ignition
Nikolaus Otto (1877)
Four-stroke cycle
Gottlieb Daimler (1885)
Petrol as fuel

99. Benz Tricycle (1855)

100. Chronology (continued)
Paris-Rouen race (1894)
Rudolf Diesel (1892)
Wright Brothers (1903)
Ford Model “A” (1903)

101. THE SEVENTH AGE
Electrons Controlled

102. Chronology Gas Lines (Late 1700s) Hydraulic Mains
Philippe Lebon (1799)
Gas From Heating Wood
Frederick Windsor (1807)
Gas From Coal
Lit Pall Mall in London (1807)
26 mile long main (1816)
Hydraulic Mains
Joseph Bramah
Hydraulic Press (1795)
Hydraulic Mains (1812)

103. Chronology (continued)
Electricity
William Gilbert (1600)
Alessandro Volta (1800s)
Zinc and Silver discs- Voltaic Pile
First True Battery - Static Source of Power
Michael Faraday (1831)
First Electric Generator
Moved Magnet near a Wire
Wheatstone & Cooke (1845)
Substituted Electromagnets
First Dynamo

104. Chronology (continued)
Telephone - Bell (1876)
Incandescent Light Bulb (1879)
Thomas Edison - USA
J.W. Swan - England
Electronics
J.A. Fleming - Diode (1904)
ASCC/IBM - First computer ? (1944)
Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator
Mechanical Switching
ENIAC - First Electronic Computer (1946)
Electronic Num. Integrator and Calculator