they also learned to use stones as
weapons or tools. This began a period
that is known as the Stone Age. Stone
Age people also learned to make pottery
from clay.
Later on, people learned to work with
metal. The people of Anatolia (now in
Turkey) made copper tools and weapons
as early as 6500 BC. In about 3000 BC
people discovered that mixing
copper with tin formed a stronger
metal—bronze. This discovery began the
Bronze Age.
Two important developments took place
in the Middle East at the beginning of
the Bronze Age. One was the invention
of the ox-drawn plow. The other was the
invention of the wheel and axle. Many
scientists date the beginning of civilization,
or advanced culture, to this time.
In the 1000s BC the Hittite people of
Anatolia learned to work with iron,
which is stronger than bronze. This
began the Iron Age. Eventually, people
throughout Europe, Asia, and northern
Africa made strong iron tools and
weapons.
Technology in the Middle Ages
A period called the Middle Ages began
in Europe in about AD 500 and lasted
until about 1500. Many advances during
this time came from other places—
Thousands of years ago Stone Age people
learned to create tools and weapons by
chipping away at pieces of stone.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Technology and Invention 25
for example, China, the Byzantine
Empire, Persia, India, and the Islamic
world.
By about the 1400s, Europeans learned
the Chinese technique of casting iron.
This involved heating iron in a special
furnace and then pouring it into a mold
to harden. Chinese inventors also developed
black powder, the original form of
gunpowder.
New sources of power were developed
during this time. The horse became a
major energy source with the invention
of the padded horse collar. The collar
meant that the horse could be used to
pull plows and other objects. People also
harnessed water and wind power to run
new types of water mills and windmills.
Two kinds of technology helped to end
the Middle Ages and to begin modern
times. The rudder (a part for steering a
ship), the triangular sail, and the compass
made possible the sea voyages of
European explorers. In about 1450
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing
press. As a result books could be
produced in great numbers. Many
people learned to read, and learning
became widespread.
Industrial Revolution
Iron, Coal, and Steam
Early in the 1700s two English inventors
set the stage for the Industrial Revolution.
This was a period of great growth
of industry. Abraham Darby discovered
that a coke-burning furnace produced
good iron. Coke is a form of coal. Thomas
Newcomen invented a pump that
kept coal mines from filling with water.
A steam engine powered the pump.
With these developments, coal and iron
production expanded rapidly. Iron
remained the main metal for building
and toolmaking until the late 1800s. At
that time steel (a mixture of iron and
carbon) began to replace regular iron.
Meanwhile, in the late 1700s steam
began to replace wind and water as the
major source of power. In a steam
engine, burning coal heated water. The
boiling water produced the steam that
ran the engine.
Machines and Factories
Other inventions also sped up the production
of goods—especially textiles, or
cloth. By the early 1800s such machines
as the power loom made cloth faster and
easier to weave. Cloth making moved
from homes and workshops into large
A French book from the late 1200s shows
two important inventions: the windmill and
the waterwheel. These devices use the
power of the wind or the water to run
machines, often to grind grain. Before they
were invented, the labor of people or animals
powered the machines.
26 Technology and Invention BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
mills and factories. The factories used
steam engines to run many of their
machines. Other industries followed this
model.
Transportation
Between 1765 and 1782 JamesWatt of
Scotland greatly improved the steam
engine. John Fitch of the United States
ran a steamboat as early as 1787. In
1803 Richard Trevithick created the
steam locomotive.
In 1856 Henry Bessemer of England
invented an improved way of making
steel. People began using steel to build
railroads, ships, and bridges. (People
also used steel to build the first
skyscrapers.)
In 1876 the German engineer Nikolaus
August Otto built a gasoline-powered
engine. By 1885 two Germans named
Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz had
used gasoline engines in the first successful
automobiles.
Electricity
In the first half of the 1800s scientists
learned to generate, or produce, electricity.
In 1835 Samuel F.B. Morse of the
United States used electricity in his telegraph.
This invention allowed people to
communicate across long distances. In
1876 the U.S. inventor Alexander Graham
Bell invented the telephone, which
also used electricity. Thomas Edison
demonstrated the electric lightbulb in
1879. Electric power also came to be
used for electric railways in cities.
Petroleum and Chemicals
In the second half of the 1800s petroleum,
or oil, became a major power
source. Edwin Laurentine Drake drilled
the first successful oil well in the United
States in 1859. Petroleum can be made
