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1. Definition In scholarly written language of the pre-industrial period, the Latin term artes mechanicae (“mechanical arts”) was a synonym for crafts and trades in the broadest sense; it played an important role primarily in classifications of human knowledge and skills. From the 16th century onwards, it also embraced applied areas of mechanics, although its proximity to the latter and to engineering was rather a chance product of the history of its emergence in the Early Medieval Period.Marcus Popplow 2. Medieval roots Modern-Period use of the term artes mechanicae initially foll…

1. Definition and traditions Early modern automata were refined mechanical constructions intended to evoke astonishment at their movements, performed apparently without external sources of energy. They often imitated people or animals. Valuable automata were displayed in private or public, with theatrical staging. There was no clear definition of an automaton The Greek etymology commonly cited in the early modern period of an apparatus “moving itself” ultimately remained inexact: automata too requir…

1. IntroductionAfter the invention of the mechanical wheel clock in the Late Middle Ages, the first church tower clocks and astronomical display clocks began to be made, initially by traveling specialists. As smaller mechanisms began to be attainable from the 15th/16th centuries, so new markets developed. The clockmaker now joined the metalworking urban guild of crafts and trades as a profession. Because of the central function of the clock in status consumption (cf. Clock 2.), clockmakers were f…

1. IntroductionThrough the early modern period, so-called mechanical wheel clocks developed alongside sundials and sand or water clocks to become the primary instrument of chronometry. Simple water clocks with water-driven functions for waking and ringing the hours had been used in monasteries in Central Europe since the 11th century. As yet, it has not been possible to pinpoint the location or date of the consequent 13th-century “invention” of the mechanical clockwork escapement [2. 49–120]. It was installed initially in clock towers and large astronomical clocks…

1. Concept and relevanceDefinitions of perpetual motion and classifications of its technical variants are as diverse in early modern sources as they are in historical research. As a rule, perpetual motion is defined literally (Latin perpetuum mobile; “thing in perpetual motion”) in terms of the continuous movement of its parts. Addressing this process in theoretical terms was a particular challenge for natural philosophers in the early modern period, but even more was expected of those seeking its technical realization, for it was…

1. Introduction Mechanics underwent profound changes in the early modern period. At the end of the 16th century it was still understood as a science of so-called simple machines, such as the lever, the pulley, the screw, the inclined plane, and the wedge (see below, 3.3). Its aim was to study how weights could be moved using these machines. During the 17th century, the scope and purpose of mechanics changed dramatically. The new mechanics promoted by Galileo and his followers was mainly focused on…

1. Definition and significance Gunpowder is a mixture of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur. The most powerful explosive force is generated by proportions of roughly 75 : 15 : 10. Saltpeter acts as an oxidizer to make the charcoal and sulfur burn rapidly; the easy inflammability of sulfur facilitates ignition. The earliest surviving directions for the manufacture of gunpowder are from 11th-century China. In conflicts with neighboring peoples, the Chinese employed rockets with explosive charges or incen…

1. Introduction The technical forerunners of the railways were the early modern pit railways installed from the 15th and 16th centuries onwards in Central European mines (Mining). Railways began developing into a widespread means of transporting goods and people only in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, initially in Britain. Even before the construction of the first long-distance lines for passenger traffic operated by steam locomotive, Britain already had a dense network of packhorse lines,…

1. TerminologyEngineering did not emerge as a distinct profession with formalized training, rules based on scientific technology, and its own class consciousness until the 19th century. The earlier centuries of the early modern period can be considered a formative phase of the individual elements constituting engineering.In the early modern period, the European languages used the term  engineer unsystematically for technical experts in various fields of activity. Since the high Middle Ages, Old French and Latin documents had used derivatives of Latin  ingenium (“talent,” …

The discipline of architectural statics deals with the mechanical interpretation of architectural structures in order to describe their behavior with respect to their dead load as well as the stresses imposed on them. The primary concerns of architectural statics are statics and the mechanics of materials. In the course of the 18th century, static analysis of structures became an integral element of the training of engineers. In the same period, the first handbooks were presenting the basics of …

1. General remarks Hydraulic engineering was put to various purposes in early modern Europe to control water usage for irrigation, to protect or reclaim land by means of dykes, for drainage, and for military defense – by means of moats in fortifications, for example.Water management was highly important even for ancient civilizations, and equally so for early modern Europe. Among other things, it enabled increased agricultural production (Agricultural markets), especially of grain. Historical research has shown that irrigation could …

1. Development and contextualizationEarly modern technical drawing used a variety of forms to visualize technical objects for reflection, communication, and archiving. Its history as well as its formal and functional characteristics are closely associated with architectural drawing, since the occupational fields of architects and engineers diverged only gradually over the course of the early modern period. At first glance, the early modern evolution of technical drawing appears to proceed strictly toward two goals. The first was to develop the …

1. General tendencies Technical language in the sense of orally transmitted terms for technical artifacts and their components as well as for technical production methods has always been a feature of all cultures. In Europe the technical literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages provides insights into the phenomenon, though usually from the perspective of academic discourse rather than the everyday language of practitioners. New stimuli for the development of technical language during the early modern period came from three sources. (1) In the course of …

1. The concept and historiographic traditions 1.1. Earlier approachesIn studies of the history of technology, the term  technological change has largely replaced  technological  progress [53]. In historical studies of technology and economics, the latter – often hand in hand with the identification of technological “revolutions” – usually appeared in combination with the paradigm of  productivity in the exploration of economic growth. This perspective – in the tradition of Taylorism or even more of Fordism – focused …

1. Terminology In the early modern period, the communication of technological knowledge and skills took place in a variety of contexts. Initially it involved training or collaboration in households, firms, or institutions; this is called vertical transfer. At the same time, technological knowledge and skills were disseminated horizontally from region to region, between politically defined territories, and on a global scale even between continents. Such technology transfer could be activ…

1. Definition Invention in the sense of reproducible technical innovation has existed since the dawn of humanity, and the use of new technologies is widely attested in the cultures of antiquity and in the Middle Ages. As a distinct terminological concept, however, the notion of invention emerged only slowly, from the beginning of the early modern period, from what was traditionally a much wider understanding of innovation in all fields of human knowledge and action.Marcus Popplow 2. Embeddedness in the concept of inventio in antiquity and Middle Ages Originally, the semantic fie…

1. Overview Technical literature encompasses works on technical subjects with a formal structure that – unlike private notes – are published for an anonymous readership. It includes late medieval and early modern manuscripts as well as volumes of printed technical writings, which increased rapidly after 1500. It does not include literary works that incorporate technical motifs only in detail, for example, the popular 18th-century reflections on quasi-human automata or the novels of heroic engineers published since the latter half of the 19th century.In Europe, technical lit…

1. IntroductionAll economically developed societies of the early modern period used land routes and watercourses (as their particular topography permitted) to transport people, goods, and information. Such routes shaped territories’ economic geography and, in consequence of this, determined the emergence of cultural centers. Water transport enjoyed the fundamental advantage that boats and ships could carry far heavier cargos than land vehicles, but navigable waterways were not present everywhere …

1. Definition Land transport is defined as distinct from transport (Traffic and transport) by water or air, particularly referring to the transportation of goods or passengers over longer distances (Passenger transportation). Flight was of no significant practical value before the 20th century, despite the development of balloon flight from the 1770s. Water transport, on the other hand, played a key role in European trade from ancient times (cf. Inland navigation; Deep sea navigation; C…

1. DefinitionTechnical models are scaled-down three-dimensional replicas of machines or examples of architectural engineering (Engineer architecture). In the early modern period, they were employed primarily during the preparations for innovative projects, but they also played an important role in the knowledge productions of engineers. In the case of engineering structures like bridges and fortifications, the line between technical models and architectural models (Model, architectural) was blurred.Marcus Popplow2. Technical innovationsTechnical models are…