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1. Definition and manufactureLace (French  dentelles, Dutch kant, German  Spitze, Italian  merletto) is a collective term for decorative elements made of thread or thread and fabric (Textiles). In all its forms it is openwork: spaces of various sizes between the threads constitute a pattern. Lace must not be confused with embroidery (Textile technology). Its origins probably go back to the decorative treatment of hems by the darning, knotting, or braiding of warp threads.Technically there are two kinds of lace: needle lace and bobbin lace. In the former, threads a…

Combs of various forms, materials, and styles of decoration survive dating back to Antiquity. In church liturgy, richly decorated consecration combs were used during the consecration of a bishop, and some survive as grave goods [9]. Most surviving combs since the 14th century were from the profane sphere [5. 33]. Combs, as Christoph Weigel stated in his 1698 book of the estates, served ornament and cleanliness. The hair comb, however, was also a metaphor for a feminine craving for extravagance. They were used to remove infestations…

1. IntroductionThe word “window” derives from the Old Norse  vindauga (literally “wind-eye”), and originally meant an unglazed hole in a roof. Like most European languages, English developed a word for a glazed opening in a wall from the Latin fenestra, since glass windows were an invention of the Roman cultural sphere (perhaps the early Roman Imperial period) [4. 90]. Unlike the German  Fenster and the French fenêtre, however, the English “fenester” did not become established, and it vanished in the mid-16th century, except for the fossilized usage “d…

1. DefinitionToday  Preiswerk is understood as a form of marketing in the early modern industrial trades and crafts, in which there was a direct connection between the producer and consumer in the form of an order or commission. The term  Preiswerk was defined by the economist Karl Bücher in 1893 in his study of the rise of the national economy (developed from the earlier historical school of economics). He distinguished a sequence of three economic stages: (1) the stage of the closed household economy (self-sufficient home consumpt…

1. Beginnings The most important building materials of the early modern period were wood, stone, and brick. In the first instance, the timber-frame method prevailed in the German lands (Fachwerk), in the countryside and in smaller and medium-sized towns. Shingle roofs combined with timber-framing and wattle infill dominated the appearance of larger suburbs and elsewhere. Enea Silvio Piccolomini (the future Pope Pius II) in 1455 still described the houses of Vienna as “disfigured” with w…

1. OccupationThe metalworking craft (Crafts and trades) of the locksmith (Neolatin  serator/ serifex, Dutch  slotenmaker, German  Schlosser, Kleinschmied, Kunstschmied, French  serrurier, Italian chiavaio), developed from the 14th century within the sphere of activity of the smithy. Guilds were formed, sometimes jointly with winchmakers, spurriers, gunsmiths, or clockmakers, specialties that had also developed out of smithing. The work of the locksmith included in particular making padlocks, door locks, locks for c…

1. AgricultureUntil the late 19th century, the prevailing European technologies for mowing hay and harvesting grain were dominated by the use of sickles, short scythes or siths, and scythes [4]. The three different types of tool were fully developed by around 1500. In the course of the late Middle Ages, the sickle (a crescent-shaped blade, sometimes serrated, with a short wooden handle), already in use in premedieval agriculture, was replaced by the two-handed, long-handled reaping scythe in some regions (see Harvest, …

1. SurveyFrom the 18th century on, repair is mentioned in encyclopedias as an everyday phenomenon. Various synonyms of the verb include  mend,  renovate,  clean,  rework,  remake,  renew,  restore,  maintain, and patch. In the early 20th century, the economist Karl Bücher cited the importance of the repair business and “reworking old objects” in his study of the professions in the city of Frankfurt am Main even in the Middle Ages [3. 18]. In the years that followed, however, economic and social history as well as the history of technology concentrated primaril…

1. Concepts and definitions“Craft” denotes skilled manufacture (Latin  opus manu factum), “trade” in this sense an occupation of exercising such a craft. The German Handwerk historically combines the sense of both. Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch defines Handwerk (Latin  opificium or  ars manuaria) as “work of the hands,” and in the strict sense limits it to “a trade continually conducted” ("ein dauernd betriebenes Gewerbe”), the accomplishment of which, as distinct from art or basic manual work, requires manual skill ( ars mechanica) (vol. 10, 424). Johann Beckmann in …

In the foreword to the 19th edition of the Brockhaus (1896), refuse was treated “as a key concept of our age,” and waste disposal was included among the 240 lemmata “that characterize our present intellectual and social situation.” A historical analysis of relevant lemmata in 18th and 19th-century encyclopedias reveals highly diverse conceptual fields [8]. In 1732, J.H. Zedler included under  Abfall (refuse, waste, but also decline) infidelity towards God and rulers, differences in level in watercourses, and the decline in ore content in mining [5]. Even in the middle of …

1. SurveyEarly modern writing instruments in the narrower sense were the stylus, pen, and pencil. The (slate) stylus was used to make quick notes and drafts on a wax or slate tablet, which could also be written on with chalk. Children learned with the aid of wax and slate tablets (the latter until well into the 20th century) [9. 68]. Parchment as a writing material was expensive. Wax tablets began to give way to paper in the 15th century [9. 30]. To this day, the pen stands figuratively for writing instruments in general; like Germen  Feder, the word denotes an ink pen [9. 19]. The us…

1. Technique Fulling, or waulking (German: walken), refers to the treading, beating, or pressing of textiles in water with the addition of fuller’s earth (fine clay), urine, and/or soap to achieve greater thickness, resistance, and cleanliness. The process felted the cloth so that it could be shrunk by up to a third [1]. Fulling by means of foot-treading is known as far back as ancient Pompeii.Fulling mills were already mechanized in the High Middle Ages through the use of cam shafts that enabled rotation in a linear up-and-down or back-and-forth motion. …

1. OverviewIn the early modern period, the personal creation of apparel at home was limited to simple types and fabrics. Since superior fabrics were expensive and there was great danger of ruining them by improper cutting, specialists were employed [16. 153 f.]. Everyday needs necessitated an extensive clothing trade; in this period, therefore, tailors (French  tailleurs, German  Schneider, Italian  sarti) constituted one of the largest urban trades (Crafts and trades), especially in cities with a high population density. In Paris in the late 1770…

1. ConceptThe term  innovation denotes a process by which new products and new technologies are introduced into the economic system [19. 149 f.]; [18. 339]. Historians of technology, however, initially showed interest in innovations in processes and procedures primarily in the context of the “industrial revolution of the late Middle Ages,” mining, and finally industrialization. An understanding of technology as applied natural science narrowed their perspective to science and technology in the sense of production an…

1. ConceptEnergy (from the Greek enérgeia, “activity”, “actuality”) today describes the capacity of a body or a physical system to do work. Energy being a conserved quantity that, while appearing in different forms (mechanical, electrical, thermal, chemical, etc.), remains constant in total in isolated systems is one of the most fundamental principles of natural science, applying equally to and thus connecting the physical and chemical sciences and biology. Mechanics was already approaching an unders…

1. General remarksMachines were in use in Europe long before industrialization. The watermill was in widespread use going back to antiquity, and there were tens of thousands of working mills in Europe at the beginning of the modern era, including mills for grain and for other rough work like crushing, for example of hides for tanning (Leather production), or for pounding the components of gunpowder. Machines of this sort, along with cranes (Lifting apparatus) and pumping stations (Water and the ar…

1. GeneralIn the early modern period, how laundry was done varied depending on the social context [6]; [9]; [4]. In the estates of the nobility (Gutsherrschaft) as well as in patrician or upper-class households that had a substantial supply of textiles, a “big wash” was performed several times a year. Sometimes there was a separate laundry room along with a washing area and a drying area; additional washerwomen were hired, whose pay was sometimes specified in schedules of fees [12. 333]. In addition there would be more frequent “small washes.” The household account bo…

1. DefinitionThe term resource can stand for all production factors, but modern resource economics defines (natural) resources as materials provided by the environment. The technology of the 18th century called these resources  materia technologica. These were the materials taken from the three kingdoms of nature or produced by primary production (agriculture, forestry, hunting, fisheries, mining) to be processed further in the industrial trades and crafts or households.The high cost of such resources or raw materials resulted from the low productivity…

1. TradeUntil the early 18th century, porcelain was an exclusively Chinese commodity that had played an important role in trade for centuries before the arrival of the Europeans and the advent of the Asia trade. It was in the early 14th century, under the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), that China began production of blue-and-white porcelain, which was intended specifically for export. Archaeological finds show that the main export regions in the 14th and early 15th centuries were India and the Near Ea…

1. DefinitionTramping was a result of the differentiation of the professional career (Profession) into apprentice, journeyman (Journeymen), and master. As a specific form of occupational migration in German-speaking Europe, it usually followed apprenticeship . In England, the journeyman, after a seven-year apprenticeship, was not required to wander. As a labor market, London exerted a powerful attraction; only after it lost this dominance after 1660 (to new centers in the Midlands and the North), did an inter-regional tramping system develop in the 18th century [6]. The…