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1. ConceptUntil the widespread introduction of the steam engine and electric motor in the course of industrialization in the late 19th century, muscle power was by far the most important form of energy in all fields of activity [16]. Apart from animal muscle power, which was mostly used in agriculture (Harness), human muscle power formed the basic precondition for all work and was thus indispensable for making a living. The limits of human capacity (strength and stamina) imposed limits on production, both for individuals and for societies, cities, territories, and states.S…

1. IntroductionWhims are lifting devices that in the early modern period were most commonly used in ore mining. Some ancient civilizations already had mechanical devices for propulsion and lifting. Cranes, hoists, windlasses, and whims were used to convey loads particularly in construction, mining, and shipping, and they were generally driven by human and animal muscle power, but sometimes also by water (Hydraulic energy) or wind energy. Little changed in the basic technical conception of these devices until the Middle Ages [11].The capabilities of whims are amply dem…

1. General A furnace is an industrial oven, an enclosed combustion chamber whose heat is either used to heat the space external to it or to to process whatever is placed in the space contained within it.In the Middle Ages, crafts and trades, industrial trades and crafts, and the metal industry used furnaces to collect process heat, especially in the smelting process, in separating, sifting, and burning, as well as in shaping and casting metals and in chemical technologies (Chemical sciences; see Laboratory , fig. 1). Furnaces wer…

The term coal today refers to all solid fuels with a carbon content over 50% created by the coalification of organic material. In the course of this transformation of primarily vegetable matter, in particular lignin and cellulose, into brown or black sedimentary rock, carbon is concentrated initially by biochemical (influence of microorganisms), later geochemical and metamorphic processes (action of pressure and heat, passage of time). The result is the formation of coal. The degree of coalifica…

1. TerminologyThe term mill (Latin  mola, German  Mühle, French  moulin) generally denotes any facility for the mechanical crushing or processing of raw materials, for example, grain mills or grist mills, oil presses, paper mills, powder mills (Gunpowder), saw mills, tanbark mills (Leather production), stamping mills, silk mills, and fulling mills, as well as crushing mills (Mineral dressing). In the narrower sense, a mill was generally understood to be a grain mill (see Machine, with fig. 1), but the u…

1. General remarksFrom its beginnings around 200 BCE and for over 2,000 years, hydraulic power has provided the most important source of energy for industrial purposes, mechanical and technical apparatus (Machine). Although, by and large, in the period under discussion it was of less importance than the absolutely dominant muscle power of man and beast, in regions with the appropriate natural and climatic conditions, it could far surpass these in productivity. In medieval Europe, use of hydraulic …

1. Overview Treadmills were used in Europe since the late Middle Ages for the optimal exploitation of muscle power to operate cranes and lifting apparatuses, and occasionally also other machines (see 4. below). In comparison with winches, whims, and windlasses with comparatively limited effectiveness coupled with sometimes large space requirements, the advantages of the treadmill were its exploitation of the body weight of the worker, the possibility of linking several treadmills in parallel, and the possibility of using it in cramped spaces thanks to its vertical design.Di…

1. SurveyWind energy, alongside the heat energy of fire (Fuels and illuminants), is among the oldest forms of harnessed energy, probably going back as far as the Paleolithic (40,000–10,000 BCE). In its broadest sense, the term embraces all uses of the kinetic energy of air masses moved by differences of atmospheric pressure or temperature variations, making it a form of technologically harnessed solar energy. The production of wind energy takes place in shipping directly through sails (Sai…

1. OverviewIn the early modern period, the Latin term  artes (arts) was applied to all the products of human creative activity, especially in the area of the crafts and industry (Artes mechanicae). Technological installations and machines were usually called  artes when their dimensions and complexity of design and construction required unusual effort or skill. In mining, for example, installations for water management (Water management, with fig. 1; e.g. bucket elevators; see Machine, fig. 2), underground transport of person…

1. OverviewWater-column engines were piston machines powered by the hydrostatic pressure of water (see Hydraulic energy) and used to drive pumps (see Mining technology, fig. 2). They came into use in the mid-18th century, especially for water management in the mining districts of Hungary and the Upper Harz, but also for pumping brine (Salt; Salt industry, technology of), though without finding more extensive use in England. The last installations were taken out of service in the early 20t…

1. BasicsPeat is created in moors as a sediment of undecayed or incompletely decayed vegetation; it represents the first stage of coalification (Coal). The basic requirements for the formation of moors after the end of the last Ice Age (c. 12,000 BCE) were soils impermeable to water, large amounts of precipitation, and high atmospheric humidity. Moors therefore arose primarily in Northern Europe: the Baltic lands, Scandinavia, Russia, England, Ireland, Northern Germany, the Netherlands, and the A…

1. From vital chaos to the gas of chemists The concept that air is a weighable substance consisting of various gases gained acceptance only in the course of the 18th century. Until then it had been considered one of the four Aristotelian elements and was neither heavy nor light, as long as it remained in its natural place. In his  Ortus Medicinae (Amsterdam 1648; Ger. Aufgang der Artzney-Kunst, Sulzbach 1683), the Flemish Paracelsist Jan Baptista van Helmont conceived an alternative, vitalistic theory of matter (Vitalism), according to which all substances …

1. Wood as a basic resource 1.1. Wood consumption and shortage In all European countries, wood was already of special importance as an important building material (Building materials) and fuel (Fuels and illuminants) in the Middle Ages, and so accordingly was the wood supply [6]. The transition to the early modern period is characterized by a steady increase in the consumption of wood in all spheres. Particular stimuli to overall demand were the growth of towns and their building trades, the development of crafts and trades, prot…

1. Definition Fuels and illuminants are naturally occurring or manufactured substances, solid, liquid, or gaseous, composed largely of carbon and hydrogen molecules, that catch fire in the presence of oxygen. Naturally occurring examples include wood, lignite, black coal, peat, petroleum, and natural gas. With the exception of natural gas, these have been used to some degree since Antiquity and, with regional variations, have contributed the majority of fuel and illuminants in Europe. In the early…

1. Introduction Sunlight and heat from the sun act on earth as a driver for many chemical, biological, and physical processes, and thus form an essential foundation for life. Until the 20th century, all available forms of energy were derived from solar energy. In a stricter sense, these comprised wind energy and hydraulic energy, but in a broader sense they also included muscle power and energy obtained from renewable fuels and illuminants like wood, as well as fossil energy sources such as coal and peat, which can be argued to amount to stored solar energy.The early high culture…

1. General significance The making of charcoal from wood at a charcoal-burning, carbonization or pyrolysis site by means of controlled heating or burning with a regulated supply of air was already known in the high cultures of antiquity. With the spread of work with ore and metal working in the Bronze and Iron Ages charcoal became the most important fuel (cf. Fuels and illuminants) and retained this position until the middle of the 19th century, when it was successively displaced in the European industrial nations by black coal or coke.In Europe of the High Middle Ages the product…