Medieval and modern times : an introduction to the history of western Europe form the dissolution of the Roman empire to the present time . s ordinarily too heavyto be run by hand or foot. Of course windmills were common,and waterfalls and running streams had long been used toturn water wheels, but these forces were too restricted anduncertain to suffice forthe rapid developmentof machinery which re-sulted from the begin-nings we have while Ark-wright, Hargreaves, andCrompton were success-fully solving the prob-lem of new methodsof spinning and weav-ing, other inventorsw
Medieval and modern times : an introduction to the history of western Europe form the dissolution of the Roman empire to the present time . s ordinarily too heavyto be run by hand or foot. Of course windmills were common,and waterfalls and running streams had long been used toturn water wheels, but these forces were too restricted anduncertain to suffice forthe rapid developmentof machinery which re-sulted from the begin-nings we have while Ark-wright, Hargreaves, andCrompton were success-fully solving the prob-lem of new methodsof spinning and weav-ing, other inventorswere improving the waysof melting and forgingiron for the machinesand of using steam torun them. Although iron hadbeen used for tools,weapons, and armor forhundreds of years, theprocesses of reducingthe iron from the oreand of working it up were very crude. It was not until 1750that coal began to be used instead of charcoal for melting, orsoftening, the metal. The old-fashioned bellows gave way tonew ways of producing the blast necessary for melting iron, andsteam hammers were invented to pound out the iron instead ofdoing it by Fig. 157. Newcomens SteamEngine Newcomens steam engines were run bycondensing the steam in the cylinder (a)by cold water (g), so that the air on thepiston [s] pressed it down on the covered both ends of the cylinderand used steam instead of air to pushthe piston 586 Medieval and Modem Times Watt im-proves thesteam engine Contrary to popular impression, James Watt did not inventthe steam engine. Important parts of the engine— the boiler,the cylinder, and the piston — had been invented before hewas bom, and crude engines had been employed for a long timein pumping water. Indeed, Watts interest in the steam engineseems to have been awakened first during the winter of 1763-1764, when, as an instrument maker in Glasgow, he was calledupon to repair the model of a steam engine which had been
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Keywords: ., bookauthorrobinson, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1919
