Modern Age: technological inventions

The Modern age It is the third stage of the history of mankind and ranges from the 15th century to the end of the 18th century, when the French Revolution began. It was a time in which there were many discoveries and thanks to them progress was made in many aspects of society such as science and industry among others. Extraordinary inventions were made, improvements were discovered in sea lanes, and colonies were established in Africa, Australia, and also in America. In this Age it was easier to achieve these advances since, unlike the Middle Ages, in this During this period, more importance was given to values ​​such as reason, communication, progress and idealism.

There were many inventors who stood out in this phase of history such as Galileo Galilei, Benjamin Franklin, Johannes Guttenberg or James Watt. Due to the importance of these inventors and others from this historical stage, in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to explain the main technological inventions of the modern age

Index

1. Great inventions of the 15th and 16th century
2. Main inventions of the seventeenth century
3. Inventions of the 18th century and their inventors

To begin this short summary on the technological inventions of the Modern Age we will focus on the most relevant of the 15th and 16th centuries. Some historians consider that the Modern Age began in the second half of the 15th century, that is, around the year 1453 when the taking of Constantinople by the Ottomans took place, but for other historians it began from the beginning of the century XV.

In that phase of the Modern Age, discoveries and inventions that would mark a before and after in history and that they would serve, along with other events, to leave behind the dark times of the Middle Ages. With the advances that were made in technology both in the field of science and in the field of industry and war, man has managed to facilitate many tasks in his life and to improve these inventions and adapt them to create new ones and, thus, continue evolving. In the following lines you will find some of the great inventions of the 15th and 16th centuries:

The modern printing press

The history of the printing press can be considered to have started when the Romans around 440 BC. C. They were already using stamps to print inscriptions and drawings on clay objects, just like the Chinese in the first half of the 11th century invented a complex system of porcelain pieces to seal and embody characters of their language on the paper of the epoch.

Although these methods already existed for manually embossing letters and decorations on different surfaces, it was not until the invention of the modern printing press that Johannes Guttenberg in the year 1444 that the pages of the books began to be printed with a manual machine that allowed to make pages whole at once, until then only handwritten books were created and copied by lyrics.

In the original form of this invention of the Modern Age, an oily ink was applied to metallic pieces in order, through pressure, to transfer it to the paper and thus reflect what was desired. An interesting fact is that the first book printed with this method was the well-known Guttenberg Bible. Likewise, as we have already pointed out, this machine at the beginning worked manually, that is, a lever had to be moved to achieve pressure, but soon improvements and new machines began to emerge until we reached the ones we know today in day.

The hand grenade

At the end of the Middle Ages the power of explosives began to be used in wars and already in the 15th century the first explosive projectiles with gunpowder were invented. There were many inventions similar to the hand grenades that we know today as containers with explosives and incendiary material, but in these cases the fuse had to be lit first.

As the first grenades were not very effective and they wanted to achieve a greater explosion and greater damage, in the 16th century in Switzerland the first grenades were created that contained metal and stones in addition to gunpowder.

The compound microscope

Another of the main technological inventions of the Modern Age is the compound optical microscope which was invented around the year 1590 by Zacharías Janssen and Hans Janssen, a father and his son who were manufacturers of Dutch glasses, who after several improvements of the parts and materials that needed to achieve this, they decided to put their lenses in a tube to better observe the objects. In the beginning, they only managed to increase the size of the objects observed between 10 and 40 times and it only worked with reflected light, but in the year 1655 Robert Hooke improved this invention and made it really useful in science.

The thermometer

In the year 1593 Galileo Galilei invented the water thermometer and he called it a thermoscope, this was the first way to measure the variation in temperature using a thermometer that contained water with a few drops of alcohol.

Later in the late modern age in the year 1714 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the mercury thermometer that we still use many times today. Inspired by Galileo Galilei's water thermoscope or thermoscope, Fahrenheit decided to improve it by using mercury instead of water and alcohol since that way the measurement was more reliable and he added a scale on the glass containing the liquid to be able to measure more ease.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER you will find a short summary of modern philosophy which will help you delve deeper into the characteristics of this stage of history and better understand everything that happened.

Once the technological inventions of the modern age In a short summary of the 15th and 16th centuries, we are going to focus on some of the most relevant inventions of the seventeenth century. Some of the inventors who stood out the most in this part of History were Hans Lippershey and Bartolomeo Cristofori among others and these were some of their discoveries and inventions:

The telescope

In the year 1608 Hans Lippershey invented the telescope, a device that allowed to observe in detail objects that were too far away to see them well with the naked eye. For this reason, it became an essential device in some scientific disciplines, especially in astronomy. One year later, in 1609, Galileo Galilei implemented some improvements so that it would be more practical and useful in the studies of astronomy.

Since then this contraption has been improved many times to achieve the incredible telescopes that we know today, including spectacular telescopes that are in some scientific centers, allowing us to continue exploring the sky and the universe like never before I have.

The submarine or submersible

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, in the year 1620, Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel invented the first submarine or submersible It worked underwater with paddles. It was an English engineer who achieved this invention by placing a wooden roof over a fishing boat covering everything with leather and grease to better waterproof the surface of the submersible.

The first dive was made that same year in the River Thames and the submarine was carried by twelve rowers using tubes to breathe air from the surface. Even so, at first the English army and the king did not see a practical use for this device, which gradually evolved to what we know today.

The calculator

The calculator already existed in many other similar forms, that is, objects had already been created that served to help us add or subtract like the abacus, but in the year 1622 William Oughtred he invented the slide rule. Also, in the year 1623 Wilhelm Schickard he created the first automatic calculator and named it the calculator clock and in the year 1642 Pascal created the first mechanical calculator. Like the vast majority of inventions, being really useful, it evolved and improvements were added to what we know today, that is, evolved into simple, scientific calculators, powered by batteries or sunlight, and even on our phones mobiles.

The piano

Around the year 1700 Bartolomeo Cristofori created the first piano which was a modification of instruments such as the harpsichord, harpsichord and harpsichord. He was looking for an improvement in the mechanical and dynamic response of these instruments and finally succeeded in inventing the piano. He had the facility to investigate and improve these instruments until he achieved what he desired since he worked at the court of Prince Fernando Medici of Florence as a cymbalist musician.

To end this short summary of the technological inventions of the modern age more relevant, we will talk about the discoveries of the century XVIII until the French Revolution began and this stage of history ended. Among the engineers and researchers of this phase of the modern age we find the renowned Benjamin Franklin and James Watt among others. Thus, some of the main inventions of the Modern Age that, with some improvements, today we continue to use and that have allowed us to improve many aspects of our day-to-day life were the following:

Lightning rod

In the year 1752 Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod in Philadelphia, America and the first model was actually called the Franklin Lightning Rod. It is also believed that completely independently in Europe in the year 1754 Prokop Diviš also created it. The experiment that led Franklin to invent this contraption was to tie a kite to a thin metal body and on a silk thread to hold the kite he hung a metal key also. In the middle of a storm he took out this kite and, immediately, a lightning hit it, filling the key with electrical charge and showing that the lightning could be stopped.

Improved steam engine

The first steam engine to be invented was one known as Eolipila in the 1st century and since Then there were many improvements and similar machines and apparatus were invented, but it is considered that in the year 1769 James Watt created the improvement of the steam engine which served as the basis for the first industrial revolution. Before this, the well-known atmospheric or Newcomen steam engine had been built by Thomas Newcomen in 1712 with the help of Robert Hooke and John Calley. Prior to this, Thomas Savery had invented a steam engine that revolutionized mining in 1698.

The parachute

The first practical parachute was created in 1783 by Louis Sebastien Lenormand and the first human jump was made in 1793. In addition, André Jacques Garnerin in 1797 in Paris managed to parachute jumps from a hydrogen balloon at an altitude of 350 meters. For this reason, proving its effectiveness, this new device was incorporated into hot air balloons as a safety measure. Since then there has been improvement in all aspects and today you can jump from much higher heights.

The sewing machine

Although in 1755 the engineer Charles Fredrick Wiesenthal obtained the first patent for a needle of sewing machine adapted for use on a machine, the inventor of the sewing machine is considered to have been the British Thomas Saint in 1790. It was designed to sew both fabric and leather with a single thread forming chain stitches. In addition, this machine did not use a needle, but instead used an awl that allowed it to pierce these materials without problems. Later Isaac Merrit Singer invented the mechanism that allows the needle to move up and down. Since then, sewing machines have been improving to the point that today there are digital ones that require, in principle, less effort on the part of those who sew with them.

The pencil

To finish commenting on the technological inventions of the modern age We will see the pencil which is considered to have been created in 1792 by Jacques-Nicolás Conté a French engineer who worked at the French court. Actually what this engineer did was mix the graphite with clay, harden it and surround it with cedar wood, making it the most similar invention to the pencils today, but prior to this, around the year 1564 graphite had been discovered in England and had already begun to be used for writing.

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