A view of the Middle Ages, and even of its early period, is false when viewed from the standpoint

of the
history of technology

Technology is responsive to social needs

MEDIEVAL EAST AND WEST COMPARED IN TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS

Byzantium and Islam greatly surpassed the West in commerce, political stability, and level of education,
but it was the West which produced most of the major technological innovations

Until the 19th century the connection between science and technology was slight. Science was for
intellectuals trying to understand the nature of things; technology was for workers trying to do things;
the notion that knowledge of nature gives us power over nature is old as an aphorism but recent in
practice

The victory of Christianity over paganism in the 4th-century Roman Empire had provided an improved
psychological basis for technical innovation; smashing of animism liberated artisans and peasants for
matter-of-fact exploitation of their natural environment

4 suggestions that theorize the advancement of Medieval Eastern Europe, leaving behind the other
regions in this category

1. More inventiveness than is detectable in any other part of the Empire. Perhaps this mood
of innovation carried over into the Western Middle Ages and expanded

2. Deeply shaken by repeated invasions and chaos; corroded traditional ways so deeply that
people were generally more open to change, including technological change

3. In Greek Christendom an educated laity continued, whereas in the West culture

declined to a point where literacy was long a monopoly of the clergy

4. A basic difference between the theologies and pieties of the Greek Church and the Latin
Church. The Greeks have always made right thought, or "illumination," central to salvation, whereas
the Latins at least since the days of St. Augustine have put greater emphasis on right will, or action

MILITARY TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL CHANGE

There is no absolute determinism in technology: invention is not the mother of necessity but the other
way around
 saddle having a high pommel and cantle, stirrups, heavier armor, heavier horses, new
types of shields, Better fortification

The revolution in military technology brought about by the stirrup was the seed of feudalism and of the
chivalric culture which the secular aristocracy of the later Middle Ages developed

the caste of endowed warriors picked up the fragments of political authority and
established local rule

THE EXPANSION OF AGRICULTURE

Anything which increased productivity was of major importance

heavier plow, paralleling and interlocking with the new pattern of cereal-growing, scythes,
three-field rotation, modern horse harness

The increased surplus of food. It accounts for the steady increase of population until the late 13th
century, when, because no further agricultural innovations had been introduced

TRANSPORTATION DEVELOPMENTS

The modern horse-harness, was essential to the use of horses not only for plowing but also for hauling

The invention of nailed horseshoes prevented the wear on a horse's hooves in hauling over roads

Travel was made more comfortable through the development of the springed carriage, with springs
underneath functioning as shock absorbers

The canal-lock chamber was an improvement for inland waterway journey

The lateen sail, was developed in order to adapt better to tacking, especially to larger vessels

Constructing the skeleton first, and then nailing on the planks, reduced the costs of maritime commerce
rather than building up the shell of the hull out of planks firmly attached to each other and afterwards
inserting the skeleton of ribs

Another great advance in ship-building was the invention of the modern rudder

The magnetic compass provided an invaluable navigational aid

ARTS AND CRAFTS

A society that vividly exploited power machinery and labor saving devices was established due to the
recent innovations in machinery

Water mills and water-powered triphammers, horse-mill, horizontal-axle windmill,

Machine design was also progressing

Compound crank, water-driven sawmill, belt transmission of power

The five centuries following 1000 A.D. greatly elaborated the methods of harnessing and utilizing
mechanical power because of the knowledge established by the preceding generations

THE DIFFUSION OF TECHNOLOGY

The spread of technology in the Middle Ages, as in modern times, knew no geographical barriers. There
was nothing self-contained about medieval technology

Norsemen who settled in Greenland, European merchants in the Far East, Frankish in the
western coast of India, the distant East Indies (through the perennial spice trade)

THE TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

The conventional picture of the Middle Ages as a pause in mankind's struggle to conquer environment is
inaccurate

revolution in man's use of energy resources through machines

transformed the art of war

increased man's capacity to wrest a living from nature (agricultural innovations)

improvements in ships and navigation

new tools and combinations of tools to make work easier

It offered a new outlook toward technological innovation, which prepared the way for the mechanical
devices of the following period of Western history, known as the Renaissance