Historical Antecedents

Sumerian Civilization

 Concerned with transportation, navigation, communication, recordkeeping, mass production,

security and protection.
 Transportation:
to discover new horizons for food and find better locations for settlements
 Communication:
to communicate with natives of areas they visited to facilitate trade and prevent possible
conflicts
 Food and other basic necessities:
due to increase of population
 Located in the southernmost tip of ancient Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers in the area.
o Later became Babylonia

Inventions of Sumerian Civilization

 Cuneiform
o One of the major contributions of the Sumerians
o First writing system
o Utilizes word pictures and triangular symbols
o Used to keep records of things with great historical value or their everyday life
o A way of passing traditions, cultures and legacy
 City of Uruk
o Were able to build the city using only mud or clay from the river
o Sunbaked bricks were a true engineering feat
o Protected them from the harsh weather and built a wall to that prevented wild animals
and raiders from entering
 The Great Ziggurat of Ur
o Also called the mountain of God
o Didn’t use much building materials
o A sacred place for their chief god, only the priest was allowed to enter
 Irrigation and dikes
o Some groups had scarce water and some had flooding issues
o They created dikes and irrigation canals to bring water to farmlands and control the
flooding of rivers
 Sail Boats
o Used to carry large quantities of products and were able to cover large distances
o Wanted to discover faraway lands to settle due to large population
 Plow
o Farming technology
o Digs the earth in a faster pace
o Farmer would just drop the seeds and the farmwork would be done
Egyptian Civilization

 The engineering feats of Egyptians

 Infrastructures were established by the Pharaoh

Inventions of the Egyptian Civilization

 Paper/Papyrus
o Developed a writing system using paper/papyrus
o Made with plants
 Hieroglyphics
o Using symbols
o Believed to be rooted from Mesopotamia
 Ink
o Created by combining soot with different chemicals to make different colors of ink
o Used for writing in paper/papyrus
 Cosmetics
o Wigs were common in Egyptian civilization
o They wore kohl around the eyes to prevent and cure eye diseases
 Water clock/Clepsydra
o Uses gravity that affects the flow of water on the vessel to another
 Mummification
o Embalming or treating the dead
o Important in their religion to preserve the dead body in as life-like manner as possible

Greek Civilization

 Did not develop in a river valley

 Ancient Greece had the Mediterranean Sea
 Series of islands or archipelagos
 Interested in the world around them
 Greece is an archipelago in southern eastern part of Europe
 Known for the birth of western philosophy
 Includes in-depth works on philosophy and mathematics
 Anaxagoras figured out what causes an eclipse

The inventions of Greek Civilization

 Alarm clock
o Similar to Egyptians but more complex
 Watermills
o Used in agricultural processes
o Mass production of rice, cereals, flours
o Lead to the invention of the windmill and turbine
 Mathematics
 o Thales set up many mathematical rules based on reasoning. Mostly about circles and
triangles and lines
o Pythagoras discovered the Pythagorean theorem
o Euclid wrote multiple textbooks about geometry called Elements
 Cartography
o Anaximander was the first to create a map of the world
o His map reflected all places known to Ancient Greeks at the time
 Medicine
o Hippocrates is the father of modern medicine
o People did not usually treat illnesses as they were punishments from the gods
o Hippocrates made the Hippocratic Oath which are the ethical standards for doctors
 Archimedes Screw
o Used to collect water and move it up a hill
o Used in the successful stabilization of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in 2001

Roman Civilization

 The strongest political and social entity in the west

 Huge population and territory
 Cradle of politics and governance

The invention of the Roman Civilization

 Aqueducts
o Romans enjoyed many amenities such as public toilets and underground sewage
systems
o First developed in 312 BC, they liberated Roman cities from reliance on nearby water
supplies
 Concrete
o Roman concrete was weaker than its modern counterpart but has proved durable due
to its unique recipe
 Acta Diurna/Daily Acts
o Official texts detailing military, legal and civil issues
o Typically included details of military victories, lists of games, birth and death
 Aeta Senatus
o Proceedings of the Roman senate
 The Codex
o Stack of bound pages which has been recognized as the earliest form of books. Made
with wax tablets but then replaced by animal skin
o Julius Caesar made an early version of a codex using papyrus to make a primitive
notebook
 Arches
o Existed for 4,000 years
o Used their power in the construction of bridges and buildings
o Improved on arches by flattening their shape to create a segmental arch
 o Became characteristic of Roman architectural style

Chinese Civilization

 Oldest civilization
 Contributed to the Silk Industry, Tea production, Gun powder and the Great Wall of China

The inventions of Chinese Civilization

 Gunpowder
o Used differently from the west
o First known recipe for saltpetre the principal ingredient for gunpowder
o Written by Wu Ching Tsung Yao
o Would make bombs grenades and rocket arrows
 Paper making
o They used animal bones
o Paper making technology was transferred to Korea and Vietnam then to Japan
 Printing
o Invented by Bi Sheng
o First movable type was made of baked clay
o Wooden movable type was made by Wang Zhen
 Compass
o First magnetic direction finder around 1044

Medieval Civilization

 Great technology for field weaponry, navigation and mass food and farm production and health

Medieval Inventions

 Printing press
o State and church laid the path for Protestant Reformation, Renaissance and The
Enlightenment
o Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press was made in 15 th century it traces its history back
to 3rd Century China
 Verge Scapement/Mechanical Clocks
o Replaced the hour glass around 1300AD
 Hourglass
o 8th century AD commonly
o Commonly used in ships, churches and industries
 Spinning Wheels
o 5th and 10th century AD
o Replaced the more traditional method of hand spinning
o Innovated during the industrial revolution like the spinning jenny and spinning frame
 Eyeglasses
o Roger Bacon made the first reference to eyeglasses
o First developed in Italy by Alessandro di Spina of Florence
  Telescope
o Hans Lippershey was the first person to patent the telescope
o Called the Kijker

Modern Period

 Booming world population demands for more goods to be produced at a faster rate
 Birth of various industries

Modern Period Inventions

 Electric Dynamo
o Invented in 1831 by Michael Faraday
o Opened up to practical uses of electricity
 Charles Babbage’s Analytical engine
o Developed in the 1860
o Programmed to calculate mathematical equations
o Saw the development of computers
 Pasteurization
o Developed in 1864 by Louis Pasteur
o Provided a way to prevent growth of bacteria in wine beer and milk
 Plastic
o Developed in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt
o Looking for a cheap substitute to ivory billiard balls
o Became used for packaging, homes and even clothes
 Phonograph
o Developed in 1877 by Thomas Edison
o Captured and replayed sound using a rotating cylinder
 Telephone
o Developed in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell
o Experimented with transmitted sound via electricity
 Bicycle
o Developed in 1885 the most popular model by Penny Farthing
o Introduced chain-link to pedals to back wheel