By Swaranya Sarkar
Long before computers, laptops, phones and tablets were even imagined, technology flourished in various different ways. These ancient forms of technology lay the groundwork for what today's world calls technology. In this article, we travel back in time to take a look at the mesmerising and almost magical way in which inventors created machines and systems that would, one day, lead us to the world we see around us.
Weaving the future...
The Jacquard loom, named for its inventor Joseph Marie Jacquard of France, was used to weave incredibly elaborate textiles and was certainly the first of its kind.
According to Steve Wolf, “They developed a punch card system, where, as the shuttle traveled back and forth, if it hit a block it went back,” Wolf. “If there was a hole drilled in the block, the shuttle continued on. So, it was a way of automating, hundreds of years ago, the weaving of fabrics."
The Jacquard loom didn’t just change the world of weaving textiles, it would become the groundwork for early computer programming, according to Wolf. The same punch system used for the loom served as the inspiration for Charles Babbage’s very first programmable machine, the Analytical Engine, which was invented in the year 1834.
This “computer” operated on a punch system, just like the loom, and eventually led to the invention of the early computers of the 1950s and ’60s, which then led to the invention of the computers we use today.
Stunning, is it not, that the computer we know today was born off a weaving loom?
Best out of waste
The British Navy was the world’s most powerful navy for nearly 100 years over the course of the 19th century. What isn’t as well known is that an accidental discovery is partially responsible for their domination, says Wolf.
Although it is true that there were many factors at play that led to their place of power in the world, their discovery of tar pitch was one way they had the upper hand on other navies.
“The development of the British Navy and its superiority over all other navies was because they were able to develop the most waterproof ships that had ever existed,” Wolf explains. “Tar pitch was something that had come about as an industrial waste product as a result of burning coal in the factories.
As they burned coal, they ended up with this tar-y sludge leftover. They tried to wash it away, but discovered it wouldn’t dissolve in water.”
This discovery led them to use tar pitch as a waterproofing material on their ships and, according to Wolf, this allowed the British Navy to become the most powerful of their time.
Surprisingly, tar or sludge, thought of as nothing more than waste, led a navy to world domination!
Flying to a better day
Drones have been used in recent years to capture incredible photos and footage and, thanks to Amazon, will soon deliver packages. Despite its super-modern design, this amazing device goes way, way back.
It’s believed that the first robotic bird was invented by ancient Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum, according to Smithsonian. Created in the year 350 B.C.E., what was believed to be the world’s first robot was constructed from wood in the shape of a pigeon.
Although there are many unanswered questions about this first documented, automated device, what we know was preserved by Hero of Alexandria, another mathematician who came around a few hundred years after Archytas.
This automated bird could fly as far as 200 meters; researchers believe it got its power from either compressed air or a steam engine and flew on a pulley system.
Moulding technology in a potter's wheel
In an area of southeast Baghdad known as Khujut Rabu, the Baghdad Battery has been the source of much debate among archeologists and scientists alike.
According to Atlas Obscura, these ancient devices were originally dismissed as just clay pots sitting in the collection of the National Museum of Iraq. In 1938, however, archivists discovered that they contain copper and iron.
Since this discovery, it has been theorized that these 12 pots were used as batteries. By replicating the device and filling it with vinegar, scientists were able to produce 1.1. volts, according to the Smith College Museum.
The past had an exceedingly significant and important effect on the present world. It lay the foundation for what we know as ours.
After all, as Swami Vivekananda said,
"There cannot be a cause without an effect, the present mist have had its cause in the past and will have its effect in the future."
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