Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances Gies

Because it required dam, millrace, sluice gates, and tailrace as well as gearing, the overshot wheel had a high initial cost. In this arrangement the stream was channelled by a millrace or chute to the top of the wheel, bringing the full weight of the water to bear, with a resulting efficiency of 50 to 70 percent. For more demanding tasks, a superior design was the overshot wheel. The important art of pottery making first modeled clay with fingers and thumb, then coiled strands of clay, and finally shaped its work with the potter's wheel, invented about 3000 B.C.''Ģ) ''The undershot wheel typically achieved an efficiency of 15 to 30 percent, adequate for milling.

Raw hides were converted into leather by scraping and soaking with tannin, derived from oak bark. The arts of cloth making were invented: felting, matting fibers together by boiling and beating to produce a nonwoven fabric spinning, drawing out fibers of flax or wool and twisting them into a continuous strand, usually by means of a spindle weaving, interlacing threads with the aid of a loom fulling, soaking and beating cloth to remove grease and dyeing. The wheel and axle appeared in Mesopotamia between 30 B.C. in Mesopotamia, came agriculture and its tools-plow, sickle, ax, and mortar and pestle or stone grain crusher. From the short Neolithic (New Stone) Age, beginning about 8000 B.C. I highly recommend it, along with their others.ġ) ''From the long Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age came the tools and techniques that separated humankind forever from the animal world: language, fire making, hunting weapons and methods, domestication of animals.

Still, it's an informative read and probably the best of their books that I've read. In 2018 it's not a huge problem because of the internet, but it would've been more of an issue back in 1994 when it was originally published. That would've made the book longer, and potentially more expensive, but it would've helped. If I have one gripe, it's that there weren't enough pictures to back up the items and descriptions of what they were talking about. There is also some interesting discussion as to what allowed China to take an initial technological lead, but why Europe eventually surpassed it. I found the information on all of the technology that came from China and India quite fascinating, as well as similar technology that was developed independently of each other's. I'd still recommend those other books for more detailed information on cities, castles, and villages. However, this book covers those topics in only passing detail. For readers who have read their previous Life in a Medieval. A very succinct look at human technical ingenuity, from the 6th to 16th centuries.

Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances Gies