Engineering in the Middle Ages

Engineering in the Middle Ages

During this period, first used the word engineer.

The chief glory of the Middle Ages were its cathedrals, its epic or scholastic: was the construction of a complex civilization that did not rely on the sweaty backs of slaves or laborers but primarily in non-human strength. Obviously a stimulus for this development was the decline of the institution of slavery and the continued growth of Christianity.

The main sources of power were water power, wind and horse, which took shape in the wheels and hydraulic turbines, wind mills and candles, carts and carriages.

It also made ​​other technical advances, such as the use of charcoal and the air blast to smelt iron efficiently. Another advance was the introduction of paper from China and gunpowder by the Arabs, and the sciences of chemistry and optics that they developed.

The use of paper, the invention of printing and the compass, and navigation, contributed to the spread of knowledge.

Engineers raised the art of medieval construction, as the Gothic arch and flying buttresses, to heights unknown to the Romans.

From this period dates the mechanical clock, which so markedly influence in modern civilization.

In Asia, engineering Avano also with complex construction techniques, hydraulics and metallurgy, which helped create civilizations as the Mongol Empire, whose large and beautiful cities impressed Marco Polo in the thirteenth century.