[TheForge] Fw: [Aoife-Links] More Power! Medieval Machinery

[Phlip]

I'm thinking you guys might find this edition of Aoife's Links interesting
;-)

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aoife" <aoife at scatoday.net>
To: <aoife-links at scatoday.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 9:18 PM
Subject: [Aoife-Links] More Power! Medieval Machinery


> Greetings my Faithful Readers!
>
> This week It's all about More Medieval Power.
>
> Wait--did you think everything in the Middle Ages was done painstakingly
by
> hand? Think again! Like ourselves, our ancestors were no slouches when
> thinking up ways to AVOID hard physical labor. How did those huge blocks
of
> stone get to the top of the cathedral? Machine Power! How did that
Gutenberg
> Bible get printed? Machine Power. How was the wheel formed so perfectly
for
> carriages and carts? Machine Power. And Da Vinci, the penultimate
> renaissance man, had a hand in designing some very sophisticated machines.
> These were not gas or electric powered engines, but rather they were
powered
> by water, by air, by animals, or even by Men running in their own
> hamster-like wheel! From unloading ships to grinding grain, to fulling
> cloth, to pumping water, to tearing down castle walls, machines were
> everywhere in the Medieval world. Please join me in exploring some of
those
> fascinating machines.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Aoife
>
> Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon
> m/k/a Lisbeth Herr-Gelatt
> Riverouge
> Endless Hills
> Aethelmearc
>
> Machines of War:
>
> PBS.org Medieval Siege Teacher's Site
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/trebuchet/
> (Site Excerpt) NOVA's science game, "Destroy the Castle," is very much
like
> the real thing. There are five elements you can adjust in your trebuchet:
> stone ball weight, sling length, counterweight design, distance from the
> castle, whether to add wheels.
>
> Reconstructing Medieval Artillery
> http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/vemming/
> (Site Excerpt) Work has begun on a 22-ton fourteenth-century trebuchet at
> Warwick castle in southern England. The largest reconstructed trebuchet
ever
> attempted, it is the work of medieval weapons expert Peter Vemming of the
> Danish Medieval Centre. Once it is completed in late June, the siege
weapon
> will launch projectiles--sending them up to 300 meters--daily throughout
the
> summer.
>
> War Machines
> http://perso.wanadoo.fr/bbcp/english/engins/engins.html
> (Site Excerpt) There was a great quantity of machines of attack. Some were
> drove by counterweights like the assay balances, the mangonel. Others by
the
> tension of ropes, nerves, branches, springs of wood or steel, like the
> caables, maleveisines, pierrieres. Some others, by their own weight and
the
> impulse of arms, like the rams.
>
>
> Machines of Peace
>
> NYU: The Medieval Technology Pages
> http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/Refs.html
> A list of References
> SEE ALSO:
> Horizontal Loom
> http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/loom.html
> Tidal Mills
> http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/tidalmills.html
>
> Da Vinci Inventions
> http://www.lib.stevens-tech.edu/collections/davinci/inventions/index.html
> (Site Excerpt) Spring-Driven Car: It is doubtful that any such vehicle was
> ever constructed. Though springs had been known since ancient times, their
> use to supply power first appeared in clocks and watches made after
> Leonardo's time. He recognized their potential usefulness in such
> theoretical designs as this, and in a drawing for a flying machine in
which
> springs were intended to provide an aid to manpower.
>
> Epact: Scientific Instuments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe
> htttp://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/
> (Site Excerpt) This is one of the earliest surviving armillary spheres and
> the assigned date is consistent with its simple form. Only later do such
> instruments include more complicated motions and planets. Here there is
> simply the celestial sphere, incorporating the motion of the sun, and a
> central earth.
>
> Matteo Ricci:
> The Art of Printing
> http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/ric-prt.html
> (Site Excerpt) They have another odd method of reproducing reliefs which
> have been cut into marble or wood, An epitaph, for example, or a picture
set
> out in low relief on marble or on wood, is covered with a piece of moist
> paper which in turn is overlayed with several pieces of cloth. Then the
> entire surface is beaten with a small mallet until all the lineaments of
the
> relief are impressed upon the paper.
>
> The Origin of the Suction Pump
> http://www.gabarin.com/ayh/Notes/Notes%202.htm
> (Site Excerpt) The European piston pump that made its first appearance in
> the fifteenth-century in the writings of Taccola (c. 1450) and Martini (c.
> 1475) had a suction pipe incorporated into it[2]. Fig 2. shows an
> underdeveloped design with a crude construction.
>
> ORB: Science and Technology in the Middle Ages: A Preliminary Bibliography
> http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/culture/scitech/biblio.html
>
> Medieval and Renaissance Lathes
> http://www.his.com/%7Etom/sca/lathes.html
> (Site Excerpt) There are several reasons why this simple machine has been
in
> use for thousands of years. From a practical point of view, the lathe can
> easily produce truly round objects, invaluable in making wheels for carts
> and parts for mills and pumps. Turned spindles can also be easily
assembled
> into complex objects such as chairs, beds, tables, etc.
>
> The medieval machine. The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages
> http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1082182
> An ebook whose full text is available online for free. Adobe Acrobat
needed
> to view ebook.
>
> A Revolution in Timekeeping
> http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/revol.html
> (Site Excerpt) Then, in the first half of the 14th century, large
mechanical
> clocks began to appear in the towers of several large Italian cities. We
> have no evidence or record of the working models preceding these public
> clocks, which were weight-driven and regulated by a verge-and-foliot
> escapement.
>
> Medieval Technology Bibliography
> http://www.medievalwoodworking.com/technology.htm
>
> Industrial Developments in Medieval Dartford
> http://www.dartfordarchive.org.uk/medieval/industry.shtml
> (Site Excerpt) Of all the machines in use, the mill was the most
widespread.
> It turned wind or water power into cost-effective energy for grinding
flour,
> tanning leather, processing cloth and a variety of other tasks. The mills
> played an important economic role in medieval society. Although the
initial
> investment in mill machinery and plant was expensive, the long-term return
> in profits was excellent. It is not therefore surprising to find that
> important institutions such as the Church and the Knights Templars owned
> mills on the River Darent either in or close to the town. The River Darent
> provided a constant and reliable flow of water ideal for driving
rudimentary
> mill machinery.
>
> Engines of our Enginuity: The Medieval 20th Century
> http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1048.htm
> (Site Excerpt) Medieval machines keep popping up, all through the book.
> Bowser shows how to calibrate a medieval water clock. He calculates the
> performance of a flap valve pump -- the kind sailors began using to pump
> bilge water from sailing vessels just after Columbus.
>
> Statue of Jan van Eyck in front of reconstruction of medieval crane (Photo
> and Commentary)
> http://www.speechcode.com/show-public-photo-cover.php3?serialNumber=834
> (Site Excerpt) This crane was powered by men walking inside its two
wheels,
> hamster-fashion. You can see the bottom of one wheel here.
>
> Medieval Crane of Gdansk, Poland
> http://www.terryblackburn.us/Travel/Baltics/Poland/crane/
> (Site Excerpt) The human powered 'squirrel-cage' winch mechanism makes you
> tired just looking at it! Its distinctive silhouette is visible up and
down
> the waterfront. (NOTE: The photos present strangely, but you can click on
> them for enlargements)