British achievements in science and technology

     In 1662 Boyle publishes his famous Boyle’s law. It described the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system. The law itself can be described as follows: For a fixed amount of an ideal gas kept at a fixed temperature, P and V are inversely proportional.

     Typically, Robert Boyle is remembered solely for Boyle's Law. It is clear that he contributed much more to the development of modern chemical thought. Robert Boyle has been deservedly called "a Mighty Chemist". 
 

     1.5 William Harvey 
 

     How blood circulates is a mystery that was solved by an English physician William Harvey, in the seventeenth century. He began investigating his theory that blood circulated throughout the body in 1615. He knew that veins had valves that permitted blood to travel in only one direction. The question that plagued him was, what was the exact role of veins in the human body?

     Harvey decided to study the flow of blood by operating on live animals. For twelve years, he conducted his experiments before members of the Royal College of Physicians in London, England. The members however, continued their support to Galen’s theory and questioned Harvey’s ideas. Finally, in a series of brilliant experiments on animals and humans, Harvey demonstrated how blood circulates in the body. He proved that when an artery was blocked, the veins draining this artery collapsed. When a vein was blocked, it swelled below the blockage and collapsed above it, but the swelling disappeared when the blockage was removed. He also showed that the valves in the veins allowed blood to flow only in the direction of the heart. Together, these discoveries proved Harvey’s claim that blood moves in a circle in the body right [18, p. 47].

     Finally, in a series of brilliant experiments on animals and humans, Harvey demonstrated how blood circulates in the body. He proved that when an artery was blocked, the veins draining this artery collapsed. When a vein was blocked, it swelled below the blockage and collapsed above it, but the swelling disappeared when the blockage was removed. He also showed that the valves in the veins allowed blood to flow only in the direction of the heart. Together, these discoveries proved Harvey’s claim that blood moves in a circle in the body right. 

     This discovery is regarded as the single greatest achievement of all times. It also established the principle of doing experiments in medicine to learn how the body’s organs and tissues function.    
 

     1.6 Henry Cavendish, William Gilbert and Joseph Priestley  
 

     If the 17^th century gave Britain only one experimental scientist (Robert Hooke), 18^th century gave Britain at least three of them: Henry Cavendish, William Gilbert  and Joseph Priestley. All of them approached most of their investigations through quantitative measurements.

     Cavendish made notable discoveries in chemistry, mainly between 1766 and 1788, and in electricity, between 1771 and 1788. In 1798 he published a single notable paper on the density of the earth. At the time Cavendish began his chemical work, chemists were just beginning to recognize that the "airs" that were evolved in many chemical reactions were clear parts and not just modifications of ordinary air. Cavendish reported his own work in "Three Papers Containing Experiments on Factitious Air" in 1766. These papers added greatly to knowledge of the formation of "inflammable air" (hydrogen) by the action of dilute acids (acids that have been weakened) on metals [22, p. 560].

     Another example of Cavendish's ability was "Experiments on Rathbone-Place Water", in which he set the highest possible standard of accuracy. "Experiments" is regarded as a classic of analytical chemistry (the branch of chemistry that deals with separating substances into the different chemicals they are made from). In it Cavendish also examined the phenomenon (a fact that can be observed) of the retention of "calcareous earth" (chalk, calcium carbonate) in solution (a mixture dissolved in water). In doing so, he discovered the reversible reaction between calcium carbonate and carbon dioxide to form calcium bicarbonate, the cause of temporary hardness of water. He also found out how to soften such water by adding lime (calcium hydroxide).

     William Gilbert’s researches were concerned with electrical and magnetic physics. 'De Magnete' published by Gilbert was quickly accepted as the standard work on electrical and magnetic phenomena throughout Europe. In it, Gilbert distinguished between magnetism and static (known as the amber effect). He also compared the magnet's polarity to the polarity of the Earth, and developed an entire magnetic philosophy on this analogy. Gilbert was the first man to research the properties of the lodestone (magnetic iron ore), publishing his findings in the influential 'De Magnete' ('The Magnet'). He also invented the term 'electricity'.

     Gilbert's findings suggested that magnetism was the soul of the Earth, and that a perfectly spherical lodestone, when aligned with the Earth's poles, would spin on its axis, just as the Earth spins on its axis over a period of 24 hours. Gilbert was in fact debunking the traditional cosmologists' belief that the Earth was fixed at the centre of the universe, and he provided food for thought for Galileo, who eventually came up with the proposition that the Earth revolves around the Sun [16, p. 179].

     Joseph Priestley is best known as the discoverer of oxygen. Perhaps a more appropriate description of this accomplishment would be to credit Priestley with the isolation of dephlogisticated air. Our thorough understanding today of the chemical reactivity of oxygen comes from Priestley’s systematic theory of combustion. Priestley was an industrious and clever investigator, not a sweeping theoretician with a guiding program of research. In the realm of experiments, Priestley's expertise lay in his physical and chemical prowess. His adherence to the science was persistent.

     Priestley's work on electricity is eclipsed by his memorable experiments on air and oxygen. The proximity of his house to a public brewery set the stage for many experiments on fixed air (carbon dioxide). Access to an abundant source of fixed air eventually led to an understanding of the nature of the effervescence found in mineral waters such as those of Spa, a resort in Belgium. Restorative sparkling beverages and baths were simply water containing fixed air [8, p. 488]. His first scientific publication was on the impregnation of water with fixed air. This achievement won for him the prestigious Copley Medal of the Royal sociecty. The carbonated beverages of today trace their origin to Priestley's initial experiments.

     Today Priestley as well as Cavendish and Gilbert are regarded as great experiment scientists of their time and their works in the field of experimentation as great field for scientists of the Industrial Revolution. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     2 SCIENCE DURING THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 
 

     The Industrial Revolution is usually remembered for its machines, in cathedral-sized brick-built factories filled with crowds of labourers. This is not a false picture, but almost all the advances at this time were physical machines or industrial processes.

     Britain had achieved huge number of discoveries connected with physics and industrial processes: steam engine, electric motor, power generator, locomotive and railway. These and other inventions were made in Britain during the revolution and has made Britain leading industrial country once for all.

     Among all industrial innovations and discoveries one figure stands far apart, Charles Darwin. He and his natural selection theory divided modern science into three distinct spheres: exact science, natural science and humanities. Before Darwin science was considered as one discipline with many subjects. But Darwin, making out his theory applied for arguments from different subjects which in his descriptions seemed to be very common in some ways. This unity of different disciplines has made such division, which was very important for science in general.

     In this period Britain still felt lack of astronomers and mathematicians. In 1814-1829 McGee discovered the “Kirkwood gaps” in the orbits of the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter and in 1861 John Swan  discovered the first spectroscopic binary star Mizar and in 1873 John Couch Adams predicted the existence of the planet Neptune. One important innovation was made in mathematics by Charles Babbage and his computer. His computing engine was able to solve different mathematical tasks and simplify future research.

     But in spite of all other achievements in astronomy, medicine, biology and math, all pre-modern period of British science was under the sign of Industrial Revolution and its effects. 
 

     2.1 Inventions and inventors that made revolution closer 
 

     Industrial Revolution, the change from the use of hand methods of manufacturing to machine methods. This change, which began in Britain about 1750 and later spread to other countries, is called a “revolution” because it brought vast changes in the way people work and live. It created an industrialized society - one in which large - scale mechanized manufacturing replaced farming as the main source of jobs. Instead of growing their own food and making at home the products they use, a great many persons in an industrialized society work for wages and buy their food and other necessities. They live in towns and cities rather than in the country.

     Progress in technology and in industrial development has been almost continuous since the Industrial Revolution began. Since 1900, and particularly since World War II, industry and technology have advanced at an ever-increasing rate. In a sense, the revolution that began around 1750 has never ended.

     Manufacture work was significant sphere during the history. The first attempt to simplify manufacture work was made by William Lee in 1589. Ht tried to make work go faster by inventing the first practical knitting machine. His original needles were thick, and useful only for rough garments, but Lee continues to experiment until he has a knitting machine with 20 needles to the inch. The design of his hooked needle remains a key component in knitting machines today.

     Two hundred years after (1764) James Hargreaves builds a machine that uses eight spindles. By turning a single wheel, he can now spin eight threads at once. Later he builds a small spinning-mill. Soon the number of threads being spun increase from eight to eighty and thousands of spinning machines are running, and it helps to make cloth producing more cheaper and widespread. Spinning machines were the first reason of making huge manufacture factories allover the world [7, p. 99].

     In 1785 Edmund Cartwright invents the power loom. It was another step for making clothing more affordable for everyone. The power loom was a steam-powered, mechanically operated version of a regular loom, an invention that combined threads to make cloth. He patented the first power loom in 1786 and set up a factory in Doncaster, England to manufacture cloth. Cartwright also invented a wool-combing machine in 1789, continued to improve his power loom, invented a steam engine that used alcohol and a machine for making rope in 1797, and aided Robert Fulton.

     If we speak about British agricultural innovations during the Industrial Revolution, mechanized seed drill and crop rotation system should be mentioned.

     A crop rotation system was developed in 1700s. An unknown worker notices that repeatedly planting the same crop in the same piece of ground creates problems. To address the disease and poor nutrition that result, he or she develops the four-course crop rotation system. Each area of land is split into four sections. In the first year turnips or another root crop are grown; in the second year, barley; in the third year, clover or a grass crop; and in the fourth year, wheat.

     A year after Jethro Tull invents the mechanized seed drill, which radically changes the 3,000 year-old system of planting seed by hand. He constructs a rotary mechanism that sprays out seed evenly, and a drill that plants seeds at optimum depths in uniform rows and covers them with earth.

     In 1703 Abraham Darby finally launches industrial revolution. Darby tackles the problem of dwindling supplies of charcoal by substituting coke (baked coal) to smelt iron in a coke-consuming blast furnace that he designs. This allows him to smelt greater quantities of iron, which will be critical to producing steel and to the construction of railroad bridges, buildings, and machines [7, p. 271]. With the help of fellow members of the Society of Friends who invest in his business, he makes technological and productivity breakthroughs crucial to the development of machine parts - and the machines on which we depend.

     Later, at the very middle of the Industrial Revolution Philip Vaughan invents one of the modern world’s most essential components - the ball bearing. His invention reduces the friction between moving parts, and helps to supports loads smoothly. Ball bearings are essential to a car’s transmission and its wheels, to earthquake architecture, and to computer drivers, among many other uses [3, p. 370]. Thanks to Vaughan since that time our industrial world runs because of this small, breathtakingly simple and elegant invention.

     And final important invention that was made for the sake of the Industrial Revolution was building cement. In 1826 Jospeh Aspdin develops and patents a process for grinding and burning clay and limestone to create a material that hardens when mixed with water. He names it Portland cement because it resembles a stone quarried in Portland, Dorset. A crucial part of concrete, Portland cement is indispensable to modern construction. It is part of the foundation of every house and building, road, and bridge built with concrete. 
 

     2.2 The history of the steam engine 
 

     One of the most significant industrial challenges of the 1700's was the removal of water from mines. Steam was used to pump the water from the mines. Now, this might seem to have very little to do with modern steam-powered electrical power plants. However, one of the fundamental principles used in the development of steam-based power is the principle that condensation of water vapor can create a vacuum [4, p. 78].

     Invention of the steam engine was made by 3 men at once: Thomas Savery, Thomas Newcomen and James Watt. Without one of them invention of the steam engine couldn’t be possible.

     Thomas Savery was an English military engineer and inventor who in 1698, patented the first crude steam engine, based on Denis Papin's Digester or pressure cooker of 1679. Thomas Savery had been working on solving the problem of pumping water out of coal mines, his machine consisted of a closed vessel filled with water into which steam under pressure was introduced. This forced the water upwards and out of the mine shaft. Then a cold water sprinkler was used to condense the steam. This created a vacuum which sucked more water out of the mine shaft through a bottom valve [10, p. 502].

     Thomas Savery later worked with Thomas Newcomen on the atmospheric steam engine. Among Savery's other inventions was an odometer for ships, a device that measured distance traveled.

     Thomas Newcomen was an English blacksmith, who invented the atmospheric steam engine, an improvement over Thomas Slavery's previous design.

     The Newcomen steam engine used the force of atmospheric pressure to do the work. Thomas Newcomen's engine pumped steam into a cylinder. The steam was then condensed by cold water which created a vacuum on the inside of the cylinder. The resulting atmospheric pressure operated a piston, creating downward strokes. In Newcomen's engine the intensity of pressure was not limited by the pressure of the steam, unlike what Thomas Savery had patented in 1698.

     In 1712, Thomas Newcomen together with John Calley built their first engine on top of a water filled mine shaft and used it to pump water out of the mine. The Newcomen engine was the predecessor to the Watt engine and it was one of the most interesting pieces of technology developed during the 1700's.

     James Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, born in Greenock, who was renowned for his improvements of the steam engine. In 1765, James Watt while working for the University of Glasgow was assigned the task of repairing a Newcomen engine, which was deemed inefficient but the best steam engine of its time [4, p. 89]. That started the inventor to work on several improvements to Newcomen's design.

     Most notable was Watt's 1769 patent for a separate condenser connected to a cylinder by a valve. Unlike Newcomen's engine, Watt's design had a condenser that could be cool while the cylinder was hot. Watt's engine soon became the dominant design for all modern steam engines and helped bring about the Industrial Revolution.

     A unit of power called the Watt was named after James Watt. The Watt symbol is W, and it is equal to 1/746 of a horsepower, or one Volt times one Amp. 
 

     2.3 Invention of locomotive and railway 
 

     The best use for steam engine throughout the history were trains and railroads. In the mid-17th century, the only highways in England were those built by the Romans 14 centuries before. In 1663 Parliament passed the first of a series of turnpike laws. They provided for the development of tollways by local authorities and private companies, who would then build and improve roads financed by the tolls. The growth of good roads, however, lagged behind the growth in industry until George Stephenson and his sons invent railroads.

     George Stephenson has no formal schooling when he went to work in a coal mine. When his wife had died, he sent his son Robert to school to study mathematics, and every night when his son comes home from school, they study together. With a mechanical gift that verges on genius, Stephenson won the post of chief mechanic for steam engines at his coal mine. Every Saturday he forced himself to dismantle and rebuild a colliery engine so he knew how they work [8, p. 330]. They were not working all that well.

     He took the best of previous steam engines and built an improved locomotive - a steam engine that pulls loads - in 1813. He achieved this by the 'simple' expedient of increasing the diameter of the boiler flue and applying the power directly to the wheels by connecting rods, thus reducing the need for crudely manufactured gearing [4, p. 148]. Further developments were directed towards increasing the longevity of the track.

     At first his locomotive was used in coal mines. In 1825 his locomotive pulled the first passengers - 450 of them - from Darlington to Stockton and into history. This is the beginning of travel by train. George Stephenson became a consultant to railroad projects in Britain, Europe, and North America.

     His son Robert became an outstanding civil engineer and the builder of long-span railroad bridges. His nephew George Stephenson, a “master of marvels,” an “artist” and engineer of the railroad, constructed soaring viaducts to span valleys and cuts tunnels of “unexampled magnitude.” Entrepreneurs sent trains and passengers across Britain. 
 

     2.4 Michael Faraday  
 

     Faraday was an experimental genius of the Industrial Revolution. His works in the field of electromagnetic laws has turned scientific world on its head and his electric motor very soon replaced steam engine. But it took him some time to break free and do the research he used to do.

     The son of a blacksmith, Michael Faraday was apprenticed to a bookbinder in London where he read every scientific book he could get his hands on, and conducted experiments. He joined a Philosophical Society, meeting every week to hear lectures on scientific topics and discuss scientific ideas [7, p. 459].

     When he was twenty-one, he heard scientist Humphrey Davy speak. Faraday persuaded Davy to employ him. He served as Davy's Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution and for two years as Davy's assistant and valet.

     Finally, on 3-4 September 1821, Faraday proved that "a vertically mounted wire carrying an electric current would rotate continuously round a magnet protruding from a bowl of mercury. This phenomenon, which Faraday called electromagnetic rotation, showed that it was possible to produce continuous motion from the interaction of electricity and magnetism".

     Michael Faraday built two devices to produce what he called electromagnetic rotation: that is a continuous circular motion from the circular magnetic force around a wire. Ten years later, in 1831, he began his great series of experiments in which he discovered electromagnetic induction. These experiments form the basis of modern electromagnetic technology [9, p. 63].