Science & Technology in the Middle Ages

1. Science & Technology in the Middle Ages From about 100 BC to 500 AD the area that reached from England to the Middle East was completely under roman control. the Roman empire began to break during 400 AD. Peasants made up most of the population, but they also the least amount of power. New technology was making it easier and quicker to travel.

2. Farming • Peasants would plant a field one year and would leave it empty the next so the soil could gain the nutrients back that it needed. Eventually they started usually 3-Field Crop Rotations instead. One field would be something like wheat, the second planted in the spring w/vegetables possibly, and the third empty so that 2/3 was plants rather then 1/2. Heavy plows were used to dig deep into the soil before planting. Work horses were used to pull the heavy plow since they were faster then oxen, and a U-shaped collar made from leather was rested on there shoulders to hold it.

3. Making Cloth • Making cloth employed the second largest amount of people. The cloth textiles were needed for clothing and food wrapping. Most often wool or linen was used. In the late 1200 the spinning wheel, which was widely used in India, became well known in Europe, helping spinners work more quickly, but with thicker and rougher thread. Once thread was finished being spun, it would be placed in dye most from plants. The most common colors were yellow, blue, and red. Thread could also be woven. If woven it was done while standing until 1050, when they were made to sit horizontally on a table, then changing in the 1250's again having foot pedals.

4. Stone • The most important European structures, such as Cathedrals, Bridges, and Castles, were made from stone. The stone was retrieved by using chisels, saws, and levers. quicklime, sand, and water held the stones in place while building. There were often small windows because the large openings weakened the walls. This style is called Romanesque. Gothic Style is when there are lots of windows and slender pointy arches.

5. Metalworkers Also made tools, dishes, and machinery, out of lead, copper, tin, and silver, along with steel, iron, and gold. In the 1300's, water-powered bellows made a new invention, the blast furnace, possible.

6. Weapons Knights fought with long heavy swords, that needed to be held with both hands because of the weight. The also fought with bows and arrows when attack soldiers that were on horses from a distance away. In the 1200's warriors started to use gunpowder, and at first it went off unpredictably and injured soldiers. In the 1400's it was improved fighting with cannons and small guns, making castles no longer a safe place to hide.

7. Albertus Magnus and Roger BaconThe most important alchemists of the middle ages. • Alchemy-a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life. • Instead of relying on old books Magnus visited mines to observe the heating and cooling of metals. • Bacon did chemical experiments in his lab, writing down the details of what he was doing.