Our Technological Advances

Humanity has advanced from hunter-gatherers living in caves and using stone tools to farmers with livestock growing and raising their own food to thousands of curious tinkerers every generation mining ore and melting metal, experimenting with everything and discovering the laws of nature, the elements and the properties of everything.

Fire was harnessed by Humans before 2 Million BC

The Wheel was invented in Mesopotamia in 3500BC.

Gears were invented in China in 2700BC

Archimedes invented the Block and Tackle Pulley System and a Water Pump for irrigation around 250 BC.

Gunpowder was discovered by mixing saltpeter, pine resin and charcoal in 142AD in China.  Steel was discovered by melting together wrought iron with cast iron, gaining an ultimate product of a carbon-intermediate steel in 220AD in China.

The Hierapolis sawmill is believed to be a water-powered stone sawmill at Hierapolis, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Dating to the second half of the 3rd century, the saw-mill is considered the earliest known machine to combine a crank with a connecting rod.

Greek Fire was discovered by mixing petroleum, naphtha, burning pitch, sulphur, resin, quicklime and bitumen, along with some other "secret ingredient" and was used to defend Constantinople in 673AD.

Problem solvers and tinkerers from 3500BC on invented basic machines and chemical compounds. The process of invention through trial and error was well known, but when their knowledge was shared, the process of discovery expanded.

The devices, tools and appliances we have today resulted from this process of discovery and expanded dramatically in the 1800s.

The invention of the printing press in the 1400s heralded the end of illiteracy and advanced self-learning in the general population. Books became available as a commodity and inventors were able to read what other inventors had done.

The invention of the steam engine had the greatest effect on how things were made. The first factories used the steam engine to power production machines.

The first steam engine, invented by Thomas Savery in 1689, was a form of pump, used to remove water from mines. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen invented a steam-operated pump with pistons. From the 1760s, James Watt improved on Newcomen's ideas and produced more efficient steam engines.

Funding technological advances came from the inventors themselves and from wealthy patrons. Most rulers of countries funded military and infrastructure technology projects.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader