And we are still on that path...
It is not unusual that in the mornings my runs coincide with the start of classes at a school close to home, so I have to be more careful, traffic increases a lot, there are a lot of cars. It's amazing how we do so a lot of stuf. When did that start?
About 400 years ago empires were doing very well, the establishment of colonies promoted the development of new routes to trade new products. The development of more efficient agricultural systems caused these new products to increase greatly in volume. This caused great trade and an increase in population, with it the accumulation and concentration of wealth. Part of which was used for the development of science and, with it, technology.
As the population and wealth grew, it caused an increase in trade, that is, a virtuous circle.
Therefore, more goods had to be produced, products for trade. Energy for this production was a bottleneck, human or animal strength was no longer enough. Thus new forms of energy and machinery began to be used.
This occurred, to a greater or lesser degree, in all empires, but in England the necessary conditions were more adequately met. They first began with the development of mechanical looms and spinning machines, a little less than 300 years ago, beginning the mass production of textiles, thus beginning the Industrial Revolution. Whenever we think about this, the image of smoking factories comes to mind, but the beginning was hydraulic and wind energy, mills powered by water from rivers or the wind. It's a shame that when other, less fluctuating energy options appeared, we practically discarded them.
Another source of energy in England was mineral coal, but to use it it had to be extracted from the mines and in these they always had to be extracting water, it was a big problem. Somehow boilers began to be used, which heated water to produce steam, increasing the pressure by pressing a piston. The next thing was to throw cold water into the boiler, which condensed the water, decreased the pressure and the piston caused a vacuum, this was used to remove the water. This is how the first machines began to remove water from the mines.
This was modified, the expansion-compression cycle began to be done in a cylinder, which moved the piston, which moved pieces that removed the water. About 250 years ago, a guy came and placed the piston horizontally, put some valves on it to regulate the pressure, and instead of using cold water directly on the cylinder, he used a coil through which cold water circulated, making condensation more efficient. This guy's name was James Watt and that's why we say he invented the steam engine, when in reality what he did was improve it.
With this, not only did we have a way to extract fuel more efficiently, we also had a very efficient machine to power all the factories, now the smoking factories that we associate with the Industrial Revolution began.
But in England something else happened, steel had been known for many centuries before, but it was made by hand and in each place it was made differently. Steel is obtained by mixing coal with iron, so practically since the iron age began, steel began to be manufactured. But in England the industrial manufacture of steel began, the main change was the use of air injection to free impurities. With this, not only was more produced, it was also better steel with very homogeneous characteristics. With which the era of steel began, which we are still in, despite the fact that there are more and more substitutes, we continue to use it in almost any industry.
The next thing was to ride steam engines on platforms that moved steel wheels. In order for these wheels to move efficiently, fixed rails were developed on the ground, on which the wheels moved. Railways appeared, which to this day continue to be one of the most efficient means of transportation.
Obviously he continued to put steam engines on ships, which moved means of propulsion, first paddles, then propellers. For the first time it was possible to navigate independently of the wind.
With this, the capacity for the production of goods and their transportation increased, which allowed the virtuous cycle that I mentioned a while ago to be magnified, generating much, much wealth. The problem is that it has always been concentrated in a few hands.
And we are still on that path...
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