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We normally define our society as post-industrial or information or
global society, because those are things that characterise it, but
fishing is still a source of food, some people work in farming and in
industry...
There is a bit of all types of societies in the modern world.

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The information technology developments of the 20th century:
telephone, internet, television... are the base for mass media
communication.
People have information about what happens far from them,
because they watch the news, or communicate with other
individuals or read blogs.
The use of search engines on the Internet gives people easy
access to the information they want.

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The society of services (or “post-industrial society”)

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The society of services (or “post-industrial society”)

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As the assembly lines became more and more productive, because of
automation and many other advances, industry required less workers.
Now that society had enough food supply with few workers and industrial
production with few workers, more and more people started to dedicate to
services (shops, restaurants, banking, holidays ...)
We say a society is “post-industrial” when there are more people working
in services than in industry.

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The use of machines to mass produce standardised products in
factories substituted the work of the artisans. Industry boomed so
fast that many farmers also changed their jobs to work in the
factories.
In the industrial society most people work in factories. The job is
repetitive, especially in the assembly lines.
We say a society is “industrial” when there are more people
working in industry than in farming.

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Farmers and artisans sometimes could trade their products. At
the start it was the farmers and artisans who traded, but soon the
“trader” appeared as a specialised profession.
Traders did their job locally but also “long-distance”. The best
known trader society were The Phoenicians.

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Also thanks to agriculture not everybody had to work to obtain
food, some people specialised in doing other jobs: there were
people specialised in construction, other people specialised in
making clothes...

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Thanks to the invention of agriculture the density of population
grew very fast in the fertile valleys.
The population growth created the need to develop construction
techniques to make homes. People constructed villages in the
centre or near their fertile land.
The village was the centre of social live.

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From the start of mankind until the invention of agriculture,
people lived in small groups. They lived from hunting wild animals
and gathering wild plants (fruits, etc.), occasionally also from
fishing.
Some human groups had a territory, some were nomadic.

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Technology has transformed society through history, we can describe different types of society.

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Technologies that reduce the use of harmful chemicals

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Technologies that reduce the use of harmful chemicals

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Since the start of civilisation people have used harmful chemicals. This
problem increased significantly in the Industrial Revolution. Now we use
technologies that reduce the chemicals that can be dangerous to:
Our health. For example we have eliminated lead from gasoline and
paint. Also we have have eliminated mercury from thermometers.
The environment. For example we eliminated the CFC gases from
refrigerators (CFC’s harmed the ozone layer). Also we try to reduce
CO2 emissions that are causing global warming.

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Technologies that reduce waste and consumption of raw materials

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Technologies that reduce waste and consumption of raw materials

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Through better design, we can reduce the need for material and substitute
some non-sustainable materials for other more sustainable materials.
This reduces waste and the need to extract materials from nature.
Recycling technologies take the materials from waste and makes them
useful for new products.
The most successful recycling technologies recover metals, glass,
cardboard, wood...
This also reduces waste and the need to extract materials from nature.

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Technologies that reduce consumption of non-renewable energy

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Technologies that reduce consumption of non-renewable energy

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Technologies that improve efficiency: for example
more efficient engines, boilers, home insulation...
Technologies that use a more sustainable source of
energy: renewable energies such as the sun, the
wind, the water dams...
1.8.2 Technologies that reduce waste and consumption

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To make our way of life more sustainable we are
introducing technologies that reduce the consumption of
energy and raw materials, reduce waste and use less
harmful chemicals.

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The main inventions around the start of the 20th century fascinated people:
aeroplanes, automobiles, the radio...
The 20th century ended with spaceships, computers, internet, mobile phones...
Most of the inventions of 19th and 20th centuries are the result of work done by
many individuals, the history of which is the history of patents and lawsuits.
The telephone: in 1844 the idea of an electric voice-transmission
device is born, but it wasn’t until the end of the 19th century
that there were commercially successful telephones.
The radio: research on a
“wireless telegraph” was intense at the end of the 19th
century and in 1895 Guglielmo Marconi made the first
successful experiment. We normally consider the
radio a post-Industrial Revolution invention.

Aeroplane: in 1903 the Wright brothers make the first flight.
Aeroplanes use Newton’s third law, also called “law of action and
reaction”: “when we apply a force on a body, we suffer another
force of equal magnitude and opposite direction”. Engines push air
back, so they suffer a force forward. Wings push the air down, so
they suffer a force up.
The tail controls the direction of the aeroplane, it has a horizontal
stabiliser and a vertical stabiliser.

Plastics: during the first half of the 20th century there was scientific research about
polimers. In the 1960’s plastics became a common material.
The television: is a result of many different discoveries in physics during
the late 19th century and electronic advances during the early 20th century,
but it didn’t become popular until the second half of the 20th century.
The transistor: in 1947 the invention of the transistor transformed electronic circuits.
Transistors are much smaller, cheaper and robust than the vacuum tubes used
previously. Now it is also the base for all computer processors.
The radar was invented as a military tool during World War II. It has a radio emitter
and receiver, when emitted waves hit an object they bounce back and the receiver detects
them. The time between emission and reception tells us the distance to the object. The
power of the returning waves tells us the size of the object.
The microwave oven was invented accidentally observing how
radar antennas heated food that was in front of them.
The internet: in the 1950s research into
computer comunication started, in the 1990s
it became common in society.

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There was a series of inventions for
steam engines during the 17th and 18th
centuries, but it was in 1781 when
James Watt improved the design that
it transformed transport and industry
by powering machines in factories,
trains and ships.
In 1800 Alessandro Volta invented the Volt Pile (the battery).
He also discovered the first practical
method of generating electricity.
Constructed of alternating discs of zinc
and copper with cardboard soaked in
brine between the metals, the “Volt
Pile” produced electrical current.
Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile was the first "wet cell battery"
that produced a reliable and steady electrical current.

The electric motor: in 1821 Michael Faraday
invented the electric motor.
The internal combustion
engine: Étienne Lenoir built
the first petrol engine and
after a series of
improvements in 1885 Karl
Benz built the first car with a
petrol engine.
In 1858, Hamilton Smith
patented the washing
machine with a rotary drum.
It was hand powered.
The light bulb: in 1879
Thomas Edison invented the
incandescent light bulb.

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The Middle Ages had been a time of fast technological
development in Europe. At the start of the 16th century
Europeans were capable of sailing across oceans.
During the modern age, scientific research helped in the
technological race.
Now Europeans start to trade worldwide and conquer land in
other continents. It is the start of colonialism. Europe imports raw
materials and exports manufactured goods.
The later Industrial Revolution in England will increase this
situation.

In 1590 Dutchman Zacharias Janssen invents the
compound microscope (a microscope with more than
one lense).
In 1593 Galileo Galilei invents the thermometer. It was
a glass bulb with water inside, the water moved
up and down as the temperature changed.
In 1636 W. Gascoigne invents the micrometer.
In 1642 Frenchmen Blaise Pascal invents an
adding machine.
In 1643 Evangelista Torricelli invents the barometer.
In 1650 Otto von Guericke invents the air pump.
In 1709 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the alcohol
thermometer.
In 1712 Thomas Newcomen builds a steam pump to
pump water out of mines, it is a step in a series of
inventions that will later lead to the invention of the
steam engine.
In 1733 Stephen Hales takes measurements of blood
pressure.

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Steel metallurgy: there was a series of
inventions during the Middle Ages in Europe
that improved the quality of steel and
reduced its cost.
Steel tools became common in agriculture,
crafts, warfare, transport, etc.

The plough. A series of inventions progressively evolved
the plough and resulted in different ploughs for different
purposes. The increase in productivity resulted in an
increase of the population and an increase in the
proportion of people dedicated to other activities.
Based on existing
screw presses Johannes Gutenberg
invented the printing press around 1439.
The printing press incorporated
“movable characters” to the press,
making it easy to mass print books.
Knowledge spread much more easily
than before.

The Kill + the “latin
sail”: allowed ships to use wind from any direction to
move in the desired direction.
The compass: invented in China in
ancient history, it became an
important invention when
European navigators started to
use it at the end of the Middle
Ages.
The marine astrolabe, invented around 1480, was a
graduated circle to measure vertical angles.
By measuring the sun's midday angle to the horizon (Meridian
Altitude) or the Meridian Altitude of a known star, navigators
could determine the latitude of a ship at sea.

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History starts when there are written records.
The date history starts varies enormously from region to region. For
example, in Egypt history started around 3200 BC, but in New Guinea
history started in the 16th century AD. In the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean (where history started) this is the period of the first civilizations, the “Ancient Empires” (Asirians, Egyptians, Persians, Greek and Romans). Navigation: we don’t know when we started to sail, maybe it happened in India. We know that during the ancient empires there were rowing boats with a sail that was good when the wind was in the same direction as the desired route Bronze: it was an alloy of copper and lead, it was harder and more resilient than copper. It was a good enough material to make swords so the societies that had the knowledge of its metallurgy became more powerful than their rivals. “Iron”: it was steel! (iron with 2% carbon), its metallurgy required higher
temperatures, but the resulting metal was better than bronze for swords and lance heads.  The wheel: People think of the wheel as primitive technology, but it is so ingenious that it wasn`t invented until 3500 B.C. The difficulty in making a wheel is how to connect a stationary platform to the rotating cylinder. The wheel was possible thanks to the “wheel-and-axle concept". People probably used tree trunks before the wheel, but it is easier to change direction with a wheel than with a tree trunk. The first wheels were disks of tree trunks, later came the wheels with spokes. The tyres add suspension and a better grip to the road. Architecture: it was the Romans that mastered construction techniques: the ceramic brick, mortar, the Roman arch, the paved road... Paper: invented in China in the 2nd Century BC, it was better than previously used papyrus because it is made of processed cellulose, while papyrus was simply the
dried paste of the milled papyrus, a plant rich in cellulose. It wasn’t known in Europe until the Middle Ages.

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Copper was the first metal to be used. At the beginning it was a material to
make little ornaments, so it wasn’t really a technological tool, but its
metallurgy was a technological process.

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There are ceramic figures from 24,000 BC. But it wasn’t until 10,000 BC that
functional ceramics were made: bricks, tiles and pottery (in Mesopotamia and
India).

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The first cities were the Sumerian cities, about 5,500 years ago, in northern
Mesopotamia. There were several building techniques using mud, wood,
stone, thatch or a combination of these materials.

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Dogs were domesticated at least 12,000 years ago.
Sheep and goats: 9000 BC were the first animals domesticated as a source of
food, this happened in Northern Iraq. Cattle and pigs were domesticated
around 7000 BC.

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Agriclture: Archaeological data indicates that the start of agriculture happened inseparate locations worldwide.The first seeds used were wild seeds gathered from nature, then, harvest afterharvest, farmers selected the plants with the best crops.

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Agriclture: Archaeological data indicates that the start of agriculture happened inseparate locations worldwide.The first seeds used were wild seeds gathered from nature, then, harvest afterharvest, farmers selected the plants with the best crops.

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The Neolithic Revolution was an Agricultural Revolution.Thanks to agriculture the population settled and increasedsignificantly, which generated huge cultural changes.Irrigation and food storage technologies developed.Cities appeared and labour diversified and specialised.

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The Paleolitic: Homo habilis (approximately 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago) learnt how to make stonetools.Homo erectus used and made fire at least 400,000 years ago. Proof of earlier use of fireis inconclusive, early humans probably first learnt how to maintain natural fires andlater learnt to make fire, but it is difficult for archeologists to distinguish between theremains from the two different types of fire.People continued to live in “hunter – gatherer” small groups.We often call this period the “Stone Age” because their stone tools are the mostcommon remains, but other technologies also evolved slowly: Working the animal skin to serve as vest.         Tools of wood, bone and horn. The bow and arrow (evolved at the end of this period). The use of pigments for paintings and body decoration.

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The Paleolitic: Homo habilis (approximately 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago) learnt how to make stonetools.Homo erectus used and made fire at least 400,000 years ago. Proof of earlier use of fireis inconclusive, early humans probably first learnt how to maintain natural fires andlater learnt to make fire, but it is difficult for archeologists to distinguish between theremains from the two different types of fire.People continued to live in “hunter – gatherer” small groups.We often call this period the “Stone Age” because their stone tools are the mostcommon remains, but other technologies also evolved slowly: Working the animal skin to serve as vest.         Tools of wood, bone and horn. The bow and arrow (evolved at the end of this period). The use of pigments for paintings and body decoration.

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The history of technology is the history ofthe invention of tools and techniques. It ispart of the history of humanity.Archaeologists and historians often defineperiods of history by the technology that asociety developed.Technological developments transformedsocieties, developed science, changedgeopolitical relations ...The economic growth and the rise in powerof societies often happened thanks totechnological developments or improvements.

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The history of technology is the history ofthe invention of tools and techniques. It ispart of the history of humanity.Archaeologists and historians often defineperiods of history by the technology that asociety developed.Technological developments transformedsocieties, developed science, changedgeopolitical relations ...The economic growth and the rise in powerof societies often happened thanks totechnological developments or improvements.