Basic HTML Version
40
SECTION 1
CLIL Expansion
The Industrial Revolution and mechanical engineering
T
he forebears of today’s engineers, the practical artists, artisans,
builders, who first devised pulleys, levers, and wheels, proceeded
mainly by trial and error rather than “science” to develop increasingly
sophisticated tools, machines and complex techniques of construction,
hydraulics and metallurgy over millennia. These early “artisans”
produced many ingenious, (i.e. clever or inventive), devices or
machines, indeed the word “engine” began to be used around 1250
AD to describe military equipment which was considered “ingenious
machines”, engines. The term comes from a Latin root,
ingenium
(c.
1250), which means: (
of a person
)
clever
,
original
, and
inventive
; (
of
a machine or idea
)
cleverly and originally devised and well suited to
its purpose
1
. And by 1325, the term “engine’er” (ingenious person)
was being used to refer to people who operated “military engines” or
constructed or who built fortifications, or other complex structures.
Although the concept of engineering has existed since ancient times,
modern engineering really only emerged as the discipline(s) we know
today during the Scientific Revolution (mid-17
th
to late 18
th
C in the UK)
2
. This “revolution” was one of ideas, and consisted
of a radical change in experimental/investigative methods in science, which also changed the way people reasoned.
A century and a half later, around 1770, another revolution started in Britain: an
Industrial Revolution
, a rapid acceleration of
changes both in the way industrial goods were produced and in productivity. This acceleration was both cause and effect of a
speed up in the rate of innovations in one or more industrial sectors. These innovations were often the result of other changes
and innovations arising from new discoveries, advances in technology, improved machines, materials and methods.
The First Industrial Revolution took off
3
in
Britain
because of the unique combination of pre-conditions
4
, i.e. of social,
political, economic, religious and philosophical values, there at the time which had created a society where some change
was accepted and a positive value for many, and inventors and innovators admired.
1
from Wikipedia dictionary
2
In the UK, each country, even each area, has its own dates – it is often a question of
interpretation of available data and personal/research focus. Also a revolution is a process,
not a single event, so it’s hard enough anyway to give a date! However, the early 17th
century (+/- 50 years) is generally accepted as being more or less when this specific
process of change in methodology emerged in many European States
3
take off
: a term used to denote sudden fast surge in development or change, like when
a plane takes off, i.e., leaves the ground for the air. Revolutions take off, so do fashions,
ideas, projects
4
preconditions (main)
: adequate general literacy/education; an entrepreneurial
class that can acquire social acceptance (status) through money acquired from trade
and commerce – inherited wealth will also be invested in commerce, sufficient
capital available for investment; adequate financial and banking services; an available
(mobile) labour force, liberal/political policies, sufficient food available to support an urban
population, access to markets (to buy inputs and sell products), enough potential consumers
of the product etc., are considered to be among the main preconditions to industrial take-off
The Industrial Revolution
Self-acting mule.
Spinning Jenny.
TASK 1
Find out when the Scientific Revolution and the First
Industrial Revolution are considered to have taken
place in your country.
Steam engine.
Progetto FOR MECHANICALS_unit_1.indd 40
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