The Ancient EngineersSouvenir Press, 1970 - 408 páginas From the dawn of history to the rise of the scientific method in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, invention and technology advanced with painful slowness. The reason was not that men were stupid during those thousands of years—it was the fact that most people were simply too busy trying to keep alive. The imagination and daring that leisure and security could divert to other ends were limited to a tiny group. It is about these brave men—whose genius enabled the Egyptians to build their pyramids, the Phoenicians to cross stormy seas, the Romans to erect magnificent public buildings—that this carefully researched and fascinatingly written account of the advance of early technology has been written. Mr. de Camp describes the methods used by early irrigators, architects, and military engineers to build and maintain structures to serve their rulers' wants. He tells, for example, how the Pharaohs erected obelisks and pyramids, how Nebuchadnezzar fortified Babylon, how Dionysios' ordnance department invented the catapult, how the Chinese built the Great Wall, and how the Romans fashioned their roads, baths, sewers, and aqueducts. He recounts many intriguing anecdotes: an Assyrian king putting up no-parking signs in Nineveh; Plato inventing a water clock with an alarm to signal the start of his classes; Heron of Alexandria designing a coin-operated holy-water fountain; a Chinese emperor composing a poem to be inscribed on a clock invented by one of his civil servants. The Ancient Engineerswill delight students of technology and invention for its accurate portrayal of the foundations of modern engineering as well as lovers of history for its penetrating look at the material background of civilization and its unusual explanations of the world's social evolution. |
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Página 173
... brick , baked brick , and mortar . The wood and mud brick have disappeared , as is natural in a country with wet winters . For stone , the Romans first made use of tufa , a soft tan or brown volcanic rock . Then they began to use the ...
... brick , baked brick , and mortar . The wood and mud brick have disappeared , as is natural in a country with wet winters . For stone , the Romans first made use of tufa , a soft tan or brown volcanic rock . Then they began to use the ...
Página 174
... brick , and concrete to work with , they doggedly tried out almost every possible combination of these materials ... brick - first of mud brick , later of baked brick . But then came the discovery of concrete . At first concrete was used ...
... brick , and concrete to work with , they doggedly tried out almost every possible combination of these materials ... brick - first of mud brick , later of baked brick . But then came the discovery of concrete . At first concrete was used ...
Página 175
... brick , with their apices inward and their bases exposed to view . These wedges were so closely packed that , to the eye of the beholder , the wall appeared to be of solid brick . Opus incertum acquired a new meaning , namely : a wall ...
... brick , with their apices inward and their bases exposed to view . These wedges were so closely packed that , to the eye of the beholder , the wall appeared to be of solid brick . Opus incertum acquired a new meaning , namely : a wall ...
Contenido
Three The Mesopotamian Engineers | 53 |
Four The Greek Engineers | 86 |
Five The Hellenistic Engineers | 114 |
Derechos de autor | |
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Términos y frases comunes
Agrippa Alexandria ancient aqueducts Arabic arch Archimedes architect Aristotle armor army Assyrian Athens Babylon became began brick bridge bronze builders building built Byzantine called canal castle catapult centuries China Chinese civilization classical columns conquered Demetrios dome early Egypt Egyptian emperor Empire engineering Europe feet fire Frontinus galleys gear Greek Hadrian harbor Hellenistic Hence Herodotos Heron Heron of Alexandria High Middle Ages horse houses Imhotep India invention iron irrigation kings Ktesibios Lake land later Leonardo machine mechanical medieval Mediterranean Mesopotamia Mesopotamian Middle Ages miles mill modern Mongols mounted Muslim oars palaces Persian Philon Philon of Byzantium Phoenicians piers pipes Polybios probably Ptolemaios pyramid river roads Roman Rome roof rowers sail Sennacherib shaft ships side siege statue stone structure temple took tower Trajan treadwheel tunnel turned vault vessel Vitruvius wall water clock water wheel wind wooden