Technology Collection (page 45)

Roman soldiers using a war engine firing multiple arrows, 1605. Reconstruction from Poliorceticon sive de Machinis Tormentis Telis by Justus Lipsius. (Antwerp, 1605)

Roman soldiers operating a catapult, c1750. Artist: William Henry Toms
Roman soldiers operating a catapult, c1750. A Roman siege engine used for hurling missiles, such as stones at bottom left, at the enemy

Sugar factory and plantation in the West Indies, 1686. Artist: Allain Manesson Mallet
Sugar factory and plantation in the West Indies, 1686. Cane is crushed in a horse or mule-powered mill with vertical rollers (centre left)

The Peace Illuminations - The Horse Guards, Whitehall Front, London, 1856. Gas light illuminations on Horse Guards, Whitehall, London, to mark the end of the Crimean War

Bank of furnaces, Lymington Iron Works, Tyneside, England, 1835. By this time the Nielsen hot blast process, invented in 1824, was in general use

Cotton manufacture: mule spinning, c1830. A self-acting mule of the type devised by Richard Roberts in 1825. Roberts spinning mule produced better yarn than any other machine

Isaac Newtons reflecting telescope, 1668. Artist: Isaac Newton
Isaac Newtons reflecting telescope, 1668. Isaac Newton (1642-1727), English scientist and mathematician built the first ever reflecting telescope in 1668

St Louis, Union gunboat, American Civil War, 1861-1865. The earliest ironclad gunboat designed by American engineer James B Eads (1820-1887) to be employed by the Union side

Attacking walls with battering rams, c1800. The one mounted on chains could be given more impetus than one carried on mens shoulders

Siege warfare, c1800. The normal method of applying a petard (explosive device) to the gate of a fortress. The fuse has just been lit

Various forms of siege equipment, including battering rams, 1547. From Architectur...Mathematischen...Kunst by Gaultherius Rivius, 1547

Roman siege warfare, 1605. Defenders attempting to disable battering rams. On the right, attackers are handling a ram under a protective cat. From Poliorceticon by Justus Lipsius (Antwerp, 1605)

Wheeled siege towers and bridges, 13th century (18th century). Siege equipment of the type used by Frederick II of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor, for his successful siege of Jerusalem (1229)

Julius Caesars siege of Marseilles, 49 BC (18th century). Reconstruction showing the musculus or covered way to protect engineers approaching the walls of the besieged city

English troops attacking a French town, Hundred Years War, 1337-1453 (c1830). The English besiegers are armed with early cannon and both longbows and crossbows

Spinning cotton with self-acting mules of the type devised by Richard Roberts in 1825 (c1835). These could be powered by water wheel or steam engine

The submarine Nautilus, 1901. Artist: Poyet
The submarine Nautilus, 1901. The Nautilus designed by Robert Fulton (1765-1815), American inventor and engineer. The submarine is shown 1) submerged and 2) travelling on the surface

Forging a magnet, 1600. The piece of metal on the anvil is aligned north/south. From De Magnete by William Gilbert. (London, 1600)

Papyrus reed (Cyperus papyrus), 1823. The stem of the reed was used by the Ancient Egyptians to make a form of paper. It was also used to produce fibre for sails, mats and cloth

A diver searching a wreck in La Havre harbour, France, 1892. Artist: Henri Meyer
A diver searching a wreck in La Havre harbour, France, 1892. A print from a supplement to the Le Petit Journal, 13th February 1892

Boats on the Nile, c1838-1839. Artist: David Roberts
Boats on the Nile, c1838-1839. In the foreground water is being raised by means of a shaduf. Watercolour by the Scottish artist David Roberts (1796-1864)

Female typist, 1893

Refracting telescope without a tube, designed by Christiaan Huyghens c1650 (1724). From an edition of Huyghens Opera Varia, 1724

Hubble Space Telescope above the Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was put into orbit from the Space Shuttle Discovery, mission STS-31, on 24 April 1990

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), Scottish-born American inventor. Bell, who patented the telephone in 1876, as a young man

Puddling furnace and mechanical hammer, Krupps Works, Essen, Germany, 19th century. Pig iron is being puddled to remove carbon and oxygen, after which the ball of hot metal (bloom) was then hammered

Potters workshop, c1860. A woman turns the wheel while a girl baller supplies the potter with lumps of clay of the correct weight for the next vessel to be thrown

Throwing an earthenware vessel, c1860. A belt-driven wheel of the type used at the Wedgwood and Copeland factories. The speed of the wheel is regulated by the boy raising or lowering a belt

Interior of a Printing Works and Plan of a Press, 1751-1777. A print from the Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers by Diderot & d Alembert, 1751-1777

Interior of a Printing Works, wetting room, 1751-1777. A print from the Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers by Diderot & d Alembert, 1751-1777

Interior of a Printing Works, type setting, 1751-1777. Artist: Denis Diderot
Interior of a Printing Works, type setting, 1751-1777. A print from the Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers by Diderot & d Alembert, 1751-1777

Hydraulic machine IV, 1678. Artist: Athanasius Kircher
Hydraulic machine IV, 1678. A plate from Mundus Subterraneus, Amsterdam, 1678. Found in the collection of Jean-Claude Carriere

Waterworks at York Buildings, Strand, supplying water to London from the Thames, 1790. Westminster Bridge can be seen in the background

James Watt, Scottish engineer. James Watt (1736-1819) was the son of a Scottish shipbuilder and showed an interest in invention at an early age

Newcomen steam engine, 1737. Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) designed his atmospheric or steam engine in 1712. Water was heated in the boiler and the resulting steam was let into the cylinder

Spinning Jenny, 1820. The Spinning Jenny was invented by James Hargreaves (c1720-1778) in 1764. On his original machine, a single wheel controlled eight spindles rather than the single spindle

Sectional view of Strutts model cotton mills, Belper, Derbyshire, England, 1820. Artist: William Lowry
Sectional view of Strutts model cotton mills, Belper, Derbyshire, England, 1820. Power was generated by the water wheel and distributed via a shaft and belting

Model of a Newcomen steam engine, 1856. It was while repairing this engine that James Watt (1736-1819) is said to have invented the separate condenser

James Watt, Scottish engineer, 19th century. Artist: Robert G Bell
James Watt, Scottish engineer. James Watt (1736-1819) was the son of a Scottish shipbuilder and showed an interest in invention at an early age

An idea of the world as it would be in 1953, 1883. A young lady paying calls by personal airship among maze of telegraph and telephone wires. From Le Vingtieme Siecle (the 20th Century) by A Robida

Bellows operated by a camshaft powered by a water wheel, 1540. This application of the medieval invention of the cam enabled both bellows to be powered by the same water wheel

Bellows supplying draught to a smelting furnace, 1556. The bellows are operated by a camshaft powered by a water wheel (just visible at extreme right)

Page from Gutenbergs Bible, c1455. Artist: Johannes Gutenberg
Page from Gutenbergs Bible, c1455. Johann Gutenberg (c1398-1468) is regarded as the inventor of movable type. In 1455 he produced the first large printed book, the Gutenberg Bible

Forge with bellows driven by an undershot water wheel through cranks, 1673. From Theatrum Machinarum Novum by Georg Andreas Bockler. (Nuremberg, 1673)

Eli Whitneys (1765-1825) saw-gin for cleaning cotton, 1865. Whitneys cotton gin, patented in 1794, pioneered the mass production of cotton

Cross-section of Eli Whitneys (1765-1825) saw-gin for cleaning cotton, 1865. Seeds can be seen ejected (left), while cotton fibres are passing on the right

Saw gin for cleaning cotton being operated by barefoot black labourer, southern USA, 1865. An Eagle gin, an improved form of the cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney (1765-1825) in 1794

Rolling mill and forge powered by hot gases from a furnace, 1629. An idea proposed by Giovanni Branca in Le Machine. (Rome, 1629)

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