British achievements in science and technology

CONTENTS

Introduction………………………………………………………..…….……..

1 Science before the Industrial Revolution ………………………....................

1.1 The Royal Society………………….…………...…….................................

1.2 Sir Isaac Newton...........................................................................................

1.3 Robert Hooke……………….………………………………..………….…

1.4 Robert Boyle……………….………………………………………………

1.5 William Harvey …………...……………………………………………….

1.6 Henry Cavendish, William Gilbert and Joseph Priestley ………………….

2 Science during the Industrial Revolution…………………………………….

2.1 Inventions and inventors that made revolution closer……..……………….

2.2 The history of the steam engine …………………………………...............

2.3 Invention of locomotive and railway …………………………………..….

2.4 Michael Faraday ……………………….…………………………………..

2.5 James Joule and Thompson Kelvin …………………………......................

2.6 Charles Darwin ………………………….…………………………………

2.7 Charles Bell and James Young ……………………………………………

3 British science today…………………………………………………………

3.1 Medicine and biology …………………………………...............................

3.2 Genetics…………………………………………………………………….

3.4 Botany and agriculture……………………………………………………..

3.5 Engineering and technology………………………………………………..

3.6 Air and space exploration…………………………………………………

3.7 Military technologies………………………………………………………

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………… 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     INTRODUCTION 
 

     Knowledge is power and with knowledge you can face up to anything. Science is one of its leading forces. Those who have best opportunities for scientific researches and progress has best future prospect: highly developed countries has best industrial equipment, best arms, stable profit and good position on the world area.

     Britain is one of the nations, whose science and technologies has always been trendsetters in the world. Since the opening of the Royal Society and first world-famous universities Britain has taken leading role in scientific progress among other countries. You don’t need to be an expert in science to know such names as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday. It’s also notable that such inventions as first computer, steam engine and electric motor, railway and thermometer were made in Britain. Britain has always been good testing ground for scientific minds and new ideas. It was the only country where during the Middle-Ages scientists were not persecuted. And it was the first country where the Industrial Revolution had started. Today Britain retains its high scientific and technological standards: Britain is the second after the USA in the number of Nobel prize winners, it has leading physic, engineering and medical research laboratories, it has good opportunities for air and space exploration and advanced army equipment.

     I decided to divide my course work into three sections: British science before the Industrial Revolution (11-18 centuries), during the Industrial Revolution (18-20 centuries) and British science today (from the beginning of the 20th century till nowadays). The first two sections will be devoted to the best scientists in British history and their innovations. I didn’t divide these sections into usual learning spheres such as physics or biology because in my opinion it’s impossible for humanist to describe for example all achievements of British physics or chemistry in terms of one entire article. Also in some periods there were simply just one or two representatives of biology or astronomy and it would be incorrect to associate them with the whole scientific sphere. So I decided to give preference to the most important and famous British minds and associate every article with one or several of them. Of course third section about modern British science and technologies will be presented according to the most prosperous scientific spheres. Before each new section I’ll try to give some kind of preview where I’ll explain why I chose such and such topics, what are the main trends of that period and I’ll try to add my own thoughts in some articles. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     1 SCIENCE BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 
 

     This period occupies huge time since the opening of Oxford and Cambridge universities and till the first premises for the Industrial Revolution.

     One of the most important events of that period was the establishment of the Royal Society. As well as the Royal Society governed work of almost all scientists, the society helped to bring up some of them: Newton, Hooke and Boyle. More or less the society took part in every new discovery or invention of that time.

     This period was also associated with one of the most outstanding scientists: Sir Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Robert Hooke, Henry Cavendish and Joseph Priestley. Their theoretical and experimental discoveries has raised world science to the new level. As for example Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation that had absolutely changed medical and biological community of that tome. Or Newton’s law of gravity which had opened new horizons for experimental scientists.

     It was very interesting for me that in comparison with other countries, pre-industrial Britain has much more experimental scientists than anyone else. In tote this period could not be proud of many experimenters but in comparison with other countries Britain stands out of them. I think it was because of early governmental involvement into science and scientific progress. British sovereigns were first to understand all the importance of scientists and their work.

     Unfortunately this times didn’t left us outstanding mathematicians or astronomers. In 1594 John Napier invents logarithms and later some mathematical discoveries were made by Newton and William Brouncker. Some astronomical discoveries were made by Robert Hooke but we can’t consider him as the astronomer only.

     This period can be also denoted as the period of funny but necessary inventions: mousetrap, flush toilet, spinning rod, cuff link, weathercock corkscrew and some other. We don’t know the names of authors of these inventions but along with Newton and Darwin Britain can be proud of these men.

     In general terms British science before the 18^th passed very fast start-up period and became characterized as stable ground for future discoveries. 
 

     1.1 The Royal Society 
 

     The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is arguably the oldest such society in existence.

     The origins of the Royal Society lie in an "invisible college" of natural philosophers who began meeting in the mid 1640s to discuss the ideas of Francis Bacon. Its official foundation date is 28 November 1660, when 12 of them met at Gresham College after a lecture by Christopher Wren, the Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and decided to found a College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning. This group included Wren himself, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Sir Robert Moray, and William, Viscount Brouncker.

     The Society was to meet weekly to witness experiments and discuss what we would now call scientific topics. The first Curator of Experiments was Robert Hooke. It was Moray who first told the King, Charles II, of this venture and secured his approval and encouragement. At first apparently nameless, the name The Royal Society first appears in print in 1661, and in the second Royal Charter of 1663 the Society is referred to as “The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge”. In 1662 the Society was permitted by Royal Charter to publish and the first two books it produced were John Evelyn's Sylva and Micrographia by Robert Hooke. In 1665, the first issue of Philosophical Transactions was edited by Henry Oldenburg, the Society's Secretary. The Society took over publication some years later and Philosophical Transactions is now the oldest scientific journal in continuous publication. Over the next century the work and staff of the Society grew rapidly and soon outgrew this site. Therefore in 1967 the Society moved to its present location on Carlton House Terrace with a staff which has now grown to over 120, all working to further the Royal Society's roles as independent scientific academy, learned society and funding body [1, p. 22].

     The Society today acts as a scientific advisor to Her Majesty's Government, receiving a grant-in-aid from them, funding a variety of research fellowships and scientific start-up companies and acting as the United Kingdom's Academy of Sciences. As a funding agency, the Society supports around 400 of the best young scientists in the UK as well as 17 senior research professors. In addition, more than 3000 scientists from the UK and abroad benefit from Society grants to undertake research or participate in visits or conferences. Outstanding scientific achievement is recognized through the Society's medals and prizes. These include the UK's foremost award for science communication, the Michael Faraday Prize, and the Rosalind Franklin Medal, awarded for scientific excellence with winners expected to undertake work in support of women in science. 
 

     1.2 Sir Isaac Newton

     Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727), English natural philosopher, generally regarded as the most important scientist in the history. In addition to his invention of the infinitesimal calculus and a new theory of light and color, Newton transformed the structure of physical science with his three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation.

     Newton's first innovations were connected with optical research. In 1665-1666, Newton performed a number of experiments on the composition of light. Guided initially by the writings of Kepler and Descartes, Newton's main discovery was that visible (white) light is heterogeneous - that is, white light is composed of colors that can be considered primary. Through a brilliant series of experiments, Newton demonstrated that prisms separate rather than modify white light. Contrary to the theories of Aristotle and other ancients, Newton held that white light is secondary and heterogeneous, while the separate colors are primary and homogeneous. Of perhaps equal importance, Newton also demonstrated that the colors of the spectrum, once thought to be qualities, correspond to an observed and quantifiable “degree of Refrangibility” [6, p. 171].

     Newton's most famous experiment, the experimentum crucis, demonstrated his theory of the composition of light. Briefly, in a dark room Newton allowed a narrow beam of sunlight to pass from a small hole in a window shutter through a prism, thus breaking the white light into an oblong spectrum on a board. Then, through a small aperture in the board, Newton selected a given color (for example, red) to pass through yet another aperture to a second prism, through which it was refracted onto a second board. What began as ordinary white light was thus dispersed through two prisms [11, p. 209].

     The myth of Newton and the apple maybe not true. Probably the more correct version of the story is that Newton, upon observing an apple fall from a tree, began to think along the following lines: The apple is accelerated, since its velocity changes from zero as it is hanging on the tree and moves toward the ground. Thus there must be a force that acts on the apple to cause this acceleration. Let's call this force "gravity", and the associated acceleration the "acceleration due to gravity". Then imagine the apple tree is twice as high. Again, we expect the apple to be accelerated toward the ground, so this suggests that this force that we call gravity reaches to the top of the tallest apple tree."

     Newton's final gesture before death was his three laws of motion. The first said that every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. The second described that the relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector. And the third explained that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction [10, p. 371]. 
 

     1.3 Robert Hooke 
 

     No portrait survives of Robert Hooke. His name is somewhat obscure today, due in part to the enmity of his famous, influential, and extremely vindictive colleague, Sir Isaac Newton. His interests knew no bounds, ranging from physics and astronomy, to chemistry, biology, and geology, to architecture and naval technology. He collaborated or corresponded with scientists as diverse as Christian Huygens, Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton. Among other accomplishments, he invented the universal joint, the iris diaphragm, and an early prototype of the respirator; invented the anchor escapement and the balance spring, which made more accurate clocks possible; served as Chief Surveyor and helped rebuild London after the Great Fire of 1666; worked out the correct theory of combustion; devised an equation describing elasticity that is still used today ("Hooke's Law"); assisted Robert Boyle in studying the physics of gases; invented or improved meteorological instruments such as the barometer, anemometer, and hygrometer; and so on. He was the type of scientist that was then called a virtuoso - able to contribute findings of major importance in any field of science. It is not surprising that he made important contributions to biology and to paleontology.

     Hooke is best known to those who study elementary Physics through Hooke's Law: Ut tensio, sic vis. The extension of a spring is proportional to the weight hanging from it. This work sprang from Hooke's interest in flight and the spring or elasticity of air. This work appeared in De Potentia Restitutiva in 1678 [8, p. 99]. His interest in gases and their properties also found expression in his work on respiration; one experiment had him in a sealed vessel, from which the air was gradually pumped. He did not emerge from this experiment without some damage to his ears and nose.

     Hooke’s achievements in Biology largely rest on his book Micrographia, published in 1665. Hooke devised the compound microscope and illumination system, one of the best such microscopes of his time, and used it in his demonstrations at the Royal Society's meetings. With it he observed organisms as diverse as insects, sponges, bryozoans, foraminifera, and bird feathers. Micrographia was an accurate and detailed record of his observations, illustrated with magnificent drawings, such as the flea shown below, which Hooke described as "adorn'd with a curiously polish'd suite of sable Armour, neatly jointed. . ." It was a best-seller of its day. Some readers ridiculed Hooke for paying attention to such trifling pursuits: a satirist of the time poked fun at him as "a Sot, that has spent 2000£ in Microscopes, to find out the nature of Eels in Vinegar, Mites in Cheese, and the Blue of Plums which he has subtly found out to be living creatures." More complimentary was the reaction of the diarist and government official Samuel Pepys, who stayed up till 2:00 AM one night reading Micrographia, which he called "the most ingenious book that I ever read in my life" [21, p. 218].

     Robert Hooke's researches over nearly 40 years covered a wide variety of Natural Philosophy. Hooke suggested a wave theory of light in his Micrographia (1665), comparing the spreading of light vibrations to that of waves in water. He suggested in 1672 that the vibrations in light might be perpendicular to the direction of propagation. He investigated the colours of membranes and of thin plates of mica, and established the variation of the light pattern with the thickness of the plates. 
 

     1.4 Robert Boyle 
 

     Among the many contenders for the title of "Father of Modern Chemistry" is Robert Boyle. Boyle was the first prominent scientist to perform controlled experiments and to publish his work with elaborate details concerning procedure, apparatus and observations. He assembled what we would today call a "research group", developed a key piece of apparatus - the vacuum pump, was instrumental in founding the Royal Society, and deserves at least partial credit for the famous gas law which bears his name.

     Boyle published copiously on topics ranging across several fields of science, philosophy, and theology. His first major scientific report, The Spring and Weight of the Air, was published in 1660 and described experiments using a new vacuum pump of his design. Previous pumps, invented by von Guericke (of Magdeburg hemisphere fame), required the strenuous efforts of two men and provided dubious results. Boyle's pump could be operated easily and efficiently by one man. With it Boyle demonstrated that the sound of a bell in the receiver (a thirty quart vacuum chamber) faded as the air was removed, proving that air was necessary for the transmission of sound. In further experiments, he also proved that air was necessary for life and for a candle flame [12, p. 47].

     Boyle's best known contribution to scientific knowledge is the 1661 publication of The Sceptical Chymist in which he discusses the idea of an element. Aristotelian science held that elements were not just the simplest of all substances but were also necessary ingredients of all bodies, i.e., if water is an element then all bodies must contain at least a small amount of water. Boyle's idea of an element was somewhat vague and certainly not "modern" in the 20th century sense. But he presented persuasive experimental evidence that most of the commonly accepted elements (fire, water, salt, mercury, etc) did not meet both of the Aristotelian criteria.

     In 1662 Boyle publishes his famous Boyle’s law. It described the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system. The law itself can be described as follows: For a fixed amount of an ideal gas kept at a fixed temperature, P and V are inversely proportional.

     Typically, Robert Boyle is remembered solely for Boyle's Law. It is clear that he contributed much more to the development of modern chemical thought. Robert Boyle has been deservedly called "a Mighty Chemist". 
 

     1.5 William Harvey 
 

     How blood circulates is a mystery that was solved by an English physician William Harvey, in the seventeenth century. He began investigating his theory that blood circulated throughout the body in 1615. He knew that veins had valves that permitted blood to travel in only one direction. The question that plagued him was, what was the exact role of veins in the human body?

     Harvey decided to study the flow of blood by operating on live animals. For twelve years, he conducted his experiments before members of the Royal College of Physicians in London, England. The members however, continued their support to Galen’s theory and questioned Harvey’s ideas. Finally, in a series of brilliant experiments on animals and humans, Harvey demonstrated how blood circulates in the body. He proved that when an artery was blocked, the veins draining this artery collapsed. When a vein was blocked, it swelled below the blockage and collapsed above it, but the swelling disappeared when the blockage was removed. He also showed that the valves in the veins allowed blood to flow only in the direction of the heart. Together, these discoveries proved Harvey’s claim that blood moves in a circle in the body right [18, p. 47].

     Finally, in a series of brilliant experiments on animals and humans, Harvey demonstrated how blood circulates in the body. He proved that when an artery was blocked, the veins draining this artery collapsed. When a vein was blocked, it swelled below the blockage and collapsed above it, but the swelling disappeared when the blockage was removed. He also showed that the valves in the veins allowed blood to flow only in the direction of the heart. Together, these discoveries proved Harvey’s claim that blood moves in a circle in the body right. 

     This discovery is regarded as the single greatest achievement of all times. It also established the principle of doing experiments in medicine to learn how the body’s organs and tissues function.    
 

     1.6 Henry Cavendish, William Gilbert and Joseph Priestley  
 

     If the 17^th century gave Britain only one experimental scientist (Robert Hooke), 18^th century gave Britain at least three of them: Henry Cavendish, William Gilbert  and Joseph Priestley. All of them approached most of their investigations through quantitative measurements.

     Cavendish made notable discoveries in chemistry, mainly between 1766 and 1788, and in electricity, between 1771 and 1788. In 1798 he published a single notable paper on the density of the earth. At the time Cavendish began his chemical work, chemists were just beginning to recognize that the "airs" that were evolved in many chemical reactions were clear parts and not just modifications of ordinary air. Cavendish reported his own work in "Three Papers Containing Experiments on Factitious Air" in 1766. These papers added greatly to knowledge of the formation of "inflammable air" (hydrogen) by the action of dilute acids (acids that have been weakened) on metals [22, p. 560].

     Another example of Cavendish's ability was "Experiments on Rathbone-Place Water", in which he set the highest possible standard of accuracy. "Experiments" is regarded as a classic of analytical chemistry (the branch of chemistry that deals with separating substances into the different chemicals they are made from). In it Cavendish also examined the phenomenon (a fact that can be observed) of the retention of "calcareous earth" (chalk, calcium carbonate) in solution (a mixture dissolved in water). In doing so, he discovered the reversible reaction between calcium carbonate and carbon dioxide to form calcium bicarbonate, the cause of temporary hardness of water. He also found out how to soften such water by adding lime (calcium hydroxide).

     William Gilbert’s researches were concerned with electrical and magnetic physics. 'De Magnete' published by Gilbert was quickly accepted as the standard work on electrical and magnetic phenomena throughout Europe. In it, Gilbert distinguished between magnetism and static (known as the amber effect). He also compared the magnet's polarity to the polarity of the Earth, and developed an entire magnetic philosophy on this analogy. Gilbert was the first man to research the properties of the lodestone (magnetic iron ore), publishing his findings in the influential 'De Magnete' ('The Magnet'). He also invented the term 'electricity'.

     Gilbert's findings suggested that magnetism was the soul of the Earth, and that a perfectly spherical lodestone, when aligned with the Earth's poles, would spin on its axis, just as the Earth spins on its axis over a period of 24 hours. Gilbert was in fact debunking the traditional cosmologists' belief that the Earth was fixed at the centre of the universe, and he provided food for thought for Galileo, who eventually came up with the proposition that the Earth revolves around the Sun [16, p. 179].

     Joseph Priestley is best known as the discoverer of oxygen. Perhaps a more appropriate description of this accomplishment would be to credit Priestley with the isolation of dephlogisticated air. Our thorough understanding today of the chemical reactivity of oxygen comes from Priestley’s systematic theory of combustion. Priestley was an industrious and clever investigator, not a sweeping theoretician with a guiding program of research. In the realm of experiments, Priestley's expertise lay in his physical and chemical prowess. His adherence to the science was persistent.

     Priestley's work on electricity is eclipsed by his memorable experiments on air and oxygen. The proximity of his house to a public brewery set the stage for many experiments on fixed air (carbon dioxide). Access to an abundant source of fixed air eventually led to an understanding of the nature of the effervescence found in mineral waters such as those of Spa, a resort in Belgium. Restorative sparkling beverages and baths were simply water containing fixed air [8, p. 488]. His first scientific publication was on the impregnation of water with fixed air. This achievement won for him the prestigious Copley Medal of the Royal sociecty. The carbonated beverages of today trace their origin to Priestley's initial experiments.

     Today Priestley as well as Cavendish and Gilbert are regarded as great experiment scientists of their time and their works in the field of experimentation as great field for scientists of the Industrial Revolution. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     2 SCIENCE DURING THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 
 

     The Industrial Revolution is usually remembered for its machines, in cathedral-sized brick-built factories filled with crowds of labourers. This is not a false picture, but almost all the advances at this time were physical machines or industrial processes.

     Britain had achieved huge number of discoveries connected with physics and industrial processes: steam engine, electric motor, power generator, locomotive and railway. These and other inventions were made in Britain during the revolution and has made Britain leading industrial country once for all.

     Among all industrial innovations and discoveries one figure stands far apart, Charles Darwin. He and his natural selection theory divided modern science into three distinct spheres: exact science, natural science and humanities. Before Darwin science was considered as one discipline with many subjects. But Darwin, making out his theory applied for arguments from different subjects which in his descriptions seemed to be very common in some ways. This unity of different disciplines has made such division, which was very important for science in general.

     In this period Britain still felt lack of astronomers and mathematicians. In 1814-1829 McGee discovered the “Kirkwood gaps” in the orbits of the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter and in 1861 John Swan  discovered the first spectroscopic binary star Mizar and in 1873 John Couch Adams predicted the existence of the planet Neptune. One important innovation was made in mathematics by Charles Babbage and his computer. His computing engine was able to solve different mathematical tasks and simplify future research.

     But in spite of all other achievements in astronomy, medicine, biology and math, all pre-modern period of British science was under the sign of Industrial Revolution and its effects. 
 

     2.1 Inventions and inventors that made revolution closer 
 

     Industrial Revolution, the change from the use of hand methods of manufacturing to machine methods. This change, which began in Britain about 1750 and later spread to other countries, is called a “revolution” because it brought vast changes in the way people work and live. It created an industrialized society - one in which large - scale mechanized manufacturing replaced farming as the main source of jobs. Instead of growing their own food and making at home the products they use, a great many persons in an industrialized society work for wages and buy their food and other necessities. They live in towns and cities rather than in the country.

     Progress in technology and in industrial development has been almost continuous since the Industrial Revolution began. Since 1900, and particularly since World War II, industry and technology have advanced at an ever-increasing rate. In a sense, the revolution that began around 1750 has never ended.

     Manufacture work was significant sphere during the history. The first attempt to simplify manufacture work was made by William Lee in 1589. Ht tried to make work go faster by inventing the first practical knitting machine. His original needles were thick, and useful only for rough garments, but Lee continues to experiment until he has a knitting machine with 20 needles to the inch. The design of his hooked needle remains a key component in knitting machines today.

     Two hundred years after (1764) James Hargreaves builds a machine that uses eight spindles. By turning a single wheel, he can now spin eight threads at once. Later he builds a small spinning-mill. Soon the number of threads being spun increase from eight to eighty and thousands of spinning machines are running, and it helps to make cloth producing more cheaper and widespread. Spinning machines were the first reason of making huge manufacture factories allover the world [7, p. 99].

     In 1785 Edmund Cartwright invents the power loom. It was another step for making clothing more affordable for everyone. The power loom was a steam-powered, mechanically operated version of a regular loom, an invention that combined threads to make cloth. He patented the first power loom in 1786 and set up a factory in Doncaster, England to manufacture cloth. Cartwright also invented a wool-combing machine in 1789, continued to improve his power loom, invented a steam engine that used alcohol and a machine for making rope in 1797, and aided Robert Fulton.

     If we speak about British agricultural innovations during the Industrial Revolution, mechanized seed drill and crop rotation system should be mentioned.

     A crop rotation system was developed in 1700s. An unknown worker notices that repeatedly planting the same crop in the same piece of ground creates problems. To address the disease and poor nutrition that result, he or she develops the four-course crop rotation system. Each area of land is split into four sections. In the first year turnips or another root crop are grown; in the second year, barley; in the third year, clover or a grass crop; and in the fourth year, wheat.

     A year after Jethro Tull invents the mechanized seed drill, which radically changes the 3,000 year-old system of planting seed by hand. He constructs a rotary mechanism that sprays out seed evenly, and a drill that plants seeds at optimum depths in uniform rows and covers them with earth.

     In 1703 Abraham Darby finally launches industrial revolution. Darby tackles the problem of dwindling supplies of charcoal by substituting coke (baked coal) to smelt iron in a coke-consuming blast furnace that he designs. This allows him to smelt greater quantities of iron, which will be critical to producing steel and to the construction of railroad bridges, buildings, and machines [7, p. 271]. With the help of fellow members of the Society of Friends who invest in his business, he makes technological and productivity breakthroughs crucial to the development of machine parts - and the machines on which we depend.

     Later, at the very middle of the Industrial Revolution Philip Vaughan invents one of the modern world’s most essential components - the ball bearing. His invention reduces the friction between moving parts, and helps to supports loads smoothly. Ball bearings are essential to a car’s transmission and its wheels, to earthquake architecture, and to computer drivers, among many other uses [3, p. 370]. Thanks to Vaughan since that time our industrial world runs because of this small, breathtakingly simple and elegant invention.

     And final important invention that was made for the sake of the Industrial Revolution was building cement. In 1826 Jospeh Aspdin develops and patents a process for grinding and burning clay and limestone to create a material that hardens when mixed with water. He names it Portland cement because it resembles a stone quarried in Portland, Dorset. A crucial part of concrete, Portland cement is indispensable to modern construction. It is part of the foundation of every house and building, road, and bridge built with concrete. 
 

     2.2 The history of the steam engine 
 

     One of the most significant industrial challenges of the 1700's was the removal of water from mines. Steam was used to pump the water from the mines. Now, this might seem to have very little to do with modern steam-powered electrical power plants. However, one of the fundamental principles used in the development of steam-based power is the principle that condensation of water vapor can create a vacuum [4, p. 78].

     Invention of the steam engine was made by 3 men at once: Thomas Savery, Thomas Newcomen and James Watt. Without one of them invention of the steam engine couldn’t be possible.

     Thomas Savery was an English military engineer and inventor who in 1698, patented the first crude steam engine, based on Denis Papin's Digester or pressure cooker of 1679. Thomas Savery had been working on solving the problem of pumping water out of coal mines, his machine consisted of a closed vessel filled with water into which steam under pressure was introduced. This forced the water upwards and out of the mine shaft. Then a cold water sprinkler was used to condense the steam. This created a vacuum which sucked more water out of the mine shaft through a bottom valve [10, p. 502].

     Thomas Savery later worked with Thomas Newcomen on the atmospheric steam engine. Among Savery's other inventions was an odometer for ships, a device that measured distance traveled.

     Thomas Newcomen was an English blacksmith, who invented the atmospheric steam engine, an improvement over Thomas Slavery's previous design.

     The Newcomen steam engine used the force of atmospheric pressure to do the work. Thomas Newcomen's engine pumped steam into a cylinder. The steam was then condensed by cold water which created a vacuum on the inside of the cylinder. The resulting atmospheric pressure operated a piston, creating downward strokes. In Newcomen's engine the intensity of pressure was not limited by the pressure of the steam, unlike what Thomas Savery had patented in 1698.

     In 1712, Thomas Newcomen together with John Calley built their first engine on top of a water filled mine shaft and used it to pump water out of the mine. The Newcomen engine was the predecessor to the Watt engine and it was one of the most interesting pieces of technology developed during the 1700's.

     James Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, born in Greenock, who was renowned for his improvements of the steam engine. In 1765, James Watt while working for the University of Glasgow was assigned the task of repairing a Newcomen engine, which was deemed inefficient but the best steam engine of its time [4, p. 89]. That started the inventor to work on several improvements to Newcomen's design.

     Most notable was Watt's 1769 patent for a separate condenser connected to a cylinder by a valve. Unlike Newcomen's engine, Watt's design had a condenser that could be cool while the cylinder was hot. Watt's engine soon became the dominant design for all modern steam engines and helped bring about the Industrial Revolution.

     A unit of power called the Watt was named after James Watt. The Watt symbol is W, and it is equal to 1/746 of a horsepower, or one Volt times one Amp. 
 

     2.3 Invention of locomotive and railway 
 

     The best use for steam engine throughout the history were trains and railroads. In the mid-17th century, the only highways in England were those built by the Romans 14 centuries before. In 1663 Parliament passed the first of a series of turnpike laws. They provided for the development of tollways by local authorities and private companies, who would then build and improve roads financed by the tolls. The growth of good roads, however, lagged behind the growth in industry until George Stephenson and his sons invent railroads.

     George Stephenson has no formal schooling when he went to work in a coal mine. When his wife had died, he sent his son Robert to school to study mathematics, and every night when his son comes home from school, they study together. With a mechanical gift that verges on genius, Stephenson won the post of chief mechanic for steam engines at his coal mine. Every Saturday he forced himself to dismantle and rebuild a colliery engine so he knew how they work [8, p. 330]. They were not working all that well.

     He took the best of previous steam engines and built an improved locomotive - a steam engine that pulls loads - in 1813. He achieved this by the 'simple' expedient of increasing the diameter of the boiler flue and applying the power directly to the wheels by connecting rods, thus reducing the need for crudely manufactured gearing [4, p. 148]. Further developments were directed towards increasing the longevity of the track.

     At first his locomotive was used in coal mines. In 1825 his locomotive pulled the first passengers - 450 of them - from Darlington to Stockton and into history. This is the beginning of travel by train. George Stephenson became a consultant to railroad projects in Britain, Europe, and North America.

     His son Robert became an outstanding civil engineer and the builder of long-span railroad bridges. His nephew George Stephenson, a “master of marvels,” an “artist” and engineer of the railroad, constructed soaring viaducts to span valleys and cuts tunnels of “unexampled magnitude.” Entrepreneurs sent trains and passengers across Britain. 
 

     2.4 Michael Faraday  
 

     Faraday was an experimental genius of the Industrial Revolution. His works in the field of electromagnetic laws has turned scientific world on its head and his electric motor very soon replaced steam engine. But it took him some time to break free and do the research he used to do.

     The son of a blacksmith, Michael Faraday was apprenticed to a bookbinder in London where he read every scientific book he could get his hands on, and conducted experiments. He joined a Philosophical Society, meeting every week to hear lectures on scientific topics and discuss scientific ideas [7, p. 459].

     When he was twenty-one, he heard scientist Humphrey Davy speak. Faraday persuaded Davy to employ him. He served as Davy's Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution and for two years as Davy's assistant and valet.

     Finally, on 3-4 September 1821, Faraday proved that "a vertically mounted wire carrying an electric current would rotate continuously round a magnet protruding from a bowl of mercury. This phenomenon, which Faraday called electromagnetic rotation, showed that it was possible to produce continuous motion from the interaction of electricity and magnetism".

     Michael Faraday built two devices to produce what he called electromagnetic rotation: that is a continuous circular motion from the circular magnetic force around a wire. Ten years later, in 1831, he began his great series of experiments in which he discovered electromagnetic induction. These experiments form the basis of modern electromagnetic technology [9, p. 63].