lecture 12: uses of earth materials and energy from 2000 years ago to the industrial revolutions

technological advances around 2000BP

• Mass production of moulded, brown glass and earliest window glass

• Invention of concrete: mixture of stone and lime cement

• Hand-powered wheels for pumping water out of mines - more metals

• Water wheels for irrigation and later for milling of grain - more food

Roman mould-brown glass

Mass production of moulded, blown glass and earliest window glass.

roman concrete

Concrete is a mixture of:

• Aggregate - stones, crushed rock or broken bricks

and

• Mortar - a binder mixed with water that hardens as it dries, usually mainly lime

concrete constructions: Pantheon 126 AD

Roman concrete walls and dome, lighter weight concrete was used for the dome.

Roman hydraulic concrete

Hydraulic concrete - sets under water

Mix of pozzolanic ash (volcanic), which occurs in the city of Rome and around Vesuvius, with lime and aggregate.

roman hydraulic mining

Hydraulic mining of soft rocks - Las Médulas, NW Spain

Water diverted and used to break down gold-bearing rocks.

health and environmental issues

Lead was used for drinking water pipes, dramatically expanding the water supply.

Lead acetate, made by boiling vinegar in lead, to sweeten wine.

Both caused lead poisoning in the roman empire.

the Dark ages, Europe, 400-1300 AD

Period from the decline of the western Roman empire to the renaissance. Little technical progress in most of Europe, with loss of some Greek and Roman knowledge. But much innovation in Arabia, Asia and elsewhere.

Nendrum tide mill, Down

Earliest tide mill in Europe, 620 AD. Horizontal wheel, for grinding grain.

A second mill (790 AD): granite mill stones from eastern Mourne Mountains.

Iron and glass in the 1600s

Iron smelting and glass-making using charcoal - supply trees more important than raw materials.

Widespread deforestation in England by mid-1600s through iron smelting and glass making.

Blast furnaces using water power to drive bellows used in England 1500s

ireland and iron

A major iron smelting industry using local iron ore developed in the Slieve Aughty are of east Co. Clare.

Slieve Aughty iron industry

• Mines of iron ore

• Iron works: blast furnaces and fineries

• Large industry

limitations on mining smelting

• Easily worked surface deposits quickly used

• Underground mining – flooding, collapse, poisonous and explosive gases

• Much wood required for smelting – deforestation

coal and iron ore

Geologically, most Irish and British iron ores found close to coal deposits.

steam engines

First designed to pump out mines ( later adapted for railway locomotives)

the iron bridge at Ironbridge

Constructed 1771-1781

Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution

Local supplies of coal, iron ore and running water

beginning of the industrial revolution (mid to late 1700s)

Coked coal (sulphur and phosphorus removed) + iron ore allows smelting of high-quality iron, allowing:

1. Steam powered engines

2. Dewatering of mines

3. Deeper mines

4. More extractable from larger volumes of ore

So more coal and iron ore produced. Positive feedback loop.