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Astronaut, v. 1, issue 1, September 1947
Page 4
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4 Article WHY IT HAPPENED By John Speare DO YOU REMEMBER an article by L. Sprague de Camp in Astounding Science Fiction for September and October, 1941? It was called "The Sea King Armored Division" and described the "scientific age that didn't quite come off"-- the hellenistic age, which centered inn the eastern mediterranean region between 300 and 100 B. C. That period of ancient history produced many ingenious inventions, most of them military, but while the spark of creativeness was present, somehow that spark failed to ignite a scientific revolution. Civilization had 2,000 years to wait before the present day of science dawned. Why? asks de Camp. Why didn't the Machine Age begin with the creative Greeks, instead of waiting two millenia? That question I propose to answer here. First of all, the scientific Age as we know it dates from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Some of the ground work was done previously, but little of a practical nature was formulated. The Greeks has a steam engine of sorts, the aeropile, but they never constructed machinery to be run by steam. Why? The reason is a sociological one. For one thing, the only persons wealthy enough to build a steam-powered loom, for example, were aristocrats, and they looked with contempt on those who were forced to earn their bread by engaging in business or trade. Assisting those who worked for a living was beneath them. The few tradesmen of the day were in no position to hear about new inventions, nor were they interested in such things. No one wanted work-saving machinery in the first place. Slaves were available to do the heavy work for anyone who had any money at all. The Industrial Revolution, when it finally did come, was the result of several coincidences. First, England's position off the coast of Europe had given it an advantage over other nations in the exploitation of the Americas. Similarly, she was the only nation equipped to challenge Spain's dominance of the seas, and thus protect her colonies. In the wars that followed, many Elizabethan sea-captains became rich by plundering Spanish treasure-galleons. Not of the nobility, these newly-rich men did not despise trade. Therefore, they built ships, hired men to sail them, and became progressive merchants. Thus, when James Watt rediscovered steam power, there was a class of wealthy men who had a use for his invention and money to construct machinery to be run by the steam engine. A second decisive factor was the recent abolition of slavery in England, and in hand with this was the passage of the Enclosure act. the latter, enacted when raising sheep for wool was
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4 Article WHY IT HAPPENED By John Speare DO YOU REMEMBER an article by L. Sprague de Camp in Astounding Science Fiction for September and October, 1941? It was called "The Sea King Armored Division" and described the "scientific age that didn't quite come off"-- the hellenistic age, which centered inn the eastern mediterranean region between 300 and 100 B. C. That period of ancient history produced many ingenious inventions, most of them military, but while the spark of creativeness was present, somehow that spark failed to ignite a scientific revolution. Civilization had 2,000 years to wait before the present day of science dawned. Why? asks de Camp. Why didn't the Machine Age begin with the creative Greeks, instead of waiting two millenia? That question I propose to answer here. First of all, the scientific Age as we know it dates from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Some of the ground work was done previously, but little of a practical nature was formulated. The Greeks has a steam engine of sorts, the aeropile, but they never constructed machinery to be run by steam. Why? The reason is a sociological one. For one thing, the only persons wealthy enough to build a steam-powered loom, for example, were aristocrats, and they looked with contempt on those who were forced to earn their bread by engaging in business or trade. Assisting those who worked for a living was beneath them. The few tradesmen of the day were in no position to hear about new inventions, nor were they interested in such things. No one wanted work-saving machinery in the first place. Slaves were available to do the heavy work for anyone who had any money at all. The Industrial Revolution, when it finally did come, was the result of several coincidences. First, England's position off the coast of Europe had given it an advantage over other nations in the exploitation of the Americas. Similarly, she was the only nation equipped to challenge Spain's dominance of the seas, and thus protect her colonies. In the wars that followed, many Elizabethan sea-captains became rich by plundering Spanish treasure-galleons. Not of the nobility, these newly-rich men did not despise trade. Therefore, they built ships, hired men to sail them, and became progressive merchants. Thus, when James Watt rediscovered steam power, there was a class of wealthy men who had a use for his invention and money to construct machinery to be run by the steam engine. A second decisive factor was the recent abolition of slavery in England, and in hand with this was the passage of the Enclosure act. the latter, enacted when raising sheep for wool was
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