IV. The Early Modern Period, 1500–1800 > B. Early Modern Europe, 1479–1815 > 3. Europe, 1648–1814 > d. Science and Technology
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  The Encyclopedia of World History.  2001.
 
(See 1697) (See 1520)
 
d. Science and Technology
 
SCIENCE: The Enlightenment continued the scientific methods used during the Scientific Revolution, emphasizing inductive reasoning and careful analysis. Efforts to catalogue and study plants and animals closely, including dissections, continued, and many of today's scientific principles emanated from this period. Leading scientific thinkers of the period included (see also individual countries): Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716); Isaac Newton (1642–1727); Edmund Halley (1656–1742); Gabriel D. Fahrenheit (1686–1736); Etienne F. Geoffroy (1672–1731); Leonhard Euler (Mechanica sive motus analytice exposita, 1736); Johann Lehmann (d. 1767); Carl Linnaeus (1707–78); Albrecht von Haller (1708–77); Giovanni Morgagni (1682–1771); John Hunter (1728–93); Joseph Priestley (1733–1804); Antoine Lavoisier (1743–94); Edward Jenner (1749-1823); Joseph Louis Proust (1754–1826). (See Science and Learning)  1
TECHNOLOGY AND NEW TECHNIQUES: Technology during this period concentrated on the development of steam engines, machinery, and improved techniques in engineering, construction, and farming. These were designed as part of the process of protoindustrialization but ultimately contributed to the Industrial Revolution (See Economic and Social Changes) because they provided means of producing goods more quickly and efficiently and offered alternatives to animal and human power, especially coal and water power. Leading figures in such development were:  2
Thomas Newcomen, whose steam engine pumped water from mines (1712); roadmakers P. M. J. Trésaguet (1716–94) and John L. McAdam (invented macadamized roads, 1756–1836); Jethro Tull, New Horse Hoeing Husbandry (1732). John Kay invented the flying shuttle (1733); Robert Bakewell introduced selective breeding (1725–95); Arthur Young publicized new advances in agriculture; Benjamin Huntsman's (1704–76) steel processing and Henry Cort's (1740–1800) puddling process; Josiah Wedgewood, who established his Etruria bone china works (1769); James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny (1764); James Watt's steam engine, a great improvement over Newcomen's (1776).  3
 
 
 
The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth edition. Peter N. Stearns, general editor. Copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Maps by Mary Reilly, copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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