Inventions
There were many inventions created in the Renaissance that we may still use today and has not only affected Renaissance Europe but it has also affected our modern day society. Many of these inventors like Galileo, Bacon, and Kepler helped form many of these inventions. Inventions, like pencils, printers, and even bottled beer were all created in the Renaissance. These technologies have evolved over the course of time but the Renaissance people have created the idea. The Renaissance has really affected our life today.
One of the most important inventions of the time was the Gutenberg printing press. Before, the Europeans printed pages by using movable type wood blocks. The printing press created by Johannes Gutenberg ran on a screw press and could manufacture about 3,600 pages everyday. A screw press was a machine that had a ram that was forced up and down by a screw. The printing press spread across Europe like a wildfire with over 200 European cities using the amazing technology. Without this printing press we may not have invented the modern day printer. Leonardo da Vinci was also a great person of this time. Although he did not actually create what he had in his sketchbooks, he created many great, innovative things for that time. He had accurate plans for an airplane, parachutes, helicopters, and a simple object, the ball bearing. Some of the most impressive ones are rapid-fire guns, submarines, and parachutes. His sketches were very vivid and were detailed. The first versions of an astrolabe were used by Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama on their adventures in the seas of Africa. The astrolabe was commonly used among the sailors of the Renaissance. The astrolabe was an amazing instrument that would measure our latitude on the Earth. It was used for the navigation of the seas, and astronomical research. The technology is now replaced by the sextant but they are both very similar. The Scientific Method was also formed during the Renaissance. Every scientist today still uses this method to test their hypotheses. Before the Renaissance, many accepted the theories and ideas of Aristotle and many other Classical philosophers. They accepted theories that were not even tested or experimented on. Later, many scientists like Bacon, Copernicus, Kepler, and many other famous scientists helped form the foundations of the Scientific Method. The new method required any hypothesis or theory to be experimented. For example, the idea of the philosopher Aristotle that perfect motion was circular was proven incorrect by Kepler. |
Many other inventors also created the many things we in the world still use today. In 1510, the pocket watch was formed by Peter Henlein. Henlein was an advanced clockmaker of Germany that lived during the Renaissance. In 1543, John Dee created one of the first robots. He made a flying wooden beetle . The first pencil was invented by Conrad Gesner in Switzerland in 1565. This had a wooden case and used graphite as its actual marker. The people of London also created the first bottled beer.
The Europeans also created inventions that are very popular. Gerard Mercator created the Mercator projection in 1569. It is the map of the world on a cylindrical surface. In 1582, Pope Gregory invented the Gregorian Calendar we use today. It is one of the most commonly used calendars used today. It was modernized by him and that is the version that we use today. The technology of the telescope was also created during the Renaissance. The original telescope was invented by the team of a father and son. Leonard and Thomas Digges invented the telescope in 1568. Hans Lippershey also made a telescope in 1609. The telescope was later used by the famous scientist, Galileo. He used it to study space and the skies. His studies helped the theory of Copernicus. Copernicus was the astronomist that contradicted Ptolemy's theory that the planets orbited the Earth. Copernicus then stated that the Earth and the planets orbit the Sun. In 1589, the knitting machine was created by William Lee. It allowed for easier and faster knitting because the machine would do most of the work. In 1590, Hans and Zacharias Janssen created the compound microscope. It looked like a telescope and was 18 inches long at its longest point. You would put it up to your eye and look at the object you wanted to observe. Sir John Harington also creates the first flush toilet in 1591. The water thermometer was invented by Galileo in 1593. He made a thermometer consisting of a glass cylinder with glass vessels representing different densities. The vessels go up or down depending on the current temperature. He worked on the thermometer with a group, including Evangelista Torricelli. William Gellert also published his work called "On the Magnet." Gellert is also called the father of the science of magnetism due to his work. Majority of these inventions and ideas are still commonly used today. Without the technologies made in this time period, our lives may be very different today. With the many improvements we have made to the Renaissance technologies, we could now use them in our everyday lives. |