TTC Video Understanding The Marvels of Medieval Technology

TTC Video - Understanding the Marvels of Medieval Technology
.MP4, AVC, 1280x720, 30 fps | English, AAC, 2 Ch | 13h 32m | 11.14 GB
Lecturer: Stephen Ressler, Ph.D. Professor, United States Military Academy, West Point | Course No. 10540

• Heavy Plow: A wood-and-iron plow sturdy enough to break tough, heavy clay-rich soils greatly increased crop yields throughout Europe, enabling the cultivation of previously untillable land and setting the standard for plowing technology for centuries.
  
• Gunpowder Artillery: The combination of three natural substances—sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter—and metallurgical advances rendered traditional castles obsolete, shifting the balance of power. Handheld firearms had a similarly devastating effect on armored knights.
  
• Printing Press: Gutenberg's breakthrough combined several existing technologies—paper, ink, movable type, and a screw press—with his own system for casting metal type to revolutionize printing and vastly accelerate the spread of knowledge.
  

• Enabling Technologies: New systems for agriculture, textile production, ironmaking, and power generation boosted the medieval economy, leading to population growth, increased trade, and flourishing cities.
  
• Military Technologies: Military innovations such as the stirrup, the crossbow, gunpowder, siege machinery, and the full-rigged warship profoundly influenced both the conduct of warfare and the structure of society.
  
• Civil and Structural Engineering: The built world of the Middle Ages is one of the lasting glories of Europe, with magnificent cathedrals, castles, bridges, timber houses, city walls, and other structures.
  
• Mechanical Systems: Medieval craftsmen were ingenious and adaptable in their use of water, wind, and other power sources to perform a multitude of tasks—from milling grain and forging iron to sawing wood and measuring time.
  
• Surprising Legacy: One important legacy of medieval technology may be on top of your nose: eyeglasses. The modern world owes a lot to the medieval quest to improve life in fundamental ways.
  

• Salisbury Cathedral Clock: The oldest surviving mechanical clock—dated to 1386—is on display in England's Salisbury Cathedral. At its heart is the verge escapement, called "one of the most elegant solutions ever devised to a problem in mechanical engineering."
  
• Elvet Bridge: Built over the course of several decades around 1200, the Elvet Bridge in Durham, England, demonstrates the medieval mastery of the stone arch, a technique inherited and refined from Roman engineering. Eight centuries later, the bridge is still in use.
  
• Borgund Stave Church: Also constructed around 1200, the Borgund Stave Church in Norway is a rare surviving example of a traditional Scandinavian all-wood construction method. It features an elaborate structural framework supporting a steeply sloped roof that effectively sheds the ample Nordic snowfall in winter.