Download Free Mine Pumping In Agricolas Time And Later Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Mine Pumping In Agricolas Time And Later and write the review.

This book is the text of a paper about the history of mining machinery and, in particular, mine pumps. The Agricola referred to is Georgius Agricola a German engineer born in 1494. He was one of the most famous mining engineers known in the medieval world. The author gleaned a lot of information from coinage depicting mining activity.
As Dr Needham's immense undertaking gathers momentum it has been found necessary to subdivide volumes into parts, each to be bound and published separately. The first part of Volume 4, already published, deals with the physical sciences; the second with the diverse applications of physics in the many branches of mechanical engineering; and the third will deal with civil and hydraulic engineering and nautical technology. With this part of Volume 4, then, we come to the application by the Chinese of physical principles in the control of forces and in the use of power; we cross the frontier separating tools from the machine. We have already noticed that the ancient Chinese concept of chhi (somewhat similar to the pneuma of the Greeks) asserted itself prominently in acoustics; but we discover here that the Chinese tendency to think pneumatically was also responsible for a whole range of brilliant technological achievements, for example, the double-acting piston-bellows, the rotary winnowing-fan, and the water-powered metallurgical blowing-machine (ancestor of the steam-engine); as well as for some extraordinary insights and predictions in aeronautics.
Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.