was found in
Winchester. The
hand axe, made by chipping flint to form a
wedge, in the hands of a human transforms force and movement of the tool into a transverse splitting forces and movement of the workpiece. The hand axe is the first example of a
wedge, the oldest of the six classic
simple machines, from which most machines are based. The second oldest simple machine was the
inclined plane (ramp), which has been used since
prehistoric times to move heavy objects. The other four simple machines were invented in the
ancient Near East. The
wheel, along with the
wheel and axle mechanism, was invented in
Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the 5th millennium BC. The
lever mechanism first appeared around 5,000 years ago in the
Near East, where it was used in a simple
balance scale, and to move large objects in
ancient Egyptian technology. The lever was also used in the
shadoof water-lifting device, the first
crane machine, which appeared in Mesopotamia , The earliest evidence of
pulleys date back to Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BC, and
ancient Egypt during the
Twelfth Dynasty (1991–1802 BC). The
screw, the last of the simple machines to be invented, Archimedes discovered the principle of
mechanical advantage in the lever. Later Greek philosophers defined the classic five simple machines (excluding the inclined plane) and were able to roughly calculate their mechanical advantage. However, the Greeks' understanding was limited to
statics (the balance of forces) and did not include
dynamics (the tradeoff between force and distance) or the concept of
work. The earliest practical
wind-powered machines, the
windmill and
wind pump, first appeared in the
Muslim world during the
Islamic Golden Age, in what are now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, by the 9th century AD. The earliest practical
steam-powered machine was a
steam jack driven by a
steam turbine, described in 1551 by
Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf in
Ottoman Egypt. The
cotton gin was invented in India by the 6th century AD, and the
spinning wheel was invented in the
Islamic world by the early 11th century, both of which were fundamental to the growth of the
cotton industry. The spinning wheel was also a precursor to the
spinning jenny. The earliest
programmable machines were developed in the Muslim world. A
music sequencer, a programmable
musical instrument, was the earliest type of programmable machine. The first music sequencer was an automated
flute player invented by the
Banu Musa brothers, described in their
Book of Ingenious Devices, in the 9th century. In 1206, Al-Jazari invented programmable
automata and
robots. He described four
automaton musicians, including drummers operated by a programmable
drum machine, where they could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns. During the
Renaissance, the dynamics of the
Mechanical Powers, as the simple machines were called, began to be studied from the standpoint of how much useful work they could perform, leading eventually to the new concept of mechanical
work. In 1586 Flemish engineer
Simon Stevin derived the mechanical advantage of the inclined plane, and it was included with the other simple machines. The complete dynamic theory of simple machines was worked out by Italian scientist
Galileo Galilei in 1600 in
Le Meccaniche ("On Mechanics"). He was the first to understand that simple machines do not create
energy, they merely transform it.
James Watt patented his
parallel motion linkage in 1782, which made the double acting steam engine practical. The
Boulton and Watt steam engine and later designs powered
steam locomotives,
steam ships, and
factories. The
Industrial Revolution was a period from 1750 to 1850 where changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times. It began in the
United Kingdom, then subsequently spread throughout
Western Europe,
North America,
Japan, and eventually the rest of the world. Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there began a transition in parts of
Great Britain's previously manual labour and draft-animal-based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of
iron-making techniques and the increased use of
refined coal. == Simple machines ==