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THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION-LOST IN ANTIQUITY-FOUND IN THE RENAISSANCE

Cort MacLean Johns, Ph.D-HSG • Boek • hardback

  • Samenvatting
    Historians of Technology have failed to include the larger contribution and influence of Ctesibius’ Compressor-driven Hydraulis and Pump in the path of critical pre-events leading up to the Industrial Revolution. This research attempts to correct that oversight analyzing the roles of the primary scientists who adopted and adapted the Hydraulis’ complex design in an initial search to reproduce this ancient musical instrument that resurfaced as an industrially viable, steam-driven prime mover in 1690, 46 years before James Watts’s birth in 1736.
  • Productinformatie
    Binding : Hardback
    Distributievorm : Boek (print, druk)
    Formaat : 210mm x 297mm
    Aantal pagina's : 489
    Uitgeverij : Cort Johns
    ISBN : 9789463458443
    Datum publicatie : 11-2019
  • Inhoudsopgave
    Table of Contents
    THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION-LOST IN ANTIQUITY-FOUND IN THE RENAISSANCE .............. 1
    INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.............................................................................................................. 5
    LOST IN ANTIQUITY-FOUND IN THE RENAISSANCE ........................................................ 5
    TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................ 10
    TABLE OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................... 14
    PREFACE ....................................................................................................................................................... 22
    INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 28
    Chapter I .......................................................................................................................................................................... 30
    The Industrial Revolution-Lost in Antiquity-Found in the Renaissance .......................................................................... 30
    Arnold Toynbee’s role in coining the phrase, “The Industrial Revolution” ..................................................................... 30
    A Steam Calliope or Engine cannot be categorically disproven in Antiquity ................................................................... 36
    Kondratieff’s Long Wave Cycle tied to Birth of the Industrial Revolution....................................................................... 38
    Kondratieff’s Waves tied to Industrial Revolution and Waves of Music Composition .................................................... 41
    The Missing Wave, Age of Mathematical Instruments, 1710/30s to 1760/80s .............................................................. 44
    Kondratieff’s First Cycle based on Commodity Price Indices ......................................................................................... 47
    Freeman’s Categorization of Kondratieff’s Long-Term Cycles........................................................................................ 47
    Cesare Marchetti’s Pattern of Basic Innovations........................................................................................................... 49
    The Enlightenment and the (Latent) Industrial Revolution: ........................................................................................... 50
    The Symbiosis of Rationality and Technology ............................................................................................................... 50
    Chapter II ......................................................................................................................................................................... 58
    Pythagoras Mathematical Cosmology and Ancient Technology .................................................................................... 58
    The Dialectic of Greek and Babylonian Cultures ........................................................................................................... 58
    The Spell of Archimedes .............................................................................................................................................. 61
    Dormant Potential of Ancient Greek Technology .......................................................................................................... 61
    Accidental Discoveries, Serendipity .............................................................................................................................. 64
    Hydraulis and its Historical Diffusion ............................................................................................................................ 66
    Music as Science for the Ancient Greeks ...................................................................................................................... 68
    Mathematical Basis of the Scale ................................................................................................................................... 70
    Role of Mystery or the Enigma effect in Greek Technology ........................................................................................... 78
    Hydraulic and Pneumatic Pipe Organs .......................................................................................................................... 80
    Ctesibius’ Hydraulis designed to function as a Calliope ................................................................................................. 83
    Chapter III ........................................................................................................................................................................ 92
    The Theater of Machines: A Technological Chronology spanning Two Millenium from Ctesibius to Branca ................... 92
    History of the Hydraulis from 250 B.C. to 1750 ............................................................................................................. 92
    Cylinder and Piston Design First applied in Pipe Organs ................................................................................................ 92
    The Bronze Metal, Roman Hydraulis of Aquincum ........................................................................................................ 94
    Royal Patronage of Music conserved Musical Instruments and Scores .......................................................................... 94
    Theater Machinarum ................................................................................................................................................... 96
    11
    History of Hydraulis Manuscripts (Codices) .................................................................................................................. 98
    Ctesibius’ “Hypomenemata” and his other Lost Manuscripts ....................................................................................... 99
    Hero of Alexandria’s Pneumatica ............................................................................................................................... 103
    The revival of Ancient Greek Mechanics ..................................................................................................................... 105
    Greek Manuscripts in Nuremberg .............................................................................................................................. 108
    Renaissance Adoption of Applied Sciences ................................................................................................................. 108
    Regiomontanus’ Sudden Death delays Italian Renaissance’s direct access to Nuremberg and its skilled Manufacturing Base................................................................................................................................................... 109
    Galileo’s Role in Merging Science and Technology ...................................................................................................... 109
    The speed of Technological Transfer in the 16th-century............................................................................................. 114
    Dutch Humanists and Scientists bring the Hydraulis back to Life ................................................................................. 116
    Papin departed on September ....................................................................................................................................... 120
    Spinoff Technology from the Hydraulis ...................................................................................................................... 123
    The Hydraulis’ Mechanical Functioning Reassessed ................................................................................................... 124
    Chapter IV ...................................................................................................................................................................... 127
    Hellenistic Greek and Roman reliance on Slave Labor ................................................................................................. 127
    Historian’s traditional Standpoint: Slavery negated demand for the Steam Engine ..................................................... 127
    Abolition of Slavery occurred in sync with the onset of the Hellenistic Period ............................................................. 129
    The Latent Industrial Revolution succeeded with the Abolition of Slavery in the United Kingdom ............................... 129
    Chapter V ....................................................................................................................................................................... 132
    Hellenistic Period Manuscripts emerge from Hibernation........................................................................................... 132
    Vitruvius and Hero’s Manuscripts resurface in the Renaissance Sicily: Translation Center for Arabic Manuscripts ....... 132
    Pivotal Episode for the Latent Industrial Revolution: .................................................................................................. 132
    Poggio Bracciolini’s Manuscript Raid at the Abbey of St. Gallen .................................................................................. 132
    Chapter VI ...................................................................................................................................................................... 137
    Renaissance of Ctesibius’ and Hero’s Technology and Science .................................................................................... 137
    Hero’s Pneumatic and Hydraulic Innovations with Air, Water, and Steam ................................................................... 137
    Ctesibius, not Hero of Alexandria, likely invented the Aeolipile .................................................................................. 138
    Hero conducted research for Alternative Energy for Human Beings and Animals ........................................................ 149
    Feldhaus, Frotscher, and Perrot disagree with Pollux, Somerset, and Malmsbury: The Hydraulis ‘never’ functioned with Boiling Water or Steam ...................................................................................................................................... 153
    Steam Organs or Hydraulis observed in the Middle Ages ............................................................................................ 153
    Technical Prerequisites for an Industrial Revolution ................................................................................................... 156
    Chapter VII ..................................................................................................................................................................... 161
    History of Mathematical Instruments ......................................................................................................................... 161
    Mathematical Instrument Technology First applied in Carillon Foundries ................................................................... 161
    Preservation of Organ Building Technology ................................................................................................................ 162
    Columbus and the Scientific Revolution ..................................................................................................................... 165
    Ian Morris, “Three Big Things” ................................................................................................................................... 168
    Alexander the Great and the Beginning of Hellenistic Period in Alexandria ................................................................. 169
    Helenization in Hybernation ...................................................................................................................................... 170
    Earlier Industrial Renaissance in Bohemia .................................................................................................................. 170
    Last Days of the Byzantine Empire ............................................................................................................................. 171
    The First Publication of “De Architectura” .................................................................................................................. 178
    Vitruvius in 15th-Century Nuremberg and Central Europe ........................................................................................... 189
    Hellenistic Alexandria’s Theme Park inspired Hadrian’s Tivoli, and Cardinal Ippolito II’s Villa d’Este ............................ 191
    The Italian Renaissance and Villa d’Este ..................................................................................................................... 195
    Chapter VIII .................................................................................................................................................................... 197
    Leonardo da Vinci: Draws on the Hydraulis and Contributes to the Future ................................................................. 197
    Vitruvius’ Hydraulis found in Da Vinci’s Codex ............................................................................................................ 197
    Da Vinci and Luco Pacioli ........................................................................................................................................... 223
    Vitruvius’ Influence on Da Vinci, and Helmholtz ......................................................................................................... 227
    Leonardo da Vinci’s Hydraulis-Inspired Organ Pipe Canon .......................................................................................... 228
    Da Vinci, Cardan, Porta, Branca, and de Caus, the Neo-Pneumaticists ........................................................................ 230
    12
    Chapter IX ...................................................................................................................................................................... 237
    Solving the Hydraulis’ function by designing in Check Valves ...................................................................................... 237
    Hero’s Aeolipile, an Amusement Novelty, not a Steam Engine .................................................................................... 237
    Johann Mathesius and the Joachimsthal Silver Mine Technology................................................................................ 238
    Barbaro, Commandini, Kircher, and Schott, searching for the Hydraulis...................................................................... 239
    Vitruvius and the Dutch Humanists ............................................................................................................................ 242
    Vitruvius’ Check Valves key to unlocking Hydraulis’ Enigma ........................................................................................ 244
    Perrault’s Analysis of Vitruvius at the Académie des Sciences in 1673 ........................................................................ 247
    Origins of Western Scientific Development ................................................................................................................ 252
    Vitruvius and Hero’s Mechanical Innovations inspired Papin and Leibniz, to Change the ........................................... 252
    World with the First Steam Engine Prototypes in post-Hellenistic Period Times .......................................................... 252
    Reber’s Secret Analysis of Vitruvius’ Hydraulis for Prussian Government .................................................................... 258
    Chapter X ....................................................................................................................................................................... 266
    Da Vinci and other Contemporaries turn to Steam for Experimentation ..................................................................... 266
    Da Vinci’s Vacuum Experiments inspired the later Pneumaticists ............................................................................... 266
    Taqī al-Dīn preceded Branca’s early Steam Turbine Experimentation ......................................................................... 267
    Jerónimo de Ayanz and a short-lived Industrial Revolution in Spain ............................................................................ 268
    Cornelis Drebbel and his Steam-Vacuum Experiment ................................................................................................. 270
    Von Güricke’s Revival of Ctesibius’ Pneumatic and Hydraulic Pumps .......................................................................... 272
    Von Güricke’s Vacuum Experiments ........................................................................................................................... 273
    Hydraulis inspires Latent Industrial Revolution Musical Instruments........................................................................... 274
    Chapter XI ...................................................................................................................................................................... 276
    Papin and Leibniz’ Genius create the First Steam Engine Prototypes .......................................................................... 276
    Vacuum Steam Mechanics versus Direct-Pressure and Siphons .................................................................................. 276
    Search for Origins of the Papin/Leupold Direct-Pressure Systems ............................................................................... 276
    Research conducted by Dr. Georg Volckamer ............................................................................................................. 278
    Bach’s Familiarity with the Hydraulis.......................................................................................................................... 280
    Bach’s Presence in Cassel-Hessen to St. Joachimsthal from 1714 – 1720 .................................................................... 283
    Bach’s Contributing Role in the Industrial Revolution ................................................................................................. 285
    Culture meets Technology in Leipzig’s Golden Age ..................................................................................................... 286
    Frederick the Great and Saxony’s Role in Delaying the German Industrial Revolution ................................................. 291
    H.W. Dickinson’s Analysis of Denis Papin and James Watt .......................................................................................... 293
    Joseph Needham’s Research ...................................................................................................................................... 295
    Chapter XII ..................................................................................................................................................................... 301
    Papin and Leibniz exchange notes while inventing the Steam Engine.......................................................................... 301
    Nuremberg’s Engineering School exposed Vitruvius and Hero to Students ................................................................. 301
    Contacts between Cassel and Leipzig: Leibniz, Bach, and Wolff (1712 to 1724) ........................................................... 303
    Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz’ Influence on Denis Papin ............................................................................................ 304
    Papin’s Claim for the Invention of the First Steam Engines ......................................................................................... 304
    Papin’s Direct Pressure Steam Engine Designs and Technology relate closely to Jakob Leupold’s Direct Pressure Steam Engine Designs in Leipzig ................................................................................................................................. 305
    Leibniz and Newton’s Interest in Pythagoras’ Musical and Mathematical Instruments ................................................ 306
    Papin: A Case of Mysterious Disappearance ............................................................................................................... 308
    Chapter XIII .................................................................................................................................................................... 316
    Reasons to support that Ctesibius adapted his Hydraulis as a Steam Engine ............................................................... 316
    Ctesibius’ Hydraulis not credited as a precursor of the Steam Engine ......................................................................... 316
    Moncony witnesses Pressurized Fire Extinguisher in Antwerp in 1663 ........................................................................ 317
    Leibniz parlays a Johann Hautsch Fire Engine for entry to the Académie des Sciences in Paris .................................... 318
    Ctesibius and Hero of Alexandria inspired Hautsch to build a High-Pressure Fire Extinguisher..................................... 320
    Five-Fold Operating Capability of Hydraulis ................................................................................................................ 327
    Swiss Expert’s Confirmation of Hydraulis Steam Operating Potential .......................................................................... 330
    Chapter XIV .................................................................................................................................................................... 332
    James Watt begins Career building Pipe Organs ......................................................................................................... 332
    James Watt draws on Music Theory to first Construct Pipe Organs ............................................................................. 332
    Ctesibius and Watt: Kindred Engineering Geniuses, Two Millennia Apart.................................................................... 335
    13
    Watt learned German to read Leupold’s “Theatrum Machinarium” ............................................................................ 338
    Watt’s 1769 Patent Direct-Pressure Steam Engine Progress ....................................................................................... 341
    Evans’ Patent Application: First for Direct-Pressure Steam Engine .............................................................................. 343
    Chapter XV ..................................................................................................................................................................... 344
    Origins of the Industrial Era ....................................................................................................................................... 344
    English Monarchy Hanoverian and the Continental Technological Transfer Network .................................................. 344
    Leibniz’s Database/Network for the Latent Industrial Revolution ............................................................................... 347
    Johann Mattheson’s Contacts with the British Privy Council ....................................................................................... 348
    George Ist established Freemasonry in England .......................................................................................................... 349
    James Watt: Organ Builder, Instrument Maker, and Free Mason ................................................................................ 350
    University of Glasgow’s Missing Library and the Royal Society of London’s Missing Documents .................................. 351
    Toynbee’s (Latent) Industrial Revolution .................................................................................................................... 355
    Thorsten Veblen and the Industrial Revolution........................................................................................................... 357
    Japan’s Classical Music Tradition ................................................................................................................................ 358
    Chapter XVI .................................................................................................................................................................... 359
    Summary and Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 360
    About the Author’s Professional Academic Musicians Family ........................................................................................ 370
    Malcolm MacLean Johns. Mus.D., h.c. by the University of Detroit by the Order of Ignatius Loyola ............................ 370
    Thor Martin Johnson, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Academy of Music and Northwestern University Orchestra Director ..................................................................................................................................................... 372
    Marian Johnson Johns, B.Mus., School Music Teacher, Choir Director, Translator ....................................................... 374
    Christopher Kabala, M. Mus. Virtuoso Pianist and Organist, Julliard School of Music Instructor, Carnegie Hall Performer.................................................................................................................................................................. 375
    Cort MacLean Johns, Ph.D.-HSG, Industrial Archaeologist, Economist, Author ............................................................ 376
    Reviews and Confirmations ............................................................................................................................................ 377
    Rial E. Hamann, B.S.M.E. ............................................................................................................................................ 377
    Siegfried Jud, Swiss Mathematical Instrument Maker ................................................................................................. 378
    Judith Heseltine, British Academic (Ret’d.) ................................................................................................................. 380
    Summary of Appendices, A to G ..................................................................................................................................... 381
    Appendix A: Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (Naturalis historia)........................................................................... 382
    Appendix B: List, Date and Location of Da Vinci’s 10 known Codices ........................................................................... 384
    Appendix C: Giambattista della Porta “I tre libri de spiritali” The First Steam Pump in Modern Times ......................... 385
    Appendix D: “Die Geschichte der Bibliothek St. Gallen seit ihrer Gründung um das Jahr 830 is auf 1841”.................... 386
    Appendix E: Dueling Flautists: Musical Competition of the Prussian and British Monarchies ....................................... 391
    Appendix F: Architecture Hydraulique ........................................................................................................................ 392
    Author. M. Bernard Forest de Bélidor .......................................................................................................................... 392
    Appendix G: Claim to First Priority ............................................................................................................................. 395
    See Theater Machinarum in chapter III above ............................................................................................................ 397
    Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................... 398
    INDEX ......................................................................................................................................................... 421
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Fragment

Preface
Some 30 years have now elapsed since I first had that Eureka moment for my dissertation theme. Furthermore, 27 years since the Dissertation Committee at the Hochschule St. Gallen, Switzerland accepted the original edition of this book’s treatise, for the school’s dissertation requirement in completion of his doctor’s degree in economics in April 1992.

The subject of that dissertation was one that I conjured up himself beginning in 1988, much to the consternation of the professors involved in reviewing its defense save for his dissertation supervisor, Professor Dr. Theo Leuenburger. He was supportive in allowing me to continue with my theme and in sharing his knowledge of Chinese technology and that of the great Joseph Needham, who has since passed away.

The title of my dissertation, “Technology, Culture, and Creativity: Factors Connecting Invention and Scientific Discovery” remained the same, admittedly an ambitious one that he chose as a doctoral candidate at that time.

This treatise remains to date the earliest account of the evolution of the steam engine from the Hellenistic Period in Greece, continuously from Ctesibius, Hero of Alexandria and Philo of Alexandria to Papin, Savery, Newcomen, Leupold, up through James Watt and Oliver Evans. See Appendix G.

The retention of this title remains an epistemological challenge that goes beyond a requisite knowledge of a few languages such as Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, Dutch, and English. One’s English comprehension alone would make this undertaking nearly impossible. However, my previous studies in German and Dutch, as well as some high school Latin and night school French, encouraged me to take on this task. A better knowledge of French would have been most useful. At times, I relied on academic associates and friends to translate a few relevant paragraphs from French and Italian into English as well as Internet confirmations more recently.

In my mind, the short-lived first ‘Industrial Revolution” emerged with Ctesibius' brilliant invention starting circa 270 B.C. and ended after the Roman army under Octavian defeated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra of Ptolemaic Greece subsequent to the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C.

In dealing with similar bibliographical materials, requiring so many philological skills, I recommend for those venturing onto further research on this subject, that they seriously consider working as a team of at least two multi-lingual scholars and one expert in mechanical engineering. I have been fortunate to have consulted with Rial E. Hamann, a professional mechanical engineer with dozens of years of applicable experience, in reviewing the mechanical potential of the known artifacts of Ctesibius’ Pneumatic Hydraulis qua Steam Hydraulis.

The next possible barrier to future research is the longitudinal scope of this subject, starting with the death of Alexander the Great in 321 B.C. and 270 B.C. when Ctesibius flourished and extending at least until circa 1830 with Oliver Evans, ergo a span of about 2,100 years. The epiphany of envisioning a possible connection between Ctesibius of Alexandria (Ktesibios Κτησίβιος ο Αλεξανδρεύς) Hydraulis (Ύδραυλις) and James Watt’s augmented steam engine came to me as an inductive leap while working with Chris Freeman and Luc Soete at M.E.R.I.T. in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

This connection occurred to me when I first learned that Watt had built at least two pipe organs as a mathematical instrument maker in Glasgow, one for Joseph Black and one for his local Masonic Lodge. Watt built these musical instruments shortly before heading to London, England to start his very remarkable career in steam engine mechanics and engineering.

Of course, Ctesibius’ writings are all lost and likely buried in the ruins and ashes of the libraries of Alexandria and Athens. Fortunately, a few of Philo of Byzantium and Hero of Alexandria’s sketches remain, resolutely to affirm that no one other than Ctesibius of Alexandria can lay claim to the invention of the Hydraulis. However, by fortuitous circumstances, Vitruvius’ “De architectura” (“The Ten Books of Architecture”) survived with the finding of its entire Latin manuscript in St. Gallen (575 years before I arrived there), and shortly after the Council of Constance (1414-1418). “De architectura” details the Hydraulis, its parts, and subassemblies, but not how its internal works functioned. In speculation, one or more of the internal parts of the Hydraulis that Vitruvius’ description omits may have kept many technically-oriented readers of Vitruvius interested in attempting to determine how the Hydraulis functioned over the next 2 millennia. With the artifactual discoveries of one Hydraulis from Roman times in 1931 and another one unearthed in Dion, Greece, near Mt. Olympus in 1992, concerns regarding the Hydraulis being a narrative fiction by Vitruvius dissipated from the historical inquiry.

The Ancient Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle, had an open dislike for work done through manual labor. For him the mind alone was necessary, even Archimedes was satisfied to think continuously of the mathematics underlying his many famous inventions, while Ctesibius was more the “hands-on” mechanic, who preferred to see his inventions through to final construction and functioning. The general Greek contempt for technology did not prove to be a fatal flaw for the Hellenistic Period their demise can at the hands of Roman conquests and the dismantling of its budding industrial base by early Christians. The Romans were not able to repeat their mechanical inventiveness in theory or practice. The Greek conquerors, the Romans, were fond of making things manually as it was an integral part of their culture. They built impressive stone and cement buildings like the Pantheon, the Roman Colosseum, and the Amphitheater at Nimes as well as superb bridges, roads, and canals. The Romans were able to defeat the Greeks with the products of their artisan, manual crafts; ships, a wide array of mechanical weapons, armaments and an accumulated repertoire of superior warfare tactics soundly grounded in the earth as were their deep horizontal roads build like walls. They had open disdain for Greek theoretical mathematics and for Greeks, whom they perceived as preferring to live in Ivory Towers of contemplation.

Had the Greeks thought to apply their knowledge of mathematics and science to their advanced military technology, their cities may have survived the attack, first by the Romans and later the Ottoman Turks and even Western European crusaders in 1204.


The Roman armies and navies destroyed much of our Hellenistic Period legacy but not all of it. The Archbishop Theopholis I of Alexandria destroyed the Serapeum Greek Temple in the year 391. Bishop Cyril fermented a mob in 415 brutally to flay away her skin murdering Hypatia of Alexandria, a Greek philosophy teacher, and daughter of the Greek mathematician, Theon. After the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, only two important manuscript collections of Hellenistic Greece remain extant, one in Constantinople, where papyrus and parchment manuscripts still exist and the other in the House of Wisdom’s historical collection in Bagdad. There they house a similar collection translated from Greek and Latin into Arabic but also largely destroyed:

Along with all the other libraries in Baghdad, the House of Wisdom was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258 – it was said that the waters of the Tigris ran black for six months with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river.

Even before the Byzantine Empire fell in 1453, Gutenberg anticipated the demand for a technology that would make it possible to spread the influx of these Greek manuscripts in 1439 with the invention of the first movable type printing press. Trustees of the failing Byzantine Empire manuscripts began transferring their cultural treasures to Venice, Rome, and Florence or Prague and St. Gallen in the Western Hemisphere beginning in the 14th-century. From these exiled literary treasures, the Renaissance sunk its first roots in Italy. Afterward, as printing emerges in Germany, Vitruvius’ “De architectura” comes first in Latin to academics in France, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and the United States, where industrialism followed in its path.

It was not until after World War II and the realization of the power of nuclear physics that science and technology would act as a conventional force, always embodied in all future scientific and industrial undertakings.

Time is like a river, binds the Hydraulis of Antiquity with the icon of the Industrial Age, the Steam Engine, as Ariadne’s Red Thread holds the two ends together like bookends on the shelf of the history of technology from Antiquity through to the Renaissance.

This treatise connects technology with science in the various historical contexts of cultures through time. Beginning with the Ancient Greeks and Romans through to the Middle-Ages, to the Age of Reason, and the Enlightenment, it focuses on the path of the Hydraulis, as brilliant inquirers attempted to pry open the secret nature of the engine of steam and music, ergo, the likelihood of a Steam Hydraulis in Antiquity.

Interestingly, the footprint of the roadmap that Greek manuscripts followed, starting in the 14th and 15th-centuries, coincides closely with the European core path of the industrial area or Megalopolis, or even the whimsical appellation of 'The Blue Banana. Gert-Jan Hospers relates, “For centuries, this banana-shaped metropolitan axis running from London to Milan has been Europe's breeding place for innovation and growth.”

Although I disagree with the location of Hosper’s starting point of his “Axis,” beginning in London and ending in Milan, the ‘Blue Banana’ and the diffusion route of Hellenistic technology are essentially alike. Conversely, a full factual argument is made that the latent Industrial Revolution started in Italy and transversed northward through France, Germany, Holland, and then England.

Figure 1 Hosper’s “Blue Banana” (2002) Figure 2 Ludwig Schätzl’s Diagram (1993)
The technological diffusion of Vitruvius and Hero’s manuscripts, translations, and printed publications provided technical information for the revived construction of the Hydraulis and the Fire Engine along its chronological path of diffusion from Venice to London and beyond. However, this path may have originated in St. Gallen after the Council of Constance (1414-1418) with Poggio Bracciolini’s raid on its Abbey Library. Hero of Alexandria’s Hydraulis rendering appears to have been preserved over more than a millennium (Figure 107b). However, Vitruvius’ “Ten Books of Architecture” provides only the Latin description with no extant original images or mention of its requisite check values, which were necessary for it to function.

This similarity of the path taken by Vitruvius’ “Ten Books of Architecture” and the path of the “Blue Banana” of industrial development is more than only a circumstantial coincidence. Certainly, if the Hellenistic technologies’ diffusion path did not closely align with the European Megapolis of today, critics would object that they should overlap to assist in validating the influence of the Hydraulis from the past.

Since the time that Ctesibius fabricated the first organ pipes in the 3rd-century B.C., for the past 25 years, the I doubt if anyone could have predicted the impact that modern organ builders would apply Additive Manufacturing technology (popularly known as 3D Printing) to the long-standing tradition of handcrafted organ pipe fabrication. Nor was the predication of an Allen, non-pipe electronic organ in the Basilica of the Vatican in 2017. However, organ builders now fabricate organ pipes with 3D Printing and CAD software programs. They employ 3D Printing of these pipes not to improve on the long history of this artisan craft, but rather to preserve the prior works of their building art. 3D scanners now scan pipes hundreds of years old that have worn down or deteriorated over time, so that restorators can accurately and speedily fabricate exact pipe replicas with 3D printers. This technological advancement will allow organ restoration specialists to return historic organs to their original condition and at much lower reproduction costs when compared with their prior restoration techniques.

The most important message from Antiquity is that there is no guaranty that scientific and technological progress will continue to build upon a once established base. That is unless civilization has maintained its capability of not losing the basic information to recreate such assets. Moreover, to recover seemingly lost technologies, civilization must be able to restore previous levels of technical development. After the fall of the Hellenistic Period in 391 A.D., a significant and not wholly known body of Hellenistic Technology may still be missing. Technological regression takes place when insufficient documentation or artifacts survive to resurrect previously viable technologies, scientific information, and mathematical formulations. These factors are required to reproduce or improve technologies to a fully functioning status.

Furthermore, certain sociopathic dimensions of human nature arise in the pursuit of personal financial gain, fame or political power, not only devoid of empathy for their fellow human beings but focused on the preservation of the scientific and technological personal reputations and national heritage claims for their provenance.

The negative barbaric behavior that destroyed the libraries of Alexandria, the burning of the House of Wisdom in Bagdad by Mongol invaders and those responsible for carrying off the precious manuscripts from the St. Gallen Bibliothek, as if they were nothing more than the spoils of an undeclared war, are still with us. There are no signs that our nature has further evolved and that there are too many of us who have not curbed their primitive destructive instincts. These are not yet capable of understanding the categorical imperative for us to hold on to and protect the fragile scientific and technological treasures that separate us from our beastly past “red in tooth and claw.”
As one still learns on a regular basis that some crazed individual or group has wantonly destroyed another artifact or manuscript, one must remind oneself of this heritage as it is today, may not be there as one wakes tomorrow.
Cort MacLean Johns, Ph.D.-HSG
Meerssen, the Netherlands, November 18, 2019 ×
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