Do you know your history ?

[sAsLEX]

Then people were asked if they knew what started the industrial revoluton (i've posted on it here before) - the weaving frame in the early 1800s was the answer. The next question was what preceeded it and craftsmanship was the answer to that.

well would have to say the steam engine played a major part, as in the one in the pic

The development of the steam engine started the industrial revolution in Great Britain. The steam engine was created to pump water from coal mines, enabling them to be deepened.

[Oscar]

Not necessarily - I love that song too, and I never weren't no hippy!

Hehehe - so did I.
Cool man...

[edit] Here's a picture of Motu relaxing at home..

[ManDownUnder]

Read "Connections" by James Burke.

A really interesting book about how one invention lead to the abilities to do various things, which in turn spawned other inventions etc etc.

Easy to read and some amasing stories in there.

It's not a 100% complete recount of history (it's be a bloody big book), but picks out some major contributors of the last couple of thousand years

MDU

[Oscar]

Read "Connections" by James Burke.

A really interesting book about how one invention lead to the abilities to do various things, which in turn spawned other inventions etc etc.

Easy to read and some amasing stories in there.

It's not a 100% complete recount of history (it's be a bloody big book), but picks out some major contributors of the last couple of thousand years

MDU

This was a TV series as well. Bloody amazing.

[ManDownUnder]

This was a TV series as well. Bloody amazing.

yeah that's the one. Quite cool really...

[Wolf]

This was a TV series as well. Bloody amazing.

Used to love that series. Showing that things cannot exist in a vacuum - there had to be certain things in place in order for sometone to be able to make the leap of creativity that resulted in...

I would love to get the whole Connections series on DVD and have it on hand for my kids when they get older. Will definitely have to buy the book.

[Wolf]

My knowledge of history now exceeds what I was taught in school because I have an interest in history and have read up on various periods that interest me. My overview of the Industrial Revolution is sketchy, hardly more than what we covered at school, yet my knowledge of the development of the steam engine and the early steam traction engines and trains is more in-depth.

I often wonder what they teach at school these days as I know one lass in her late 20s who was only vaguely aware that we'd had a couple of world wars and that they were consecutively numbered, she had no idea of the pressures that lead up to them or that the spark that finally ignited WWI was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. When I was at college in the 3rd and 4th forms we were shown footage of the Nazis hanging Russian Soldiers and propaganda films of happy German Soldiers frolicking naked in the snow on the Russian Front - which was a more in-depth addition to what we learned about WWII prior to college. We learned all about the socio-economic climate that facilitated Hitler's rise to power and assisted his fear-mongering and blame-laying. Admittedly I have learned more since then, but we certainly came away from school more than vaguely aware of WWI and WWII.

And even the ones who hated history and science remembered who Copernicus was (admittedly this was because one of the guys saw the name on the board and said "So who's Copper Knickers?"

You'd have to have been dead not to get his name fixed in your brain after that event.

[ManDownUnder]

And even the ones who hated history and science remembered who Copernicus was (admittedly this was because one of the guys saw the name on the board and said "So who's Copper Knickers?"

He'd be Nickle Arses mate (Nicholas) wouldn't he?