The Substance of Civilization: Materials and Human History from the Stone Age to the Age of SiliconSkyhorse Publishing Inc., 2011 - 328 sider The story of human civilization can be read most deeply in the materials we have found or created, used or abused. They have dictated how we build, eat, communicate, wage war, create art, travel, and worship. Some, such as stone, iron, and bronze, lend their names to the ages. Others, such as gold, silver, and diamond, contributed to the rise and fall of great empires. How would history have unfolded without glass, paper, steel, cement, or gunpowder? The impulse to master the properties of our material world and to invent new substances has remained unchanged from the dawn of time; it has guided and shaped the course of history. Sass shows us how substances and civilizations have evolved together. In antiquity, iron was considered more precious than gold. The celluloid used in movie film had its origins in the search for a substitute for ivory billiard balls. The same clay used in the pottery of antiquity has its uses in today’s computer chips. Moving from the Stone Age to the Age of Silicon, from the days of prehistoric survival to the cutting edge of nanotechnology, this fascinating and accessible book connects the worlds of minerals and molecules to the sweep of human history, and shows what materials will dominate the century ahead. |
Indhold
Introduction | |
The Ages of Stone and Clay | |
A Primer | |
Copper and Bronze | |
Gold Silver and the Rise of Empires | |
The Age of Iron | |
A Quick History of Glass | |
The Birth of Modern Metals | |
Master of Them | |
Exploding Billiard Balls and Other Polymers | |
The Superlative Substance | |
The Lesson of Nature | |
The Age of Silicon | |
Materials in the TwentyFirst Century | |
Notes | |
Building for the Ages | |
Innovations from the East | |
Stoking the Furnace of Capitalism | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |
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The Substance of Civilization: Materials and Human History from the Stone ... Stephen L. Sass Begrænset visning - 2011 |
The Substance of Civilization: Materials and Human History from the Stone ... Stephen L. Sass Begrænset visning - 2011 |
The Substance of Civilization: Materials and Human History from the Stone ... Stephen L. Sass Begrænset visning - 2011 |
Almindelige termer og sætninger
aircraft alloys aluminum archaeologists artisans atomic structure Bessemer bitumen bonds brittle bronze building called carbon carbon atoms cast iron Çatal Hüyük cellulose cellulose nitrate century B.C.E. ceramic charcoal chemical chip clay coal Common Era components composite containing cooled copper crack crystal cupellation cylinder developed diamond discovered dislocations early East eighteenth century electrical electrons empire Europe fabricated fashioned fibers fire furnaces glass glassworkers gold and silver graphite gunpowder heating Henry Bessemer high temperatures human industry innovations ions Kevlar king layer lead liquid load martensite materials scientists melting point Mesopotamia metal millennium B.C.E. minerals mines molecules molten needed nineteenth century nitrate oxide oxygen oxygen atoms particles piston plastic deformation platinum polyethylene polymer pounds produced properties reacts role Roman rubber shape silica silicon smelters smelting sodium steam engine steel stone strength substances sulfur Sumerian thin thousand tons transformed transistors weight wood yield stress Young's modulus