The Medieval Roots of Colonial Iron
Manufacture Technology
Introduction | Medieval
Iron | Medieval Blacksmith | Colonial
Iron | Colonial Blacksmith | Conclusion
Conclusion
The story of the transfer of iron manufacture technology from medieval
Europe to the American colonies is a prime example of human nature and
the fact that, without an outside factor necessitating technological
change, none will be initiated. The ingenuity of medieval man had perfected
an iron manufacture system that translated aptly to colonial resources
and skill. This wealth of technological knowledge was not without its
negative repercussions, however, namely its effects on the environment
and its lack of long-term sustainability. Medieval man had scarcely
begun to counter the environmental problems of deforestation and air
and water pollution and, as is the way with history, these faults were
also passed on to the heirs, a problem still needed to be dealt with
today. Their lack of foresight in the use of natural resources would
eventually lead the colonists' descendants to fall into the same dilemma
as the early modern Europeans, thereby forcing them into the inevitable
race to catch up technologically.
Cited and Recommended Reading
-
Avery, Ron. "America's First Bank Robbery,"
Carpenter's Hall: Historic Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, http://www.ushistory.org/carpentershall/history/robbery.htm
As viewed on December 7, 2005.
-
Bechman, Trees and Man: The Forest in the
Middle Ages, Translated by Katharyn Dunham. New York, 1990.
-
Bridenbaugh, Carl. The Colonial Craftsman,
University of Chicago: Chicago, 1950.
-
Bromehead, C. N. "Mining and Quarrying to
the Seventeenth Century" pp. 1-40 in A History of Technology,
vol. 2. eds. A.R. Hall, E.J. Holmyard, Charles Singer & Trevor
I. Williams. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1957.
-
Carroll, Charles F. "The Forest Society
of New England" pp. 13-36 in America's Wooden Age: Aspects
of Its Early Technology, ed. Brooke Hindle. Sleepy Hollow
Restorations: Tarrytown, NY, 1975.
-
Cipolla, Carlo. Before the Industrial Revolution,
New York, 1980.
-
Cipolla, Carlo. European Culture and Overseas
Expansion, London, 1970.
-
Daumas, Maurice, ed. A History of Technology
and Invention: Progress Through the Ages, Vols. I and II. Translated
by Eileen B. Hennessy. New York, 1970.
-
Eggert, Gerald G. Making Iron on the Bald
Eagle: Roland Curtin's Ironworks and Workers' Community, University
Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.
-
Eggert, Gerald G. The Iron Industry in Pennsylvania,
Camp Hill, PA: Pennsylvania Historical Association, 1994.
-
Forbes, R. J. Man the Maker: A History of
Technology and Engineering, London, 1958.
-
Forbes, R.J. "Power" pp. 589-628 in
A History of Technology, vol. 2. eds. A.R. Hall, E.J. Holmyard,
Charles Singer & Trevor I. Williams. Oxford University Press:
Oxford, 1957.
-
Freneau, Phillip. Poems Written between the
Years 1768 & 1794, ed. by Lewis Leary. Delmar, NY: Scholars'
Facsimiles & Reprints, 1976.
-
Geddes, Jane. "Iron," pp. 168-173 in
English Medieval Industries, eds. John W. Blair and Nigel Ramsay.
London, 1990.
-
Gies, Frances & Joseph. Cathedral, Forge
and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages, Harper
Collins, 1994.
-
Gordon, Robert B. "Custom and Consequence:
Early Nineteenth-Century Origins of
Hawthorne, John G. & Cyril Stanley Smith.
On Divers Arts: the Treatise of Theophilus, Chicago, 1963.
-
Hindle, Brooke. "The Exhilaration of Early
American Technology: An Essay" pp. 40-67 in Early American
Technology: Making & Doing Things from the Colonial Era to 1850,
ed. Judith A. McGaw. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1994.
-
Kauffman, Henry J. Metalworking Trades in
Early America, Mendham, New Jersey: Astragal Press, 1995.
-
Lasansky, Jeannette. To Draw, Upset and Weld:
The Work of the Pennsylvania Rural Blacksmith, 1742-1935, Lewisburg,
PA: Union County Historical Society, 1980.
-
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Children's
Own Longfellow, Houghton Mifflin: 1908.
-
Moxon, Joseph. Mechanick Exercises or the
Doctrine of Handy Works, London: Printed for D. Midwinter and
Thos. Leigb, 1703 or 1683.
-
Nef, J.U. "Coal Mining and Utilization"
pp. 72-88 in A History of Technology, vol. 3. eds. A.R. Hall,
E.J. Holmyard, Charles Singer & Trevor I. Williams. Oxford University
Press: Oxford, 1957.
-
Olsen, Alexandra H. & Burton Raffel, eds.
Poems and Prose from the Old English, New Haven: Yale University,
1988.
-
Paskoff, Paul F. Industrial Evolution,Organization,
Structure and Growth of the Pen-nsylvania Iron Industry, 1750-1860.
Baltimore & London, 1983.
-
Reynolds, Terry S. Stronger Than a Hundred
Men: A History of the Vertical Water Wheel, Baltimore, 1983.
-
Ross, Carl. "Forest Protection Bill Gaining
Momentum" Save America's Forests News Release, July 14,
1999. http://www.saveamericasforests.org/news/Release071499.htm
As viewed on November 16, 2005.
-
Sisco, Anneliese G. & C.S. Smith, trans.
and annot. Bergwerk- und Probierbuechlein, American Institute
of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers: New York, 1949.
-
Speed, Peter, ed. Those Who Worked: An Anthology
of Medieval Sources, Italica Press: New York, 1997.
the Environmental and Social Costs of Mining
Anthracite" pp. 240-277 in Early American Technology: Making
& Doing Things from the Colonial Era to 1850, ed. Judith A.
McGaw. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1994.
-
Tunis, Edwin. Colonial Craftsmen and the Beginnings
of American Industry, World Publishing Company: Cleveland, 1965
.
-
White, Jr., Lynn. Medieval Religion and Technology,
University of California, 1978.
-
Whitney, Elspeth. Medieval Science and Technology,
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.
-
-
-
-
[back] Forbes, Man the Maker 117
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
[back] Speed 83: An indenture made in 1459 from the
Records of the County of Cornwall.
-
[back] Speed 169: From Camden Society, Italian Relation
of England
-
-
-
-
[back] Speed 80-81. From British Museum , Arundel
MS 292.
-
[back] Speed 98. From Sermons,
-
-
-
-
[back] Eggert, Iron Industry in Pennsylvania
23
-
-
[back] Eggert, Iron Industry in Pennsylvania
24
-
-
-
-
-
[back] Cipolla, European Culture and Overseas Expansion
16
-
-
-
-
-
[back] Cipolla, Before the Industrial Revolution
112
-
-
[back] For an excellent description of the extent of
the colonists' and later Americans' dependence on wood, see the
singular text, America's Wooden Age, edited by Brooke Hindle.
-
[back] Hindle, "The Exhilaration of Early American
Technology" 64-65
-
-
-
[back] Ross, quote from Senator Torricelli
-
-
-
-
-
-
[back] For more details on the story of America's first
bank robbery, see Ron Avery's article on the Independence Hall Association's
web site: http://www.ushistory.org/carpentershall/history/robbery.htm.
-
-
-
[back] For a discussion on the vagueness surrounding
the duties of the whitesmith, see Kauffman 81.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
|
