Q7 of 16 Page 13

The industrial revolution in England and Western Europe more than two centuries ago was triggered by some key scientific and technological advances. What were these advances?

The industrial revolution starts in England and Western Europe in mid-18th Century. Its main contributions are inventions to perform work in effective and efficient manner. Some of them are,


1. Blast Furnace


It is the closed type of furnace which is capable of generating high temperatures. It is used to convert Iron into steel which is most widely used element nowadays.


2. Cotton Jenney


It is said to be a most valuable invention in the 18th century because it reduces time to collect cotton from cotton flowers. It is almost 300 times efficient than a normal hand.


3. Steam engine


Steam engine invented by James Watt. It revolutionizes the transport system which ultimately leads to connectivity between countries. So, different peoples, cultures and their ideas mingle to form revolutionary products and inventions to the modern world.



Fig. Steam Engine James Watt_1784


There are many other inventions that are outcomes of the industrial revolution which pave the path for modern technology.


More from this chapter

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5

No physicist has ever “seen” an electron. Yet, all physicists believe in the existence of electrons. An intelligent but superstitious man advances this analogy to argue that ‘ghosts’ exist even though no one has ‘seen’ one. How will you refute his argument?

 6

The shells of crabs found around a particular coastal location in Japan seem mostly to resemble the legendary face of a Samurai. Given below are two explanations of this observed fact. Which of these strikes you as a scientific explanation?

A. A tragic sea accident several centuries ago drowned a young Samurai. As a tribute to his bravery, nature through its inscrutable ways immortalized his face by imprinting it on the crab shells in that area.


B. After the sea tragedy, fishermen in that area, in a gesture of honor to their dead hero, let free any crab shell caught by them which accidentally had a shape resembling the face of a Samurai. Consequently, the particular shape of the crab shell survived longer and therefore in course of time the shape was genetically propagated. This is an example of evolution by artificial selection.


[Note: This interesting illustration is taken from Carl Sagan’s ‘The Cosmos’ highlights the fact that often strange and inexplicable facts which on the first sight appear ‘supernatural’ actually turn out to have simple scientific explanations. Try to think out other examples of this kind].

 8

It is often said that the world is witnessing now a second industrial revolution, which will transform the society as radically as did the first. List some key contemporary areas of science and technology, which are responsible for this revolution.

 9

Write in about 1000 words a fiction piece based on your speculation on the science and technology of the twenty-second century.