Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World Summary

Technology has advanced rapidly and undeterred over the course of the last few centuries. Along with new innovation comes the thought of not just how we achieved it, but also the societal influences around it. Friedel writes that a large factor in innovation is the “capture” of some innovation(4). He describes capture as “the means by which an improvement becomes not simply an ephemeral, contingent act or product, but part of a sustained series of changes”(4) or in simple terms, normalizing the advancement of something. His book A Culture of Improvement Technology and the Western Millennium(2010) moves on to not mention it, holding it as self evident, even in the writings of others. Friedel wrote of how the British began the capture of steam pressure in the early 1700s. It was commonplace at the time to hear of new methods to transport water as it was without mechanization in mines, where it was necessary(Friedel, 191). Thomas Savery, in pursuit of innovation, began with his attempts …show more content…
The 19th century was when science truly began to shine and envelop life. During the early 1800s the majority of ships were carried by wind and constructed by wood, Brunel saw this as space for improvement(Cadbury, 2). Brunel was a trusted engineer and used that credibility to consecutively build the two largest steamships of his time(Cadbury, 3). It was after those feats that Brunel set out with Scott Russell to construct the Great Eastern. Over time the Great Eastern, or Leviathan, became the center of Britain’s attention with “Men and women of all classes [joining] together in one amicable pilgrimage to the East”(Cadbury, 18) Brunel’s steamships were known far and wide. The ship lost the reason for its construction with the opening of the suez canal(Cadbury, 38), the Great Eastern gave metal hulls and steamships the attention they needed to complete their