Medieval & Renaissance
Mechanical clocks, gunpowder, printing press, telescope, microscope. The instruments that turn natural philosophy into modern science.
Part of First
6 moments in this segment.
- - Gunpowder. Tang Dynasty Chinese alchemists looking for an elixir of life discover the saltpeter-charcoal-sulfur formula. Weaponised within 200 years, reaches Europe by 1300.
- - Mechanical Clock. The verge-and-foliot escapement, possibly first installed in Dunstable Priory, England. Clock towers spread across European cities; the 24-hour day becomes a measurable, divisible unit.
- - Printing Press. Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz prints the 42-line Bible using movable type cast from a lead-tin-antimony alloy. Within 50 years there are 28,000 different books in print across Europe.
- - Telescope. Hans Lippershey of the Netherlands files a patent in October 1608. Galileo builds his own version within a year and points it at the moon.
- - Microscope. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's single-lens microscopes magnify up to 270×. He discovers protozoa, bacteria, sperm cells, a hidden universe.
- - Universal Gravitation. Isaac Newton publishes the Principia Mathematica, explains planetary motion, tides, and falling apples with one set of equations. Mathematical physics begins.
