In the early twentieth century, most ships were powered by coal and steam. The first diesel engine was built by Rudolf Diesel in 1897. It became part of almost all types of ships and a driving force of globalization.
In 1884 Ottmar Mergenthaler patented the Linotype machine in the United States. With it characters are cast in type metal as a complete line rather than as individual characters.
In the eighteenth century, cheap raw materials from the Americas and other emerging markets drove European world trade. The transatlantic triangular trade between Europe, Africa and America was established.
When in about 1800 Bavaria urgently needed money, Georg von Reichenbach founded a factory for scientific instruments and started building precision theodilites to precisely survey the state in order to increase the taxes on land and buildings.
The invention of the spinning jenny in 1764 sparked a movement that would change the lives of people worldwide: the rapid mechanization of the textile industry spurred a period of economic growth.
The advent of improved drilling technology made the extraction of geological resources easier. However, today we have almost stretched the limits of the earth’s system to its breaking point.
The development of specific instruments that aid in the mastery of life has led to the creation of artificial intelligence—soon maybe humans will also be replaceable.
Due to destructive environmental consequences carbon-based energy systems should slowly be replaced by sources with low to zero carbon dioxide emissions such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power.
Nanotechnology can revolutionize the production of materials and offer ecological solutions but it may have unexpected consequences or lead to mismanagement.
In the year 2000, Bill Clinton introduced a preview of the Human Genome Project and promised rapid progress for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease.
