3 ms·

Fun Fact: One of the first mass assembly operations that used an early form of interchangeable parts was the Venetian Arsenale, which could produce up to one sh

by rsj_hn 7y ago

Fun Fact: One of the first mass assembly operations that used an early form of interchangeable parts was the Venetian Arsenale, which could produce up to one ship per day. The ships were floated down a canal in an assembly like manner and fitted with pieces made by artisans to standardized specification, allowing the same piece to be fitted to different ships as well as allowing for pipelining. As ships were also repaired in the Arsenale, this could be viewed as an early form of interchangeable parts as replacement pieces were fitted from stock. Also, Galileo visited the arsenale and was fascinated by the many interesting questions of mechanics raised. For instance, why do the oars in the center of the ship most account for the ships movement? Galileo experimented with new oar designs as well as questions of naval architecture and artillery design, eventually moving to Venice and working as a consultant for the Arsenale. It was the world's first mass munitions factory. Some links for further reading: https://italoamericano.org/story/2016-7-7/arsenale https://italoamericano.org/story/2016-7-7/arsenale http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/content/shipbuilding/venice_arsenal/lettura_gal_html/LetturaGal.html http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/content/shipbuilding/venice_... https://leanfactories.com/venetian-arsenal-venice-ship-building-using-mass-production/ https://leanfactories.com/venetian-arsenal-venice-ship-build...

beerandt 7y ago
The more I dive into the history of various technologies (and even professions), the more it becomes apparent that militaries are responsible for a vast proportion of historical advancements, even in the most unexpected areas. Edit: Also responsible for a vast supply of historical datasets. Edit 2: IMHO, the most fascinating is all the tie-ins between artillery, spycraft, astronomy, aerospace/rockets, geodosy & cartography (and invention of the chronograph), tidal monitoring & weather keeping, nuclear weapons, gps, and probably a dozen more topics I'm forgetting off the top of my head. Individually, each of these is a mammoth of a topic on its own. But the interplay in their development (as influenced by big-picture military strategy) is just mind-boggling to me. It is by far, the most interesting, persistent, and deep rabbit-hole I've encountered. (Hint: Ballistic missiles are essentially long range artillery. Hint 2: They require gravitational variation to be taken into account for targeting.)
- rsj_hn 7y ago
  I think this is absolutely correct. Huge advances are driven by war, for obvious reasons -- survival is at stake. John Napier discovered the logarithm due to his work on artillery. A lot of Archimedes's innovations were driven by the desire to build weapons. The demand for accurate clocks was driven by the Navy, giving rise to many innovations. And of course in the 20th Century, integrated circuit design was driven by a desire to build computers that could be embedded in ballistic missiles and withstand large amounts of heat. Fairchild semiconductors' first big contracts were primarily for defense and NASA.

by rsj_hn 7y ago

beerandt 7y ago

The more I dive into the history of various technologies (and even professions), the more it becomes apparent that militaries are responsible for a vast proportion of historical advancements, even in the most unexpected areas. Edit: Also responsible for a vast supply of historical datasets. Edit 2: IMHO, the most fascinating is all the tie-ins between artillery, spycraft, astronomy, aerospace/rockets, geodosy & cartography (and invention of the chronograph), tidal monitoring & weather keeping, nuclear weapons, gps, and probably a dozen more topics I'm forgetting off the top of my head. Individually, each of these is a mammoth of a topic on its own. But the interplay in their development (as influenced by big-picture military strategy) is just mind-boggling to me. It is by far, the most interesting, persistent, and deep rabbit-hole I've encountered. (Hint: Ballistic missiles are essentially long range artillery. Hint 2: They require gravitational variation to be taken into account for targeting.)

rsj_hn 7y ago
I think this is absolutely correct. Huge advances are driven by war, for obvious reasons -- survival is at stake. John Napier discovered the logarithm due to his work on artillery. A lot of Archimedes's innovations were driven by the desire to build weapons. The demand for accurate clocks was driven by the Navy, giving rise to many innovations. And of course in the 20th Century, integrated circuit design was driven by a desire to build computers that could be embedded in ballistic missiles and withstand large amounts of heat. Fairchild semiconductors' first big contracts were primarily for defense and NASA.