History and development
Prehistory and ancient history
Human ancestors have been making stone objects and other tools since long before the emergence of Homo sapiens approximately 200,000 years ago.[5] Early methods of stone tool manufacturing, known as the Oldowan "industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago,[6] with the first direct evidence of tool use found in Ethiopia in the Great Rift Valley, dating back to 2.5 million years ago. million years ago.[7] To make a stone tool, a "core" of hard stone with specific flaking properties (like flint) was struck with a hammer (stone carving). This flaking produced sharp edges that could be used as tools, mainly in the form of a pick or scraper.[8] These tools greatly helped early humans in their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to form other tools. from softer materials such as bone and wood.[9] The Middle Paleolithic, approximately 300,000 years ago, saw the introduction of the prepared core technique), where several sheets could be quickly formed from a single core stone.[8] Pressure flaking, in which a wood, bone or antler punch could be used to shape a stone very finely, was developed during the Upper Paleolithic, beginning about 40,000 years.[10] During the Neolithic, neat stone tools were made from various hard rocks such as flint, jade, jadeite, and greenschist. Neat axes were used alongside other stone tools, including points, knives, and scrapers, as well as tools made from organic materials such as wood, bone, and horn.[11].
Copper smelting is believed to have originated when kiln pottery technology allowed for fairly high temperatures.[12] The concentration of various elements, such as arsenic, increases with the depth of copper ore deposits and the melting of these ores of arsenic bronze, which can be hardened sufficiently to be worked and made into tools.[12] Bronze is an alloy of copper with tin; The latter, which is found in relatively few sites worldwide, meant that it took a long time before real tin bronze became widespread. During the Bronze Age, bronze was a great advance over stone as a material for making tools, both because of its mechanical properties such as strength and ductility and because it could be cast in molds to make objects with intricate shapes. Bronze significantly advanced shipbuilding technology with better bronze tools and keys, which replaced the ancient method of hooking hull planks with woven cord through bored holes. It can be melted in specially designed furnaces. The place and time of the discovery of iron smelting are not known, partly because of the difficulty of distinguishing metal extracted from nickel-bearing ores from hot-worked meteoritic iron.[15].
During the growth of ancient civilizations, many ancient technologies resulted from advances in manufacturing. Several of the six classic simple machines were invented in Mesopotamia.[16] The invention of the wheel has been attributed to the Mesopotamians. The wheel mechanism "Wheel (physics)") first appeared with the potter's wheel, invented in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) during the 5th millennium BC. C.[17] Egyptian paper made from papyrus, as well as clay, were mass produced and exported throughout the Mediterranean basin. The first construction techniques used by the ancient Egyptians made use of bricks composed mainly of clay, sand, silt and other minerals.[18].
Medieval and early modern
The medieval age saw a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the way traditional means of production were managed, and economic growth. Papermaking, a Chinese technology of the 19th century, was brought to the Middle East when a group of Chinese papermakers were captured in the 19th century. Papermaking technology was spread in Europe by the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. In the 19th century a paper mill was established in Sicily. In Europe the fiber to make pulp for making paper was obtained from linen and cotton rags. Lynn Townsend White Jr. credited the spinning wheel with increasing the supply of rags, which led to cheap paper, which was a factor in the development of printing.[21] Due to the rise of cannon, the blast furnace came into widespread use in France by mid-century. The blast furnace had been used in China since the century BC. C..[12][22] The stocking knitting machine), which was invented in 1598, increased the number of weavers per minute from 100 to 1000.[23].
First and second industrial revolutions
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States from 1760 to the 1830s.[24] This transition included the shift from manual to machine production methods, new chemical industry processes and iron production, the increasing use of the steam engine and water power, the development of machine tools, and the rise of the mechanized factory system. The Industrial Revolution also caused an unprecedented increase in the rate of population growth. Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, production value and capital investment "Capital (economy)"). The textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.[25] Rapid industrialization first began in Britain, beginning with mechanized spinning in the 1780s,[26] with high rates of growth in iron and steam production occurring from the 1800s onwards. Mechanized textile production spread from Britain to continental Europe and the United States at the turn of the century, with major textile, iron and coal centers. emerging in Belgium and the United States and later textiles in France.[25].
An economic recession occurred from the late 1830s to the early 1840s, as the adoption of early innovations of the Industrial Revolution, such as mechanized spinning and weaving, slowed and their markets matured. Innovations developed late in the period, such as the increasing adoption of locomotives, steamships, and hot iron casting, and new technologies, such as the electric telegraph, widely introduced in the 1840s and 1850s, were not powerful enough to drive high growth rates. Rapid economic growth began to occur in the 1870s, which emerged from a new group of innovations called the Second Industrial Revolution. These innovations included new processes of steelmaking, mass and chain production, electrical grid systems, the large-scale manufacturing of machine tools and the use of increasingly advanced machinery in steam factories.[25][27][28][29].
Taking advantage of improvements in materials research and vacuum pumps, electric lamps became practical for general use in the late 1870s. This invention had a profound effect on the workplace because factories could now staff second and third shift workers.[30] Shoe production became mechanized by mid-century.[31] Mass production of sewing machines and agricultural machinery such as reapers occurred by mid-century.[32] Bicycles were mass produced beginning in the 1880s.[32] Steam factories became widespread, although the conversion of water to steam occurred in England before it did in the US.[33]
Modern manufacturing
The electrification of factories, which had begun gradually in the 1890s after the introduction of the practical DC and AC motor, accelerated between 1900 and 1930, aided by the establishment of electrical services with central stations and the decline in electricity prices between 1914 and 1917.[34] Electric motors allowed greater flexibility in manufacturing and required less maintenance than shafts and line belts. Many factories experienced a 30% increase in production just by switching to electric motors. Electrification enabled modern mass production, and the greatest impact of early mass production was on the manufacturing of everyday products, such as the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, which electrified its terrine plant in Muncie, Indiana, USA around 1900. The new automated process used glass blowing machines to replace 210 blowtorches and artisan glass assistants. A small electric truck was used to handle 150 dozen bottles. at a time, where previously a truck brought 6 dozen. Electric mixers replaced the men who, using shovels, handled sand and other ingredients that were introduced into the glass furnace. An electric overhead crane replaced 36 laborers to move heavy loads throughout the factory.[35].
Mass production was popularized in the late 1910s and 1920s by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company,[36] which introduced electric motors in the then-known sequential production technique. Ford also purchased or designed and built machine tools and attachments for special uses, such as multiple spindle drill presses that could drill all the holes on one side of an engine block in one operation and a multiple milling head that could simultaneously machine 15 engine blocks clamped in a single fixture. All of these machine tools were systematically arranged in the production flow and some had special carriages for rolling heavy components into machining position. The production of the Ford Model T used 32,000 machine tools.[37].
Lean manufacturing (also known as just-in-time manufacturing), which is a production method aimed primarily at reducing times within the production system, as well as supplier and customer response times, was developed at Toyota in Japan in the 1930s.[38][39] It was introduced in Australia in the 1950s by the British Motor Corporation (Australia) Victoria Park plant in Sydney, from where the idea later migrated to Toyota.[40] News broke spread to Western countries from Japan in 1977 in two articles in English: one referred to the methodology as the "Ohno system", by Taiichi Ohno, who was instrumental in its development within Toyota. countries.[43].