[PDF] Science And Civilisation In China Part 2 Mechanical Engineering eBook

Author : Joseph Needham
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 1022 pages
File Size : 11,56 MB
Release : 1965-01-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521058032

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As Dr Needham's immense undertaking gathers momentum it has been found necessary to subdivide volumes into parts, each to be bound and published separately. The first part of Volume 4, already published, deals with the physical sciences; the second with the diverse applications of physics in the many branches of mechanical engineering; and the third will deal with civil and hydraulic engineering and nautical technology. With this part of Volume 4, then, we come to the application by the Chinese of physical principles in the control of forces and in the use of power; we cross the frontier separating tools from the machine. We have already noticed that the ancient Chinese concept of chhi (somewhat similar to the pneuma of the Greeks) asserted itself prominently in acoustics; but we discover here that the Chinese tendency to think pneumatically was also responsible for a whole range of brilliant technological achievements, for example, the double-acting piston-bellows, the rotary winnowing-fan, and the water-powered metallurgical blowing-machine (ancestor of the steam-engine); as well as for some extraordinary insights and predictions in aeronautics.

Author : Joseph Needham
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 22,62 MB
Release : 1956-01-01
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780521057998

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Dr Joseph Needham's account of the Chinese achievement in science and technology will stand as one of the great works of our time. It has been acclaimed by specialists in both East and West and also by readers with wider and more general interests. The text, based on research of a high critical quality, is supported by many hundreds of illustrations and is imbued with a warm appreciation of China. Volume I is an introductory volume, in which Dr Needham prepares his readers for the study of a whole human culture. He begins by examining the structure of the Chinese language; he reviews the geography of China and the long history of its people, and discusses the scientific contacts which have occurred throughout the centuries, between Europe and East Asia.

Author : Peter J. Golas
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 564 pages
File Size : 34,33 MB
Release : 1999-02-25
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780521580007

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The fifth volume of the late Dr. Needham's immense undertaking covers the subjects of chemistry and chemical technology. This, the thirteenth part of the volume, is the first history of Chinese mining to appear in a Western language. Spanning from the Neolithic period to the present day, it deals with the full range of Chinese mining from copper to mercury, arsenic to coal. The author explores not only the written sources but also the archaeological remains, and observes the traditional techniques still in use. The interrelationship between Chinese mining and its social, economic and political implications is examined. Through these discoveries, the author concludes that these factors were probably more important in determining how mining was carried out than the technological progress itself.

Author : Peter J. Golas
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 564 pages
File Size : 31,82 MB
Release : 1999-02-25
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780521580007

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The fifth volume of the late Dr. Needham's immense undertaking covers the subjects of chemistry and chemical technology. This, the thirteenth part of the volume, is the first history of Chinese mining to appear in a Western language. Spanning from the Neolithic period to the present day, it deals with the full range of Chinese mining from copper to mercury, arsenic to coal. The author explores not only the written sources but also the archaeological remains, and observes the traditional techniques still in use. The interrelationship between Chinese mining and its social, economic and political implications is examined. Through these discoveries, the author concludes that these factors were probably more important in determining how mining was carried out than the technological progress itself.

Author : Joseph Needham
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 504 pages
File Size : 43,32 MB
Release : 1998-02-19
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780521571432

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Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 7 Part 1 is the first book in the final volume of this unique resource. The Chinese culture is the only culture in the world that has developed systematic logical definitions and reflections on its own and on the basis of a non-Indo-European language. Christoph Harbsmeier discusses the basic features of the classical Chinese language that made it a suitable medium for science in ancient China, discussing in detail a wide range of abstract concepts that are crucial for the development of scientific discourse. There is special emphasis on the conceptual history of logical terminology in ancient China, and on traditional Chinese views on their own language. Finally the book provides an overview of the development of logical reflection in ancient China, first in terms of the forms of arguments that were deployed in ancient Chinese texts, and then in terms of ancient Chinese theoretical concerns with logical matters.

Author : Joseph Needham
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 28,9 MB
Release : 2004-07-22
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780521087322

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Joseph Needham, who died in 1995, was the greatest British historian of China of the last 100 years. His Science and Civilisation in China series caused a seismic shift in western perceptions of China, revealed as perhaps the world's most scientifically and technically productive country in pre-modern times. But why did the scientific and industrial revolutions not happen in China? Joseph Needham reflects on possible answers to this question in the concluding volume of this series and provides fascinating insights into his great intellectual quest.

Author : Joseph Needham
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 742 pages
File Size : 48,26 MB
Release : 1987-01-22
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780521303583

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The Gunpowder Epic is one of three planned publications on military technology within Dr Needham's immense undertaking. The discovery of gunpowder in China by the 9th century AD was followed by its rapid applications. It is now clear that the whole development from bombs and grenades to the invention of the metal-barrel hand gun took place in the Chinese culture area before Europeans had any knowledge of the mixture itself. Uses in civil engineering and mechanical engineering were equally important, before the knowledge of gunpowder spread to Europe in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Dr Needham's new work continues to demonstrate the major importance of Chinese science and technology to world history and maintains the tradition of one of the great scholarly works of the twentieth century.