The Age of Machines

As you already know, the early man was a hunter. In the beginning, he used stones to kill animals. He picked up the stones lying around him and threw them at the wild animals. With some expertise, he started using stones as weapons. 

Tools and Machines - Stone Tools The early man used stones, bones and wood to make tools. These tools were used as weapons for hunting, fishing, etc. As the initial tools were very simple and crude, the early man developed sharp and pointed tools to meet his increasing needs. The stones with sharp edges were used as Hives. The progress to make better tools was slow and took thousands of years. 

Metal Tools - Copper was the first metal discovered by man. It might have been discovered accidentally. Copper is found in the form of lumps in nature. It may be that the early man threw one such lump in fire. After the fire died down, he must have found that some shining pieces of stone remained. When he tried to break them like other stones, he must have found that they were unbreakable but they could be expanded and moulded into different shapes. Later, he must have found that these lumps could be easily beaten into any shape. Copper is a shiny pink-coloured metal. The early man used copper to make better, stronger and more useful tools and weapons. Copper was used for many thousands of years. Later, early man mixed copper with tin and discovered bronze. Bronze was harder than copper.
Then Iron was discovered. It proved to be a boon in the progress of human civilization. Man found iron to be harder than copper and bronze. He began to make tools like axes, ploughs, sickles, shovels, spears, hammers, etc. Now, hunting, farming and digging became much easier for man. Man gradually became skilled as a carpenter, blacksmith, farmer, potter and mason. 

Modern Machines - Today, man has invented many efficient machines which help him in every field. It has been a long journey since the days of the early man. The steam engine was invented by James Watt in 1769. It proved to be the greatest turning point in the life of man. James was a Scottish engineer. At that time, the coal mines in England used to get filled with rainwater. Mining could not be done until the water was pumped out. This required a very powerful pump. The power of steam was already known, but this power had to be controlled and harnessed in proper manner. With the help of the steam engine, a pump could now be used James Watt's steam engine led to the invention of the railway engine.
George Stephenson, a British engineer, invented the railway engine in 1814. He is known as the 'Father of Railway'. The first public passenger train in the world was drawn on 27th September, 1825 by Stephenson's Locomotion No. 1. Gradually, petrol and diesel engines were used to run cars, buses and trucks. Powerful engines for railways, ships and aeroplanes also run using petrol and diesel as fuel. 

Industrial Revolution - It began in the early nineteenth century in England. The steam engine made it possible to run big machines. Now the work of man and animals was done by machines. Good, could be produced in large quantities now. Their quality was good and they were cheaper in price. All this led to the factory system. People started working in the factories and production increased. The change from handmade goods to machine-made goods was a big revolution in the life of man. This was known as the industrial revolution.

 
Mass Production - With the help of various sources of energy, such as coal, mineral oil and electricity, big machines could be used to manufacture goods at a very large scale. New machines were invented and different parts of an article were made by different persons on different machines. The speed and efficiency of production increased. Mass production became the keynote of industry. Huge quantities of things were now produced in a very short time. Such a method of production is also called assembly line production. 
Advantages of mass production are:

• The cost of production is reduced. 
• It leads to much increased profit. 
• Cost of products is less. 
• It gives employment to a large number of people.
• The quality of the product is improved.

Sources Of Energy - Food for the machines is the energy that makes them work. This energy comes from various sources of energy like coal, mineral oil, electricity, etc.

Coal - Coal was the first and the most important fuel used in machines on a large scale. Coal can be made by burning of wood but mostly coal is obtained from the mines which are big tunnels dug deep in the ground. Coal is found deep under the Earth's surface: It was made millions of years ago from the dead plants buried under the Earth. Initially, coal deposits were found almost on the Earth's surface, but due to their constant use, the coal mines have gone deeper within the earth. However, people have now realised that such indiscriminate use of coal will exhaust the coal reserves. This has led to the discovery of alternative sources of energy. 

Mineral Oil - In 1857, a very important source of energy was discovered in the USA in the form of mineral oil. Mineral oil is a liquid fuel found below the Earth's surface. It is the next important source of energy after coal. The mineral oil was drilled from the oil wells in crude form, hene, it is also called crude oil. Then, it is taken to the refineries and refined to get kerosene, petrol, diesel and many other chemicals. Cars, scooters, motorcycles, etc use petrol as the source of energy. Diesel engines run on diesel which is cheaper than petrol. Railway engines, trucks, buses, etc run on diesel. It has hardly been 150 years since mineral oil has been discovered but we have already consumed a big part of nature's oil reserves. However, the use of coal and mineral oil causes a lot of pollution. 

Electricity - The story of the discovery of electricity is quite interesting. Electricity was discovered by a man in Netherlands who developed a toy called Leyden Jar. It consisted of a wire that was dipped in the water of the jar. The other wire was outside the jar. When these two wires were joined, they produced sparks. Sometimes, it also produced a mild shock instead of sparks. This toy was very popular. 
Benjamin Franklin was an American scientist. He wanted to prove that the charge generated by friction in the Leyden Jar was the same as the charge generated by lightning in a thunderstorm. He made a paper kite and flew it high in the sky during lightning and thunderstorm. He attached a silk string to his kite. The other end of the string was tied to a key. When the lightning occurred, he touched the key and experienced a shock. This proved that lightning was a build up of static electricity and the mild shock experienced in the Leyden Jar was similar to the spark and shock in the lightning His experiment led to the discovery of electricity as scientists set to work to find out ways to generate electricity. 
In 1800, an Italian scientist, Alessandro Volta made the first battery which could produce a small amount of electricity. He discovered that there is a continuous flow of electricity called electric current. Later, engineers made new machines which generated greater amounts of electricity. These were termed as generators. But to run these generators, some source of energy like coal, petrol, etc was required.

Alternative Sources Of Energy - As you know, coal and mineral oil are fossil fuels which were formed during the long period of geological ages by the decayed vegetation and animals buried inside the earth's crust under heavy pressure. Their reserves are limited so they are called non-renewable sources of energy as they cannot be regenerated during our lifetime. 
Since we are using up our existing sources of energy at rapid pace, we need to look for alternative or non-conventional sources of energy which can be renewable and would not exhaust like our reserves of coal and oil. They would last as long as human life exists on this planet. The best part about these sources of energy is that they do not cause pollution. 

Hydroelectricity - Electricity which can be produced from the running water is called hydroelectricity. In this method, the water is dropped from a height with great force onto a wheel of turbine. By the force of water, the turbine starts moving and produces electricity. Dams are built on the rivers to produce hydroelectricity. 

Wind Energy - The force of the wind is used to run windmills. Netherlands is famous for its windmills. In India also, windmills have been set up in coastal areas. The blades of the turbine are moved by the pressure of the wind which in turn produces electricity. 

Nuclear Energy - Nuclear energy or atomic energy is produced by splitting of the atom. Nowadays, many countries use nuclear energy to produce electricity. Nuclear energy is not easy to use. It is a very powerful source of energy but it is quite expensive too. 

Biogas - Biogas is also known as gobar gas. It is produced from cow dung in the villages. It is an excellent fuel which can be used for cooking and lighting houses. Many biogas plants which use animal dung for making electricity have been set up in villages all over the country.

Solar Energy - The energy we get from the sun is called solar energy. It is used in solar cooker, solar heater, etc for cooking and heating purposes. 

Geothermal Energy - Geothermal energy refers to the heat from inside the Earth. Resources of geothermal energy range from the steam from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found beneath the Earth's surface. Geothermal power plants need steam to generate electricity. The steam rotates the turbine that activates a generator to produce electricity. Geothermal power plants use steam produced from reservoirs of hot water found below the Earth's surface.

The Age of Machines

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