Hydraulic Square Middle Ages To The Early Study Of Modern Western Europe

Mill was a unique landscape of medieval Western European society, and was also the most common power facility then. Horse-mills, hand-mills, watermills and windmills were very popular in medieval people’s lives, while watermills had been the most widely used for its higher productivity and income. The watennills were not originated from Western Europe; however, they were developed on the basis of technologic innovations of Ancient Rome, China and Moslem society. The application of water as driving power experienced a rapid expansion from grinding grain to fulling, tanning, paper-making, ore-crushing, forging and so on in Medieval Western Europe. To some extent, the application of water power undoubtedly represented the potential of medieval technological innovation, which played an important role. Carus-Wilson argued that the widespread use of watermills in cloth fulling can be regarded as an industrial revolution thai had brought huge influence to the cloth manufacturing pattern in England, and whose worth was comparable to the18th century industrial revolution.Water power was widely used in the industrial procedures of late middle ages, which meant the coming of a hydraulic era. Even at the beginning of the industrial revolution, namely before the steam power was widely used, water power was still the main driving power of manufacture industry, which represented its importance to the economic development of Western Europe.The article intends to make a historical survey of the development of watennills and the widespread use of water power in the medieval and early modern Western Europe in chronological order, and the study will take the use of watermills in Rome and China as its reference. It is divided into three parts, that is the watermills in middle ages, the application and impacts of fulling mills, water-power revolution and the "hydraulic era"The first chapter, WaterMills in Medieval Ages, describes the development of watennills in medieval Western Europe, especially those in England. It discusses the watermills in middle ages in detail especially the mills for corn grinding, which takes the use of watermills in Roman ages as its background, and the watermills in China as its reference. It focuses on the structure and the investing and manipulating pattern of milling, which tells us about the conflicts and compromise between the lords and tenants, which concentrates on the suit of mill. Through the unique perspective of grain mill, a more comprehensive understanding of the economic and social development of medieval Western Europe will be attained.The second chapter is The Application and Impacts of Fulling Mills. The use of watermills spread to manufacturing industry from the corn processing department in late middle ages, in which the fulling mills were the most popular. The widespread use of fulling mills aroused not only a transformation of its own technology, but it also changed the woolen textile production pattern of England, which meant the decline of urban woolen centers and the prosperous development of rural areas. At the same time, the lords also coerced tenants to fulling cloth in the demesne mills. Focusing on suit of mill brought by the mechanical fulling, we can have a deeper understanding of the profuund significance of the technological innovations in the industrial processes.The last part, Water-power Revolution and the "Hydraulic Era", gives a further elaboration of the significant impacts triggered by the use of water power. The late middle ages was the era which water power was widely used. The application process of water power was the process of its own technological innovation, but also its gradual penetration to more manufacturing parts.The technological innovations of water mills included the improvement of the watercontrol system and other machines like water wheels. The technological innovations of water mills also promoted the application expansion of the water power, and water power was still playing an important role even in the early stage of the18th industrial revolution,when it still relied on the water power to drive tanning mill,millstones,sawmills,bellows and so on. Until the early Industial Revolution,water power was also the main driving force of the new invented machinery of the cotion textile industry.The epilogue combs the development of watermills, connects watermills with the economic and social background of medieval Western Europe, and summarizes their position in medieval Europe, especially the important role in the development of the wool textile industry. Thus we will have a general view of the extensive use of water power and its impacts on the entire Western European society, which can reveal its significance as the main driving power before the appearance of the steam-power.