The dictionary defines an adhesive as "a substance capable of holding materials together by surface attachment." This is a simple definition for a material that is the basis for a multi-billion dollar industry with more that 750 companies competing for a share of the market. It is estimated that 50 of those companies are responsible for 50% of the sales dollars in the adhesive industry
Muslim physicians were responsible for many notable developments in the field of medicine. While European "hospitals" at this time were usually simply monasteries where the sick were told they would live or die according to God's will, not human intervention, Muslim hospitals pioneered the practices of diagnosis, cure, and future prevention. The first hospital in the Islamic world was built in Damascus in 707, and soon most major Islamic cities had hospitals, in which hygiene was emphasised and healing was a priority. Hospitals were open 24 hours a day, and many doctors did not charge for their services. The medical school at the University of Jundishapur, once the capital of Sassanid Persia, became the largest in the Islamic world by the 9th century. Its location in Central Asia allowed it to incorporate medical practices from Greece, China, and India, as well as developing new techniques and theories.
The history of medical science, considered as a part of the general history of civilization, should logically begin in Mesopotamia, where tradition and philological investigation placed the cradle of the human race. But, in a condensed article such as this, there are important reasons which dictate the choice of another starting point. Modern medical science rests upon a Greek foundation, and whatever other civilized peoples may have accomplished in this field lies outside our inquiry. It is certain that the Greeks brought much with them from their original home, and also that they learned a great deal from their intercourse with other civilized countries, especially Egypt and India; but the Greek mind assimilated knowledge in such a fashion that its origin can rarely be recognized.
Copper was the first metal used by man in any quantity. The earliest workers in copper soon found that it could be easily hammered into sheets and the sheets in turn worked into shapes which became more complex as their skill increased. After the introduction of bronze, a wide range of castings also became possible. Many of the illustrations on this site serve to show man's progress as a metal-worker, culminating in the priceless inheritance of the Renaissance craftsmen. But copper and its principal alloys, bronze and brass, have always been more than a means of decorative embellishment. Although iron became the basic metal of every Western civilization from Rome onwards it was the copper metals which were used when a combination of strength and durability was required. The ability to resist corrosion ensured that copper, bronze and brass remained as functional as well as decorative materials during the Middle Ages and the successive centuries through the Industrial Revolution and on to the present day.
Process Metallurgy is one of the oldest sciences. Its history can be traced back to 6000 BC. Admittedly, its form at that time was rudimentary, but, to gain a perspective in Process Metallurgy, it is worthwhile to spend a little time studying the initiation of mankind's association with metals. Currently there are 86 known metals. Before the 19th century only 24 of these metals had been discovered and, of these 24 metals, 12 were discovered in the 18th century. Therefore, from the discovery of the first metals - gold and copper until the end of the 17th century, some 7700 years, only 12 metals were known. Four of these metals, arsenic, antimony , zinc and bismuth , were discovered in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, while platinum was discovered in the 16th century. The other seven metals, known as the Metals of Antiquity, were the metals upon which civilisation was based
THE MAYAN NUMBERS The Mayan' s number system is in some respects very similar to ours. They used only 3 symbols as opposed to our 10 and at the time hundreds of symbols used in Roman Numerals. These symbols are shown below.
A versatile scholar, Eratosthenes of Cyrene lived approximately 275-195 BC. He was the first to estimate accurately the diameter of the earth. For several decades, he served as the director of the famous library in Alexandria. He was highly regarded in the ancient world, but unfortunately only fragments of his writing have survived. Eratosthenes died at an advanced age from voluntary starvation, induced by despair at his blindness
Ptolemy Latin in full Claudius Ptolemaeus (fl. AD 127-145, Alexandria), ancient astronomer, geographer, and mathematician who considered the Earth the centre of the universe (the "Ptolemaic system"). Virtually nothing is known about his life.
The mathematics and astronomy of the Greeks had been known in medieval western Europe only through often imperfect translations, some of them made from Arabic intermediary texts rather than the Greek originals. The papal curia became a center for the recovery of the original Greek manuscripts, often very old and remarkably elegant, and the production of new translations of these works. Ptolemy's "Geography" -- the book which inspired Columbus to attempt his voyage, and remains the model of all systematic atlases -- was dedicated to Popes Gregory XII and Alexander V by its first translator, the apostolic secretary Jacopo Angeli. Illustrated texts of this elegant atlas found readers everywhere in Europe. Nicholas V supported translations of the greatest of Greek mathematicians, Archimedes, and the greatest of Greek astronomers, Ptolemy. Cardinal Bessarion collected a vast range of Greek texts (which eventually wound up in Venice, as the nucleus of another great Renaissance library). A scholar whom he helped in many ways, Joannes Regiomontanus, became the first western European in centuries really to master Ptolemy's astronomy, which had been preserved and improved in the Islamic world. His work done in and for the curia laid the essential foundations on which Copernicus and other innovators built a new astronomy in the sixteenth century, using the Greek texts as their basic source of data and methods.
Only recently has the importance of sub-Saharan Africa to the history of mindkind's intellectual and cultural development been properly acknowledged. Much of the intellectual richness of the cultures of sub-Saharan societies has been ignored, and lost over the centuries. The ritual knowledge of initiation in most of the African societies has been the main method of transmission of astronomical and cosmological theory. Some of the best known societies in Africa include the Dogon, the Mande, and Bambara peoples. In addition, extensive studies of the Nuer, and the !Kung people have enabled us to glimpse into the world of myth and cosmology.
