Scientific Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and

¶ … Scientific Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and American Revolution demonstrate the power of the human mind as ingenuity. Mankind refuses to be restrained, whether it be within the frame of a small universe, to the old-fashioned way of doing things, or to oppression of any kind. The human spirit is meant to evolve and the human mind was created to think and grow. These revolutions with discoveries of the boundless universe to the steam engine demonstrate what life and history are all about.

With new ideas come social and religious change and, while this change might seem frightening at first, it always proves to be one that answers a need and provides hope for the future. The Scientific Revolution describes the period of time in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when scientific ideas began to separate itself from ancient thought and look at laws of the universe in new ways.

Perhaps the most significant discoveries during this time was the fact that the earth was just one planet orbiting the sun and the sun was one of many stars. Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to challenge the Ptolemaic system of the universe with the notion that the earth rotated around the sun. His ideas did not solve many problems with the Ptolemaic system but it allow for thinking in a new direction.

(Craig 665) Tycho Brahe took this idea a bit further, suggesting earth and the other planets in the solar system revolved around the sun. His notations were the "most accurate tables that had been drawn up for centuries" (666). In 1609, Galileo Galilei was the first man to turn a telescope to the heavens. His discovery of Venus and sunspots would be the bane of his existence as both of these discoveries supported the idea of a "moving Earth" (Goldsmith 32), which disputed the Church and Aristotelian teachings.

In 1633, Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World, which expounded on his notions of a moving earth. This book was significant for science but a "disaster" (35) for Galileo. The pope "hated" (36) it and Galileo was sent to trial for heresy. He was treated like a "criminal" (White 55) and placed under house arrest. His books were banned but not forgotten. Isaac Newton was next great scientific mind to contribute to the Scientific Revolution.

He posed the existence of gravity and, in 1687, his findings, "not only accounted for motion but definitely united heaven and earth in a single scheme and created a convincing picture of an orderly nature" (Noble 724). This notion left room for God and as he aged, he realized the "limits of the capacity of human reason to encompass experience, which explained, too, his unflagging interest in the Bible and Prophecy" (Boorstin 407).

The new universe made room for God because the collective mind was opened to the notion of a divine entity controlling all aspects of the universe not just one corner of it. The Industrial Revolution can call Britain "home" (Craig 627) because at the time, Britain was the "single largest free-trade area in Europe" (627). Mechanical inventions spark the beginning of this revolution. In 1769, the spinning jenny was patented, which lead to the invention of a power loom. This increased demand for cotton with production jumping to twice as fast as before.

The steam engine is another important invention of the Industrial Revolution and it connected to two "basic commodities of modern industrialization -- coal and iron" (Chodorow 718). Iron production was a basic element of modern development, as it "constitutes the chief element of all heavy industry and land or sea transport and is the material out of which most productive machinery has been manufactured" (Craig 629). Transportation emerged from the Industrial Revolution with the invention of the railroad. The first commercial railroad went public in 1825.

(Chodorow 719) The invention of the railroad was "overwhelming" (719) because it answered a "universal need" of the people, "offering unprecedented opportunities for investment, and introducing greater speed into all commercial transactions" (719). The fact that we still utilize railroad in this day and age represents the importance and brilliance of the Industrial Revolution. The American Revolution is seen as a time when Americans "grew extraordinarily suspicious of any attempts to tighten.