Abstract

Conventionally and historically technology has been thought of as the practical application of scientific principles often, if not always, via the medium of engineering. For centuries that may well have been a fair, if loose, definition. For example, in the eighteenth century the application of certain aspects of chemistry and physics resulted in the discipline of metallurgy and this, used by engineers working in several fields, led to the Industrial Revolution. Chemists working with engineers rose to the challenge of industrial production to develop textiles technology which revolutionised the weaving economy and which, while providing vast economies of scale, resulted in the destruction of a whole craft-based way of life and condemned many to reduced circumstances in the factories set up to meet the demand of the new opportunities of an economy which moved rapidly from a rural agrarian model to a city-based capitalism.