After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Western Europe experienced a general decline, including a decline in technology. However, the basic needs of the population required the continuation of certain activities. In addition, the advent of new products such as horseshoes and heavy armor for knights facilitated the advancement of metallurgy. Thus, the decline in technology did not affect all sectors equally. It seems reasonable to agree that medieval technology allowed the decline of what was no longer interesting and concentrated on the gradual development of what met not only material needs but also common sentiments in accordance with the new culture. The process of adapting technology to the new situation was clearly a long one, during which the Europeans rediscovered many techniques from the Romans and acquired others from outside sources, often improving upon them. The most significant technological advance of the Middle Ages was the advent of mechanization. The term “mechanization” is used here to describe the use of machines to replace human labor. The water wheel was the basic instrument of mechanization. The main characteristics of water wheels are their high power output and continuous rotation. The latter characteristic requires a method to convert the continuous rotation into the alternating motion required by a variety of devices. In medieval technology, the answer was the camshaft. The combination of water wheel and camshaft was a successful mechanization solution for many centuries and played a fundamental role in the industrial development of Europe.

Authors and Affiliations

1. University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

   Umberto Meneghetti

Appendix: The Drawbacks of Industrialization

Nowadays we are used to complaining—and rightly so—about the annoying noise in our cities. Today it is mainly caused by car traffic. However, we must not think that the problem of noise is something new and that it has arisen with the modern age. In fact, the Emperor Augustus often complained about traffic noise in Rome. And the machines of the Middle Ages—fulling mills, hammers, bellows, pestles, etc.—were very noisy. They were often installed within the city walls and their noise annoyed the citizens.

An anonymous English poet of the 1300s even wrote the well-known poemSatire on Blacksmiths (Wright and Halliwell1845, p. 240), in which he complains of being mortally disturbed by the “Huf! puf! says the one; haf! paf! says the other;/They spitten and they sprawlen and they spellen many spells./They gnawen and gnashen and they groan all together,/Tik! tak! hic! hac!, tiket! taket! tyk! tyk!/Lus! bus! las! das!… Christ give them sorrow!/May no man for brenn waters on night have his rest?”

Two centuries and more later, in one of the many unfortunate adventures that befell them, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza heard one night “the sound of measured blows, together with the rattling of iron chains, accompanied by so furious a thunder of waters as to strike terror in any… heart… The solitude, the place, the darkness… the rustling of the leaves – all this was frightful, horror-inspiring, especially when they found that the blows did not cease”. The next morning, however, “they discovered the obvious, unmistakable cause of that horrendous and, for them, terror-inspiring noise … and that cause was … six fulling hammers” (Cervantes1605, Chapter XX). Fulling mills, of course, were powered by a water wheel and a camshaft.

Moreover, there is clear evidence that the industrial development of the Middle Ages, on which the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was based, brought with it phenomena of pollution and environmental degradation. They were less severe than today’s because of the lower rate of industrialization. In particular, there was indiscriminate deforestation and air, noise and water pollution.

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