Download or read book A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder written by James Riddick Partington and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly 600 years, from battles of the early 14th century to the dropping of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, firearms derived from gunpowder and other chemicals defined the frightful extent of war. In this classic work, first published in 1960, distinguished historian James Riddick Partington provides a worldwide survey of the evolution of incendiary devices, Greek fire, and gunpowder. 21 illustrations.
Download or read book Greek Fire Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs written by Adrienne Mayor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-12-30 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A comprehensive look at WMD's antecedents, from flamethrowers of the Peloponnesian War to plague-bearing booby traps.... Rich and entertaining." -Newsweek Featuring a new introduction by the author. Flamethrowers, poison gases, incendiary bombs, the large-scale spreading of disease... are these terrifying agents and implements of warfare modern inventions? Not by a long shot. Weapons of biological and chemical warfare have been in use for thousands of years, and Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs, Adrienne Mayor's fascinating exploration of the origins of biological and unethical warfare draws extraordinary connections between the mythical worlds of Hercules and the Trojan War, the accounts of Herodotus and Thucydides, and modern methods of war and terrorism. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs will catapult readers into the dark and fascinating realm of ancient war and mythic treachery-and their devastating consequences.
Download or read book Throwing Fire written by Alfred W. Crosby and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-04-08 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historian Alfred W. Crosby looks at hard, accurate throwing and the manipulation of fire as unique human capabilities. Humans began throwing rocks in prehistory and then progressed to javelins, atlatls, bows and arrows. We learned to make fire by friction and used it to cook, drive game, burn out rivals, and alter landscapes. In historic times we invented catapults, trebuchets, and such flammable liquids as Greek Fire. About 1,000 years ago we invented gunpowder, which accelerated the rise of empires and the advance of European imperialism. In the 20th century, gunpowder weaponry enabled us to wage the most destructive wars of all time, peaking at the end of World War II with the V-2 and atomic bomb. Today, we have turned our projectile talents to space travel which may make it possible for our species to migrate to other bodies of our solar system and even other star systems.
Download or read book Gunpowder written by Jack Kelly and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-27 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Chinese alchemists fashioned the first manmade explosion sometime during the tenth century, no one could have foreseen its full revolutionary potential. Invented to frighten evil spirits rather than fuel guns or bombs-neither of which had been thought of yet-their simple mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal went on to make the modern world possible. As word of its explosive properties spread from Asia to Europe, from pyrotechnics to battleships, it paved the way for Western exploration, hastened the end of feudalism and the rise of the nation state, and greased the wheels of the Industrial Revolution. With dramatic immediacy, novelist and journalist Jack Kelly conveys both the distant time in which the "devil's distillate" rose to conquer the world, and brings to rousing life the eclectic cast of characters who played a role in its epic story, including Michelangelo, Edward III, Vasco da Gama, Cortez, Guy Fawkes, Alfred Nobel, and E.I. DuPont. A must-read for history fans and military buffs alike, Gunpowder brings together a rich terrain of cultures and technological innovations with authoritative research and swashbuckling style.
Download or read book Hypatia written by Ernst Luposchainsky and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2001-06 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Science Goes to War written by Ernest Volkman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2002-04-11 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From cannonballs to smart bombs, science has long played an essential role in warfare, and the victors often have superior technology to thank for their triumph. This book explores the ways in which science has affected military history.
Download or read book A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder written by James R. Partington and published by . This book was released on 1960 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Om udviklingen af krudt gennem 600 år fra 1346 og til 1945, men med vægt på forskningsresultater vedrørende middelalderen og de ældre stadier i udviklingen. Mange oplysninger om bøger om krudtfremstilling fra antikken og til middelalderen, om bøgernes forfattere og ofte med ordrette latinske citater fra bøgerne.
Download or read book Byzantine Style Religion and Civilization written by Elizabeth Jeffreys and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-10-12 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A volume of cutting-edge essays written in honour of renowned Byzantinist Sir Steven Runciman.
Download or read book Gunpowder Technology in the Fifteenth Century written by Axel Müller and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2024-01-16 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first full edition and English translation of the RA I.34 Firework Book. Produced from the early fifteenth century onwards, Firework Books are, broadly speaking, manuals on how to use gunpowder, witnessing a major development in warfare. Surviving in a corpus of some 65, each text has different content and components, but core elements are present throughout. An important example is a manuscript in the collection of the Royal Armouries (RA I.34), written in Early New High German, and (unlike many other manuscripts) still in what appears to be its original format and binding; it also, unusually, contains a number of illustrations. This volume provides the first full edition and English translation of the material, with a detailed analysis of its content and context. It positions the Firework Books at a crucial stage in the development of gunpowder artillery, offering an unparalleled insight into fifteenth-century gunpowder technology at a critical juncture of military and technological change at the end of the Middle Ages.
Download or read book The Big Bang written by G. I. Brown and published by History PressLtd. This book was released on 2005 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Great blasts from the past and how it all started with a few fireworks' THE GUARDIAN
Download or read book The Battle of Salamis written by Barry Strauss and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-08-16 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a late September day in 480 B.C., Greek warships faced an invading Persian armada in the narrow Salamis Straits in the most important naval battle of the ancient world. Overwhelmingly outnumbered by the enemy, the Greeks triumphed through a combination of strategy and deception. More than two millennia after it occurred, the clash between the Greeks and Persians at Salamis remains one of the most tactically brilliant battles ever fought. The Greek victory changed the course of western history -- halting the advance of the Persian Empire and setting the stage for the Golden Age of Athens. In this dramatic new narrative account, historian and classicist Barry Strauss brings this landmark battle to life. He introduces us to the unforgettable characters whose decisions altered history: Themistocles, Athens' great leader (and admiral of its fleet), who devised the ingenious strategy that effectively destroyed the Persian navy in one day; Xerxes, the Persian king who fought bravely but who ultimately did not understand the sea; Aeschylus, the playwright who served in the battle and later wrote about it; and Artemisia, the only woman commander known from antiquity, who turned defeat into personal triumph. Filled with the sights, sounds, and scent of battle, The Battle of Salamis is a stirring work of history.
Download or read book Gates of Fire written by Steven Pressfield and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2007-01-30 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “Steven Pressfield brings the battle of Thermopylae to brilliant life.”—Pat Conroy At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army. Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history—one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. . . .
Download or read book A History of Medicine Byzantine and Islamic medicine written by Plinio Prioreschi and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Story of N written by Hugh S. Gorman and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-24 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Story of N, Hugh S. Gorman analyzes the notion of sustainability from a fresh perspective—the integration of human activities with the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen—and provides a supportive alternative to studying sustainability through the lens of climate change and the cycling of carbon. It is the first book to examine the social processes by which industrial societies learned to bypass a fundamental ecological limit and, later, began addressing the resulting concerns by establishing limits of their own The book is organized into three parts. Part I, “The Knowledge of Nature,” explores the emergence of the nitrogen cycle before humans arrived on the scene and the changes that occurred as stationary agricultural societies took root. Part II, “Learning to Bypass an Ecological Limit,” examines the role of science and market capitalism in accelerating the pace of innovation, eventually allowing humans to bypass the activity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Part III, “Learning to Establish Human-Defined Limits,” covers the twentieth-century response to the nitrogen-related concerns that emerged as more nitrogenous compounds flowed into the environment. A concluding chapter, “The Challenge of Sustainability,” places the entire story in the context of constructing an ecological economy in which innovations that contribute to sustainable practices are rewarded.
Download or read book A Most Damnable Invention written by Stephen Bown and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2007-11-26 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic story of two brilliant but controversial men and their world-changing scientific discoveries. Humanity's desire to harness the destructive capacity of fire extends back to the dawn of civilization. But the true age of explosives began in the 1860s with Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel's discovery of dynamite, which made possible industrial mega-projects such as the Panama Canal. Dynamite also caused great loss of life and environmental damage. With a troubled conscience, Nobel left his vast estate to the Nobel Prizes. As the use of explosives and fertilizers soared, nations scrambled for the vital ingredient: nitrates. The 'nitrogen problem' was solved by enigmatic German scientist Fritz Haber. His breakthrough not only prolonged the First World War, but led to the tripling of world population. When he was awarded a Nobel Prize, it sparked international condemnation. Deftly blending popular science, history and biography, A Most Damnable Invention is a vivid account of the incendiary substance that truly made our world.
Download or read book The Gunpowder Age written by Tonio Andrade and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A first look at gunpowder's revolutionary impact on China's role in global history The Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before the technology passed to the West. But by the early 1800s, China had fallen so far behind the West in gunpowder warfare that it was easily defeated by Britain in the Opium War of 1839–42. What happened? In The Gunpowder Age, Tonio Andrade offers a compelling new answer, opening a fresh perspective on a key question of world history: why did the countries of western Europe surge to global importance starting in the 1500s while China slipped behind? Historians have long argued that gunpowder weapons helped Europeans establish global hegemony. Yet the inhabitants of what is today China not only invented guns and bombs but also, as Andrade shows, continued to innovate in gunpowder technology through the early 1700s—much longer than previously thought. Why, then, did China become so vulnerable? Andrade argues that one significant reason is that it was out of practice fighting wars, having enjoyed nearly a century of relative peace, since 1760. Indeed, he demonstrates that China—like Europe—was a powerful military innovator, particularly during times of great warfare, such as the violent century starting after the Opium War, when the Chinese once again quickly modernized their forces. Today, China is simply returning to its old position as one of the world's great military powers. By showing that China’s military dynamism was deeper, longer lasting, and more quickly recovered than previously understood, The Gunpowder Age challenges long-standing explanations of the so-called Great Divergence between the West and Asia.
Download or read book My Big Fat Greek Diet written by Nick Yphantides and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2006-06-18 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In My Big Fat Greek Diet, Dr. Nick Yphantides teaches readers the powerful 7 Pillars of Weight Loss, which features medically safe, practical how-tos anyone can apply, whether they need to lose 10 or 300 pounds. Analyzing components of a variety of diets, Dr. Nick assists readers in customizing a weight-loss program to their specific needs and lifestyles. Topping out at 467 pounds, Dr. Nick was known in San Diego as a big man with a big heart. When a battle with cancer inspired him to focus on his own health, he embarked on a lifestyle change that would drop him to a svelte 200 pounds. His book, now in trade paper, will inspire and equip readers to design a program that allows them to experience their own weight-loss miracle!
