Innovations and Inventions (1500,00 руб.)

Strictly speaking, any innovation is something entirely new and original, but the pioneers of inventions and innovations are often not the ones who develop their ideas into commercial success because it is impossible for an inventor to work in a vacuum and, however ingenious his invention is, timing is a mater of luck or of quite exceptional skill. <...> It is obvious that any technological innovation must arise out of an inventor‘s own previous experience. <...> The task of distinguishing an element of novelty in an invention is completed according to the patent law down to the present day, but the problem becomes relatively easy by the possession of full documentary records covering previous inventions in many countries. <...> Moreover, it is sometimes difficult if not impossible to know whether something is spontaneous innovation or an invention that had been transmitted by some yet undiscovered route from those who had originated it in other societies. <...> On the one hand, the theory exists, according to which all innovation has moved westward from the longestablished civilizations of the ancient world, with Egypt and Mesopotamia as the two favourite candidates for the ultimate source of the progress. <...> On the other hand, there is the theory of spontaneous innovation, according to which technological modernization is greatly dependable on the primary social needs. <...> It is quite certain, however, that in the early centuries Western civilization, however original its contributions to technological innovation were, addressed to the East for ideas and inspiration. <...> Ancient world technology Technology in the ancient world is mostly characterized by the first giant step of fashioning man‘s own tools. <...> In the first place, many of the institutions of the later empire survived the collapse and profoundly influenced the formation of the new civilization that developed in Western Europe. <...> Much of this process involved recovering the knowledge and achievements of the ancient world. <...> Only by the end of the period, Western civilization had begun to produce some remarkable technological innovations that were inevitably to be of the utmost significance. <...> The superior techniques of Western civilization enabled the nations that composed it to expand their influence over the completely known world. <...> Yet, this period was not marked by any outstanding technological innovation. <...> However, it was the evolution that, perhaps, became more <...>