December 28, 2017 Thursday
Bedtime Story
Why Loom Automation was Rejected
In her book “Edison’s Eve” Gaby Wood writes
that Vaucanson for his revolutionary ideas, particularly with respect to
automation of looms, was pelted with stones by the weavers in the street.
His automation if implemented on a mass
scale would put several men out of work that were engaged in the silk weaving
industry; particularly the men whose job was to lift the warp threads.
You have to view this reaction of the
weavers in its rightful historical context.
France then was suffering from major
international losses, the big one being losing Canada to Britain in their
colonial wars that were being waged in North America.
An average Frenchman was highly discontent
with the monarchy which was well known for its cultural extravagances and
sexual excesses.
So for 50 years Vaucanson’s loom was kept
in the Conservatoire des Arts et métiers (National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts:
a higher education establishment of French government) in Paris.
At least the Frenchmen had that much sense
to preserve this pioneering work even if they did not have the economic
ingenuity and financial perspicacity to exploit it.
The automated loom rested at the
Conservatory for nearly 50 years lying completely unused.
Then the Revolution happened.
The French government was staring at a
major financial crisis in the 1780s and King Louis XVI to put it modestly did
not handle it too well.
Just for your information, Louis XVI was
beheaded by guillotine in 1793 on charges of high treason.
Revolutions sound great to arm-chair
philosophers, thinkers, historians and romantic writers.
In actual fact revolutions are vicious and
cruel that leaves in their wake widespread torment and angst with families
being either partially uprooted or completely destroyed.
France, in fact, you would be surprised to
know was a very heart-wrenching place in the eighteenth century, much as South
Asia is today.
France was the most populated nation of
Europe then harboring 22 million human apes, followed closely by European
Russia at 20 million.
The entire Russian Empire had overall far
more.
To contrast it with its neighbor, contemporary
Britain of that time had just 6 million of our ancestral cousins.
Of its entire humanity, 96% of Frenchmen
were peasants.
Large number of children was raised in
broken families or blended families sharing their scarce resources either with
their stepsiblings or their half-siblings.
At the same time it was common for brothers
and sisters to be separated and live apart depending upon the choice of their
guardians.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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