TRANSFORMATION

DEVELOPMENTS
 MIDDLE AGES

 Revolutionized transport

Possible to move surplus food to the cities

where it was needed
 MODERN HORSE HARNESS
 Essential to the use of horses not only for plowing but also for
hauling

 In 1890’s, the invention of nailed horseshoes was made

possible
 Iron shoes became habitual for ridden horses

 The invention of whippletree equalizes the pull on the load

which appeared in the 11th century
 With the invention of an efficient horse harness, horseshoes,
and the whippletree- heavy hauling by horses was feasible for
the time
 12TH CENTURY
 The horse drawn longga caretta that can hold many people
and large quantity goods emerged
 Travel was made comfortable through the development of
springe carriage

 400 years later, the spring carriage had become a suspended

body holding at least six persons.
 WATER TRANSPORTATION

 Was always cheaper than land haulage

 Essential invention for inland waterways- canal lock

chamber which seems to have been used by the
Bruges in 1236.

 Salt water navigation- most significant improvements

were made
 PROBLEM
 Tackling into the wind was a great problem for square sailed
romans
 Fore-and-aft rigs had been applied to small skiffs since the
first century B.C. but not to large vessels because their keels
were not sufficiently deep to prevent lateral drift during
tacking
 SOLUTION
 Lateen sail- First appears on merchant ships at
Marseilles in the 6th century

 This new rig was developed in the western

Mediterranean
 SHIPS MODERN RUDDER
 Constructed by first building  Great advance in ship building
up the shell of the hull out
of planks firmly attached to
each other and afterwards
inserting the skeleton of
ribs.

 In the early 13th century, the

North sea area produced a new
rudder hinged to the ships
sternpost and operated by a
horizontal lever
 COMPASS
 Presumably came from China
 Reached Europe in the 1190’s, and within 30 years was in habitual
use even as far as Iceland

 Islam hadn’t used the compass until 1232

 By the end of the 13th century, Europe was going to use oceanic sea
routes