SCIENTIFIC INVENTIONS
Not all medieval learning took the form of scholasticism. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were marked by a healthy interest in science. Long encyclopedias, written in Latin, collected all available information about the natural world. The study of physics made conspicuous progress, partly as a result of Arab influence. Various scientific inventions, including magnifying glasses and clocks, were worked out. The mariner's compass, perhaps derived from the Arabs, also came into general use. [25]
ROGER BACON, ABOUT 1214-1294 A.D.
As representative of this scientific interest we may take the Englishman, Roger Bacon. He studied at Paris, where his attainments secured for him the title of the "Wonderful Doctor," and lectured at Oxford. At a period when Aristotle's influence was unbounded, Bacon turned away from scholastic philosophy to mathematics and the sciences. No great discoveries were made by him, but it is interesting to read a passage in one of his works where some modern inventions are distinctly foreseen. In time, he wrote, ships will be moved without rowers, and carriages will be propelled without animals to draw them. Machines for flying will also be constructed, "wherein a man sits revolving some engine by which artificial wings are made to beat the air like a flying bird." Even in Bacon's day it would appear that men were trying to make steamboats, automobiles, and aëroplanes.
[Illustration: ROGER BACON]
GUNPOWDER
The discovery of gunpowder, a compound of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulphur, has often been attributed to Bacon, probably incorrectly. Bacon and other men of his time seem to have been familiar with the composition of gunpowder, but they regarded it as merely a sort of firework, producing a sudden and brilliant flame. They little suspected that in a confined space the expansive power of its gases could be used to hurl projectiles. Gunpowder was occasionally manufactured during the fourteenth century, but for a long time it made more noise than it did harm. Small brass cannon, throwing stone balls, began at length to displace the medieval siege weapons, and still later muskets took the place of the bow, the cross-bow, and the pike. The revolution in the art of warfare introduced by gunpowder had vast importance. It destroyed the usefulness of the castle and enabled the peasant to fight the mailed knight on equal terms. Gunpowder, accordingly, must be included among the forces which brought about the downfall of feudalism.
CHEMISTRY AND ALCHEMY
The study of chemistry also engaged the attention of medieval investigators. It was, however, much mixed up with alchemy, a false science which the Middle Ages had received from the Greeks, and they, in turn, from the Egyptians. The alchemists believed that minerals possessed a real life of their own and that they were continually developing in the ground toward the state of gold, the perfect metal. It was necessary, therefore, to discover the "philosopher's stone," which would turn all metals into gold. The alchemists never found it, but they learned a good deal about the various metals and discovered a number of compounds and colors. In this way alchemy contributed to the advance of chemistry.