FEUDAL FRIDAY -- FUN FACTS

MEDIEVAL FUN FACTS

Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII,VIII, IX, X) were used until soldiers came home from the crusades. The Arabic(O, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) numbers included zero which made computations easier.

Thirteenth century glass workers ground glass for lenses for those with bad eyesight.

Sometime during the 14th century springs and gears were used to control hands of clocks, making clocks a great invention of the time. Eventually every town in Europe had a clock in the market square.

Heavier plows with wheels, horizontal plowshares, and a moldboard were invented, which cut down on manual labor.

Three-field crop rotation was invented, moving many farmers to drop the idea of small, individual farming plots and take in the idea of communal patterns of open-field agriculture.

During the 13th and 14th century came the invention of the spinning wheel. The spinning wheel improved the production of yarn, cotton, and thread used for cloth.

The invention of the horse shoe, the whiffletree, and the spring carriage made travel easier. Goods were more easily transported, which aided the growth of industry.

The invention of the deep keel (the triangular lateen sail) made maneuverability of ships easier.

The magnetic compass also made sea travel faster and more efficient. This technology was so advanced for the time that Prince Henry of Portugal established a school to teach navigators how to use all the new machinery.

The horizontal loom appeared in Europe in the 11th century. The first reference to it seems to be in the Talmudic commentaries of Rashi, who lived in Troyes. He indicates that such a loom was being used by professional weavers. By the 12th century it had been mechanized. This loom was probably adapted from a Chinese version already extant. Old looms had been vertical. The new one was horizontal and was operated by foot-treadles. Instead of weaving the heddle bar through the warp threads as had been done on the vertical loom, now the weaver had only to pump his treadles and every other warp thread rose up above the work. He then passed the heddle bar through the opening. On the next pump of the treadles, the other set of warp threads rose.