Essay #19 History Of Inventions
Nicolaus Copernicus
Copernicus, astronomer, mathematician, was born in Poland in 1473, he developed an interest in astronomy while in school. He grew fascinated by the contradictions between Aristotle and Ptolemy’s model. He wrote his first draft about the heliocentric theory in 1514. He believed that science is possible because God sustains the universe; he also thought that the sun was in the center of the universe, and the earth was rotating around the sun. He started the Copernican Revolution. Later on Galileo took Copernicus theory and together with his own telescope measurements, further promoted the idea of the earth moving around the sun. Copernicus work was not recognized during his time, however it is proven today to be factually true.
Andreas Vesalius
Vesalius was born as Andries van Wesel, in 1514 in Brussels, he was born into a family of doctors. Did you know that Andreas Vesalius is the Latinized form of the Dutch Andries van Wesel. This was a common practice those days. Vasalius began college in the Netherlands, where he found out about Galen’s discoveries, he figured out that Galen’s knowledge was based on animals not people. Because back then when Galen was alive you could not do autopsies on people, only on animals. For some reason though, no one had checked to see if Galen’s work was accurate, in 1300 years, that’s a really, really, really long time. Anyway Vesalius published a book about anatomy and 1543, it was a gigantic breakthrough, or should I say humongous, I don’t know. It gave detailed descriptions of the entire human body, trust me it was very detailed. Overall Vesalius refuted much of Galen’s theories, but doing so he had a humongous breakthrough in science. If it wasn’t for him things would be very different in anatomy and other things. In conclusion, Vesalius, “was an anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, ‘On the Fabric of the Human Body.’ Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy.” – Wikipedia.
The heliocentric theory
The heliocentric theory is an astronomic theory which postulates that the sun is at the center of the solar system and the earth is moving around the sun. “The word comes from the Greek (helios “sun” and kentron “center”).” – Wikipedia. The heliocentric theory is in opposition to the geocentric theory which assumes that the earth is at the center of the universe and that the sun is moving around the earth. “The notion that the Earth revolves around the Sun had been proposed as early as the 3rd century BC by Aristarchus of Samos, but at least in the medieval world, Aristarchus’s Heliocentrism attracted little attention.
It was not until the 16th century that a geometric mathematical model of a heliocentric system was presented, by the mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic cleric Nicolaus Copernicus, leading to the Copernican Revolution.” – Wikipedia. Later Galileo, perfected Copernicus heliocentric theory, although he encountered tremendous opposition from the religious leaders of his times.
Pencils
The first pencils were made in the 1500s, because a large graphite mine was discovered in England, so England, technically, had a monopoly over everybody. Because they were the only ones with good graphite. Other countries had graphite mines, but there graphite was all powdery and mixed with other things. Anyway pencils are technically graphite rods in cased in wood, or at least nowadays there in case and wood. Because back then they were in cased in sheep wool and other things. They took off very quickly with artists because they could shade and do art with them. Overall pencils are a very helpful invention, I am very grateful for them.
Thank you for reading this essay about Nicolaus Copernicus, Andreas Vesalius, The heliocentric theory, and the pencil. I hope you enjoyed, have a good day and bye for now.
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