Hello, today is the last fourth grade history lesson; it is about morphine, and the jacquard loom, and, worldview, and some patterns that I noticed from inventors, like at first they, or the inventors, noticed something is odd, then they see what’s odd and then they fix it, and usually angry mobs attack the people who made a laborsaving invention. Well, I guess I kind of just shared the patterns about inventions and what usually happened, but now, let’s get started.
Morphine
A German man named Sirturner apprenticed a pharmacist, and he was the first one to extract morphine from opium poppy plant, in 1804. Morphine, is believed to be to first alkaloid extracted from a plant. It acts as an endorphin which blocks pain signals. Morphine is one of the most potent pain relievers. It’s useful for a variety of pains, including cancer pain. Initially it was named after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus, because it causes sleepiness. Morphine is also very addictive, more addictive than alcohol and opium. It led to the invitation of pain killers, heroin and even Coke.
It is also said, that during the Byzantine empire an opium-based elixir was invented by alchemists, however, the exact formula was lost during the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul). “Around 1522, Paracelsus made reference to an opium-based elixir that he called laudanum from the Latin word laudare, meaning “to praise” He described it as a potent painkiller, but recommended that it be used sparingly.” – source Wikipedia. It’s safe to say that this elixir contained morphine.
The Jacquard loom
Bastille Bouchon was the son of an organ maker, and he knew that organs use cams to make the pipes sing or make sound. He applied the cam patterns to the loom in 1725. Another man named Vaucanson improved his design by adding a cylinder. Then, 50 years later, Jacquard combined these previous attempts, and then that was how the Jacquard loom was invented. The Jacquard loom automatically produces complex woven patterns. Programmable, or in other words, cards that could be made over and over again, create the thread patterns. The new loom reduced labor cost and made, expensive, very expensive, clothes, cheaper. It was invented in 1804, but took some time to catch on, and in the end Jacquard was handsomely rewarded by Napoleon.
Worldview
For worldview I will be sharing five parts of worldview. They are: God, man, ethics, judgment, and time. Some common worldviews were: beginning, middle, and end. Growth, order, decline, and chaos. The prevalent worldview is like a pyramid, with that pharaohs over at the top, or Kings whatever you wanna call them, underneath are soldiers and generals, then below are the workers, and in the past they even had slaves. They were at the base of the pyramid. But the way I think about this, is the following: without the slaves back then, or the working class, today, the kings would be nowhere, right? So maybe if we flip over the pyramid, we can see that the power is with the masses, the working class; however, most people don’t realize that the power comes from numbers not from titles or ranks. Even though pharaohs were the highest ranked, they would have been nothing if they didn’t have slaves to work for them, at least that’s what I think. Since the beginning of history though, there has been a top down relationship between the rulers and the rest of the people. Will we in the 21st century be able to change this?
Thank you for reading my last history of inventions essay, at least for fourth grade, I really hope you enjoyed. What do you think a common pattern is when things get invented, I think the angry mobs always attack and destroy the machines that are labor saving, for example angry mobs did not like the spinning Jenny so they attacked the machine, and destroyed many of them. Anyway what’s your take on it? Bye, and see you next time in my fifth grade history essays.
AnyTime2Learn 