Week 26 History Essay

              This week I learned about the coke-fired blast furnace, the Newcomen steam engine, Thomas Newcomen, and the octant. First is the coke-fired blast furnace. It was invented by Abraham Darby, who was an English Quaker during the late 1600s and early 1700s. The coke-fired blast furnace made a huge impact on the Industrial Revolution, because it was a better way of producing iron instead of using charcoal. The second invention I learned about is the Newcomen steam engine. This engine was the first to use steam to make the engine run. It was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, who I learned a little about in the next lesson. He was an English inventor and a Baptist preacher. His invention was first made and used to pump water out of tin mines. It is not used anymore, but it led to even better engines. Last, I learned about the octant, which is a type of reflecting instrument used for navigation. It was invented by John Hadley, an English mathematician, and Thomas Godfrey, a glacier, in 1730. It is not used anymore today, but it allowed navigators to measure a precise angle at the same time they were moving in the sea, which made navigating the ocean much better. I liked learning about the octant the most this week, because I thought the reflectors inside the octant were very interesting.