The Physics of War (14 page)

In addition, Newton made important contributions to the understanding of sound, heat, tides, and fluid dynamics, and he also made several important discoveries in mathematics in addition to calculus. But perhaps most important, he was the first to formulate and use the scientific or experimental method. In particular, he published the four rules of scientific reasoning. And although Galileo had used the experimental method years earlier, it was Newton who perfected it. He also emphasized the role that theory and experiment played together.

What effect did his discoveries have on war? Some of them had a direct effect, but, for the most part, his laws of motion and gravity had an indirect effect in that they allowed gunners and weapons makers to understand what was going on when a gun was fired, and how the bullet or shell fell to the earth. On the other hand, his optical experiments soon made one of the most critical tools of war possible, namely binoculars. And certainly, his invention of calculus played a very large role.

INTRODUCTION

The Industrial Revolution in England began in 1762 and lasted to 1840. It was one of the most important periods in human history—primarily because of its profound influence on the daily life of average people. In particular, the standard of living was increased, but there were still major problems with conditions.

The era was significant for the military. It changed the way armies were equipped and how they fought, and it introduced mass production, which was something new in the civilized world. Guns, ammunition, and other weapons of war could now be easily produced by the thousands. And of particular importance was that weapons manufacture was standardized so that parts were interchangeable and could easily be replaced.

What role did physics, and science in general, play in this revolution? As it turns out, there is some controversy. There's no doubt that the developments spurred interest in physics; and new branches of physics actually arose as a result. But how much did the earlier breakthroughs of Newton, and the breakthroughs that occurred during the Industrial Revolution, relate to physics? The problem here is the definition of “science,” and more particularly “physics.” Many argue that “pure physics” made little contribution. And indeed it is true that the major contributions came from applied physics and technology, as most of the advances were actually engineering advances.

Nevertheless, there were dramatic changes in society—mostly for the good, although for the lower class, smog from the new blast furnaces (which used coal as fuel) was something new and unhealthy. And there's no doubt that the Industrial Revolution had a huge effect on war and warfare.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

For the most part the Industrial Revolution took place mainly in England, at least in the early years, but looking back in history it's easy to see that its origins were in France. However, it didn't play out fully in France until it was well underway in England.

The origins of the Industrial Revolution can be traced to Louis XIV of France, who ruled from 1643 to 1715. He had the longest reign of any French king—seventy-four years. He became king when he was four years old, but the Queen Mother and her assistant wielded power until he was twenty-one. When he took over, England's navy ruled the seas, and the French army was no match for the highly trained English army. Louis, who was convinced that his power was given to him by God and that he was accountable to no one except God, decided to make France the strongest country in Europe, and to do it he would have to build up its army and its navy. Furthermore, if these were to be first rate, they would have to have first-rate weapons, strategies, and tactics. And he was determined to make this come to pass. Strangely, though, he had no interest in “leading” his armies into war as Adolphus of Sweden had done, and he cared little about new developments in technology, or science in general. His major interest was dancing and partying at his many palaces (he built the immensely plush palace at Versailles). Fortunately, he had a very competent finance minister named John Baptiste Colbert, and he put Colbert to work upgrading the army and navy. And indeed, Colbert did an excellent job; within a few years France had one of the strongest navies and best-equipped armies in Europe. His navy went from 18 outdated ships to 190 ships equipped with all the modern devices known, and his army increased from a few thousand poorly trained men to 400,000 highly trained soldiers, equipped with the best cannons and muskets available at the time.
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With all of this available to him, Louis decided he was going to expand the borders of France—in essence, he wanted to conquer Europe and defeat the English in the process. He thought of war as a “sporting event,” with himself as commander. He began by attacking Belgium and Holland with his large army. He easily overcame them, but soon other countries saw him as an egotistical aggressor and began to form alliances against him, and, as a result, his losses began to pile up. One of his major losses was the War of Spanish Succession, which started in 1701 and continued to 1714; by the time it ended, France was almost bankrupt. Indeed, throughout much of his long reign he was at war, and by the time he died in 1715 he was highly unpopular.
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Even though he was unsuccessful in his expansionist ambitions, he did
make the important contribution of starting the Industrial Revolution. It all began with gunpowder. He wanted gunpowder produced fast and efficiently, and the methods that were in use at the time were too slow, so he directed his ministers to build a huge workshop in Paris for producing gunpowder. In it he set up what was probably the first “assembly line” for mass production. Production underwent several steps, with groups of people involved in each step, where each group performed only one operation before passing the product on to the next group. It was a new tactic, and it worked wonderfully. Soon he had warehouses full of gunpowder.

From here he turned to the production of guns—both cannons and muskets—and he set up an assembly line for them. He mass-produced uniforms in another assembly line. From here the new revolution could have spread and made France the greatest industrial nation on earth—but it didn't. By the end of Louis's reign France was nearly bankrupt. As a result, the major part of the Industrial Revolution took place in England.

THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION

The revolution in England, which began about 1760, was fueled mostly by three technical advances: James Watt's steam engine, John Wilkinson's new techniques for iron production, and new techniques in the textile industry. Several developments in the chemical industry, along with the development of new machine tools, were also helpful.
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With the advent of steam engines, efficiency increased dramatically. But for the early part of the revolution, industry still relied on waterpower, wind, and horses for driving small engines.

The first successful steam engine came in 1712. It was invented by Thomas Newcomen, based on experiments performed thirty years earlier by Christiaan Huygens and his assistant, Papin. It consisted of a piston and cylinder, with the end of the cylinder above the piston open to the atmosphere. Steam was introduced in the region below the piston. This steam was condensed by a jet of cold water, producing a partial vacuum. The pressure difference between the vacuum and the atmospheric pressure on the other side of the piston caused the piston to move downward in the cylinder. It was attached to a rocking beam that in turn was attached to a water pump.

Newcomen's steam engines were used in England for years for draining the water in mines. But it was the improvements to the design made by James Watt that provided the major breakthrough to the Industrial Revolution. Other
things that played an important role in the revolution were the development of new machine tools such as the lathe and various planing and shaping machines. Cylindrical boring machines were also important in relation to war, and they were used for boring cannons. Much of this was made possible, however, by the conversion from wood or charcoal to coal in the large furnaces of the time.

The development of new chemicals, such as sulfuric acid, sodium carbonate, alkali, and so on, was also important. Portland cement was also used for the first time during the Industrial Revolution.

JAMES WATT AND THE STEAM ENGINE

The major breakthrough that made the Industrial Revolution possible was the invention of the steam engine by James Watt. Initially it was just an improvement on Newcomen's model, but it proved later to be much more than that. Born in a well-to-do family in Greenock, Scotland, in 1736, Watt did not attend a regular school during his early years. He was home-schooled by his mother, but later on he did attend Greenock's grammar school. From an early age his skills in mathematics were obvious, but he also liked to build things. When he was eighteen he went to London to study instrument making. Later, he set up a shop in Glasgow as an instrument maker; in particular, he specialized in scales and parts for telescopes, barometers, and various other instruments of the day. His skills came to the attention of the physics and astronomy department at the University of Glasgow, and he was offered the opportunity to set up a small workshop at the university so he could help monitor and repair the instruments used there. As a result he became friends with several of the university personnel; in particular, the well-known physicist Joseph Black (an expert on heat) became his confidant and mentor.
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In 1759 another friend, John Robinson, told him about the problems of the Newcomen steam engine, and he was asked to repair a Newcomen engine belonging to the university. Looking into the design of the engine, Watt soon realized that it was extremely inefficient. In short, it was wasting much of the energy it was producing because three-quarters of the heat of the steam was being consumed in heating the engine cylinder during each cycle. The main reason for this waste was the cold water that was injected into the cylinder to condense the steam to reduce its pressure. Much of the energy, therefore, was going into repeatedly heating the cylinder.

Watt redesigned the engine so that the steam condensed in a separate chamber away from the piston. In addition, he maintained the temperature of
the cylinder by surrounding it with the steam “jacket.” This meant that most of the heat from the steam would now be performing work. This improved the efficiency and power of the engine dramatically. Watt built and demonstrated his new machine in late 1765. Surprisingly, though, even with its obvious advantages and potential, he had trouble finding someone to back him in producing it commercially.

Eventually, though, he was introduced to Mather Bolton, the owner of a foundry near Birmingham, and they became partners. Over the next few years the firm of Bolton and Watt became very successful. Watt continued to improve his machine and soon converted it so that it would produce rotational power. This proved to be a boon in grinding, milling, and weaving. Later he developed a compound engine, in which two or more engines could be used together.

But there was still a problem with the largest engines: the piston in the cylinder did not always fit tightly. This problem was solved by John Wilkinson.

JOHN “IRON MAD” WILKINSON

In 1774 John Wilkinson made a significant breakthrough in the construction of cannons. For years cannons had been constructed of iron that was cast with a core. Any imperfections in the interior were removed by a quick bore job, but this created a serious problem: each cannon was slightly different, and parts therefore had to be custom made. They could not be interchanged from cannon to cannon. Wilkinson showed that casting a solid cylinder and boring a hole in it by rotating the barrel produced much more accurately machined cannons, which would allow for the interchangeability of parts. It also made the cannons much less likely to explode during manufacture. As a result, the production of large cannons was improved. Watt's new steam engines helped Wilkinson produce more large guns with less labor, and Wilkinson's new techniques with iron and steel helped Watt build bigger and better steam engines. The partnership was of great benefit to the English military. Many of the large cannons were installed on ships, helping to make England's navy even stronger.
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Although Watt probably didn't realize it, his work was also critical in the development of a new branch of physics, called thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is primarily concerned with studying and improving the efficiency of all kinds of heat engines, and it would soon become an important branch of physics.

The work of Wilkinson and Watt was, without a doubt, critical to the military, but it created a problem. Wilkinson soon began to realize he was indispensable,
and he began to think that the British military was not compensating him sufficiently. He was ambitious and wanted to expand his iron and steel empire, but he needed more money, and it looked like his chance of getting much more from the British military was slim. And he also knew that other countries would be eager to pay for his knowledge and technology, France in particular. So, without mentioning it to the British authorities, he met with some French diplomats, and, as expected, they were eager to buy his cannons. But there was, of course, a problem: How could he ship them to France without alerting British custom officials? He got around this by labeling his exports as large iron “pipes.” And France paid him so well that he soon became a very rich man.

BENJAMIN ROBINS

While advances were being made in the construction of cannons, advances were also being made in the construction of muskets, particularly in relation to their accuracy. And as it turned out, physics was critical to these advances. Most of these advances were associated with one name: Benjamin Robins.

Robins was born in Bath, England, in 1707 to Quaker parents. His father was a tailor, but the profession brought him little money, and the family was relatively poor. Benjamin's mathematical ability eventually attracted the attention of some of his friends, and a letter was sent to Dr. Henry Pemberton in London. Pemberton sent young Robins a test, and he did so well on it that he was invited to come to London. At the time, Pemberton was preparing a new edition of Newton's
Principia
, and Robins read it along with many other important works in mathematics and physics. By the time he was twenty, Robins was publishing in major journals and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (a tremendous honor for anyone so young). He continued to publish extensively; in one publication he defended Newton's new “calculus” from several attacks by would-be mathematicians.
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