Technology

From the Green and Pleasant Island to the Island of Wonders

The Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, directed by Danny Boyle include an incredible sequence showing the English people’s life, before, during and after the Industrial Revolution, which was also a mechanical, social and geological revolution there.

The first part of the sequence (named Green and Pleasant Island, title based on an excerpt from Jerusalem by William Blake) is a rural scene, with animals and actors as the working villagers.

  

A London General Bus enters, carrying a lot of businessmen and industrialist dressed in a Victorian way: top hats. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, an important engineer of that time is played by an actor, and his helpers Brunels start to plat survey the land, after that, Brunel delivers Caliban (a Shakespeare’s antagonist from the play The Tempest, explored in the first moment of the ceremony) Be Not Afeard speech, from Act III, Scene II of The Tempest:

 Be not afeard [afraid]; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices,

That if I then had wak'd after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again, and then in dreaming,

The clouds methought would open and show riches

Ready to drop upon me, that when I wak'd,

I cried to dream again.

In the end of that speech, the Pandemonium (you should watch the video in the end of the section to discover who created this word) starts: the hill in the middle of the stadium is wrenched from the ground and a lot of industrial works emerge from it and from all sides of the place. They start to roll away the grass and others rural references, which are replaced by smoking chimney and other industrial machinery: engines, weaving looms, a water wheel.

           

  The works work in the rhythm of the song (And I Will Kiss, by Evelyn Glennie, The Pandemonium Drummers and Underworld), to create the five Olympic rings that will be raised in the sky.

            From this sequence of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, that shows how life has changed because of technological advances, we start our analysis of the Technological aspects of the Victorian Age.

           London 2012 Opening Ceremony - Pandemonium (Industrial Revolution Section)

Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution, within the context of the Victorian Period is something of great importance, contextualizing already in the beginning (1837) there have been great inventions that were important innovations in the season when Morse developed the telegraph and Morse code, and the same year the first steamboat was built.

So, it is possible say that in the Victorian Period, the Man achieved a major breakthrough when it saw as the producer beyond arm strength, when man discovered how to produce something to produce another, creating inventions that helped him to create other. In addition, that this happening context, inventions like the first Zeppelin built (1900), Benz developed the first automobile with an internal combustion (1885) motor makes clear advancement in the global industry during this period.

The Social Effects by the Railroads

Railways really changed the reality of society at the time, being a conveyance expensive, affordable only by the upper class, but also in the lives of low income when hired by a little amount of Shillings per week for the construction of the railway.

But it is important to remember that in conclusion, was not as useful to the population in general that with the high cost of traveling, people stayed on the field and if they needed to make some kind of travel, went on foot, as always they did.

The Exposition of 1851

For many years small fairs attract the audience and were these fairs that served to boost the Great Exhibition of 1851. "The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations" brought to the public all innovations / inventions developed during the Industrial Revolution, exhibition was held at the Crystal Palace, one of the most remarkable buildings of the Victorian era. The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations obtained indeed a resounding success. During the hundred and forty days that were open to the public, was visited by over six million visitors. The exhibition raised in London achieved great notoriety, bringing to the world the progress achieved, getting a resounding success.

Photography

Technological advances and the changes brought about during the 63 year reign of Queen Victoria marked and influenced people around the world. In the nineteenth century photography was widely admired mainly by the upper class of society, all because photography was a major technological innovation. One of the common types of photography in the Victorian era was the Post Mortem Photography - photos of dead people - became very famous after English royalty itself using it for the registration of relatives who had died. The technique was earmarked as one of the curiosities of the Victorian era.