12 December 2011
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Agostino Ramelli and the 16th century book browser
The forerunner of the web-search took the form of a waterwheel ...
The forerunner of the web-search took the form of a waterwheel
How easy it is, these days, to research a project by flipping between web-pages. But nearly 500 years ago, our modern methods were pre-empted by Italian engineer Agostino Ramelli, who invented a bookwheel, a desk-cum-shelving-system based on the design of a waterwheel that would enable book browsers to flip between more than a dozen titles.
Agostino's bookwheel, also known as a reading wheel, which presented the information to the reader in whatever position they had last placed it, is considered as an early protoype of hypertext, and thus, of the internet.
You can read about his wheel here: http://boingboing.net/2011/12/10/bookwheel-the-multiple-tabbed.html
How easy it is, these days, to research a project by flipping between web-pages. But nearly 500 years ago, our modern methods were pre-empted by Italian engineer Agostino Ramelli, who invented a bookwheel, a desk-cum-shelving-system based on the design of a waterwheel that would enable book browsers to flip between more than a dozen titles.
Agostino's bookwheel, also known as a reading wheel, which presented the information to the reader in whatever position they had last placed it, is considered as an early protoype of hypertext, and thus, of the internet.
You can read about his wheel here: http://boingboing.net/2011/12/10/bookwheel-the-multiple-tabbed.html
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