The pace of invention during the Middle Ages is often considered to have been pretty sluggish. But that doesn’t mean that the inventions that were conceived were not important.

In fact, lots of valuable things were invented, or at least improved upon, and some of those things are still around today.

For example, the medieval period was the golden age of castle building. Some of the medieval architects were incredibly talented, and the builders of that time really knew their way around Heron’s gin pole crane!

Another important advance by medieval makers was the heavy steel plow. Early plows, like those of the Egyptians, were simply sharp sticks dragged behind an ox or horse that scraped a furrow in the ground. But that sort of plow wouldn’t work in heavy soil or fields with lots of rocks. Around 600 CE, big, heavy, and strong iron plow blades became popular, and, as a result, farmers were able to grow a lot more food.

In addition to the plow, perhaps the greatest example of Middle Ages technology was the water mill. Although the classical Greeks invented it, its popularity really exploded during the Middle Ages. With all the additional grain that was made available by the use of the heavy steel plow, millers and their water mills were put to work. With water-powered grindstones, they could process the grain efficiently, which led population growth all over the world.

But who made the tools, fasteners, and other items required to build the castles, the plows, and the mills? In the next chapter, we meet the master makers of the Middle Ages—the blacksmiths.

The word smith means metal worker and comes from the word smite, which, in Olde England, meant “to hit.” There were two general types of smiths. Blacksmiths worked with black metals, which meant iron, and whitesmiths worked on copper, tin, and just about everything else. It took a long time for a blacksmith to become proficient at his trade, but once he did, he was one of the most important tradesmen in any village.

Besides know-how, it takes tools to become a smith. This list describes a few of the most important.

• Anvils—Large, specially-shaped iron blocks upon which the smith would smite heated metal pieces to their desired shape.
• Bellows—A squeezable bag with a nozzle, used to stoke the coal and wood fires of the blacksmith’s forge.
• Forge—The hearth used for heating metals. The blacksmith’s forge was one hot place, because iron has to be heated to a very high temperature in order for it to be shaped.
• Hammers—Every smith had a variety of these all-important smiting tools.
• Swages—Iron molds were used for forming metal into various shapes. Using hammers, the smith would pound the hot metal work piece against the swage to shape it.
• Tongs—Long, jointed tools used to grip and lift hot metal objects.