The notion of applicable technology was developed in the 20th century by thinkers similar to E.F. Schumacher and Jacques Ellul to explain conditions where it was not fascinating to use very new technologies or people who required access to some centralized infrastructure or elements or expertise imported from elsewhere. The earliest recognized use of wind power is the sailing ship; the earliest record of a ship under sail is that of a Nile boat dating to the 8th-millennium BCE. From prehistoric occasions, Egyptians most likely used the ability of the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate their lands, progressively learning to regulate much of it via purposely constructed irrigation channels and “catch” basins. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia used a fancy system of canals and levees to divert water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for irrigation. Continuing enhancements led to the furnace and bellows and offered, for the …
