Articles by Eugenijus Saviscevas

Ancient civilisations already knew how to use the energy of running water, but it was the Western European civilisation that developed a vast network of watermills during the Middle Ages. The abundance of swift-running rivers and constant increase of crop areas in Europe were the two important factors behind the spread of watermills that eventually got involved in various technological processes, including smithing, papermaking, wood processing and groundwater regulation. In technical sense, history of Western watermills apparently developed independently from the experience of other civilisations, although the initial impulses might have arrived from elsewhere. […]

For many centuries, playing cards looked quite different from what they look now. It was not before the second half of the 17th century that the French started producing cards in manufactures by means of printing in response to the growing demand for cards. The green cards (clubs and spades) gradually turned into the black ones because the black colour was more readily available. In addition to that, the French-style pack of cards featured a queen instead of one of the jacks. […]