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The development of technology in Ukraine in the modern sense (associated with the advent of machines and the mechanization of production processes) began at the end of the 18th century. It started from the machinery in textile industry (including the equipment of rope and spinning production). Later the technology of steel making, crystal, glass, porcelain and faience production began to develop, especially in Volyn. In the 19th century the discovery of deposits of iron ore and coal, and the construction of railways started off the period of industrial capitalism. Mechanization and machinery began to play an increasingly important role. The establishment of a large number of machine-building enterprises began.
In the Russian Empire, machine building was poorly developed and almost all complex machines were imported from abroad. The same situation was in Ukraine, foreigners built complex machinery here. Kandyba, Ya. Kozlovsky, I. Vasil'kov belong to pioneers of technology in 19th century. One of the areas of technology that reached a high level of development in Ukraine was the technique of road and bridge building (among others: the chain bridge over the Dnieper, built in 1847-1853 by the project of E. Vignel, the high bow gauge bridge and the tunnel near Yaremcha in the Carpathians, built 1898-1902 by Project Bizantz, Matakiewicz, etc.). Railways, the regulation of rivers flow, the construction of power stations in Kiev 1890 and in Kharkov 1897, urban transport technique (tram), the use of natural gas in municipal household, technology of extraction and refining of oil. Professits and engineers, graduates from Lviv Polytechnics (founded in 1845), later Kharkiv (from 1883) and Kiev Polytechnic Institutes (since 1898)did here the best work.