Fan (machine) the airflow from the fans. Thus, fans may become ineffective at cooling the body if the surrounding air is near body temperature and contains high humidity. The punkah fan was used in India about 500 BCE. It was a handheld fan made from bamboo strips or other plant fibre, that could be rotated or fanned to move air. During British rule, the word came to be used by Anglo-Indians to mean a large swinging flat fan, fixed to the ceiling, and pulled by a servant, called the punkawallah. For purposes of air conditioning, the Han Dynasty craftsman and engineer Ding
A Study of History 23 civilizations identified by Toynbee in vol. Vii. This table does not include what Toynbee terms primitive societies, arrested civilizations, or abortive civilizations. Civilizations are shown in boldface. Toynbee's "Universal Churches" are written in "italic" and are chronologically located between second- and third- generation civilizations, as is described in volume VII. The social scientist Ashley Montagu assembled 29 other historians' articles to form a symposium on Toynbee's "A Study of History", published as The book includes three of Toynbee's own essays: "What I am Trying to Do" (originally published in "International Affairs" vol. 31, 1955); "What the Book is For: