If I could go back in time my contribution would be electric motors/dynamos. I’d also teach basic battery technology, but with basic motors and wiring you can drastically jumpstart anywhere in the Eastern hemisphere starting really fucking early. I’m talking shitty transports in early Rome and streetcars in 11th century China.
You get massive labor saving devices early on and the basics to move forward and invest in more metallurgy.
But most importantly I understand how they work, how to demonstrate their usefulness, how to build them from ancient materials, and how to explain exactly why they work. Only problem is I won’t speak the language and Romans ain’t listening to a galla explaining engineering.
Just be aware that precision metalworking wasn’t invented until the renaissance, so you might need to invent that first or your motors will wobble badly.
Edit: that might have even been the industrial age instead of the renaissance. It might have been what really kicked off the industrial age, though the invention itself was for more reliable guns iirc.
I’d invite you to watch a bit of the YouTube channel “Clickspring” and ask if you’d like to revise your statement. 🙂 As a spoiler, he starts off with a blank desk, builds a lathe, and then an entire antikythera mechanism - by hand, using essentially bronze-age technology. And, he does that while making it look so very mesmerising and elegant. Time well wasted!
Yeah, I’ll check that out… I was thinking that primitive builder guy would do well going to the past but I wasn’t sure how much he could teach people, so it’s cool to hear about a someone doing higher tech from scratch.
Also, that ancient puzzle box/lunar calendar/whatever it was is a counter example showing that some artisans were capable of precision work. The industrial revolution might have been more about scaling precision work to mass production levels. Like adopting standard units of measurement was a big part of it, which isn’t really technology but just getting everyone on the same page. Before that, a foot could have a different length depending on where you were, if that region even had a reliable and reproducible definition for what a foot was exactly.
Not fine metal, precision metal. Those ornaments didn’t have to fit something perfectly and if one person’s was slightly bigger than another’s, it didn’t really matter other than maybe for their pride.
I’m talking about making 50 barrels with the exact same measurements (within some small error range) so that they will all fit the same receiver perfectly and can handle a standard sized bullet.
Or, in the case of motors and machines, bearings that spin smoothly, gears that fit together without slipping, the ability to align things well enough that spinning wheels on an axle won’t add a force that wants to rip the axle apart.
Not that electric motors are completely useless without that precision, but there’s only so far you can take them with more maintenance required without that precision.
Lodestone carved into a cylinder in a wooden housing with copper wire coiled around it. Batteries would be copper and zinc bar in vinegar in a clay pot that holds them apart from each other. It isn’t much but it’s enough to start moving towards water wheels
a generator is a motor operated in reverse (mechanical -> electrical). you apply external mechanical force and it produces electricity. neat, isn’t it?
I understand that but it’s not useful in this context, is it? You make an electric motor to power something, and then you have to use a mechanical generator to power the motor. How is that helpful? Unless you also know how to make batteries.
If you can somehow craft a motor that runs somewhat smoothly, I think building a basic windmill wouldn’t be too difficult, perhaps that could be used to power a little cart doing some plowing or some shit
So then you have copper cables covered in something to insulate them that are long enough to cover a whole field, which by itself would likely be problematic at the time.
For most applications, I’m guessing the windmill directly to the machine is going to make more sense, though of course that has to be a stationary machine.
If I could go back in time my contribution would be electric motors/dynamos. I’d also teach basic battery technology, but with basic motors and wiring you can drastically jumpstart anywhere in the Eastern hemisphere starting really fucking early. I’m talking shitty transports in early Rome and streetcars in 11th century China.
You get massive labor saving devices early on and the basics to move forward and invest in more metallurgy.
But most importantly I understand how they work, how to demonstrate their usefulness, how to build them from ancient materials, and how to explain exactly why they work. Only problem is I won’t speak the language and Romans ain’t listening to a galla explaining engineering.
Just be aware that precision metalworking wasn’t invented until the renaissance, so you might need to invent that first or your motors will wobble badly.
Edit: that might have even been the industrial age instead of the renaissance. It might have been what really kicked off the industrial age, though the invention itself was for more reliable guns iirc.
I’d invite you to watch a bit of the YouTube channel “Clickspring” and ask if you’d like to revise your statement. 🙂 As a spoiler, he starts off with a blank desk, builds a lathe, and then an entire antikythera mechanism - by hand, using essentially bronze-age technology. And, he does that while making it look so very mesmerising and elegant. Time well wasted!
Yeah, I’ll check that out… I was thinking that primitive builder guy would do well going to the past but I wasn’t sure how much he could teach people, so it’s cool to hear about a someone doing higher tech from scratch.
Also, that ancient puzzle box/lunar calendar/whatever it was is a counter example showing that some artisans were capable of precision work. The industrial revolution might have been more about scaling precision work to mass production levels. Like adopting standard units of measurement was a big part of it, which isn’t really technology but just getting everyone on the same page. Before that, a foot could have a different length depending on where you were, if that region even had a reliable and reproducible definition for what a foot was exactly.
i’m pretty sure the vikings has fine metal ornaments. and they were centuries earlier than the renaissance.
Not fine metal, precision metal. Those ornaments didn’t have to fit something perfectly and if one person’s was slightly bigger than another’s, it didn’t really matter other than maybe for their pride.
I’m talking about making 50 barrels with the exact same measurements (within some small error range) so that they will all fit the same receiver perfectly and can handle a standard sized bullet.
Or, in the case of motors and machines, bearings that spin smoothly, gears that fit together without slipping, the ability to align things well enough that spinning wheels on an axle won’t add a force that wants to rip the axle apart.
Not that electric motors are completely useless without that precision, but there’s only so far you can take them with more maintenance required without that precision.
How to you make electrical motors and batteries from ancient technology and raw materials?
Lodestone carved into a cylinder in a wooden housing with copper wire coiled around it. Batteries would be copper and zinc bar in vinegar in a clay pot that holds them apart from each other. It isn’t much but it’s enough to start moving towards water wheels
Can you make copper wire and zinc bars?
No, but if I’m in a time and place with writing someone there can, and if not I guess I’m teaching writing
Ez pz
Where do you get the electricity for your motors?
a generator is a motor operated in reverse (mechanical -> electrical). you apply external mechanical force and it produces electricity. neat, isn’t it?
I understand that but it’s not useful in this context, is it? You make an electric motor to power something, and then you have to use a mechanical generator to power the motor. How is that helpful? Unless you also know how to make batteries.
Coming up with a stream machine isn’t that difficult
It took a lot of iterations on the steam machine to go from “cool concept but useless” to “perfected world-changing tech”.
For sure, and much more doable, though still relies on being able to make a metal vessel that can hold pressure.
If you can somehow craft a motor that runs somewhat smoothly, I think building a basic windmill wouldn’t be too difficult, perhaps that could be used to power a little cart doing some plowing or some shit
So then you have copper cables covered in something to insulate them that are long enough to cover a whole field, which by itself would likely be problematic at the time.
For most applications, I’m guessing the windmill directly to the machine is going to make more sense, though of course that has to be a stationary machine.
I was thinking to put them in rope or something and let a machine drive in circles, tightening the cable and making the circle smaller
Okay, but you still need to get electricity to the electric motor. How would you so that?
Copper wire inside the rope, maybe insulate it with wax or something. Might take a decade to perfect