technology timeline

[redwing]

Im still not sure what to do....For my campaign (comical) I need one item (mechanical...could be funny) that could change the world as the PC's know it. It is a medieval world. I did not want to have steam power. Maybe skip it and go to something else (NOT ELECTRICAL). It could be something small, anything that would would make everyone in the world look at it and think "Wow we need to start moving into the future."

What started the Industrial Revolution? (In our world AND in the RPG threads here at EN world?) I've looked through and there is little info? There had to be something! In one it said the Gnomes invented a new technology. What was it???

 

[Darraketh]

It could be something small, anything that would would make everyone in the world look at it and think "Wow we need to start moving into the future."

The compass!

Have they discovered coal in your world?

 

[Bonedagger]

What started the Industrial Revolution? (In our world AND in the RPG threads here at EN world?) I've looked through and there is little info? There had to be something! In one it said the Gnomes invented a new technology. What was it???

The steam engine (Including the railroad) and mass-manufactory played a big part in the industrial revolution.

Edit: That is. In the real world

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Historians have traditionally pointed to increased food production capacity as the necessary pre-condition for the industrial revolution. Enhancments to agrarian efficiency, in the form of seed sewing techniques and machines, meant that fewer people were needed to produce the same amount of food as before and therefore, there was more food and fewer agrarian workers - which means cities grow and can develop urban production - ie factories.

So in terms of technology, sewing and harvesting machines could be said to set off an industrial revolution.

Mostly though, increased transport and information transfer is the key. Until the advent of modern transport, a city couldn't grow too much larger than the number of people that eats all the food within a few miles of the city, because feeding the transport animals (horse, oxen, whatever) became more expensive than the amount you could get selling the food. Plus, there was the issue of spoilage. Civilisation really began to take off in the latter nineteenth century because of the dual innovations of railways and refridgeration.

Of course, in a world full of magic, spoilage and transport are a whole other ball game.

HAs this helped, or am I just rambling?

 

[apsuman]

Im still not sure what to do....For my campaign (comical) I need one item (mechanical...could be funny) that could change the world as the PC's know it. It is a medieval world. I did not want to have steam power. Maybe skip it and go to something else (NOT ELECTRICAL). It could be something small, anything that would would make everyone in the world look at it and think "Wow we need to start moving into the future."

What started the Industrial Revolution? (In our world AND in the RPG threads here at EN world?) I've looked through and there is little info? There had to be something! In one it said the Gnomes invented a new technology. What was it???

While not particularly funny, I would go with the water wheel. The axis of the wheel can be attached to any number of devices.

Mills (for flour).
Bellows (making the first blast furnaces)
Hammers ( to beat metals)
Bells (to ring them ala church)
pumps
Pulpers (reduce grapes to mash -- pound linen to make paper)


I was told that the water wheel became so popular in medieval Europe that rivers were dammed every few miles in some places just so they could make another wheel to do some work.

I saw this all basically on Connections (wonder show that was). The narrator gives credit to the Romans for making a water powered mill that was enormous. When Rome fell, the only people that had this knowledge were the only educated people, the clergy. They communicated with each other (via very very snail mail) and shared thier knowledge with each other. This lead to a medieval "industrial revolution" (his words not mine). The man follows some 2000 years of history and it really was amazing how many different ways the basic water wheel technology was used to save labor. He finished with the threaded loom that used punch cards (on wheels) to make patterens, which lead to Herman Holleriths electical counting device -- Hollerith Business Machines became IBM, his invention was a prepreprecursor to computers.

whew!

 

[buzzard]

Being that metallurgist type critter that I am I have to say decent steel. For quite a long time people were limited in the tools they had available to work with on the quality anf quantity of metals available. Good steel production would have a drastic effect on many areas, and be an enabling technology for many of those mentioned above.
No good steel- no railroad.
No good steel- forget a steam boiler.
No good steel, your bridge will be quite limited in span.

Without steel, buildings are limited to a height at which rock gets crushed by its own weight (maybe 10 floors). Also cheap good steel will enable a superior military. The advent of iron supplanting bronze had this effect. Bronze was expensive due to scarcity of tin. Iron is quite common, and thus with iron weapons a larger army could be fielded for a given cost. Good steel would give an edge to ones weapons and armor. Better metallurgy could well justify a product being classed as masterwork simply due to composition.

However, this is not to state that good steel, by itself, will change the world. It will merely enable the world to be changed.

Your main step towards good steel would have to be development of the blast furnace and open hearth (or Bessemer converter). Blast furnace by itself will not cut the mustard. A blast furnace will only produce liquid carbon saturated iron of decent quality. To make decent steel you have to lower the carbon content to get better properties. Open hearths and Bessemer converters burn off the excess carbon to enable useful steels to be made.

If you have any further steelmaking questions I can elaborate, I did piss away plenty of years on that Metallurgy doctorate.


Buzzard

 

[bozzutoman]

But what about pointed sticks?

 

[buzzard]

But what about pointed sticks?

Ahh yes, much fun until someone loses an eye.


Buzzard

 

[Zhure]

I think one of the primary keys to developing the industrial revolution was standardization. With standardization and the concepts of die-cutting and the lathe, mass-production becomes possible.

Greg

 

[Bugbear]

Industrial revolution archive

well it is in a medieval world. I was wanting to advance like in the Industrial Revolution thread (did they ever mention exactly what was going on in that thread? Can somebody link me to that thread?). Of course my campaign is full of comedy. So...if that helps

I was wanting to have some sort of factory. That could lead into some fun role playing.

Go to the GIRA site in my sig to find the Industrial Revolution threads.

As for your question, I think some technologies which could be developed at the midieval tech level would be the steam engines, Gunpowder, telescopes and microscopes. all of these could be created by some clever indivdual in a midieval society.

then once you have these in place, various nations would try to find new uses for them, primarily military uses. for example the first steam engine might be little more than a toy, but then some one gets the idea of attaching it to a ship, then someone else thinks to put iron plates on the ship, then someone else thinks of attaching the steam powered ship to a hydrogin filled balloon...

Gunpowder would start out as an entertainment (fireworks and noisemakers. this then leads to small bombs, to cannon, and then hand firearms.