3 ms·
I think this is a little bit of oversimplification. Even if the Romans had that technology... which was preceded by many others like hot blast furnaces... they
by partycoder 10y ago
I think this is a little bit of oversimplification.
Even if the Romans had that technology... which was preceded by many others like hot blast furnaces... they would have been stopped by other challenges.
A rudimentary steam engine was invented in 1 AD in... Roman Egypt. But it wasn't until after the discovery of atmospheric pressure and other pressure related discoveries when it could be turned into a workable technology, and even then, it required further innovations such as the present in Watt's reciprocating engine.
The romans also knew about a predecessor of railroads: wagonways. e.g: the Diolkos wagonway, and wagonways through the Roman Empire. But in this case wagons were pulled or pushed by animals or people respectively.
But now the problem is: How do you level vast portions of terrain in the first place, in a scalable way? blasting through TNT and such. Which wasn't discovered either.
So I am afraid that romans on trains could not be a thing.
- flukus 10y ago>But now the problem is: How do you level vast portions of terrain in the first place, in a scalable way? blasting through TNT and such. Which wasn't discovered either. Wouldn't slave labor solve that issue?
- partycoder 10y agoMaybe. But the industrial revolution was all about amplifying human production capability through machines. If it's a zero-sum game then it's not worth it.
- flukus 10y agoIt's not either or though is it? Think modern assembly lines in Asia that are a combination of near slave labor conditions and hi tech production.
- jwhitlark 10y agoI don't think the economic drawback to slavery is about the labor conditions, I think it's the lack of ability to improve you position. Chattel slavery puts about as wide a gap between two human's interests as anything I can think of, with war being a possible exception. The suggestions that slavery grew out of organized warfare explain a lot, I believe. So even if you had similar working conditions, I think you would have dramatically different social pressures and interests.
- partycoder 10y agoWell, people are still required to operate machines, or assembling and packaging a finished product. Especially in the beginning of the industrial revolution when there were as many alternatives for automation as today.
- dredmorbius 10y agoIt's worth keeping in mind that the first European fixed-track transports were also human or animal-powered. Most were in mines or associated with moving ore relatively short distances. The railroad was a generalisation of tracked road, wheeled cart, and prime mover.
- partycoder 10y agoWhich is exactly what I meant by the term "wagonways", which date back to ancient Greece.