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There are all these stories like Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court where someone goes back in time. If someone went back in time with sw

There are all these stories like Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court where someone goes back in time. If someone went back in time with sword and armor made using modern metallurgy, would they be considered magical? The armor would likely be lighter and more maneuverable while still providing protection. The sword would likely be lighter, sharper, and more durable. Just an interesting thought experiment.

henrikschroder 7y ago
I always thought it's a fascinating idea to see if you could make something using modern metallurgy that looks identical to medieval arms and armour, but has much better properties. So kevlar is out, but how would modern steel fare? Tungsten? Titanium?
- wbl 7y ago
  Some SCA armor is titanium, so we have an idea.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  I think sword made of alloy tool steel would put divots in a medieval one. I have a tungsten steel knife blade I made. You can use it whittle a regular knife. It's also not brittle in the least.
nostromo 7y ago
I enjoyed this story of a family that was disconnected from society for 40 years, from 1938 to 1978. When found, the technology that most amazed them was... plastic! > "Lord, what have they thought up — it is glass, but it crumples!" The family also noticed "moving stars" (which were of course satellites) starting in the 1950s. > The Lykovs had noticed them as early as the 1950s, when “the stars began to go quickly across the sky,” and Karp himself conceived a theory to explain this: “People have thought something up and are sending out fires that are very like stars.” It's a fun read. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian-family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-rus...
- Aloha 7y ago
  Cellophane interestingly enough exited in 1938 - perhaps not in the hinterlands of the Soviet Union however.
c3534l 7y ago
I doubt it. If an alien species came to Earth and gave us a plastic that was 100 times as strong as standard plastic, we'd just go “wow, that's some strong plastic."
- praxulus 7y ago
  Well, we live in age where rapid technological progress is considered normal, or even mundane. I don't want to imply that there was no new technology developed in the middle ages, but I don't think your average medieval lord expected to see notable technological advancements from generation to generation, let alone year to year.
  - Retric 7y ago
    I suspect that’s our biases talking. For a recent example, tend to think of vacuum tubes as a single thing, but they had vast investments in R&D and got much better over time. And that’s for something invented in 1904. Similarly, I suspect a huge range of technical innovation that occurred throughout medieval time gets compressed into a few simple ideas like swords or plows. However, if you’re actually using these things day in and say out, what seems to us as a minor change could have been thought of as revolutionary at the time.
    - Gravityloss 7y ago
      And there's vacuun tube innovation today still! For guitar amplifiers.
- sigstoat 7y ago
  i don't know, there's a sibling comment demonstrating that titanium has managed to enter the popular consciousness as a near-magically strong metal, when there's still plenty of uses for steel, and aluminum (even ignoring cost). so, like vantablack, and titanium, i think the excitement around the wonder-plastic would depend on marketing.
azernik 7y ago
There was an interesting bit of anachronism in Good Omens where the angel and demon of the piece show up in early medieval England in VERY anachronistic full plate armor - and then the camera pulls back to the mere mortals in splint mail and studded leather, and I realized the plate was part of their supernatural-knight personas.
Rapzid 7y ago
By "they" do you mean the weapons and armor or the person? The person would be just as likely to be killed or detained indefinitely quite quickly than not IMHO. The armor and sword would be considered an oddity and perhaps go into legend as something more.
- dave7 7y ago
  The thought occurred to me while reading this article, something like this must have happened "accidentally on purpose" in these medieval forges and smiths - a steel becomes fortified with just the right amount of tungsten to and forged to armor and blades far superior to the usual fare, and goes on to become armor of kings and the stuff of legend. Excalibur, perhaps. And this probably happened a fair bit, and many people told the stories and continued the legends. Now, when we play an RPG video game and discover a "Legendary gauntlets, +12 damage +14 resilience" - it sort of triggers an innate feeling within us because of our shared history in which legendary loot was actually a real thing? Fun thoughts.
dogma1138 7y ago
Full plate armor only weight about 30-35lbs and was extremely maneuverable. As far as sword steel goes then while some modern steels are superior as far as edge retention and or corrosion resistance goes they aren’t that much better than some of the ancient high quality steels as far as the final product goes to appear magical. Modern blade steel is more about mass production and consistency so you don’t need to hammer the impurities for 50 days out of your billet. Sure you might be able to go with titanium instead of steel for the armor but I’m not actually sure it would provide better protection. Plate armor was tempered steel it provided protection by deflecting blade blows and by being able to absorb crushing blows trough deformation instead of shattering. Yeah you could design a full plate armor with composite materials today that might be better but then it’s well beyond modern steel and even then I’m not sure if many people would think it’s magic.

henrikschroder 7y ago

I always thought it's a fascinating idea to see if you could make something using modern metallurgy that looks identical to medieval arms and armour, but has much better properties. So kevlar is out, but how would modern steel fare? Tungsten? Titanium?

wbl 7y ago
Some SCA armor is titanium, so we have an idea.
Gibbon1 7y ago
I think sword made of alloy tool steel would put divots in a medieval one. I have a tungsten steel knife blade I made. You can use it whittle a regular knife. It's also not brittle in the least.

nostromo 7y ago

I enjoyed this story of a family that was disconnected from society for 40 years, from 1938 to 1978. When found, the technology that most amazed them was... plastic! > "Lord, what have they thought up — it is glass, but it crumples!" The family also noticed "moving stars" (which were of course satellites) starting in the 1950s. > The Lykovs had noticed them as early as the 1950s, when “the stars began to go quickly across the sky,” and Karp himself conceived a theory to explain this: “People have thought something up and are sending out fires that are very like stars.” It's a fun read. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian-family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-rus...

Aloha 7y ago
Cellophane interestingly enough exited in 1938 - perhaps not in the hinterlands of the Soviet Union however.

c3534l 7y ago

I doubt it. If an alien species came to Earth and gave us a plastic that was 100 times as strong as standard plastic, we'd just go “wow, that's some strong plastic."

praxulus 7y ago
Well, we live in age where rapid technological progress is considered normal, or even mundane. I don't want to imply that there was no new technology developed in the middle ages, but I don't think your average medieval lord expected to see notable technological advancements from generation to generation, let alone year to year.
- Retric 7y ago
  I suspect that’s our biases talking. For a recent example, tend to think of vacuum tubes as a single thing, but they had vast investments in R&D and got much better over time. And that’s for something invented in 1904. Similarly, I suspect a huge range of technical innovation that occurred throughout medieval time gets compressed into a few simple ideas like swords or plows. However, if you’re actually using these things day in and say out, what seems to us as a minor change could have been thought of as revolutionary at the time.
  - Gravityloss 7y ago
    And there's vacuun tube innovation today still! For guitar amplifiers.
sigstoat 7y ago
i don't know, there's a sibling comment demonstrating that titanium has managed to enter the popular consciousness as a near-magically strong metal, when there's still plenty of uses for steel, and aluminum (even ignoring cost). so, like vantablack, and titanium, i think the excitement around the wonder-plastic would depend on marketing.

azernik 7y ago

There was an interesting bit of anachronism in Good Omens where the angel and demon of the piece show up in early medieval England in VERY anachronistic full plate armor - and then the camera pulls back to the mere mortals in splint mail and studded leather, and I realized the plate was part of their supernatural-knight personas.

Rapzid 7y ago

By "they" do you mean the weapons and armor or the person? The person would be just as likely to be killed or detained indefinitely quite quickly than not IMHO. The armor and sword would be considered an oddity and perhaps go into legend as something more.

dave7 7y ago
The thought occurred to me while reading this article, something like this must have happened "accidentally on purpose" in these medieval forges and smiths - a steel becomes fortified with just the right amount of tungsten to and forged to armor and blades far superior to the usual fare, and goes on to become armor of kings and the stuff of legend. Excalibur, perhaps. And this probably happened a fair bit, and many people told the stories and continued the legends. Now, when we play an RPG video game and discover a "Legendary gauntlets, +12 damage +14 resilience" - it sort of triggers an innate feeling within us because of our shared history in which legendary loot was actually a real thing? Fun thoughts.

dogma1138 7y ago

Full plate armor only weight about 30-35lbs and was extremely maneuverable. As far as sword steel goes then while some modern steels are superior as far as edge retention and or corrosion resistance goes they aren’t that much better than some of the ancient high quality steels as far as the final product goes to appear magical. Modern blade steel is more about mass production and consistency so you don’t need to hammer the impurities for 50 days out of your billet. Sure you might be able to go with titanium instead of steel for the armor but I’m not actually sure it would provide better protection. Plate armor was tempered steel it provided protection by deflecting blade blows and by being able to absorb crushing blows trough deformation instead of shattering. Yeah you could design a full plate armor with composite materials today that might be better but then it’s well beyond modern steel and even then I’m not sure if many people would think it’s magic.