3 ms·
It's interesting to speculate about an industrial Rome, but I'm more convinced that the industrial revolution was just as much facilitated by the political and
by allemagne 7y ago
It's interesting to speculate about an industrial Rome, but I'm more convinced that the industrial revolution was just as much facilitated by the political and economic institutions of 18th century England, things that Rome never had.
The story about "flexible glass" during the reign of Tiberius Caesar is probably false, but illustrates how technological innovation is expected to be received when there are powerful gatekeepers to broad technological change: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_glass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_glass
You see similar actions by technophobic rulers in Ming China following the voyages of Zheng He or even in 16th century England: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lee_(inventor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lee_(inventor)
Entrenched interests usually would much rather maintain the status quo than enable anything potentially disruptive. The industrial revolution started because it was infeasible for any one powerful group in England to oppose innovation.
- ratacat 7y agoNot to mention the discovery of vulcanized rubber. You can't have an industrial revolution without hoses, gaskets, and tires.
- jacobush 7y agoYou'd go a long way with coal and steel. Heck, even large scale plain iron works would make something else entirely out of the ancient world.
- fsloth 7y agoI totally agree. The financial and societal aspects are as much important as the technological development in kick-starting industrial revolution. As an engineer, I've come to believe the main reason industrial revolution happened when it did was not the sudden advancement of science, but the emergence of stable and inclusive economy based on commerce and private property and the inclusive political system that did not allow incumbent to stifle innovation through force.
- alanbernstein 7y agoThat's a great little story, I assume untrue, where the "flexible glass" was just chosen as a mythical invention, to make the point. Similar to the "acid that dissolves any material" story. Reading it, I thought how fantastic it would be if that material had actually been around for centuries. Then of course, the end of the article links to gorilla glass, a material we all use daily and barely even think about. Do we live in mythical times?