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Iron, How Did They Make It? Part I, Mining
- dddddaviddddd 6y agoWhile the author talks about how iron production is commonly (but mistakenly) represented in popular conceptions of the past, I appreciate the focus on mining in this article. It's yet another activity, essential to the historical economy, that I had never really thought about. It's interesting to get some insight on how these systems worked.
- ksdale 6y agoA great many of his posts are like that! I recommend all of them.
- bwanab 6y agoThis was a really good introduction. Subscribed.
- allannienhuis 6y agoThis is the 3rd article on this blog I've read recently from beginning to end, and thoroughly enjoyed. I also just subscribed to his Patreon - it's worth supporting this quality of work.
- matkoniecz 6y agoIt is also worth reading earlier ones - I especially liked series about Sparta and earlier one about siege of Minas Tirith (yes, it makes sense).
- cibritzio 6y ago'All of these can occur in big rock deposits, but may also occur as ‘bog iron‘ where oxidation occurs in acidic environments (in swamps and blogs)' Did anyone else catch this? Dunno if the faux pas pseudo pun was intended but it made me lol.
- contingencies 6y agoRecently caught a similar one from Alec (Mr. Connectify) of https://www.youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections https://www.youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections who described a mechanical component as "circular, like most arguments on the internet".
- cibritzio 6y agoIt is now corrected.
- muldvarp 6y agoI have had a dislike for history my whole life. I just now realized that I don't dislike history, but the way it is taught, as a list of important people doing important things on important dates. This post on the other hand was probably the most interesting thing I've read in a long time.
- cibritzio 6y ago> I don't dislike history, but the way it is taught, as a list of important people doing important things on important dates. You might find interest in recent Howard Zinn thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24510079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24510079
- jtolmar 6y agoYou'll probably enjoy the rest of the author's blog then. He really does his best to focus on systems, modes of production, and modes of organization. This is has been the standard for modern historians for quite a long time, but most pop history is still stuck in a "Great people, great ideas, great battles" framing. The author of this blog complains about this too at some point (I think somewhere in his Sparta series).
- im3w1l 6y agoI think the traditional way of understanding daily life in a given time is reading fiction set in the time.
- OscarCunningham 6y agoHe often does blog posts where he looks at a fictional work and explains what it got right and what it got wrong. So fiction is useful to learn history, and then fiction+diff is even more useful.
- quacked 6y agoThis is true for most topics. The way that math is taught, the way that history is taught- all separate the vast and deeply interconnected miracles of human ingenuity and achievement and discretize them into asynchronous packets of information to be tested on. How could you learn about Arabic numerals and Roman numerals without learning about how they slowly spread across Europe and revolutionized business? One without the other is boring. Every human invention is connected. Some suggested things to look up, caveat that you may already know about a few of these- - John Taylor Gatto and his myriad essays about the state and education (especially "The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher" as a Gatto primer) - Buckminster Fuller's "Everything I Know" lecture series (transcripts are up somewhere) - Anything Richard Feynman wrote
- phkahler 6y agoIf Elon is serious about building a self sustaining colony on Mars, this stuff will be critical. Mining, refining, and manufacturing will all be critical, as will growing food and producing air and water. Finding a minimal technology tree for that is IMHO an extremely interesting problem. Quick, what is the only machine tool that can copy itself?
- fuzzer37 6y agoI give up, what is it?
- virtue3 6y agoa CNC machine. Also a blacksmith hammer.
- samatman 6y agoa CNC machine can't copy itself, unless you have a CNC machine which can make a computer powerful enough to run G code. Which would be very cool, don't get me wrong...
- thatcherc 6y agoI think the answer is often "the lathe", but I also think it depends on what you call a machine tool and how persistent you're willing to be.
- WJW 6y agoTechnically, a lathe. However, it very much depends on how you define "can replicate itself". You probably need at least a foundry to melt metal as well to do it truly "from scratch" and I'm not sure you can make one completely with a lathe.
- samatman 6y agoThe Gingery machine bootstrap is one of the coolest things which has ever been written. It's relaxing, to know that there's a technological floor below which humanity can't fall, given literacy and a collection of seven books. And it's a pretty high level of technology.
- Fooloo 6y agoThere was so much important stuff which in the past which is quite subtle. Recently I learned that the scythe was mainly used in Europe (and later America). Giving European farmer of the middle age and before a little productivity advantage. https://youtu.be/9Im_8sI0QFQ https://youtu.be/9Im_8sI0QFQ
- virtue3 6y agoI mean, as the person in the video says, 1-2 people doing the work of 10 from just using a scythe vs a sickle. I had no idea how effective a scythe actually was, thank you for that!
- nickik 6y agoLiving in the close to the Swiss alps, its actually still quite common. We have mountain farmers here, and to cut the gras on the hills, there is still nothing better. It WAY faster and works with way taller grass then my parents lawnmower, that is for sure.
- lasfter 6y agoThis article was lovely to read, but I wish there was an RSS feed so I can catch the later installments.
- wffurr 6y agoYou are in luck: https://acoup.blog/feed/ https://acoup.blog/feed/
- dfinninger 6y agoAnd, as a generalization, slapping /feed/ onto the back of a blog’s URL seems to be effective in many places. I just try it by default now if I don’t see an RSS button. I’m not sure if that’s a default setting for Wordpress sites, but it does seem to be modestly widespread.
- jbay808 6y agoI wonder, was the Roman "ruina montium" technique used for iron mining? I didn't see it mentioned in the article, but it seems like something the author would be very familiar with. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruina_montium https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruina_montium
- lmilcin 6y agoI have pretty much the same reaction. Rolling my eyes every time I see another sword "forged" with a small trickle of red-hot something pouring into flat form.
- Lazare 6y agoI've recently started reading through the archives on the blog. His writing style took me a little getting used to (he's oddly fond of italics), but I think it's really an attempt at transcribing what might otherwise be a lecture into text, and once you get used to it, it's fine. But the actual writing is amazing, and he's written on an oddly large number of topics that I find fascinating. I also appreciate how he's careful to give citations to source materials, and how he tries to mention, when relevant, that there's a controversy or dispute over some idea, or that the historical record simply doesn't let us know some detail. I especially liked: This Isn't Sparta: https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-i-spartan-school/ https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-p... The Fremen Mirage: https://acoup.blog/2020/01/17/collections-the-fremen-mirage-part-i-war-at-the-dawn-of-civilization/ https://acoup.blog/2020/01/17/collections-the-fremen-mirage-... Practical Polytheism: https://acoup.blog/2019/10/25/collections-practical-polytheism-part-i-knowledge/ https://acoup.blog/2019/10/25/collections-practical-polythei... Why Don't We Use Chemical Weapons Anymore: https://acoup.blog/2020/03/20/collections-why-dont-we-use-chemical-weapons-anymore/ https://acoup.blog/2020/03/20/collections-why-dont-we-use-ch... Order In Armor: https://acoup.blog/2019/05/03/collections-armor-in-order-part-i/ https://acoup.blog/2019/05/03/collections-armor-in-order-par... and https://acoup.blog/2019/05/03/collections-armor-in-order-part-ii/ https://acoup.blog/2019/05/03/collections-armor-in-order-par... I could go on. The series on Sparta was especially interesting, because I actually thought I knew a little bit about Sparta, but as it turns out, I really, really did not. Learning new things feels good, but unlearning mistaken beliefs is amazing. :) If the above links don't seem interesting, try poking around the blog. He's written some fascinating analysis of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, spaceship design, bow range, and more.
- divbzero 6y agoGreat article and looking forward to the rest! I enjoyed the economic tidbits that remain relevant today — rulers owning and controlling extraction of commodities, locating production based on cost of transporting inputs, and treatment of labor varying according to its scarcity.
- neaanopri 6y agoI have been following this blig for several months, it really is done of the best writing on the internet
- stevefan1999 6y agofunny enough, minecraft simplified this kinds of things to an extreme
- depaya 6y agoNot if you install the right modpacks!
- dghughes 6y ago>may also occur as ‘bog iron‘ where oxidation occurs in acidic environments (in swamps and bogs) leading to the formation of small clumps of iron-rich material I've always been amazed at bog iron it seems like it shouldn't exist where it does and how it does. It must have been an amazingly valuable source rather than smashing rocks or spending time and effort searching for a rich vein of iron.
- selfinvariant 6y agoI "discovered" this blog a couple of month ago, and I absolutely love it. The recent posts about agriculture in pre-modern times[0] are particularly insightful and I enjoyed so much to read. [0] Start of the series: https://acoup.blog/2020/07/24/collections-bread-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-farmers/ https://acoup.blog/2020/07/24/collections-bread-how-did-they...
- test1235 6y agoI'm kinda impressed there's not a whole slew of comments debunking every claim like everytime "guns, germs and steel" is brought up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
- Tuna-Fish 6y agoThat's because unlike Jared Diamond, Bret Devereaux is a professional historian who understands what he is talking about, and is careful to note his sources and what areas we don't know much about.
- alexpetralia 6y agoAs usual, if you like Bret's writing, please consider donating! He has emphasized that adjuncts (which he is) don't earn a lot (perhaps <30k/yr) and spend a huge amount of their time applying to jobs/grading papers. Donating would ideally offer him more time to work on his writing.
- imtringued 6y ago>And I want to stress that broad framing: iron was made into more things than just swords (although swords are cool). I honestly can't comprehend this line of thought. Why the hell would you care about stupid swords? If I was the first blacksmith on the planet I would try to replace bronze axes. Bronze is an extremely awful material choice for cutting down trees.
- bluGill 6y agoBronze is not that bad. Several reproduction efforts have used bronze axes, at first like you they assume that you need to worry, but by the end they realize bronze isn't that delicate and works just fine. Don't get me wrong, iron is better in every way, but bronze isn't as bad as people think.
- commonturtle 6y agoIf you enjoyed this you may also enjoy the five part series on how bread is made by the same author. It was a long read (~2 hours for the whole series) but I learnt a lot from it: https://acoup.blog/2020/07/24/collections-bread-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-farmers/ https://acoup.blog/2020/07/24/collections-bread-how-did-they...