Other places may have done it that way, but the Swiss simply subcontracted their bridges to Satan: https://www.andermatt.ch/en/discover/holidays-for-culture-lo...
Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
81–90 of 247 posts
Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
#82I used to be tempted to think that our modern generations are extra smart because of the cool gadgets we have. Seeing stuff like this, and reading ancient political / philosophical writings, gives me a much-needed reality check.
It's a pretty typical mistake. We are just as smart as our predecessors. We just have a much higher population, a higher % of them are well educated, and we have an enormous body of historical knowledge (as well as easy ways for anyone to access it). "On the shoulder of giants" etc.
The "On the shoulder of giants"-quote made me think of this:
"It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets." -Alan Cooper
Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
#83Nice animation, but I bear in mind that stuff that is presented like this is really just hearsay - we don't really know that it was built as presented. It could well have been built as shown - its a plausible hypothesis. But it is also plausible that the bridges were only built in the 18th century. Or maybe they were built 100's of years earlier. With any historical claims, we should have access to the source to be a…
You can find better references in the czech version of the wiki article https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlův_most Basically, it is just a hypothesis by some astronomist. Contemporary chronicler recorded just the year that the construction was started
My Czech is not the best, if I'm honest...
So, your reading is that its a hyposthesis by some astronomer. And that someone chronicled the year construction started.
If you are able to provide sources for those, that would be interesting!
Cheers
Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
#84I used to be tempted to think that our modern generations are extra smart because of the cool gadgets we have. Seeing stuff like this, and reading ancient political / philosophical writings, gives me a much-needed reality check.
It's a pretty typical mistake. We are just as smart as our predecessors. We just have a much higher population, a higher % of them are well educated, and we have an enormous body of historical knowledge (as well as easy ways for anyone to access it). "On the shoulder of giants" etc.
You're generally right, but missing an important detail: nutrition.
We are not smarter than the subset of our predecessors who had the privilege of developing without ever starving.
Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dental work is also a big driver in longevity, as is washing hands by doctors.
Can you expand on this? Were abscesses killing people or something else?
Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't this longer than the average life expectancy of that time? I wonder what kind of incentives they had for such long-term projects.
The average was skewed by child and women (during/after birth) mortality. In lecture [0] the professor mentions as an aside: > And what is interesting, if you take out the childhood mortality, the Victorian person between 1850 and 1880 lived slightly longer, if he was a male, than you do today That's well after the middle ages, but still also well before modern medicine and technology, such as good sanitation and wat…
That’s an interesting claim. I guess it implies that although we’ve reduced childhood mortality, the people we’ve saved go on to live shorter than average lives?
Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
#87I used to be tempted to think that our modern generations are extra smart because of the cool gadgets we have. Seeing stuff like this, and reading ancient political / philosophical writings, gives me a much-needed reality check.
We are not that smarter. We just have scientific method and better power sources.
Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dental work is also a big driver in longevity, as is washing hands by doctors.
Can you expand on this? Were abscesses killing people or something else?
You know the very extreme of dental issues, nerve infections? Well, they're the very extreme because when it gets to the point of aching intensely all the time, anyone gets treated in a matter of days.
If there's no treatment, it keeps moving in.
Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a pretty typical mistake. We are just as smart as our predecessors. We just have a much higher population, a higher % of them are well educated, and we have an enormous body of historical knowledge (as well as easy ways for anyone to access it). "On the shoulder of giants" etc.
We work harder than our predecessors (8+ hours workday, 5 days a week, both men and women), so I'd say we aren't really as smart as them.
The video doesn't show all the people doing all the work, likely from dawn till dusk. It was all man- and animal-powered.
Construction, for example, is incredibly hard work even with modern tools, and they had none of those.
That we can live comfortably with all the modern amenities on 40 hours a week, which for many is just sitting in a chair, typing text, is really good. I'm not bashing office workers here, btw.
Could definitely work less, maybe the push for shorter work days will gain traction.
Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
#90Note that the construction took 45 years.
Isn't this longer than the average life expectancy of that time? I wonder what kind of incentives they had for such long-term projects.
King wants a bridge, king gets a bridge. Whether it's for the country and people or his own satisfaction, if he could pay or force people to do it, they'd do it.
And bridges were infinitely more useful than fancy castles, for example.