31–40 of 61 posts
> As it turns out, even the Romans understood the power of a good hat. The author thinks Roman had low intellect or something?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people think ancient people were idiots. Romans could have invented steam engines if they wanted to.
> Romans could have invented steam engines if they wanted to. They did not have the precursors to it, such as a lathe. Steam engine technology evolved out of cannon technology, which was developing for centuries before the steam engine. (The lathe also came about from cannon improvements.)
Early engines were used to pump water out of coal mines because they were very inefficient and transportation was very expensive.
Of course Romans actually had coal mines in Britain and the Rhineland so it wouldn’t have been entirely fat fetched.
> As it turns out, even the Romans understood the power of a good hat. The author thinks Roman had low intellect or something?
Most people think ancient people were idiots. Romans could have invented steam engines if they wanted to.
You invent such things when you have resolved many other problems first. Like water and sanitation, and geopolitical stability. And no, steam engines took a lot more time anyway because advanced metallurgy was necessary to get there.
I wonder how authentic the hat must be after restoration? And how exactly restoration is done ? It seems restoration had to be funded so must be some elaborate process.
The hat of Theseus
> As it turns out, even the Romans understood the power of a good hat. The author thinks Roman had low intellect or something?
No, the Romans just generally did not wear hats, particularly the upper classes. Every Roman statue ever depicts a full head of hair, occasionally with veils, wigs or hairnets, but not hats. Apparently even Caesar's famous laurel wreath was meant primarily as a disguise for baldness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_hairstyles
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Romans could have invented steam engines if they wanted to. They did not have the precursors to it, such as a lathe. Steam engine technology evolved out of cannon technology, which was developing for centuries before the steam engine. (The lathe also came about from cannon improvements.)
You also needed cheap fuel and relatively expensive labour to make it feasible. Early engines were used to pump water out of coal mines because they were very inefficient and transportation was very expensive. Of course Romans actually had coal mines in Britain and the Rhineland so it wouldn’t have been entirely fat fetched.
I keep thinking of a primitive printing press, but the Romans didn't have paper, either. Paper didn't appear in Europe before 1000 AD.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people think ancient people were idiots. Romans could have invented steam engines if they wanted to.
> Romans could have invented steam engines if they wanted to. You invent such things when you have resolved many other problems first. Like water and sanitation, and geopolitical stability. And no, steam engines took a lot more time anyway because advanced metallurgy was necessary to get there.
> The other two are housed at the Whitworth art gallery in Manchester and a museum in Florence, Italy.
This sentence is somewhere in between funny and unprofessional. The other hat in England gets an accurate location and a back link, the one in Italy gets a "in some museum in Florence". At least they put the city's name...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Romans could have invented steam engines if they wanted to. You invent such things when you have resolved many other problems first. Like water and sanitation, and geopolitical stability. And no, steam engines took a lot more time anyway because advanced metallurgy was necessary to get there.
If geopolitical stability was a precursor to technology, we would still be living in the stone age :)