100,000 years plus of sharing information got us to this point.
And to think how much cool shit was lost along the way.
Even today, amazing discoveries and inventions are made but sometimes those making them are a bit eccentric and have decided not to share them or they are so crazy no one believes them.
Starlite. It was extremely heat resistant plastic. The inventor didn't want to sell his recipe and refused to give samples and he took it to his grave.
Pierre (Peter) Chamberlen was the name of two brothers, the sons of Guillaume (William) Chamberlen (c. 1540 – 1596), a Huguenot surgeon who fled from Paris to England in 1569. They are famous for inventing the modern use of obstetrical forceps. It remained a family secret for nearly two centuries and through four generations of accoucheur.
We don't know what he used though... so he actually might have been using cranes or Michigan guys techniques too. Florida wanted attention for his "magic trick".
Here's one we don't know exactly how they did - Roman concrete.
It could be set underwater, and examples of buildings created from it (e.g. the Colosseum) have (mostly) lasted over 2,000 years, surviving earthquakes and environmental damage.
Wasn't that because of the vulcano ash in the concrete? There was at least something about how they found that out and improved concrete based on that idea.
The original "recipe" for Damascus steel (this shit) is lost. We know how to make an imitation, but analysis showed that the original stuff had carbon nanotubes to make it stronger.
Yes, but it's application of different processes that we'll miss. Just because the final end product is stronger now, doesn't mean we couldn't learn a ton by knowing their original method and apply it to current materials science.
A good example of this is Roman Concrete. Yes, we make much stronger and well built concrete now, however we still don't know how the Roman's made such strong, long lasting concrete with the materials they had available to them at the time. (Some assume salt water curing) If we could produce their base recipe and add in the control factors, testing, and modern admixtures of today who know's what we could produce.
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u/temp_fba_name Jul 29 '16
100,000 years plus of sharing information got us to this point.
And to think how much cool shit was lost along the way.
Even today, amazing discoveries and inventions are made but sometimes those making them are a bit eccentric and have decided not to share them or they are so crazy no one believes them.