Nope. Combustion chemistry (and hence the explosive chemistry) were completely unknown, as were the thermodynamics needed to understand the steam engine. Both were entirely empirical.
"To my knowledge there hasnt been such a product that didnt even have a theory.
I just named several. History if full of them.
"If the experiment is only succeeds when run by the original authors by definition it isnt reproducible.
Good Lord, man. Are you "really" THAT totally ignorant of science and the scientific validation of results. Repeatability of experimental results by the original researchers is THE first and foremost requirement of scientific validity. NO researcher publishes until they have run the same experiment many times. That form of reproducibility is what the whole field of scientific statistical analysis and error determination is all about.
Independent validaton by a different researcher or group is the SECOND order of validation.
"Are we to say that this device can be commercialized and run by many different individuals when you cant even get different labs to reproduce each others work?"
Absolutely. And in many cases (such as trade secrets), companies put a lot of effort into assuring that others CANNOT "reproduce each others work".
"If you cant even describe how to run the experiment to another scientist, you cant spec it out so that a manufacture can mass produce it.
LOL. Guildmasters throughout history have manufactured any number of things without "describing experiments to another scientist". They knew the methodologies and the sources of raw materials that yielded the desired results. Whether other guildmasters could produce comparable items was irrelevant (and in fact if they could, it was a disadvantage to the first producer, as it made tighter competition possible).
"This just doesnt pass the smell test."
Perhaps you need a new nose.
Sucker born every minute.
Invention of the Steam Engine, he understood it’s theory and improved his engine based on the theory prior to commercial production.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwatts.htm
“Reproducibility is the ability of a experiment or study to be accurately reproduced, or replicated, by someone else working independently. It is one of the main principles of the scientific method.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducibility
You just love making crap up, don’t you?