The stirrup, which gives greater stability to a rider, has been described as one of the most significant inventions in the history of warfare, prior to gunpowder.
I recall the silly articles in the NYT called "the 1619 project", purporting to describe the root, the essence of the US - it was apparently the start of African slavery. We can call the standard version of US history as the 1776 project, or maybe the 1787 project (US constitution). These are all stupid ideas. None of that mattered, at all. Did your souls just die?
I have been suggesting the "1889 project" as a rhetorical handle close to the reality, as that was the first year that the US became the leading global steel-maker. This, btw, makes Andrew Carnegie, a Scot, perhaps the most important American that ever lived. It was his exploitation of the Bessemer technology that made the real USA. On the other side of industry, making stuff, with those lathes, your most important man probably was Eli Whitney, who made interchangeable parts happen through a great increase in precision. A vastly more important man than Abraham Lincoln.
The US simply wasn't significant to world history until it became the leading technological player. All the words generated in the US, the constitution, the declaration of independence, all the law libraries, which Americans like to worship, are futile superstitions. Merest words. What actually mattered were lathes and Bessemer converters. These days, probably space rockets and AI systems, TBD.
BS.
All the tech in the world without the morality and freedom to use it wisely means NOTHING.
Look at all the countries in the world without what made America great that have borrowed tech are still oppressive hellholes.
America wasn't great on the world stage at that time because it was so small, not because we didn't have tech. A brand new country growing and competing against long established empires is of course, going to have trouble being a significant force on the world stage.
And Americans don't *worship* the founding documents of this country.
But don’t you have to have the conditions laid out in the Constitution to get create the underpinnings that allow great inventions and technology leaps forward? Allowing for financial incentives as well.
“Andrew Carnegie…Eli Whitney….vastly more important…than Abraham Lincoln”
Needs to be said.
History books’ focus on kings and wars always seemed a bit simplistic to me..
Off shoring and globalism do the opposite. It is destructive to the USA. Why I despise Free Traitors™.
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These invertors are the real heroes of humanity!
Yes, most of them are virtually forgotten.
Unfortunately, people seem to worship movie stars and sportsmen, who add precisely 0 to our life enhancements.
Thanks for posting this. History is my favorite subject, and the history of technology is often treated like a poor relation of princes and politicians and generals.
The best history is that of homo faber, man the maker!
Slavery had been going strong in the Americas for more than a century before 1619 on the part of the Spanish, and for a very long time on the part of the native tribes.
Makes me think of the series “Connections”, still the best documentary show I’ve ever watched.
I still have an old copy of L.T.C. Rolt's "Short History of Machine Tools" that does a pretty good job of showing the progression of lathes as they became "the machine tool that made all other machine tools possible" (it is, like many of Rolt's books, quite readable by those of us who don't possess engineering backgrounds).
Two big bugbears of the time were the accuracy of machined threads, and truly accurate end measurement. Rolt discusses these matters in his book, as does George Eschol Sellers in his collection of engineering reminiscences.
Got a lathe in my basement. Working on a silicon boule for a friend.
Anyone who sees the march of history as being driven by one factor or another has completely missed the boat. Let’s call it materialistic determinism. Anybody recognize the phrase?
There is no question that the biggest disrupted of the status quo and culture is technological advances.
In recent times the pill, internet, smart phone have upended the status quo and now AI will do the same.
Change is the only permanent thing.
The "foreigner" just oozes out from you like puss from a wound. You say that you are now holed up now in Spain, isn't there a Spanish forum that you can inflict your inane opinions on?
The stirrup, which gives greater stability to a rider, has been described as one of the most significant inventions in the history of warfare, prior to gunpowder.
I have some machine shop books from the turn of the century. They are important to the manual shop, but contain universal information for machining. They are better written than any modern work.
The New World was immediately significant in many immeasurable ways, like new foods. The U.S. was so significant that it was born after a series of civil, continental and world wars.
Mankind has always been ingenious with the materials which were on hand. New materials are necessary for the tech to go “forward”...wisdom to use the technology/materials to benefit mankind is more important than all of tech and materials.
Unfortunately new tech is many, many times used to kill many people and other living creatures. The “worship” of tech can be just as harmful as codified principles..