Knowledge Is Power... Only If You Have The Will To Use It....

[StrandedonEarth]

18 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

Roman legions packing heat is the funniest phrase I have heard

One of the Civ games (6, I think) has an achievement for clearing nuclear fallout with a Roman Legion…

[DDE]

5 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

Roman legions packing heat is the funniest phrase I have heard in a while lol. Largely because of how anachronistic it is.

It's like velociraptors with AK-47s, only more realistic because humans have hands and velociraptors don't have anything quite as good for handeling tools (claws that long kind of kill any tool handeling at length).

Try Google Images, it'll be a hoot

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

 

[Terwin]

The Chinese had gunpowder quite early, and they used it for rockets and bombs(and failed rocket-chairs), but the machining and accuracy needed for firearms needs tools and materials that just did not exist at that time. 

Edited August 30 by Terwin

[magnemoe]

16 hours ago, Nuke said:

any one technology would take a lifetime just to establish all the perquisites. if i were to pick a single technology that romans could use almost right away, it would have to be guns. romans already did quite a bit of metal work for armor and swords. especially with metals like lead and bronze you already have what you need to cast some cannon. finding the components for black powder would have been childs play. what im not entirely sure is if they had access to machine tools and large scale metalcasting. i think you could have legions packing heat in as little as a decade.

the steam engine would not really be far behind either. if you can bore out a cannon you can bore out an engine block. so industrial revolution maybe in 20-30 years and at least ww1 era tech by 60. lets assume you were in your 30s, that would make you 90 and with roman healthcare (especially lending all your knowledge to warfare), i doubt you would live that long. but you would have rome on a trajectory to the modern world a couple thousand years early.  of course going the war route does have a problem in that you destabilize the whole world. and ever ruler not on the roman payroll (and a few on it) would probibly want your head.  so you end up getting to civil war tech before you get assassinated. its still quite the head start. i dont think you live to see the roman atomic bomb though.

First cannons arrived pretty short time after gunpowder was known in Europe and was used in in the 12th century. Cannons back then was very hard to operate and was very dangerous but it made breaching walls much easier. 
Romans could make them, at least bronze guns who was safer and more reliable but more expensive. 
in 1453 the Ottomans used an 20 ton cannon with an 90 cm bore who is one of the largest bores ever made, mostly because later cannons prioritized projectile velocity more than the old stone ball throwers. 
Not much battlefield use but I guess some would come up the idea of using smaller ones shooting lots of balls at once who would be useful here. 

Steam engines however is much harder. These old cannons was not really made with precision in mind, you made the balls so they fitted the gun. 
And while you could use an large cannon as the  cylinder for your engine the boiler and pipes had to stand up to the pressure to. This way why the first steam engines used vacuum rather than over pressure. 
Early engines was also very little fuel efficient, only worth using pumping water out of coal mines as transport cost was low  
It took an 100 years before steam locomotives was practical but some tugs used steam engines before this to help sailing ships in  and out of harbors. 

I would go for movable types printing press, cannons are nice but as mostly for siege it would just help Rome expand it empire making it harder to hold. 
With an printing press ideas would spread much wider who would have much more of an effect down the line, and its an very simple invention. 

[Superfluous J]

Everybody wants to go back in time and give everybody guns.

I want to give Aristotle a huge telescope.

[kerbiloid]

Better give him a lens to count the fly legs again.

[kerbiloid]

Also I have a feeling that his guy is a late-medieval German scholasts' joke, Aristotle... Aristeufel... (Aristokratisch + Teufel?)

Remember that Dr. Favst's fellow. Mephistopheles... Μῆτις Teufel...

[magnemoe]

On 8/30/2024 at 9:11 PM, kerbiloid said:

Better give him a lens to count the fly legs again.

Why do you need an lens to count fly legs? they have 6 like all insects? Googled it an 4, and he was an trusted source for how long? 
This is so mindbogglingly stupid. 
Again the printing press, add in the scientific method of thinking. 

And yes starting an small cult for medical men somewhere. They used soap, alcohol and also boiled their tools to kill small demons. 
For some reason this works well, its an lie for children but one who stick then they help the Romans or you could put it farther back but you will get serious famines unless you buff farming hard. 

 

[kerbiloid]

31 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Why do you need an lens to count fly legs? they have 6 like all insects?

It's widely believed that Aristotle (whoever he was, and when/wherever he lived) had written that a fly has wrong number of legs.
(In Russian version - eight, in English version - four).

Proponents are proving that he didn't mean that.
The truth is out there, as his biological book is describing various species in different terms for legs, another language, etc.
So, it's hard to be sure 100% what did he exactly mean, and especially why do the Russian and the English versions differ.

43 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

And yes starting an small cult for medical men somewhere. They used soap, alcohol and also boiled their tools to kill small demons. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

Ignativs The Demon Killer.

[Nuke]

On 8/30/2024 at 10:43 AM, Superfluous J said:

Everybody wants to go back in time and give everybody guns.

I want to give Aristotle a huge telescope.

i think all people should have the right to arm bears.

still working on arming cats but not sure how to handle the recoil.

[darthgently]

6 minutes ago, Nuke said:

i think all people should have the right to arm bears.

still working on arming cats but not sure how to handle the recoil.

Every cat should be teamed with a fat raccoon (any adult raccoon) that firmly grips the cat by the nape of the neck to help them deal with the recoil

[Superfluous J]

47 minutes ago, Nuke said:

i think all people should have the right to arm bears.

still working on arming cats but not sure how to handle the recoil.

You obviously have not heard of Squirrel With A Gun

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2067050/Squirrel_with_a_Gun/

Edited September 1 by Superfluous J

[kerbiloid]

It obviously should be called "Squirrel With A Barrel", but the copywriter was hired on a job-for-food ad.