AHQ: What is some technology which theoretically could have been invented earlier?

[Aluma]

(honestly I think powedered is tastier to)

Samesies

How hard it is to make powdered milk?

Not that hard at all if YT is to be believed

Honestly it'd be incredibly funny if some place started industrializing just to make milk powder faster

 

[Arkenfolm]

What's the difference between powdered milk and something like the traditional Indian ingredient khoa? Or any of the other sorts of evaporated milk traditionally used in various cultures?

 

[Shiva]

Not really technology as such, but if you’re looking for an idea that would help spur earlier population growth, how about the basic concept of hygiene?

Several ancient societies had a level of hygiene that borderline modern standards. It's been invented several times and lost several times.

The reason 'hygiene' was abandoned by the Medieval Europeans was that one of the ways they were catching the Black Death was from having open skin pores from bathing.

 

[Simreeve]

Hot-air balloons.

 

[tus3]

What about Pasteurization? When is the earliest that sealing has advanced enough for pasteurization to be (accidentally?) invented?

 

[Aluma]

What's the difference between powdered milk and something like the traditional Indian ingredient khoa? Or any of the other sorts of evaporated milk traditionally used in various cultures?

None as far I'm aware, I was more so talking about it being "discovered" by someone who did not have it and being implemented on a large(r) scale, similar to how the steam engine existed but wasnt seen as a big deal

What about Pasteurization? When is the earliest that sealing has advanced enough for pasteurization to be (accidentally?) invented?

Great idea! Though I have no idea either

 

[Derek Jackson]

How about earlier sound recording.

 

[Arkenfolm]

None as far I'm aware, I was more so talking about it being "discovered" by someone who did not have it and being implemented on a large(r) scale, similar to how the steam engine existed but wasnt seen as a big deal

And that's why I'm not convinced it would make much of a difference materially.

 

[Aluma]

And that's why I'm not convinced it would make much of a difference materially.

Sure, but I'm pretty sure it would if any landlord found the economic potential of it
It's not like the steam engine or electricity where the implementation is completely counterintuitive for ancient slave-driven societies
Powder milk is easy to understand, has a large profit margin and is compatible with their way of life
Just because it wasnt implemented in those scales it doesnt mean it couldnt be

 

[AJE]

If the ancient Egyptians used saltpeter instead of natron for mummification in some cases, perhaps the effect of mixing it with carbon and sulphur and heat might have been discovered a lot earlier.

Was their metallurgy good enough to build reliable cannons and guns? Bronze cannons were used plenty of times OTL, but you need the skill to cast the cannons in a way they don't explode after a few shots. However, less reliable cannons like a leather cannon or a wooden cannon could still be fairly viable, especially if used to defend cities.

And primitive gunpowder weapons like fire lances still have plenty of uses (hence why they pop up across Eurasia and were used for centuries). There is also rocketry and grenades, like a simply clay jar loaded with gunpowder and shrapnel and thrown at the enemy lines.

Ancient bronze naval rams were cast similarly to cannons, and you don't require cannons specifically- a hole in the ground will work fine. But they would have to discover saltpeter and how to purify it from niter, which is what historically took a long time and was developed when gunpowder was.

Better sailing ship hull and sail plans. Not necessarily bigger, just better. Still wood.

Better hull plans allow bigger ships to be built (or more accurately longer ships with a given number of decks). And I suppose the problem of (by modern standards) obviously bad designs and methods applies to a lot of things prior to the industrial age. They rarely knew how to reliably determine which method/design was superior, so they stuck with many inferior designs/methods and sometimes replaced good methods with inferior ones.

 

[Nivek]

What about Pasteurization? When is the earliest that sealing has advanced enough for pasteurization to be (accidentally?) invented?

Have a cattle farmer boil his milk as he liked it hot and realized the milk took him less to the bath? And told people to do the same? If he got the same with water...

 

[tus3]

It's not like the steam engine or electricity where the implementation is completely counterintuitive for ancient slave-driven societies

Being counterintuitive is not the reason why the steam engine took so long to catch on, but economics. Slave-driven societies had no trouble adopting waterpower, for example. It is no coincidence that the first place which saw widespread use of the steam engine, Britain, had loads of cheap coal, and steam engines only were widely adopted outside of it after more efficient engines were invented.

 

[Aluma]

Being counterintuitive is not the reason why the steam engine took so long to catch on, but economics

I meant it was counterintuitive in part also because it went against the estabilished economics, but maybe I should've used coumterproductive instead

 

[Fire and shadow]

Being counterintuitive is not the reason why the steam engine took so long to catch on, but economics. Slave-driven societies had no trouble adopting waterpower, for example. It is no coincidence that the first place which saw widespread use of the steam engine, Britain, had loads of cheap coal, and steam engines only were widely adopted outside of it after more efficient engines were invented.

There’s also the difficulty of making materials that can hold the steam pressures.

 

[Insane Ranter]

Stir-up.
Honey Bee domestication
Paper
Toliet Paper

 

[PobreCesar]

Cannons of Kemet?

Kemet was a highly-centralized state; The advent of Gunpowder favored highly-centralized states over small city-states and feudal realms. Sounds like bad news to all the small realms near it.
Probably some pretty crappy guns, but even something like a very primitive cannon might make a lot of difference at the time. I'm imagining guns at the time being used like throwing spears were - fire a volley then charge infantry into melee range.

I would like to see that TL.

Hot-air balloons.

What would they be used for? Surveillance? Sieges?

 

[PolishMagnet]

I would like to see that TL.

What would they be used for? Surveillance? Sieges?

Great for reconnaissance and could be used for dropping bomblets. Also could be used for safe travel through dangerous areas.

 

[Simreeve]

I would like to see that TL.

What would they be used for? Surveillance? Sieges?

Fairly soon after the Montgolfier brothers demonstrated their balloon, the French army formed a unit that used tethered balloons for observation purposes.
Napoleon subsequently scrapped this..

It seems easy enough to imagine the Chinese at some point, with their access to both paper and silk as possible materials for the actual balloons themselves, discovering the concept and using them for the same purpose. This would help them slightly against the greater mobility of the horse-nomads and the Cossacks.

 

[West]

Printing press

 

[HARRY]

Fairly soon after the Montgolfier brothers demonstrated their balloon, the French army formed a unit that used tethered balloons for observation purposes.
Napoleon subsequently scrapped this..

It seems easy enough to imagine the Chinese at some point, with their access to both paper and silk as possible materials for the actual balloons themselves, discovering the concept and using them for the same purpose. This would help them slightly against the greater mobility of the horse-nomads and the Cossacks.

I believe chinese armies would deploy large box kites to lift an observer up to check on enemy movements.