How Schizo can you go?

As a guy who has done a bunch of engineering stuff (not really) I was wondering what kind of advanced technologies you can make with primitive tools. Or at least tools that existed before they were used in that manner OTL. For clarity, describe how it could be done.

For example how feasible would it be to have "printed" circuit boards prior to WWII? In theory there is no insurmountable problem. You could use actual print rollers to apply the proper chemicals and then apply electrodes by hand. They would obviously be far inferior to early printed circuit boards, but far better than the vacuum tube circuitry in use.

Another example would be carbon fibers. Carbon fibers are actually pretty easy to make. Using Rayone fibers and specialized overs, it would be doable, though expensive. Epoxies for the matrix material were patented in 1946 so they would be just too late to be used in WWII aircraft unless you could get creative with polyethethylene using chromium trioxide catalysts, though that wasn't discovered until the 50's. Theoretically it could be done much earlier if the catalyst was known. Then you could end up with Carbon fiber/HDPE composite aircraft.

Any other potentially schizo technologies you can think of?
 

Remark

Banned
Well, it's not quite as impressive as printed circuits in the 1930s but it would be possible (and revolutionary) if someone with basic metalsmithing knowledge started turning out AK 47s fifty years ahead of schedule.
 
The Sumerian printing press. Scratch texts into a master clay tablet. Bake it very thoroughly until dry. Pour molten metal onto it and let cool. Now press the metal negative onto blank clay tablets.
 
As a guy who has done a bunch of engineering stuff (not really) I was wondering what kind of advanced technologies you can make with primitive tools. Or at least tools that existed before they were used in that manner OTL. For clarity, describe how it could be done.

For example how feasible would it be to have "printed" circuit boards prior to WWII? In theory there is no insurmountable problem. You could use actual print rollers to apply the proper chemicals and then apply electrodes by hand. They would obviously be far inferior to early printed circuit boards, but far better than the vacuum tube circuitry in use.

Another example would be carbon fibers. Carbon fibers are actually pretty easy to make. Using Rayone fibers and specialized overs, it would be doable, though expensive. Epoxies for the matrix material were patented in 1946 so they would be just too late to be used in WWII aircraft unless you could get creative with polyethethylene using chromium trioxide catalysts, though that wasn't discovered until the 50's. Theoretically it could be done much earlier if the catalyst was known. Then you could end up with Carbon fiber/HDPE composite aircraft.

Any other potentially schizo technologies you can think of?

I don't understand what you mean with your PCB example. Printed circuit boards are a way of connecting components; vacuum tubes are components. You could easily have a PCB with vacuum tubes on it (and indeed some such items do exist in the modern day for the specialized applications where vacuum tubes are preferred to semiconductors)

That said, semiconductor electronics - diodes, transistors, and maybe even very small integrated circuits - could probably be made in the 30s or even earlier. The photolithography techniques existed from the 19th century, germanium in high purities was available from the 1880s, and while plastic was used in the OTL device, there's no reason that any other very thin insulator wouldn't work (say wood, cloth, mica...). Hell, you could probably even theoretically move the transistor up to the 1900s or so (from a purely technical perspective, there's no compelling reason that it couldn't predate the triode vacuum tube, actually). Funnily enough, vacuum tubes can't be pulled very far into the past because they depend on thermal emission of electrons (discovered in the 1880s) and also were largely limited by the quality of vacuum that could be developed.
 
Funnily enough, vacuum tubes can't be pulled very far into the past because they depend on thermal emission of electrons (discovered in the 1880s) and also were largely limited by the quality of vacuum that could be developed.

Ok I'm going to use this as a clarifying example. I was asking what a person could do if they knew what to do. So while the OTL discovery of electron emmision would not disqualify the technology, the vacuum quality is would prevent it.

And what I meant on the circuit board thing was taking a silicon wafer and doing that photolithography thing to make the transistors in it. I probably don;t know the proper vocabulary. Mechanical engineer, not computer engineer.

That said, solar grade silicon could be made as early as the 1860's via salt electrolysis. Depending on how large you can make the transistors, silicon based electronics could be made as well.
 
The Sumerian printing press. Scratch texts into a master clay tablet. Bake it very thoroughly until dry. Pour molten metal onto it and let cool. Now press the metal negative onto blank clay tablets.

with that in mind, i wonder what later developments with paper would be like, assuming it was adopted? would they develop a kind of chemical printing?
 
So this about advanced technologies you can make with primitive tools.
you need allot R&D and portion of good luck

Like Alexander Flemming, who had a festered petri dish, he notice that bacteria he wanted to study were death near the fungus.
This let to discovery of penicillin !

And War is Mother of all things
take the Germans who do lack of material start to innovate during WW2
like use of sheet metal folding to make weapons like the Stg.44, That german technique the soviet use for Ak-47 production.
and Computer using relays instead of vacuum tubes.
Build big liquid propellant rockets with hardware of 1940
Or first composite material for Aircraft: A mixture of Glue, Wood and formaldehyde formed under Hot steam pressure
used on Heinkel He 162 jet fighter
 
Ok I'm going to use this as a clarifying example. I was asking what a person could do if they knew what to do. So while the OTL discovery of electron emmision would not disqualify the technology, the vacuum quality is would prevent it.

And what I meant on the circuit board thing was taking a silicon wafer and doing that photolithography thing to make the transistors in it. I probably don;t know the proper vocabulary. Mechanical engineer, not computer engineer.

That said, solar grade silicon could be made as early as the 1860's via salt electrolysis. Depending on how large you can make the transistors, silicon based electronics could be made as well.

Oh, okay.

So, that's not what printed circuit board means. PCBs are those green things with the chips sticking out of them. What you're talking about is what's called "integrated circuits"
 
As a guy who has done a bunch of engineering stuff (not really) I was wondering what kind of advanced technologies you can make with primitive tools. Or at least tools that existed before they were used in that manner OTL. For clarity, describe how it could be done. Any other potentially schizo technologies you can think of?

Methylene blue
Quite literal schizo technology. Methylene blue invented 1876 is a decent antipsychotic. Its properties were discovered in 1899 by Pietro Bodoni but promtply forgotten and not really researched until the 1970s. Methylene blue History

Cisplatin
But by your definition could be produced but was not known to work I would go with Cisplatin as an anti-cancer drug. It was first discovered by Michele Peyrone in 1845 but not seen as medically useful until 1978.

Sodium citrate
On the same medical tangent sodium citrate as an anticoagulant for blood transfusion. I couldn't yet find a date when it was first produced/isolated, but it probably was a long time ago.

Also don't forget anesthetics:

Ether:
"Diethyl ether may have been created by either Jābir ibn Hayyān in the 8th century or Ramon Llull in 1275, although there is no contemporary evidence of this. It was first synthesized in 1540 by Valerius Cordus, who called it "sweet oil of vitriol" (oleum dulce vitrioli) — the name reflects the fact that it is obtained by distilling a mixture of ethanol and sulfuric acid (then known as oil of vitriol). Paracelsus later observed that ether caused chicken to fall asleep and waken unharmed. But instead of using it in surgery/therapy it was only used a cheap drug for poor people and American students frolicing trough the night. History Anesthesia.

Japanese Plant Mix
Hua Tuo (ca. AD 145-220) was a Chinese surgeon of the 2nd century AD. According to the Records of Three Kingdoms (ca. AD 270) and the Book of the Later Han (ca. AD 430), Hua Tuo performed surgery under general anesthesia using a formula he had developed by mixing wine with a mixture of herbal extracts he called mafeisan Hua Tuo reportedly used mafeisan to perform even major operations such as resection of gangrenous intestines. Before the surgery, he administered an oral anesthetic potion, probably dissolved in wine, in order to induce a state of unconsciousness and partial neuromuscular blockade. The exact composition of mafeisan, similar to all of Hua Tuo's clinical knowledge, was lost when he burned his manuscripts, just before his death.

The japanese surgeon Hanaoka Seishū (1760 – 1835) was intrigued when he learned about Hua Tuo's mafeisan potion. Beginning in about 1785, Hanaoka embarked on a quest to re-create a compound that would have pharmacologic properties similar to Hua Tuo's mafeisan. His wife, who participated in his experiments as a volunteer, lost her sight due to adverse side effects. After years of research and experimentation, he finally developed a formula which he named tsūsensan (also known as mafutsu-san). Hanaoka successfully operated for hydrocele, anal fistula, and even performed certain kinds of plastic surgery. He was the first surgeon in the world who used the general anaesthesia in surgery and who dared to operate on cancers of the breast and oropharynx, to remove necrotic bone, and to perform amputations of the extremities in Japan.
 
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