Wi if the Nazca had really invented hot air ballons?

[BigWillyG]

Hmm...here's an idea.

Say the Spanish come across the balloon-users and although some of the more degraded, fanatical conquistadors view them as demonic, they're restrained by the smarter conquistadors and/or the priests.

They then bring some of the Indian techies and balloons back to Europe.

Could the Spanish put them to good use and how long would it be until the other European powers develop them?

The Spanish could use balloons as experimental recon devices in the Italian or Dutch wars of the 16th century the way the revolutionary French used balloons in the 1790s.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

The incans didnt have a written language. How do you pass messages from the balloon if you dont have a language already coded in writing that you can further code into heliograph signals?

I suspect the only possible use would be ceremonial, mostly to awe peasants, but possibly an architect could go up and see how his design is progressing. Whether purely ceremonial, like the nazca lines, or monumental,ike a palace.

So. No practical use, i can see.

Also, fuel was a bit scarce many places, no?


Hmmm... the aztecs did have a writing system, although its not alphabetic, which is the easiest to code. They might have had better use fo ballons than the inca.

 

[RGB]

I think one factor people are altogether ignoring is that making enough quality cloth for a balloon is expensive, like really expensive, and balloons are really really large things.

It can't be invented by someone without access to near-unlimited resources.

 

[Blair]

Hopefully this will somehow lead to them inventing the first Zeppelins too

 

[Evan]

The incans didnt have a written language. How do you pass messages from the balloon if you dont have a language already coded in writing that you can further code into heliograph signals?

Actually, there's a theory that the quipu were a rudimentary writing system. Even if it wasn't, the incentive of ballooning could cause it to develop further into something that could be used to send messages.

 

[mowque]

I think one factor people are altogether ignoring is that making enough quality cloth for a balloon is expensive, like really expensive, and balloons are really really large things.

It can't be invented by someone without access to near-unlimited resources.

Quite. We are used to textile's being cheap (being one of the first industrialized processes) but really they are hugely labor/resource intensive.

 

[RGB]

Quite. We are used to textile's being cheap (being one of the first industrialized processes) but really they are hugely labor/resource intensive.

I suppose that with the proper bright spark, the step from royal textile mill to "let's make a balloon" isn't too huge to take, but there's almost always something better to use that cloth on.

 

[Muwatalli']

Actually, there's a theory that the quipu were a rudimentary writing system. Even if it wasn't, the incentive of ballooning could cause it to develop further into something that could be used to send messages.

You can also use signal flags/smoke signals, right?

This is a very interesting theory btw (I never heared it before) although it sounds strange, I think it is a plausible explanation.