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Thread: How Early Could It Have Happened?

  1. #41
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?

    drew -- when did 'distilling' by freezing start -- any clues?
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  2. #42
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?

    Other Drew - but the classic Greek architects knew about the Golden Mean, how to correct for certain psychological and physiological anomalies in vision to make straight lines look straight by actually curving it just the right amount, likewise vertical column etc. In other words, they were way ahead of the average photographer or lens designer today. Would you really want to see a sculpture by Phidias designed in a computer program and 3d printed? or an ancient Greek Legoland?

  3. #43

    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?


  4. #44
    multiplex
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    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jason Greenberg Motamedi View Post
    I think an important point is that Daguerreotypy was not the first form of or mechanism for photography, it was the first commercially viable form of photography.
    +1

    people were doing things before that whether they were able to be fixed to light to not, but exposures were very long. I think the word commercially viable is the key.. ( well besides the iodine & a few other things like hyposulfate of soda )
    if Nicéphore Niépce had current "fast" papers, and baking soda he would have been able to make his "retina prints" in 6 seconds in bright sun, and fix them.. ( well, sort of )

    Quote Originally Posted by John Layton View Post
    Well...chew on this - that if there were a time machine now...then there would be a time machine then! Ha!
    there are time machines now ( and were then ) ... "be excellent to each other" ...

  5. #45
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?

    The time machine got sent back in time for service; but they went out of business four centuries ago, so can't send it back! Should have read the fine print on the warranty.

  6. #46
    Drew Bedo's Avatar
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    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    Other Drew - but the classic Greek architects knew about the Golden Mean, how to correct for certain psychological and physiological anomalies in vision to make straight lines look straight by actually curving it just the right amount, likewise vertical column etc. In other words, they were way ahead of the average photographer or lens designer today. Would you really want to see a sculpture by Phidias designed in a computer program and 3d printed? or an ancient Greek Legoland?
    Oh sure; All of that good stuff. I was fortunate to be sent for work in Athens in the early 1980s. Saw and appreciated much of the antiquities there.

    I am just a bit surprised that so many cultures in antiquity that were amazingly accomplished in architecture and building with stone did not use the concept of the arch. The Romans did.

    Distillation too is a simple technology that was discovered by the Arabs in the 7th century AD, but not used for making strong spirits, though they knew wine . . .read the poems of Omar Khayyam. Crusade4rs brought the technique back to Europe and figured out what to do.

    Black Powder is a bit harder but still possible for any major Bronze Age culture. Certainly it is within the abilities of the Romans and Carthaginians. Imagine what the confrontations between the Persian and Greeks would have been like if either or both sides had firearms of any sort.

    The Chinese could have invented gliding flight . . . .but did not. Leonardo de Vinci imagined it but missed.

    I did kick this off with musings about photography; The Renaissance would have been different for sure.
    Drew Bedo
    www.quietlightphoto.com
    http://www.artsyhome.com/author/drew-bedo




    There are only three types of mounting flanges; too big, too small and wrong thread!

  7. #47
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?

    There's quite a debate in the culinary world who first developed the pizza. The Chinese claim Marco Polo stole the idea from them and brought it back to Italy, while Italian chefs claim just the reverse. Of course, our modern idea of a pizza and Italian fare contains a lot of tomato paste had to await the tomato itself being imported from the Americas. There should be some way to either turn all that topping guck into Greek fire instead of heartburn, or perhaps photosensitize it using silver salts. A new equally messy art form.

  8. #48

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    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?

    Didn't Barney Rubble have one of those "Polarock" cameras with the pecking bird going at the "plate", saying "It's a living"??? :-)

    Steve K

  9. #49
    Drew Bedo's Avatar
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    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?

    I don't have any idea about freezing a beer or wine to increase the % ethanol.

    Pizza? Same thing.

    I think there are aspects of modern sailing technology that could have affected historical outcomes in ancient times if implemented. Fore and aft rigs coupled with leeboards instead of the single big square sail are just two easy ones. The concept of a rudder with tiller instead of a side mounted steering oar is a bit more complicated, but doable I think.The ability to sail into the wind is a huge advantage. The Vikings could have had a wider influence . . .or could have been more effectively opposed. The Punic wars could have been decisively tipped, either way, well before Hannibal too.

    Simply changing the concept of hygiene could have made significant effects on ancient history. Old fashioned lye soap is not hard to make. Getting wet all over on purpose is just a societal taboo, not a technological advance . . .and it came very late . . . in the Victorian era.

    It continues to be intriguing to think of what was possible technology before it someone had the stroke of insight to do it.
    Drew Bedo
    www.quietlightphoto.com
    http://www.artsyhome.com/author/drew-bedo




    There are only three types of mounting flanges; too big, too small and wrong thread!

  10. #50
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: How Early Could It Have Happened?

    Tin Can

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