Treadgar

I could go back with the concept of modern bullets and breech loading rifles on the American frontier. It seems to me the concept would be achievable in those times. Tell me I'm wrong and I'm willing to listen.

myself.. i'd give the redcoats of king george the APDS round for the musket

well, a nastily forged iron finned bolt and wooden sabot

followed by the minie ball and rifling

 

I remember seeing on the History Channel about some Roman engineer who actually had the key to steam-powered mechanical energy at his fingertips, in the form of a flask of water, with two protruding angled pipes, suspended over a fire. When the water inside was hot enough, the venting steam spun the flask.

It was seen as little more than a curiosity.

Now imagine if he, or someone, made the connection that it could be scaled up and used to actually turn an axle connected to various mechanical devices.

Imagine the sight of steam-driven Roman warships (either paddle wheelers, or maybe some lucky git stumbles upon the idea of the propellor) sailing up against anyone else in the Mediterranean...

Imagine if the Roman Empire had started the Industrial Revolution...

 

...now fast forward to the Middle Ages...would we have generally progressed at the same pace scientifically as we have in the last 1/2 millennium?

What if Leonardo daVinci actually had access to internal combustion engines, even an early gas turbine, that might actually have allowed him to truly create the first flyable helicopter?

Or what if he had access to electricity, or composite material construction?

Could mankind then have stepped on the moon a century and a half ago then, or even earlier?

Treadgar

That is a truely intriguing thought. If that technology could have staved off the collapse of the empire we could have skipped well over a millenia of human history. Consider also that the greeks of that era had already developed mechanical computers and the amazing level of surgical skill of Roman doctors.

give the romans the telegraph for instance.  black powder would have been another one.

explain to them about lead poisoning would have been a heck of an idea too.

Yeah, I think the simple knowledge of lead poisoning would have helped out the Romans quite a bit as well.

Then again, when I ran the original question by a coworker, he answered that he'd give Damascus steel to the Scots, just because.

Why not just go all out and give them the knowledge of steam power, as well as black powder?

Sometimes, a person going back in time to alter the future need only suggest minor things to past cultures, not actually bring future technologies back with them.

 

For instance, what if someone had inspired the ancient Greeks to adapt ship-mounted ballistas with tips containing a poultice of the greek fire compound (naptha?) ?

Effectively, that would've created the first true warhead-equipped (albeit unguided) anti-ship missile.

It would've been interesting to see how far they would have advanced (as far as various sizes and ranges) by the time ship-mounted cannon and culverin were introduced.

 

Or consider the so-called "Baghdad battery", one of the earliest attempts at human-generated electricity.

Perhaps made to do little more than electroplate cheaper metals to fool the unknowing into thinking they were real gold,

imagine if widespread electricity had been developed from it, way back then.

 

Or like I mentioned above with the "steam curiosity" created by the Roman engineer/philospher.

 

...or if someone managed to convince the great chinese fleet to continue sailing around Africa and up along the early European coast, could war have been provoked between Europe and china back then (perhaps with Africa being the primary battleground)?

 

...or what if the Central American tribes had learned to cultivate and refine hemp (and other, ahem, "medicinal" herbs), to the point instead of being wiped out by the Spanish Conquistadors, they instead managed to get them, and consequently much of Europe, addicted to marijuana, or even cocaine, centuries ago on a widespread scale...

 

...or convince the chinese fleet to sail east acroos the Pacific instead of west towards Africa. How different would the Central American tribes have been affected.

(...and imagine if the Aztecs, Maya, or Inca had cooperated with the early chinese, developed their own composite bows from those descended from the Mongols, and faced the Conquistadors with frog-poisoned tipped arrows that could pierce the Spanish armor at range (ranges beyond sword melee).

 

What could the US have looked like if the chinese fleet landed along the US western seaboard and started colonies.?Would there have been war with Europe then over who would rule North America?

Would the chinese have sided with or against the Native Americans?

(and would Mt Rusmore look different because of it?)

 

(Sometimes it might be interesting to see how much one could screw up history by means other than intentionally trying to jumpstart progress.)

 

What about giving rifling technology, percussion caps, and cartridge ammo manufacturing techniques to Napolean prior to his rampage across Europe and Russia?

 

Or if someone had convinced Custer to take along his 4 gatling guns and 20,000 rounds of ammo to Little Bighorn?

 

The different factions throughout history have written their own conclusions as to who were the madmen and who were the sane. If going back in time, which madmen do we side with, or do we seek to depose them alogether, but in the process rewriting history even more (uh oh, paradox time...).