If you went back in time to the year 1800 with only knowledge you have right now...
- Thread starter Brawndo
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Same here, but I'd make the most of it and use my knowledge of future inventions (guns) to drive out the white man and make America a nation of loosely affiliated communities with hyper-advanced technology.Zen Toombs said:
That or kill everyone with my super germs from the future.
Sign up as a blacksmith's apprentice and work my ass off to become really good (no internet etc to distract me). Having got my master stripes, seek work under one of the great engineers of the day, in any capacity. Use the tools then sneakily at my disposal, and my learned crafting skills to create, in no particular order:
Electric bulbs, motors and other simple devices, powered off a small generator run off a waterwheel or simple early steam engine. Demonstrate that there's no need for the large, heavy, maintenance-intensive, energy-sapping and dangerous belt-and-shaft arrangements that dominate the power delivery systems of the day. Nor candles or oil/gas lamps, which give off a poor light, run out in mere hours, are smokey and a fire risk.
Introduce a number of simple but crucial early mods to steam engines ahead of their time (automatic valves & etc) but then re-focus them as generators using as much renewable fuel as possible unless coal is the only option, instead of as direct-action prime movers in pumps, machinery, locomotives etc.
Develop simple batteries too. Muse out loud about the amount of charge Nickel and Lithium seem to have, they might make good electrolytes... and let other researchers' curious nature take over.
Get telegraphs and radio up and running ASAP also. Radio is simple as heck once you've electricity, wires, and the methods for creating lightbulbs which can also be used for making tubes. Make sure to invent the microphone, loudspeaker and some kind of modulation/demodulation, tuning and heterodyning devices along the way.
Perhaps, should any of this have any impact, get the design for a simple diesel engine on the go. Have it run off vegetable oil. Efficiency and longevity wouldn't be all that, but my 4-litre, 10 horsepower monster would be the first internal combustion engine any of them will have ever seen, by a matter of 50+ years. The power-to-weight and power-to-volume ratios, and thermal efficiency, will knock steam engines of they day out of the park.
Semiconductors. Once we have electricity, semiconductors as soon as possible. Maybe make a simple computer with relays as a demonstration of the concept of near-instant calculation far quicker than any man with an abacus or pascal's bones could manage, but then move immediately to transistors and don't even bother with tubes, and focus entirely on in-house benefits - how much quicker new designs could be worked out, perfected and drafted. In fact, move to transistorised radio ASAP also. I don't know jack about mosfets, but i could probably figure out silicon-doping.
Use this to improve the efficiency of the electric motors, steam and diesel engines.
"Invent" the safety bicycle, short circuit all that hobby horse and penny farthing nonsense. Put springs on it, too. Attempt to motorise them as soon as it's practical, but hold off on applying motors to carriages. Take the evolution of road transport in an entirely new and weird direction - sell motorcycles as "mechanical horses". Have teams of them pull carriages, and detach when the extra load capacity isn't needed.
Pioneer the multiple-ratio, constant mesh, dog clutch-and-synchro gearbox, or promote epicyclics if possible.
Try to be indirect with a lot of it if possible, except for the key mental leaps of knowledge ("inspiration") and faith that would be needed. Just get the design rolling, suggest ways in which it could be better e.g. what if the gear teeth prescribed a spiral instead of being straight-cut? and let the other boffins figure it out. They're clever, they'll manage it. This way, the gaps in my knowledge aren't as fatal.
Then, aircraft. Zeppelins first, as the Montgolfiers already easily predate me, so it's just a case of strapping an engine and airscrew onto a balloon basket and letting it evolve from there. Make some gliders to modern-ish designs and convince OTHERS to do the test flights. Should those work, fill out the wings and frame somewhat, and fit a diesel or electric engine depending on how good the batteries have got.
After that, microscopes, and a sudden veering-off into the biological arts with a fervent attempt to demonstrate how dirt and germs can be shown to cause infection and disease.
Penicillin.
And maybe the extraction of DNA from cells, and the production of Nylon, if I can remember how to do those.
Hydrogen fuel cells, if I get the time. And Maglevs. And ECUs. And digital projectors, cameras, etc, and as many medical devices that I can dredge out of my memory. Particularly those that work with radio, magnetism, or nuclear forces. This may involve setting up a few rare-element mines.
Suggest the idea of putting an engine inside an armoured carriage fitted with continuous track-drive, and using this on the battlefield to carry an artilliery gun and some riflemen, protected as if in a mobile pillbox capable of moving cross-country faster than most men can run.
Keep all of it as secret as possible within the factory - particularly the engines, tanks, radio and computers - present it to the monarch (Victoria, or her father, depending on timing) and show how these things could be used to expand the empire all across europe, and then the world, bringing about peace in our time under the pax britannia. Never again shall the sun set on our tea and crumpets.
Hurrah! God save the *delete as appropriate*!
Electric bulbs, motors and other simple devices, powered off a small generator run off a waterwheel or simple early steam engine. Demonstrate that there's no need for the large, heavy, maintenance-intensive, energy-sapping and dangerous belt-and-shaft arrangements that dominate the power delivery systems of the day. Nor candles or oil/gas lamps, which give off a poor light, run out in mere hours, are smokey and a fire risk.
Introduce a number of simple but crucial early mods to steam engines ahead of their time (automatic valves & etc) but then re-focus them as generators using as much renewable fuel as possible unless coal is the only option, instead of as direct-action prime movers in pumps, machinery, locomotives etc.
Develop simple batteries too. Muse out loud about the amount of charge Nickel and Lithium seem to have, they might make good electrolytes... and let other researchers' curious nature take over.
Get telegraphs and radio up and running ASAP also. Radio is simple as heck once you've electricity, wires, and the methods for creating lightbulbs which can also be used for making tubes. Make sure to invent the microphone, loudspeaker and some kind of modulation/demodulation, tuning and heterodyning devices along the way.
Perhaps, should any of this have any impact, get the design for a simple diesel engine on the go. Have it run off vegetable oil. Efficiency and longevity wouldn't be all that, but my 4-litre, 10 horsepower monster would be the first internal combustion engine any of them will have ever seen, by a matter of 50+ years. The power-to-weight and power-to-volume ratios, and thermal efficiency, will knock steam engines of they day out of the park.
Semiconductors. Once we have electricity, semiconductors as soon as possible. Maybe make a simple computer with relays as a demonstration of the concept of near-instant calculation far quicker than any man with an abacus or pascal's bones could manage, but then move immediately to transistors and don't even bother with tubes, and focus entirely on in-house benefits - how much quicker new designs could be worked out, perfected and drafted. In fact, move to transistorised radio ASAP also. I don't know jack about mosfets, but i could probably figure out silicon-doping.
Use this to improve the efficiency of the electric motors, steam and diesel engines.
"Invent" the safety bicycle, short circuit all that hobby horse and penny farthing nonsense. Put springs on it, too. Attempt to motorise them as soon as it's practical, but hold off on applying motors to carriages. Take the evolution of road transport in an entirely new and weird direction - sell motorcycles as "mechanical horses". Have teams of them pull carriages, and detach when the extra load capacity isn't needed.
Pioneer the multiple-ratio, constant mesh, dog clutch-and-synchro gearbox, or promote epicyclics if possible.
Try to be indirect with a lot of it if possible, except for the key mental leaps of knowledge ("inspiration") and faith that would be needed. Just get the design rolling, suggest ways in which it could be better e.g. what if the gear teeth prescribed a spiral instead of being straight-cut? and let the other boffins figure it out. They're clever, they'll manage it. This way, the gaps in my knowledge aren't as fatal.
Then, aircraft. Zeppelins first, as the Montgolfiers already easily predate me, so it's just a case of strapping an engine and airscrew onto a balloon basket and letting it evolve from there. Make some gliders to modern-ish designs and convince OTHERS to do the test flights. Should those work, fill out the wings and frame somewhat, and fit a diesel or electric engine depending on how good the batteries have got.
After that, microscopes, and a sudden veering-off into the biological arts with a fervent attempt to demonstrate how dirt and germs can be shown to cause infection and disease.
Penicillin.
And maybe the extraction of DNA from cells, and the production of Nylon, if I can remember how to do those.
Hydrogen fuel cells, if I get the time. And Maglevs. And ECUs. And digital projectors, cameras, etc, and as many medical devices that I can dredge out of my memory. Particularly those that work with radio, magnetism, or nuclear forces. This may involve setting up a few rare-element mines.
Suggest the idea of putting an engine inside an armoured carriage fitted with continuous track-drive, and using this on the battlefield to carry an artilliery gun and some riflemen, protected as if in a mobile pillbox capable of moving cross-country faster than most men can run.
Keep all of it as secret as possible within the factory - particularly the engines, tanks, radio and computers - present it to the monarch (Victoria, or her father, depending on timing) and show how these things could be used to expand the empire all across europe, and then the world, bringing about peace in our time under the pax britannia. Never again shall the sun set on our tea and crumpets.
Hurrah! God save the *delete as appropriate*!
Does it have to be my own country? I know fuck-all about Sweden at the start of 1800s -_-; England on the other hand...
But even then I wouldn't be able to do much of anything because I'm a woman. Oh well, maybe I could become the mistress/wife to some powerful Lord and influence policies that way (most of them having to do with more rights to women), and write novels under a pseudonym (ditto). Oh and punch Lord Byron in the face; that'd be satisfying, the incestuous wanker.
EDIT:
But even then I wouldn't be able to do much of anything because I'm a woman. Oh well, maybe I could become the mistress/wife to some powerful Lord and influence policies that way (most of them having to do with more rights to women), and write novels under a pseudonym (ditto). Oh and punch Lord Byron in the face; that'd be satisfying, the incestuous wanker.
EDIT:
Victoria's father was never King. Sorry, just had to say... *sneaks out*tahrey said:
I'd try to write all of the great post-1800 novels from memory before they're actually written. Obviously they wouldn't be up to scratch and I would deprive the world of some great, well-written novels but I like money.
Stopping the assassination of the Ferdinand wouldn't make too much of a difference.Al-Bundy-da-G said:
Stopping ww1 would be test of your mortality considering it started 114 years from where you started and that does not include your current age or the low mortality rate at that time.
Well i'm a stonemason and my skills are just as applicable now as they are then, soi'd not make a massive difference, i'd try the mouldy bread bit i suppose.
Well i'm a stonemason and my skills are just as applicable now as they are then, soi'd not make a massive difference, i'd try the mouldy bread bit i suppose.
Would have prevented WW1 which bankrupted Germany which allowed Hitler to come to power and he had a major part in starting WW2, WW1 also weakened the Czar's position in Russia which led to Lenin then Stalin. WW2 ended when the US Nuked Japan which started the Cold War with Russia. The effects of that were the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afganistan, Iraq, and soon to be Iran. As well as hippies and Guantanamo Bay.Colour-Scientist said:
So I say save the Archduke and stop the hippies.
Err no other than common senses like personal hygiene. Danm I should of read on how to make the invention like the light bulb or an automobile and etc.
World War One would have happened anyway. Europe was boiling over and the assassination of Ferdinand was just an excuse.Al-Bundy-da-G said:Would have prevented WW1 which bankrupted Germany which allowed Hitler to come to power and he had a major part in starting WW2, WW1 also weakened the Czar's position in Russia which led to Lenin then Stalin. WW2 ended when the US Nuked Japan which started the Cold War with Russia. The effects of that were the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afganistan, Iraq, and soon to be Iran. As well as hippies and Guantanamo Bay.
So I say save the Archduke and stop the hippies.
Mostly ramble on and on about an invisible force that allows me to talk with everyone in the world, little people singing in boxes, flying and floating metal fortresses, lightning is the power of the world. How the British are going to burn down the capital, but flee from a tornado.
And so on...
Yea I'm going to be that crazy guy aren't I?
And so on...
Yea I'm going to be that crazy guy aren't I?
Okay, 1800...
Since I don't have any future trinkets, I have no way of making quick money. Since none of the jobs available to me are remotely appealing (join the army, or mine coal? nope) my options are to try and find a patron, or to take on a life of crime.
Assuming that I succeed in one of those and don't die starving, penniless and alone, this should be fun - the Napoleonic wars started a year ago, and I'm in Britain, which is the superpower of the century.
Since I don't have any future trinkets, I have no way of making quick money. Since none of the jobs available to me are remotely appealing (join the army, or mine coal? nope) my options are to try and find a patron, or to take on a life of crime.
Assuming that I succeed in one of those and don't die starving, penniless and alone, this should be fun - the Napoleonic wars started a year ago, and I'm in Britain, which is the superpower of the century.
I always hate these threads as I'm too boring to come up with anything interesting. Thankfully I live in a City thats been around and important for centuries (Southampton, UK) and the techniques of my profession (accountancy) haven't changed in centuries either so at least I should be able to get myself a job. After that then it would be a case of trying to remember what random stuff I learn't in science class over the years to try and make some improvements for people. Probably fail, but there are worse places to live then England at the hight of its power.
What do you mean, stop Napoleon? He was a great man, and I would strive to be his greatest lieutenant, you'd have to get through me first!Th3Ch33s3Cak3 said:
Now, once Napoleon has conquered all Europe and avoided the mistakes in Russia and at Waterloo, I will appropriately usurp him. Nothing personal, I'm just greedy that way.
Die because there is no way im going to be able to live in 1800 australia. Maybe i'd build a big sign first though that would have a dickish message though like
"Rosebud was the sled" or "Kill George lucas after the original trilogy"
"Rosebud was the sled" or "Kill George lucas after the original trilogy"
