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Ancient Egyptian Tech May Be Key To Printing 3D Ceramics
Zothecula writes "We like to think of technology as always being forward looking. It's supposed to be about nanoparticles and the Cloud, not steam engines and the telephone exchange. But every now and again the past reaches out, taps the 21st century on the shoulder and says, 'Have a look at this.' That's what happened to Professor Stephen Hoskins, Director of the University of West England, Bristol's Centre for Fine Print Research. He is currently working on a way of printing 3D ceramics that are self-glazing, thanks to a 7,000-year old technology from ancient Egypt."
One day, I shall print my own pyramid!
Seems like this might make a better gun than a reprap.
"We like to think of technology as always being forward looking. It's supposed to be about nanoparticles and the Cloud, not steam engines and the telephone exchange."
Those who think technology only means looking into the future should think again
For example:
Without compass, an ancient invention, we won't even comprehend the North from the South
There are so many things that we are enjoying now rely on old tech, some of the tech dates back thousands of years.
I guess the adage "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it"
And I guess re-inventing the wheel isn't exactly a very expedient act, or is it?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Isn't the world only 6000 years old?
Did the Egyptians (if that IS their real name) have time travel technology? In Stargate, they had cool helmets, but no time travel.
History has a hobbit named Repeat, and You are not as cute as you think you are. My pot isn't printable. (damn shame)
So... who's going to patent this ~7,000-year-old technology? And better yet, what mummy's foot will be stepped on when it happens? Will the mummy come back to life and start going on a suing rampage like Apple?
wwfree sounds like it kids being shot at running all whack excessively armed civil servants
NASA had to resurrect fabrication techniques from the days of the gold rush gold mines to build some of their parts large enough for the rockets that went to the moon.
It seems that there's a lot of knowledge and skills that are getting lost as we "progress". Sure, some of it is useless since we truly have replaced things with better stuff, eg linotype. But then again, there are some technologies and skills that are dying off that would be good to capture somehow, such as how to build and work a foundary. I'm not sure of a good way to capture *skill*--it's usually passed on person-to-person.
we'll get to print alien technology
Don't underestimate the Egyptians. I saw a documentary with Kurt Russell when I was small, the pyramids are the tips dug down space rockets.
This strawman is really getting old. You guys should wake up from your self-righteousness every once in a while and realize that science is not served by criticizing non-scientists. Science moves forward through self-criticism. Unfortunately, since you decided to turn science into an 'us versus them' pissing contest, any criticism of science is wrongfully and automatically seen as coming from 'them' and truths run the risk of being rejected just because they look like they might have come from the other side. This is both lame and dangerous because it creates the same sort of untouchable and destructive elitism and blind despotism that organized religion is known for throughout history.
I'm not sure of a good way to capture *skill*--it's usually passed on person-to-person.
It's called "good documentation".
I recall reading that the F-22 production line was videotaped from start to finish, with workers explaining their jobs and going through the motions.
This was fleshed out with interviews in order to capture institutional knowledge that usually disappears when production lines are shut down and workers leave.
Ceramics enjoyed an extended period as a top tier technology and then continued on as a legacy, but still critical-for-civilization technology.
Once we reinvent their old technology, there's no reason for it to ever be lost again.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Civ 2 : England discovers Pottery?
I honestly think we underestimate our ancestors sometimes who should've been just as smart and tenacious as we are. They maybe appear primitive simply because we have the benefit of a long history of discoveries to build on. And where their technology branched off in ways we don't care about, there could be even more secrets to be had...
It's called "good documentation".
I recall reading that the F-22 production line was videotaped from start to finish, with workers explaining their jobs and going through the motions.
This was fleshed out with interviews in order to capture institutional knowledge that usually disappears when production lines are shut down and workers leave.
Ceramics enjoyed an extended period as a top tier technology and then continued on as a legacy, but still critical-for-civilization technology.
Once we reinvent their old technology, there's no reason for it to ever be lost again.
Sure, that can go a long ways, but I still think there's room for stuff to get lost in translation. "tricks of the trade" that really need to be shown/taught/critiqued in person. It's *really* hard for most humans to learn fine motor skills out of a book or video--having personal instruction for feedback/correction is paramount. There's a reason some skills were historically learned via apprenticeship for years before reaching "journeyman" status--there really can be a lot to it, and you can't easily capture it let alone reproduce it just from documentation.
There's lots of stories of cases where someone needs to use some older technology and despite understanding it (they have the knowledge) they still have to hunt down an old-timer to show them how to use it (skill).
We can capture the knowledge--but it's the skills I think we most risk losing.
That's also what they did with the F-1 Engine (the Saturn V first stage engine) production line. It's why rebuilding the line is a valid option for the next heavy lifter.
Like the Captain of the submarine I was on often said, "If you want a new idea, read an old book."
So what you're saying is that we need to meet the religious nuts HALF way? Deny HALF the science??? To gain some sort of inner compromise?
Or are you saying that science should be limited to criticizing only science?
He made a point which is salient. Some of these nutter states are teaching things FLATLY CONTRADICTED by science. No amount of inner soul searching for science will make that anything other than a bad thing. The correct solution is to point out again and again that that religious truth they're teaching is no different from the religious lies the Taliban teach, it is not real and can is provably incorrect at every level.
Pretending something wrong is half right for an easy life isn't what science is about. Sometimes you just gotta tell it like it is. God didn't make us in his image.
"We can capture the knowledge--but it's the skills I think we most risk losing."
Even the 'simple' stuff. Watch a brick/block layer trim pieces to fit. Looks easy, and it is - until you try it for yourself. Had some related experience with this doing pattern-cut flagstone, working through caprock (nowadays, all bed is done with saws; cap is simply drilled and blasted off.)
The video for the story is worth watching, btw.
sure it's good to capture that kind of stuff when possible but don't worry too much. almost nothing is ever lost forever. If master craftsmen 1000 years ago could figure it out then master craftsmen today can figure it out again.
there's a lot of mythology around many such things. having a few pints with an old master blacksmith can be interesting. there's a number of master blacksmiths who spent years figuring out how to make blades which were almost indistinguishable from wootz but the point to keep in mind is that the challenge was to figure out how they did it with tech of old. not how to make superior metal.
The best blades ever produced in ancient times wouldn't hold a candle to the best that could be made now by the best engineers now.
If you made a blade using single crystal superalloys like they use in jet engine turbine blades it would make a mockery of the best of the best in ancient times
Even if we lose the skills there's lots of bright people who'll either figure it out or figure out a better solution.
I followed that link and Russians stole my identity.
...but 7,000 years and they can't put together a decent laptop?
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
I find lately that commentators are more often referring to people from earlier eras as if they were stupid, when my interpretation is that they had an equal if not greater capacity for brilliance.
"...Also known as Egyptian paste, faience is one of those remarkable crossroads materials that occur now and again in the history of technology. It was invented 7,000 years ago in Egypt, when the Egyptians were still trying to get the hang of pottery and smelting metal. It isnâ(TM)t actually a ceramic, but rather a paste made of quartz or sand, calcite lime and a mixture of alkalis. Because of this, it can be applied directly to wet clay. When the pottery is fired, the paste turns into a brilliant blue-green glaze reminiscent of lapis lazuli, which the Egyptians used faience as a substitute for...."
Atrocious writing aside, this would be an excellent example - how much determined experimentation would it take YOU to develop something like this...at the available tech from 5000 BC? You don't have calculus, you don't even have a basic understanding of chemistry, microscopes, hell, even an accurate thermometer?
-Styopa
GPS are based on earth rotation? news to me.
GPS sats rotate around the earth, the earthbound receivers rotate with the earth, no correlation.
Unless, perhaps we had geostationary gps sats and then the correltation is irrelevant and fixed.
Who the fuck buys a home for such a precise figure as $578100?
I smell a rat!
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Using this one weird ancient Egyptian trick.
Appalling coverage that we couldn't even put the word "faience" in the Slashdot preamble. What is this, MSM pity day? I still enjoy Slashdot, but all too frequently these days I loath the story submission.
there's a lot of mythology around many such things. having a few pints with an old master blacksmith can be interesting. there's a number of master blacksmiths who spent years figuring out how to make blades which were almost indistinguishable from wootz but the point to keep in mind is that the challenge was to figure out how they did it with tech of old. not how to make superior metal.
Wootz/Damascus steel was not created with "tech of old"
It came about because a certain mine in India had naturally occuring trace impurities in the steel.
When the mine went dry, so did the world's supply of wootz.
That's what took so long to figure out.
And when it comes to metal, "superior" depends on the application you have for it.
The best blades ever produced in ancient times wouldn't hold a candle to the best that could be made now by the best engineers now.
If you made a blade using single crystal superalloys like they use in jet engine turbine blades it would make a mockery of the best of the best in ancient times
And yet here we are trying to recreate techniques for firing ceramics from thousands of years ago.
Like I said, it depends on the application you have for it. Not everything can be made of diamonds, rubies and single crystal superalloys.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
It wasn't just the steel but also some methods of treating the steel which became useless and were lost after the mine went dry. there could have been other mines with the same impurities which nobody ever realised were there.
"Like I said, it depends on the application you have for it. Not everything can be made of diamonds, rubies and single crystal superalloys."
in real terms the cost of making a turbine blade (tens of thousands) or a sword in a similar manner is probably lower than the cost would have been to make a really good sword back in the day. steel was insanely valuable and blacksmithing was slow. really really slow.
what have diamonds to do with anything? single crystal superalloys aren't made from some rare crystal. they're items made of a single metal crystal grown without flaws or weak points.
Quick trolls patent this 7,000-year old technology
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.