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A comment on A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industrial Revolution. Parent comment

Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by akiselev on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @08:09PM (#34422052)
The Romans had coal [1]. The Greeks had even come up with a design that (remotely) resembles a steam engine [2]. What they didn’t have was the rest of the “tech tree” leading up to a usable steam engine, mostly metallurgy and the physics of work/energy.

We can point to the first industry to truly mechanize as the beginning of the revolution but the technologies that got us there were legion.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Roman_Britain#Coal

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile

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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by goatlover on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @08:29PM (#34422226)
So did Ancient China, prior to the Romans.
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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by runsWphotons on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @08:44PM (#34422372)
China had steam engines?
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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by ska on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @09:39PM (#34422793)
Sort of; so did Egypt - but these were more steam devices not engines per se. I think the limiting factor was metallurgy & pressure vessel design before you can do something like Watt did.
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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by woolion on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @03:01AM (#34424449)
Do you have references? I'd be interested to learn about the subject. Quick search gave me [0] for Egypt and [1] for China, and both answers seem to be "not really".

[0] https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/1991/was-the-steam-e...

[1] https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/2012/did-the-chi...

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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by marcusverus on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @09:11AM (#34426755)
The Aeolipile has got to be one of the greatest "what if" moments in human history. I can't help but look at it and feel like humanity was one serendipitous moment away from kicking off the industrial revolution 1700 years earlier. And what would the world look like if Egypt had been the first to industrialize?! It boggles the mind.
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