Was early modern writing paper expensive? (2018]

Re:Was early modern writing paper expensive? (2018] by ghaff on Saturday July 27, 2024 @10:35AM (#41086874)

Some health-related things are an area where important advances could probably have happened earlier in principle: germ theory of disease, importance of sanitation, some relatively simple advances like antibiotics... All seem doable in principle relative to inventing a lot of 19th century industrial revolution devices.

ADDED: The Romans did apparently have some knowledge of antibiotics without presumably understanding the mechanisms or refining them. Per Wikipedia and other sources: "Antibiotics have been used since ancient times. Many civilizations used topical application of moldy bread, with many references to its beneficial effects arising from ancient Egypt, Nubia, China, Serbia, Greece, and Rome."

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Re:Was early modern writing paper expensive? (2018] by Bluestein on Saturday July 27, 2024 @11:04AM (#41087042)

From the spinning wheel, to plentiful rags, to cotton paper, to the printing press.-

> ADDED: The Romans did apparently have some knowledge of antibiotics

Fascinating. Worth looking into.-

Sometimes, all it took was one person noticing something (midwives who wash their hands post partum tend to have better outcomes, farmers near cows get less sick, or not at all ...)

... but, you raise another good point: First principles, the search for the facts. Benefits at scale come with, consistently, wanting to go from observation, to general principles, to particular application, to mass application ...

... and, maybe, it took rational thought and the scientific method to get there.-

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