Ancient Technology Enthusiasts Club!

[basscooker]

Huge ancient culture guy here. I actually gave serious thought to anthropology, then moving toward paleo studies.

My biggest "wow, will you look at that" in the past few years came from a documentary about Petra.

The Nabbatean engineers managed water like almost none other. They had a mega- city in the middle of the desert with running water. Studies showed their aqueducts were basically the perfect angle. 1 degree lower, water wouldn't flow with enough momentum to circulate the system. One degree higher, a storm could flood the city.

They had, with really no better term, a monopoly on water for a large swath of the trade routes through a harsh desert.


Oh, and they knew how to use a chisel or two.

 

[hbarcat]

I see a decorative burial artifact of the head of a Mayan warrior with his mouth agape. He has big floppy elephant-like ears and a long Santa Clause-like beard, and is wearing a large ceremonial headdress.

View attachment 4969451

I see the bottom part as the head of a person and the all the rest as a ceremonial headdress.

 

[slobake]

 

[IamGroot]

Mayans did calculations. If you wanted to carve numbers into rock which was timeconsuming., you would eventually develop a Base 20 number system. Which is exactly what the Mayans did. They extended it to Base 80 eventually.

A set of three integers that form the sides of a right triangles are called a Pythagorean Triples. That is, three positive integers a, b, and c, such that a2 + b2 = c2. This is very handy if you want to create triangles with guaranteed right angles. The Babylonians were aware of triples as early as 1800 BC. I am pretty sure the Greeks knew all of these.

(3, 4, 5) (5, 12, 13) (8, 15, 17) (7, 24, 25) (11 60, 61) (12, 35, 37) (13, 84, 85) (16, 63, 65)
(9, 40, 41),
(33, 56, 65)
(48, 55, 73)
(20, 21, 29)
(28, 45, 53)
(36, 77, 85)
(39, 80, 89)
(65, 72, 97)

Euclid's method circa 300 BC created them.

Summing the squares in the complex plane is algebraically equivalent.

 

[Tom Bomb]

This is rewarding​

​

 

[Bob_Ross]

View attachment 4968910

That reminds me of the first time I popped the hood on a car with electronic fuel injection, and suddenly realized that everything I know about automobile engines came from the [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] that I built circa 1969...and hadn't advanced since.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[edward bloom]

when i was a kid, if you didn't have that model on your shelf, you weren't cool

 

[Mike N]

That reminds me of the first time I popped the hood on a car with electronic fuel injection, and suddenly realized that everything I know about automobile engines came from the [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] that I built circa 1969...and hadn't advanced since.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Somehow that picture got flipped..... the fuel pump and starter on a SBC were on the passenger side.

 

[hbarcat]

Somehow that picture got flipped..... the fuel pump and starter on a SBC were on the passenger side.

Because digital image manipulation is so ubiquitous, it's extremely common for pictures to be shown flipped (mirror image) on the internet.

I think it's fascinating how some people notice this while others don't. It's easier to recognize flipped images when there's writing in the picture because the words are backwards.

But recognizing other flipped images usually requires a certain amount of familiarity with the subjects in the pictures. @Mike N is an expert on vintage American V8 engines, so he instantly recognized that the small block Chevy model in the picture was reverse.

As a long time amateur astronomer, I instantly recognize reversed images when there are nighttime sky objects, like the moon and stars being depicted. If the crescent moon is facing the wrong way or the constellations are backwards, then the image is obviously reversed.

On the other hand, I've taken pictures with my cell phone of various objects or people (including selfies) where I've somehow reversed the image before posting online and I don't realize it until much later.

I once had a profile picture of myself playing the bass up on a site for several years before I realized it was reversed. It wasn't my backwards face that tipped me off or the window on the wrong side of door in the background, but the fact that I seemed to be playing a left handed bass left handed.

 

[TOOL460002]

I do my taxes with a replica Antikythera mechanism. Can I join the club?

One current fascination is Amazonian terra preta and the unique agriculture system it melded with.

 

[turf3]

Somehow that picture got flipped..... the fuel pump and starter on a SBC were on the passenger side.

I think that's not a SBC, as the rockers appear to be shaft mounted.

 

[Gaolee]

Is that a Rochester Quadrajet I see? They of the sinking float bowl story?

I touched one or two, but was more involved with Carters

Before the wonders of aftermarket became affordable to a wee lad . . .

I have been a Holly carb guy for pretty much ever. Before that, SUs. As a CroMagnon, I really like stone age technology.

And yeah, I'm completely fascinated by the way humans did things. We are used to artificial power from a variety of engines that run on fossil fuels, electricity or something. People didn't have those things for most of history, which means they figured out how to make and build all kinds of things with technology we probably wouldn't understand very well any more.

 

[Gaolee]

I sing the praises of the Rochester Quadrajet rather often, does that count??

It's a cult! I think there are three of them somewhere in my garage, unused and unloved.

 

[Gaolee]

Somehow that picture got flipped..... the fuel pump and starter on a SBC were on the passenger side.

The alternator looks odd to me, too. It would also be on the passenger side, typically. There's some things about the heads that don't look quite right, too. I doubt it was intended to be any specific V8.

 

[Mike N]

It's a cult! I think there are three of them somewhere in my garage, unused and unloved.

Box those up and send them to me.

 

[Mike N]

The alternator looks odd to me, too. It would also be on the passenger side, typically. There's some things about the heads that don't look quite right, too. I doubt it was intended to be any specific V8.

Looking at it again, the exhaust manifolds are low and the spark plugs are too high and the wrong angle to be a SBC.

 

[Gaolee]

Box those up and send them to me.

PM me your address and I will. They are collecting grime right now somewhere.

 

[Mike N]

PM me your address and I will. They are collecting grime right now somewhere.

PM sent......

 

[The Golden Boy]

Revolver on the stereo by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr

 

[The Golden Boy]

No kidding. Try giving one of these to someone under 30...
View attachment 4968929
What's a dial tone? And where can I get the app that turns this on?

The phone at my Grandparents' house. It was hardwired into the phone line- No RJ-11 jack or anything.

1956 Western Electric Model 500 Telephone by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr