NationStates Jolt Archive

It doesn't have to be real, mind, just (pseudo)-historical. In the real-world category, I would chose the Baghdad Battery, a several thousand year old electric battery, and an Anylitical Engine, such as was designed by Charles Babbage. Or possibly Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter. In the pseudo-historical category I would chose a landship (http://www.zeitcom.com/majgen/60lshp.html) or a Matian Tripod ala H.G. Welles, or perhaps Van Helsing's crossbow.

The Tsar Pushka. Gargantuan cannon.

Russian flying saucer. It is real not fictional.

See this: http://www.ekip-aviation-concern.com/

the Deus ex Machina

A dogs tail, you can fly with them if you spin them round fast enough, i saw it in a cartoon call b*stardly and smutly or something.

Without a doubt, the German 'Ratte' superheavy battle tank.

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/p1000.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/ratte

I was always partial to the atomic cannon...a howizter that shot out an A Bomb.

The Cotton Gin, because it makes gin out of cott-

What?

What'd you mean thats not-

Well, it called "Cotton Gin," so-

Alright then, what does it do?

You're kidding. Thats boring as hell. Why did we hear so mu-

Well, sure, if you put it that way...I guess I watched too much M*A*S*H...


um...nevermind...

..., or perhaps Van Helsing's crossbow.
The Chinese had a similair weapon in the Middle Ages.

http://www.chimei.com.tw/museum/arms/images/Chinese%20Crossbow.jpg

Without question the Panzerkampfwagen was the most amazing/stupid ass idea ever to come from the Third Reich. Though it was never deployed in battle, but was the most hugeamified war land vehicle attempted with massive guns and armor that rendered it immune to most of the anti-tank weapons of its day. The fact that it also rendered the "Maus" (as it was affectionately dubbed) immune to that blasted maneuvering capability that all other land vehicles have been afflicted with was readily made up for by its built in capability of being so fugging huge that it was an easy target for Alllied bombers.
Aside from that, there was the aircraft carrier made completely out of ice, the submersible aircraft carrier, and the flying aircraft carrier (which never made it past the drawing board). None of these ever reached fullscale deployment, though, and so I suppose they will have to qualify as fictional.

Either the classic Trebuchet or the German "Gustav" cannon of WWII.

I was always partial to the atomic cannon...a howizter that shot out an A Bomb.

Atomic annie was fun but she has nothing on Davie Crockett, the nuclear bazooka.

http://www.brook.edu/FP/projects/nucwcost/davyc.HTM

http://www.olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_atomic.php3

It doesn't have to be real, mind, just (pseudo)-historical. In the real-world category, I would chose the Baghdad Battery, a several thousand year old electric battery, and an Anylitical Engine, such as was designed by Charles Babbage. Or possibly Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter. In the pseudo-historical category I would chose a landship (http://www.zeitcom.com/majgen/60lshp.html) or a Matian Tripod ala H.G. Welles, or perhaps Van Helsing's crossbow.

Only one thing has changed the twentieth century as much as the airplane. Hats off to Orville and Wilbur.

Let's face it, if Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule hadn't invented the typewriter, none of us would be here on this forum right now.

Only one thing has changed the twentieth century as much as the airplane. Hats off to Orville and Wilbur.

While I agree with you that the Airplane was first flown at Kittyhawk, there are many here that claim that the first true heavier than air aircraft was the 14 Bis of Santos Dumond! (Strange belief, but it is genuinely held by some very well educated people.)

The best gadget has to be the wheel though. Without that forget most of the technology we have.

The English long bow, without a doubt.

The Turtle ship. Also, the HUGE cannon used on Constantinople.

Greek fire...

The terror of the enemy... :eek:

Greek fire...

The terror of the enemy... :eek:Hey, I was going to put that! :mad: Do you know what it's made from? I suspect it's kerosene in combination with oxygen.

I also liked those moving idols in Alexandria in the 200s BCE…If they had acted upon those ideas, we would be posting here on Jolt about 500 years earlier.

Hey, I was going to put that! :mad: Do you know what it's made from? I suspect it's kerosene in combination with oxygen.


Theories about its composition include such chemicals as liquid petroleum, naphtha, burning pitch, sulphur, resin, quicklime and bitumen, along with some other secret ingredients. Truth be told we don't know the exact composition.

Theories about its composition include such chemicals as liquid petroleum, naphtha, burning pitch, sulphur, resin, quicklime and bitumen, along with some other secret ingredients. Truth be told we don't know the exact composition.I wonder if it ever existed or was just an exaggeration of catapults hurling torches? You never know.

I wonder if it ever existed or was just an exaggeration of catapults hurling torches? You never know.
Yes there are sound historical facts pertaining to its existance.

-note: there may have been a mock up Panzerkampfwagen made, (of the Ratte variety). Will post link if I can find it again.

I wonder if it ever existed or was just an exaggeration of catapults hurling torches? You never know.

I'm quite sure it existed, after all, if it was just catapults hurling torches there is no reason why it would be so feared because plenty of other peoples had the same technology. The real advantages that Greek Fire had was that it could burn on water, water wouldn't put it out and it terrorized the enemy.

Atomic annie was fun but she has nothing on Davie Crockett, the nuclear bazooka.

http://www.brook.edu/FP/projects/nucwcost/davyc.HTM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the 'The Davy Crockett' be a suicide weapon? According to the above site, it had a maximum range of 1.24 to 2.49 miles, depending on the size of the shell. That wouldn't have been far enough away to be safe from the resulting nuclear explosion and fall-out, one would think.
Tax-payers dollars at work! Making pointless weapons that kill as many friendly soldiers as enemy ones.

The Turtle ship. Also, the HUGE cannon used on Constantinople.

The Basilisk, I think it was called. Absolutely massive.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the 'The Davy Crockett' be a suicide weapon? According to the above site, it had a maximum range of 1.24 to 2.49 miles, depending on the size of the shell. That wouldn't have been far enough away to be safe from the resulting nuclear explosion and fall-out, one would think.
Tax-payers dollars at work! Making pointless weapons that kill as many friendly soldiers as enemy ones.

with a variable explosive yield of 0.01 kilotons (equivalent to 10 tons of TNT, or two to four times as powerful as the ammonium nitrate bomb which destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995).

It's not that strong.

But what of the fall-out?

But what of the fall-out?

I imagine if you flee fast enough you would escape the worst of it. Or you could have a radiation suit.

The Davy Crockett wasn't a danger to its crew, in fact, they DID fire it I believe at the testing range.

The yield was to low to be a danger to the troops operating it, but enough to reign merry hell on the enemy and make them think twice before crossing an area due to radiation. It was built for area-denial I believe, stop an enemy advance by radiating the area and allow NATO forces to mobilize.

recent:
1.The Buran.
2.The Norge or the Italia airship.
3.The Big Boy steam loco.
4.The SR-71 Blackbird.
5.The Paris gun, or the Columbiad ;) .
6.The Lira (Alpha) sub.
7.The Fokker Dreidecker, or the Albatross.
8.The Amerigo Vespucci.

older:
1.Otto Lilienthal's glider.
2.Heron's steam turbine.
3.The mirrors of Archimedes.
4.The clockwork chess player.

Printing press...after writing of course...

Without a doubt, the German 'Ratte' superheavy battle tank.
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/p1000.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/ratte
That's a crazy one! I prefer this version of the Ratte, though: http://www.panzerschreck.de/panzer/pzkpfw/pkpfw.html
Only one thing has changed the twentieth century as much as the airplane. Hats off to Orville and Wilbur.
While I agree with you that the Airplane was first flown at Kittyhawk, there are many here that claim that the first true heavier than air aircraft was the 14 Bis of Santos Dumond! (Strange belief, but it is genuinely held by some very well educated people.)

The best gadget has to be the wheel though. Without that forget most of the technology we have.
Screw Orville and Wilbur - I tip my hat to Karl Jatho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Jatho).
Let's face it, if Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule hadn't invented the typewriter, none of us would be here on this forum right now.
You honestly believe those guys were the only ones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter) working on a typewriter?

I say the greatest inventions were writing, math, time measurement, the wheel, and printing.

Atlantean Crystal Beam Cannon. Its been a while since I've seen those awesome things!:p

And I think the 'Greek Fire' is cool also:D . but still. The Crystal Beam Cannon is at my top.

That's too bad we lost the technology to develop the true Greek Fire. I would still be a very usefull scare tactic in today's wars.

heroditus' atmospheric engine.

the drainage system of knossis.

the 'cartruts' of malta.

flanged wheel on steel rail of course.

the underground complexes of capadokia, pietra, and elsewhere.

the hileograph.

pneumatic tube postal systems.
my dad, once worked in a place that still had and used one. it was so totaly cool, like a lot of victorian 'steampunk' engineering.

conveyor belts and material handling systems in general.
i could watch those things for hours, especialy the kind of complex 'rabit warrens' of them they used to have in large scale bakeries and bottling works.

every kind of guideway based transportation system ever invented, especialy the 'people sized' ones.

the baudau teletype and the system of them western unioun once had in the u.s.

in the fantasy catigory, probably the steam powered "mechaincal men" of the 1890s through 1920s.

the kind of system hileographs could have evolved into if semi-automated and controlled by typrwiter like keyboards.

elevators that go backward and forth and sideways as well as up and down.

dementionaly transendental construction.

pockets and backpacks of holding.

wooden steam and sail space ships. (ala space 1889, et c.)

the transatlantic tunnel (hurah!)

=^^=
.../\...

The biro.

The biro.

oh yes, definately the biro. or whatever they were called before the biro. (er, isn't that brio?)

along with erector (mechano in europe) sets and lincon logs.

ah but don't forget those piano roll controlled mechanical orchestras and simpler music box mechanism 'bird whistles', with the mechanicly animated birds.

or coocoo clocks!

=^^=
.../\...

oh yes, definately the biro. or whatever they were called before the biro. (er, isn't that brio?)

along with erector (mechano in europe) sets and lincon logs.

ah but don't forget those piano roll controlled mechanical orchestras and simpler music box mechanism 'bird whistles', with the mechanicly animated birds.

or coocoo clocks!



No, just biro. That was the guy's name. I think he was Argentinian.

Bacon.

Bacon.

Sliced bread.

Sliced bread.

Only if you put a dauble of mustard and a piece of lettuce on it.

Aside from that, there was the aircraft carrier made completely out of iceMmm... The Habakkuk.

Fire arrows!

(these (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Arrow)ones, not arrows on fire)

I'm torn between the Scold's Bridle and the Heretic's Fork...

Torture Devices (http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/torture/devices.htm)

No, just biro. That was the guy's name. I think he was Argentinian.

Lazlo?

Without question the Panzerkampfwagen was the most amazing/stupid ass idea ever to come from the Third Reich. Though it was never deployed in battle, but was the most hugeamified war land vehicle attempted with massive guns and armor that rendered it immune to most of the anti-tank weapons of its day.

Panzerkampfwagen is just the German term for a tank: I take it you are mistaken in thinking it refers to a single model, and are not seriously claiming that the Nazis never deployed tanks, yes?

The power of speech and print.

Printing press...after writing of course...

doh

I don't know if it qualifies as a "gadget" per se, but the reflex bow first developed by the Mongols. Let you ride at top speed and fire arrows effectively, which was something no one could do at that point.

Trebuchet.

Panzerkampfwagen is just the German term for a tank: I take it you are mistaken in thinking it refers to a single model, and are not seriously claiming that the Nazis never deployed tanks, yes?
Well, it has been a year since I posted that, but I think I meant to say "Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus" (since that is what I later called it), but screwed it up.
Based on my use of the word "hugeamified", I was probably also drunk at the time.

The antimony pill. A sphere of antimony that you swallow to cause diarhea when you're constipated. It's supposed to be reusable. You fish it out of your bedpan, wash it off, and put it back in the family medicine cabinet. Reusable laxative, what a great idea.

Instead, what he was desperate to do was tell me about something he had just researched for the show: the antimony pill. This, he explained, was a small, spherical piece of metal, much favoured in the 19th century for its ability to reinvigorate bowel movements. The constipated would swallow one, and the metal would set to work within a couple of days. The intriguing thing is, it was re-usable. Once an antimony pill had finished its business, it would be fished out of its successful conclusion, washed and popped back in the medicine cupboard. Respectable families had theirs passed, as it were, down the generations. Nelson included his in his will.

http://www.qi.com/news/item.php?id=154

The antimony cup is another great one. Fill it with wine, let the acidic liquid react with the antimony, drink and poop.

Other lots have included Captain Cook's antimony cup, a squat drinking vessel made of antimony alloy. From this, the great South Seas explorer consumed red wine that, having reacted with the metal, created a potion "with purgative qualities." This handy laxative system fetched $392,392 in 2005.http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200702/christies-adventure-artifacts-auction-2.html

Well, it has been a year since I posted that...

'pologies. I didn't notice the date, if I had, I would have let it lie.

on new year eve last year i went to a dinner party where they had a victorian ice cream maker - best ice cream i've ever had. that was pretty cool.

I'll just stick with the guillotine. Simple, effective, fun to use... it is quite an amazing invention.

the transatlantic tunnel (hurah!)

=^^=
.../\...

Heh, there's a project for whatever the New British Imperialist Party is these days.

As for me, I'd go for something the Greeks invented, maybe those crane thingys Archimedes cooked up.

It doesn't have to be real, mind, just (pseudo)-historical. In the real-world category, I would chose the Baghdad Battery, a several thousand year old electric battery, and an Anylitical Engine, such as was designed by Charles Babbage. Or possibly Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter. In the pseudo-historical category I would chose a landship (http://www.zeitcom.com/majgen/60lshp.html) or a Matian Tripod ala H.G. Welles, or perhaps Van Helsing's crossbow.

Well, there was a real experimental submarine in the American Revolutionary War. It actually worked, though it did not accomplish it's only mission to sink a British ship.

Well, it has been a year since I posted thatAlmost two, to be exact.

The Cotton Gin, because it makes gin out of cott-

What?

Cracked me up, even after all that time. :p

I'm a big fan of orrerys.

http://www.zodiacal.com/attic/smithsonian_orrery.jpg

I know the answer is not those toilets in Japan that give you the same experience as a prison shower.

It doesn't have to be real, mind, just (pseudo)-historical. In the real-world category, I would chose the Baghdad Battery, a several thousand year old electric battery, and an Anylitical Engine, such as was designed by Charles Babbage. Or possibly Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter. In the pseudo-historical category I would chose a landship (http://www.zeitcom.com/majgen/60lshp.html) or a Matian Tripod ala H.G. Welles, or perhaps Van Helsing's crossbow.

Archimedes' Ray of Death

(possible, but terribly improbable)

The Pocket

The Davy Crockett wasn't a danger to its crew, in fact, they DID fire it I believe at the testing range.

The yield was to low to be a danger to the troops operating it, but enough to reign merry hell on the enemy and make them think twice before crossing an area due to radiation. It was built for area-denial I believe, stop an enemy advance by radiating the area and allow NATO forces to mobilize.


Cheese and Rice, way to grave-dig bucko!

...And for the record, Greek fire without a doubt.

My favorite REAL invention is (though I sadly cannot remember the name) the x-ray machine that many shoestores used to have in the 1920s and 30s. It was a live x-ray. Not a fraction of a second photo, but a constant live x-ray. It was designed especially for children so that they would enjoy going to the shoestore, because they could watch their feet inside the shoe. Consequentially there were four openings in the machine (two eyepieces for the customer and the customer's parent), an eyepiece for the clerk, and completely unprotected opening into which you would insert your feet. Not surprisingly, it was a fiasco. It took them several years to figure out that this was- let's just say detrimental to one's health, and innumerable people (especially store workers who were around these machines all the time) were killed before the government banned them and they were recalled from the market.

Another similar favorite of mine- a treatment not an invention- was drinking uranium treated water as a cure for virtually all personal ills (especially impotence). [This was a couple of decades earlier, if I recall correctly.] In the most notable case, a man actually drank a total of 400 of these before his jaw fell off...


My favorite fake invention: I must say I am particularly partial to Douglas Adams's "Point of View Gun." I like the idea...

My favorite fake invention: I must say I am particularly partial to Douglas Adams's "Point of View Gun." I like the idea...

No no no no no. Imagine the damage it could do in the wrong hands.

I'm torn between the Scold's Bridle and the Heretic's Fork...

Torture Devices (http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/torture/devices.htm)

Hideous. (The whole article, not just those two). Makes me despair that people could get off watching that shit.:(

The cow.

Hideous. (The whole article, not just those two). Makes me despair that people could get off watching that shit.:(

Thankfully we don't do it publicly anymore and those that watch I think are only witness to the execution which by all accounts is quite quick in the U.S..

Personnaly, I don't understand the point of lethal injection. It's supposedly painless, but it takes seven minutes on average for the person to die, and costs almost $90 for the drugs.

Alternatively, a $0.25 bullet is well, $0.25, and virtually instant. It's not that big of a difference for a government budget, but still, it builds up after a while.

Holy Hell, it's the return of the thread that wouldn't die!
William. Fucking. Henry. Fucking. Harrison

Die thread! Die!

*brandishes pitchfork at zombie thread*

Few inventions are as kickass as the wheel. Without it:
no cars
no planes
modern society wouldn't have gotten anywhere because it made transporting heavy objects faster, easier, and often safer
it's unlikely electricity would have been created outside of nature, so no tvs, video games, computers, internet, phones, etc.
no cotton gin
no clocks
no anything modern

Chastity devices. *nods*

Efficient Gas Chambers