Electricity, Rome's Near Future!

[Incitatus]

Modern Historians at the rate the Romans were inventing stuff they would have invented electricity in the next 100 years. Their is also evidence they were thinking of harnessing the power of lightning.

 

If you reply please put well thought out comments.

I would really like to hear from some historians.

[DanM]

They had all sorts of technological breakthroughs, but they failed to exploit them beyond the point of making cool toys.

 

I don't know what it was that kept them from using known technologies such as steam power, but I believe this missing thing would have kept them from expoiting electricity as well. At least until something changed in Roman society.

[Moonlapse]

I've noticed that most of the interesting technology (with potentially practical uses) of the time was used by religious groups to perform 'miracles'.

[Lost_Warrior]

People have always *thought* of harnassing the power of lightning but no one has ever actually managed to do it (lightning is too raw, and unpredictable. It just wouldn't be practical, if it was possible). I'd have to say "no" on this one!

[Ursus]

Well, some guy invented a steam engine in the reign of Tiberius, but as Moonlapse alludes to it was only put to use opening the doors of some temple. (Behold, the gods move the doors!)

[Fafnir]

Maybe if you gave them 500 years without any major conflicts. It just doesn't seem possible that they could have found and harnessed electricity that quickly.

[Incitatus]

So are you saying it was the way they looked at inventions that stopped them making the breakthrough.

Those are all very good points.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Hey, if there wasn't the Medevil Age, humanity would be colonizing the space by now. ( It's a true fact)

[Fafnir]

Hey, if there wasn't the Medevil Age, humanity would be colonizing the space by now. ( It's a true fact)

 

Wait, how can you call that a true fact, have you seen what life would be like today without the medieval period? It's more of an opinion than a fact.

 

And i think you were looking for the Dark Ages, the Medieval period actually had some technological advancements...

[Cyrus]

I actually said yeah, if you took Rome from the reign of Constantine the Great and from there on in, it was Pox Rome, then yeah, give it 100-200 years before the Romans learned to cultivate electricity. It was just, (in the west), almost after Constantine, it as years of bloody civil war so that wasn't getting them anywhere. And those damn Anglo-Saxons and Visigoths were no help either.

[PerfectimusPrime]

Hey, if there wasn't the Medevil Age, humanity would be colonizing the space by now. ( It's a true fact)

 

Wait, how can you call that a true fact, have you seen what life would be like today without the medieval period? It's more of an opinion than a fact.

 

And i think you were looking for the Dark Ages, the Medieval period actually had some technological advancements...

 

Actually, dark ages were only in Europe, Muslims were during those times very inventive and made the basis for western science and mathematics.

 

Also, during the middle ages there were no significant scientific devoplement either, in Europe.

 

Rome wouldn't have invented electricity in the ''near future'' if the arabs, who were even more scientifically progressive, didn't.

[Incitatus]

Yes thats a good point the chinese were very advanced, they invented gunpowder.

[DanM]

I remember reading someone's explanation of this point and they said it was because of the institutions of slavery and effective serfdom (the coloni). The reasoning goes that a society so dependent upon cheap labor would not be as motivated to use steam power to create labor saving devices. For me, however, this explanation always seemed lacking. How many references have you guys read that all come back to the point that agricultural labor became progressively more scarce over time? Wouldn't that be a good motive for developing labor saving devices?

 

To me, it all goes back to the fact that Romans looked at the study of science and mathmatics as inferior to the greek classics or oratory skills. It was all fine and good to hire someone to design a church or an aqueduct, but I believe the inherently conservative culture of Imperial Rome wasn't open to progressive scientific thinking. The bottom line is that science was a sideshow to the Romans and they would not have known a good invention if it bit them on the backside.

[Incitatus]

The Romans didn't actually have scientists though. They only had military engineers looking for military advances

[DanM]

The Romans didn't actually have scientists though. They only had military engineers looking for military advances

 

They had a few math/science types like the guy who designed the Hagia Sophia. I think the best school for it was in Alexandria. Even if it wasn't always their day job, they did have guys I would class as scientists. Regardless, it was the fact that they did not value math and science as much as other disciplines of study that predisposed them to not properly utilizing the advances they did achieve such as the steam powered engine.

 

If a business or government leader cannot understand the undelying principles well enough to connect the advance to a vision of how it could be applied, then its not very likely that anything will ever be done. And since so few leaders of Roman society had an appreciation of math or science, it shouldn't be surprising that so little was achieved under the Empire.