• Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    59
    ·
    1 year ago

    Yes, and famously the ancient Egyptians used steam power for religious trickery and to open a pair of doors to one of their temples.

    The trick is that without much better metallurgy and pipework, it wasn’t possible to create the kind of high pressure needed for a steam engine.

    Same thing goes for evolution. The rough concept had been around for a while; it took until “deep time”(earth being billions of years old) was proven that we knew that life actually had the kind of time needed to evolve.

    • Wanderer@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      The first useful industrial widespread steam engines we low pressure water pumps weren’t they?

      High pressure only came later

      • Raltoid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        To be fair, it was low pressure because it operated by creating a partial vacuum from condensing steam.

      • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        If you mean the “Baghdad Batteries” unfortunately not. Deeper analysis has revealed that it was a sort of prayer system. They’d write or offer something, seal it in a small metal box, then put that in a larger jar.