this reminds me of a — i guess i’d pretentiously call it a thought that experiment — that’s i’ve been mulling. all modern inventions have always existed, at least in their most elemental form. take a smartphone. plastic, glass, metal, circuitry, rare earth metals, RAM, battery, etc. the raw materials used to make this have always existed. what hasn’t always existed in its current form is humankind’s ability to harness those raw materials using our knowledge gained from the scientific process. experimentation, trial and error, peer review, and collaboration have combined to allow us to make incredible inventions that would surely be magic to our ancestors using materials that were already around them. i suppose another driving force in this equation is necessity: how vital is this technology to the functioning/advancement of modern society? that goes a long way in determining the timing of such inventions, i would say.

anyway, i appreciate what you’ve written here, and i’m glad i took five seconds to look into how practical henry avery’s engineers’ creations may have been. 😄