What the price of an ancient Roman nail tells us about value...

[Fred Bloggs]

\"After writing two books about the history of inventions, one thing I’ve learnt is that while it is the enchantingly sophisticated technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world.\"

https://www.nber.org/people/daniel_sichel?page=1&perPage=50

Lengthy video by popular book author of Small Inventions That Changed the World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teyI5p3aV_c

 

[Fred Bloggs]

On Friday, June 16, 2023 at 1:07:01 PM UTC-4, Fred Bloggs wrote:

\"After writing two books about the history of inventions, one thing I’ve learnt is that while it is the enchantingly sophisticated technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world.\"

https://www.nber.org/people/daniel_sichel?page=1&perPage=50

Lengthy video by popular book author of Small Inventions That Changed the World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teyI5p3aV_c

https://www.ft.com/content/4240569a-aa55-468e-8dc4-2953612c38d1

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 10:06:57 -0700 (PDT), Fred Bloggs
<bloggs.fredbloggs.fred@gmail.com> wrote:

\"After writing two books about the history of inventions, one thing I’ve learnt is that while it is the enchantingly sophisticated technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world.\"

https://www.nber.org/people/daniel_sichel?page=1&perPage=50

Lengthy video by popular book author of Small Inventions That Changed the World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teyI5p3aV_c

I\'ve heard that people used to burn down houses so they could recover
the nails.

Blacksmiths use to make nails, one at a time, as fill-in work when
they didn\'t have anything else to do.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

On Friday, June 16, 2023 at 1:20:19 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 10:06:57 -0700 (PDT), Fred Bloggs
bloggs.fred...@gmail.com> wrote:

\"After writing two books about the history of inventions, one thing I’ve learnt is that while it is the enchantingly sophisticated technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world.\"

https://www.nber.org/people/daniel_sichel?page=1&perPage=50

Lengthy video by popular book author of Small Inventions That Changed the World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teyI5p3aV_c
I\'ve heard that people used to burn down houses so they could recover
the nails.

Blacksmiths use to make nails, one at a time, as fill-in work when
they didn\'t have anything else to do.

There must not have been much demand for them. No wonder wood workers and builders were inventing all those weird joinery methods. Nails only really became useful when lumber mills started producing dimensional lumber, mid- to late- 19th century IIRC. Prior to that people must have started from real rough hewn logs.

 

[whit3rd]

On Friday, June 16, 2023 at 10:29:06 AM UTC-7, Fred Bloggs wrote:

On Friday, June 16, 2023 at 1:20:19 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

Blacksmiths use to make nails, one at a time, as fill-in work when
they didn\'t have anything else to do.

There must not have been much demand for them. No wonder wood workers and builders were inventing all those weird joinery methods. Nails only really became useful when lumber mills started producing dimensional lumber, mid- to late- 19th century IIRC. Prior to that people must have started from real rough hewn logs.

Nails go \'way back; old heavy-timber buildings (Tudor architecture) used tapered
wooden nails to connect the timbers. Steel nails of today, cut iron nails of 1800, wrought iron nails of 1700, and
wooden nails of 1600, are kinda different technologies.

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2023-06-16 13:06, Fred Bloggs wrote:

\"After writing two books about the history of inventions, one thing I’ve learnt is that while it is the enchantingly sophisticated technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world.\"

https://www.nber.org/people/daniel_sichel?page=1&perPage=50

Lengthy video by popular book author of Small Inventions That Changed the World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teyI5p3aV_c

Varies. TV sure wasn\'t cheap for the first 20 years or so, but had a
big effect even back then.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

 

[Flyguy]

On Friday, June 16, 2023 at 11:07:01 AM UTC-6, Fred Bloggs wrote:

\"After writing two books about the history of inventions, one thing I’ve learnt is that while it is the enchantingly sophisticated technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world.\"

https://www.nber.org/people/daniel_sichel?page=1&perPage=50

Lengthy video by popular book author of Small Inventions That Changed the World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teyI5p3aV_c

HELL NO! Technology CHANGES the world: CHEAP technology makes it available to the masses.

If EVERY technological advance was judged on what it would cost for the consumer to use it NOTHING would happen.

 

[Anthony William Sloman]

On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 1:31:49 PM UTC+10, Flyguy wrote:

On Friday, June 16, 2023 at 11:07:01 AM UTC-6, Fred Bloggs wrote:
\"After writing two books about the history of inventions, one thing I’ve learnt is that while it is the enchantingly sophisticated technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world.\"

https://www.nber.org/people/daniel_sichel?page=1&perPage=50

Lengthy video by popular book author of Small Inventions That Changed the World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teyI5p3aV_c

HELL NO! Technology CHANGES the world: CHEAP technology makes it available to the masses.

The masses are \"the world\". Sewage Sweeper imagines himself to be part of some technological elite, where expensive technology can make a difference to his life while the less well-off can\'t afford it. If somebody invents an expensive cure for senile dementia, he might be right, but nobody would waste the money to use it on him.

> If EVERY technological advance was judged on what it would cost for the consumer to use it NOTHING would happen.

Of course. Technological advances are first taken up by early adopters who can make a lot of money out of them, and they pay for the further development work that makes the technological advance cheaper, and more widely available.

Historically speaking, you needed to get an expensive education to find out that the technological advances had been made. and go in for expensive foreign travel to get to places where they were used.

The printing press is an interesting case in point. It was invented in China, but Chinese writing uses a lot of different characters and it was a whole lot more interesting in Europe where a alphabetic character sets with many fewer characters made the idea a whole lot more useful.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Fred Bloggs]

On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 2:14:06 AM UTC-4, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 1:31:49 PM UTC+10, Flyguy wrote:
On Friday, June 16, 2023 at 11:07:01 AM UTC-6, Fred Bloggs wrote:
\"After writing two books about the history of inventions, one thing I’ve learnt is that while it is the enchantingly sophisticated technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world.\"

https://www.nber.org/people/daniel_sichel?page=1&perPage=50

Lengthy video by popular book author of Small Inventions That Changed the World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teyI5p3aV_c

HELL NO! Technology CHANGES the world: CHEAP technology makes it available to the masses.
The masses are \"the world\". Sewage Sweeper imagines himself to be part of some technological elite, where expensive technology can make a difference to his life while the less well-off can\'t afford it. If somebody invents an expensive cure for senile dementia, he might be right, but nobody would waste the money to use it on him.
If EVERY technological advance was judged on what it would cost for the consumer to use it NOTHING would happen.
Of course. Technological advances are first taken up by early adopters who can make a lot of money out of them, and they pay for the further development work that makes the technological advance cheaper, and more widely available.

Historically speaking, you needed to get an expensive education to find out that the technological advances had been made. and go in for expensive foreign travel to get to places where they were used.

The printing press is an interesting case in point. It was invented in China, but Chinese writing uses a lot of different characters and it was a whole lot more interesting in Europe where a alphabetic character sets with many fewer characters made the idea a whole lot more useful.

Closer to home, the transistor radio:

https://grahamthomasauthor.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/how-the-sony-transistor-radio-changed-the-world/

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney