CRAZY Past Technology We CAN'T Replicate Today!

in today's modern world we live with the technological advances that would have seemed like sorcery only a hundred years ago yet despite all our cellphones and smart cars there are still things from the past that leave us with more questions than answers let's take a look at some amazing technology from the past that we still can't replicate wave piloting technology wasn't always touchscreens buttons and LEDs technology is a broad term encapsulating anything that transfers our knowledge and observations into practical uses past tech could be as simple list preservation chemicals plant-based medicine or even a tangle of sticks the fascinating navigation technology of wave piloting is just that an ancient art known only to the natives of the Marshall Islands using little more than bound sticks and honed instincts developed over 2,000 years ago these odd devices allowed ancient marshalese seafarers to navigate with surprising accuracy on long journeys without needing to see their destination islands but without compasses or even the use of stars or the Sun as guidance how did wave piloting work wave piloting technology was made possible through stick charts called rebel EEB and a person's learned sensitivity to the ocean to learn this art the marshalese would sail between islands blindfolded using subtle changes in the wind and waves to guide them once a pilot was sufficiently sensitive to the ocean the revelry would guide them for a long journeys between islands the rebel League featured a series of curved bamboo sticks and cowrie shells tied together like a map the shells marked roughly where islands were and of the sticks represented wind patterns and ocean currents none of these maps were made to scale nor were they intended to be making their use as a navigational tool all of the more impressive and mysterious wave piloting depended entirely on the user sensitivity to the ocean pre-existing mental maps and an ability to interpret the mysterious visual language of the rebel Eve this means of course that the maps are unreadable to anyone except a trained wave pile the incredible methods are still an enigma to Western science but efforts to learn the historic secrets of a few existing marshalese have been launched Harvard particle physicists John Huth alongside other intrigued scientists wishes to utilize scientific method to study the outstanding accuracy of this intuitive indigenous navigation system any knowledge on the part of the remaining Islanders as yet remains a rarely shared local secret and one that's seemingly growing further from revelation the United States used the area around the Marshall Islands in the 1950s for nuclear testing displacing many Islanders rising sea levels caused many other people to abandon their homes with conditions worsening daily because of all this any hopes of Outsiders understanding the art of wave piloting is quickly disappearing with only a handful of people remaining with any knowledge of the ways of the wave pilots and the marshalese population dwindling future understanding and replication of this amazing technology looks increasingly unlikely the ancient miracle cure widely loved by Europeans of classical antiquity for its astounding array of uses Silphium was a unique plant that's still puzzles scientists today described in ancient Greek and Roman accounts as having clusters of yellow flowers and stubby leaves the plant's appearance was fairly unassuming but its disappearance is what prevents scientists from replicating it's amazing effects Silphium was extremely prevalent in ancient Greece and Rome used in the crafting of dinner plates medications perfumes and more even Hippocratic the famous Greek physician praised its uses for relieving inflammation the plant thought to be related to the giant fennel we see today is also thought to have been one of the first contraceptive and aboard of medicines that actually worked when needed those promiscuous Europeans could head down to the market and pick up their Silphium supplies ready to party in fact the sylveon's popularity and association with romance can be observed in many ancient resources including poems and silver coins depicting Silphium seed says led to speculation that the Silphium seed was the inspiration for the love heart symbol we see today unfortunately the widespread use of this plant eventually led to its demise although there is some debate about how exactly it went extinct some scientists assert that over harvesting or over grazing is to blame others argue it may be because Silphium couldn't be farmed making it unviable and unsustainable as a resource nonetheless all that remains are descriptions and drawings of it today we have broader access to birth control but very few of those are herbal in nature a natural birth control like Silphium which apparently worked well had few side effects and didn't seriously mess with a woman's hormones so it could easily benefit women's healthcare today perhaps we'll find a sample to Cologne in the future but there's no luck yet turn to stone five years before his death in 1836 an Italian named Cora llamosa Gatto discovered how to petrify animals and human bodies petrification is the process through which the organic materials that make up living things are replaced by minerals turning organic matter into fossils while this can take millions of years to occur naturally Sagat OHS process of petrification is the only known technique for artificially quickly petrifying human bodies the secrets behind the process were lost with su Gatos death as public discouragement reportedly led him to burn his notes what we do know is that Sagat OHS process of petrification involved removing as much water as possible from a body this lack of water would help the body mineralize making it dry and durable his mysterious mixture of minerals would presumably fill pores and vessels essentially fossilize ibadi in the process all the textures colors and features of the body remained surprisingly intact how do we know this the answer is kind of gross Sugano successfully used this technology on a human head a girl's chest and many smaller chunks of human bodies Sugano even create scag li Ola tabletop for Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand the third after mastering his process when the Duke found out what the tabletop was made of he wasn't pleased to say the least word soon spread about Sagat OHS capability and many assumed he used ancient magic which he had reportedly learned during a visit to Egypt while the magic debate is still open he did study Egyptian mummification during his trip while there are distinct differences between Egyptian mummies and cicadas petrified artifacts future research on Egypt may reveal the source of cicadas inspiration of course that's if we want to know how to petrify people people at the time were understandably disgusted and consequently Sagada went largely unrecognized for his strides in technology and science was this techniques disappearance for the best let me know in the comments down below the ancient nanotechnology the like urges Cup is a fascinating piece of Roman art from the fourth century AD known for its unusual color-changing capabilities the cup appears green from frontal lighting and red if lit from behind making it a technological marvel of its time perplexing scientists for many years the Lycurgus cup is now considered an example of ancient Roman nanotechnology it sounds crazy but it's true the cups ability to change colors lies in its 50 nano meter wide silver and gold particles within the glass to give you an idea of how small this is a human hair is approximately 100,000 nanometers wide it's uncertain whether the particles were somehow ground up and added to the glass mix were added accidentally as residue on tools or something else entirely it's a mystery that's yet to be solved ancient or not there are some sophisticated science at play in the cups mesmerizing effects when light hits the particles in the cup some of it is absorbed while some is reflected the angle at which the light hits the cup changes the ratio between these two factors altering the wavelengths of the light that passes through this causes the color of the cup to change depending on the position of the light source despite our modern advancements in nanotechnology we still can't replicate this enigmatic Roman cup we could hypothetically create similar versions using modern methods but it wouldn't be easy and it certainly wouldn't be the same as using the authentic unsolved Roman method but I suppose if you could make a convincing replica I'd still drink wine out of it and pretend to be an emperor until they kicked me out of the museum again music of the gods in the late 1600s Italian artisan and Tonio Stradivari built violins that still enchant musicians today their tone and craftsmanship are so valued that they sell for tens of millions at auctions with one fetching almost 16 million in 2011 many musicians assert that these violins are superior to any modern instruments and that no attempt can replicate Stradivarius pieces due to this there is much speculation on what makes Stradivari so technologically superior scientists from Columbia University suggests that the climate during the 17th century may be responsible for the Stradivarius tone the notably cooler climate during Stradivarius years of operation resulted in trees with thicker wood supporters argue that the strong acoustics of the Stradivarius violins are a natural result of those temperatures making replication nearly impossible without the perfect weather conditions others disagree suggesting that the secret lies in the chemical treatment of the wood or a secret varnish the recipes for which were only known to Stradivari another popular explanation urges that the minut differences in the shapes of Stradivari violins play a role in the sound difference an altered shape and the structures of the front and back plates may be Stradivari secret yet measure for measure recreations still don't offer the same sound whether it's a matter of instrument experts hearing a difference that doesn't really exist or some secret chemical or geometric formula replicating a Stradivarius doesn't seem likely any time soon the shatterproof our awareness of this enigmatic technology comes from the historic works of an ancient scholar named Isidore of Seville in addition to the accounts of Pliny the Elder kasia's do and Petronius according to Isadora during the reign of emperor Tiberius an unnamed artisan invented a unique kind of glass apparently this glass was flexible and wouldn't shatter if dropped the artisan presented his invention to Petronius in the form of a glass bowl and threw it on the ground before the emperor the glass struck the ground but didn't shatter the artisan then took out a hammer and beat out the newly formed dent in the glass returning it to shape Petronius swiftly executed the artisan hearing this new material would destabilize the value of gold and silver according to these ancient historians he erased its existence entirely in recent years flexible glass has been highly sought-after for all kinds of technological devices companies like Corning have even succeeded creating thin sheets of flexible glass known as willow glass despite this we have still not replicated the Roman legend entirely we've yet to create glass that can be shaped with a hammer or thick enough to function as a bowl if this tale is true the inventor may have created a material that even modern tech can't fully match alternatively he may even have invented an early form of plastic whatever the case was we'll likely never know as the Roman glass artefacts that remain are frustratingly smashable bells and batteries dead batteries are certainly annoying but the ultimate solution may lie in a very unexpected place the Oxford electric Bell which has been ringing since 1840 holds the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most durable battery in the world switched on just 40 years after Alessandro Voltas invention of the first true battery the Oxford bells batteries been powering the bell for 179 years straight it's a relatively simple mechanism using alternating electrostatic force to push a metal ball back and forth between two bells scientists and researchers are fascinated by the battery but unfortunately can't take a look inside opening it up would end the experiment and researchers are keen to see how long it will run before meddling with it they do know however that it's a dry pile battery these feature various materials such as silver sulfur and zinc layered on top of each other to produce an electrical current the mystery lies in exactly what metals the instrument manufacturing firm Watkyn and he'll chose for this particular dry pile when they constructed it we do know that sulfur was used as an outer coating but that's about it despite today's scientific advancements none of our batteries even come close to the usage handled by the Oxford Bell it's rung over 10 billion times which comes close to the amount of times I hit the snooze button every morning so which ancient technologies would you bring back if you could are there more out there that fascinate you let me know in the comment section below thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: BE AMAZED

Views: 281,852

Rating: 4.7389216 out of 5

Keywords: beamazed, be amazed, top 10, technology, ancient tech, ancient technology, old technology, amazing technology, damascus steel, greek fire, antikythera mechanism, ancient inventions, ancient aliens, origins explained, baghdad batteries, most amazing, ancient inventions science cant explain, science cant explain, voynich manuscript, oldest technologies

Id: jD6_tOObEMQ

Length: 14min 27sec (867 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 22 2019