Clever things from the past

mlbtheshow

mlbtheshow

mlbtheshow

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I was just thinking about Oil and Petrol and how firstly it was discovered... I mean you have to drill or dig to reach it, so what made someone dig a hole big enough (in the olden days no less) to reach oil... did they know it existed?

Then from that, how the hell do they then know what to do with it? If I was around then and saw this black stuff that stunk, shooting up out of the ground.. id be like, nah, fill the hole in.

But whoever found it, thought this is worth something... and then somehow its used to make petrol (is that correct?) etc - Who in the hell thinks of this!

If I saw Oil, id have never have thought.. right ill refine that and it will then become a resource to make machines/engines run!

Also as a spinoff.. if Oil never existed, would man have then ever created the Car etc? Or because it wasnt there, would we have found a way to have cars using water, or milk or 'insert liquid here'.....
 
mlbtheshow said:
I was just thinking about Oil and Petrol and how firstly it was discovered... I mean you have to drill or dig to reach it, so what made someone dig a hole big enough (in the olden days no less) to reach oil... did they know it existed?

Then from that, how the hell do they then know what to do with it? If I was around then and saw this black stuff that stunk, shooting up out of the ground.. id be like, nah, fill the hole in.

But whoever found it, thought this is worth something... and then somehow its used to make petrol (is that correct?) etc - Who in the hell thinks of this!

If I saw Oil, id have never have thought.. right ill refine that and it will then become a resource to make machines/engines run!

Also as a spinoff.. if Oil never existed, would man have then ever created the Car etc? Or because it wasnt there, would we have found a way to have cars using water, or milk or 'insert liquid here'.....
Click to expand...

IIRC the first car was steam powered....

But yeah we would probably be running hydrogen/electric of some sort cars if oil was never discovered/existed. We'd find a way of personal transportation.
 
we have always been aware of OIL in some places its not necessary to drill as it seeps through the earths crust.

The Ancients were aware of it's flammable properties
 
What RedDancDoc said, there have been pools of oil on the surface and it only took one person to try and put their fire out in the black water to see what happens.
 
Edrof said:
Also...onion rings...why are they called that?
Click to expand...

I know, they should be called breadcrumb hoops... or batter hoops.

Dimple said:
What RedDancDoc said, there have been pools of oil on the surface and it only took one person to try and put their fire out in the black water to see what happens.
Click to expand...

Rumour has it that they discovered black water was flammable just after Ug discovered he could set his beard on fire with flint.
 
Who thought it'd be a good idea to extract milk from a cow and taste it?

Who thought of frying an egg and eating it?

Electricity, well, you know! There's loads
 
mlbtheshow said:
I was just thinking about Oil and Petrol and how firstly it was discovered... I mean you have to drill or dig to reach it, so what made someone dig a hole big enough (in the olden days no less) to reach oil... did they know it existed?

Then from that, how the hell do they then know what to do with it? If I was around then and saw this black stuff that stunk, shooting up out of the ground.. id be like, nah, fill the hole in.

But whoever found it, thought this is worth something... and then somehow its used to make petrol (is that correct?) etc - Who in the hell thinks of this!

If I saw Oil, id have never have thought.. right ill refine that and it will then become a resource to make machines/engines run!

Also as a spinoff.. if Oil never existed, would man have then ever created the Car etc? Or because it wasnt there, would we have found a way to have cars using water, or milk or 'insert liquid here'.....
Click to expand...


 
Refining oil isn't a big deal,
Boil it, cool the vapour.

It's a shame I wasn't born back then, all the simple ideas have been invented now.
 
Begbie said:
IIRC the first car was steam powered....

But yeah we would probably be running hydrogen/electric of some sort cars if oil was never discovered/existed. We'd find a way of personal transportation.
Click to expand...

Oil is a defacto lubricant though not just used to refine for petrol.

I find things like the baghdad battery amazing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery

also most of nicola tesla's inventions.
 
What gets me is all the minerals and other materials that we have built our 21st century world on have existed for billions of years and all that's changed since homo sapiens first walked the earth is human knowlegde.
 
The Running Man said:
I find things like the baghdad battery amazing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery
Click to expand...

"In March, seven prominent scholars sent a plea to President Bush, U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan, and Prime Minister Tony Blair that armies and governments try and safeguard the museum, which housed one of the richest treasuries of ancient artifacts in the world. Their pleas went unacknowledged, and, despite frantic efforts by scholars, US troops were not dispatched to protect the museum from looters."



That stupid bloody idiot Bush only had to lift a finger to protect the Baghdad battery exhibit but he was just too fracking ignorant to bother :mad: :mad: :mad:

Worst outcome of the war IMO :(
 
PardonTheWait said:
Not the considerable loss of human life?
Click to expand...

No so bothered, no.

You know why the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan*?
Because the Swiss? people sent in there to protect them were not there to give aid to the people (UN sanctions were in place).
So they said F U, and blew them up :(





*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan

"Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. It has given praise to Allah that we have destroyed them."

So no, I don't give a flying fig about any muslim peasant.
 
I am frequently astounded when I consider what our forefathers achieved / invented / created in eras when information was much harder to come by (i.e. you'd be much more isolated, making building on the work of others much tougher and reliant on written materials or word of mouth... but then how did you even know such materials existed, or could get access to them....)

Conversely with the wealth of information now at the fingertips of billions, I am equally surprised we don't see more sophisticated terrorist attacks etc.
 
is this mystery hour on LBC? Here's another "out there" question, someone mentioned potatoes. If potatoes were brought to Europe by Spanish conquistadors only in second half of the 16th century, rice began spreading across the continent only at the start of 16th century, and so was cabbage, carrots and salads, then WTF did British and Irish eat with their lunch meat for the previous few millennia?
 
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