It's a cliche to say that humanity has more knowledge now than ever before. But there is much knowledge lost as new knowledge is gained.

150 years ago the state of the art of engines was steam technology. It revolutionized transportation, agriculture and industrial production. There were thousands of skilled designers and operators of this complex technology. There was a huge body of specialized knowledge that many people spent a lifetime acquiring. Steam technology was as much art as science. Now there are a few eccentric steam-engine hobbyists.

There are thousands of lost skills and technologies. Some that were once essential have stayed alive as crafts (glass blowing, wrought iron work) and some are kept alive as sports (sailing, hunting). Most are just gone.

This article recalls a few. What important knowledge (not just technical) do you think that moderns have lost?

Passed Technologies

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 07, 2001

Answers

"No engineering student would dare venture out in public...without his (or her) slide rule in its 'holster' and hanging from the belt," recalls Professor Emeritus Wayne McMorran of California Polytechnic State University

Well, I never! This is scurrilous! Only nerds carried their slip-sticks that way. Any cool frat-boy engineer would tuck it discretely in his notebook.

Sliderules were y2k-ready, portable, analog, non-rechargeable, almost indestructable.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 07, 2001.

"non-rechargeable"? I should have said "battery-free"

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 07, 2001.

Lars, It's just not the "crafts " that are dying it is also the support industries.The guys that make & repair the specialist tools that the "craftsmen" use and training facilities.Without the correct tools or materials and the knowledge you can't work.If you supply other craftmen as we do & go out of business then there can be a knock-on effect.It makes me mad as a hatter to see all the money being poured into arts year in year out & so lttle real support given for traditional crafts.

-- Chris (enquiries@griffenmill.com), February 07, 2001.

The "TV repair man" who came to your house. When I was a kid, we had a "regular guy" who would come and fix whatever ailed the set. Usually it was just a matter of replacing the channel-changing knob because we'd spin it until it came off, despite Mom warning us not to do this; then we'd have to use the pliers to change the channel until the TV repair guy showed up.

Along this vein, we've lost things like "milk" deliveries and (except in NYC) the "corner grocery store". I guess we're losing the "Mom-n-Pop" types of businesses -- specialty businesses where you knew the owner's name and the owner knew yours. You asked (sincerely) about each other's families. Transactions were handled not "under the table to beat the IRS", but based on trust. So, you didn't have the fifty bucks to fix the TV set; you paid him when you had it. He knew you were "good for it".

Getting away from this CAN'T be a good trend.

-- (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), February 08, 2001.