Primitive Technology: Forge Blower
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN readers like the channel for showing technology rebuilt from raw materials, and cite it as a vivid example of knowledge building on knowledge.
What it is
A Primitive Technology episode in which the creator builds a bow-drill-driven bark fan to blow air into a fire, using only natural materials. It shows the progression from fanning a fire by hand to a rotary forge blower.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2016 to 2018.
What Hacker News said
Recommends FuckOffNeemo · 2016-08 · on “World's Oldest Gold Object May Have Just Been Unearthed in Bulgaria”
My assumption would be something close to the smelter shown on Primitive Technologies YouTube channel. Find the smelter video here: [this video] This channel is fascinating. The history nerd within me finds satisfaction in every video he has recorded.
Recommends ChuckMcM · 2018-06 · on “Sudden Neolithic population drop was the result of brutal warfare: study”
That video[1] is part of a series by this guy who is out recreating technology literally from dirt. If you're a prepper you want this guy on your team, you'll advance to the castle age way before anyone else does :-) [1] [this video]
Cites jballanc · 2018-09 · on “What Came First: The Village or the Temple? Or, the Mystery of Göbekli Tepe”
Knowledge builds on knowledge, and (so far as we know) there's no shortcut to the gradual acquisition of knowledge. I think this is best exemplified by one particular episode of the YouTube "Primitive Technology" series: [this video] . In this video, the creator builds a forge blower from sticks, leaves, stones, and vines. All materials that would've been available to primitive man 40,000 years (or more) ago... ...but the forge blower wasn't known to human kind until the 1600s! In other words, the creator of the "Primitive Technology" videos was able to build a forge blower because he knew about the concept (and, presumably, the principles of pressure and centrifugal force that make it all work).