So, tomorrow morning, you wake up in King Arthur's England. Let's skip some of the obvious major problems, somehow magically, you DO speak olde english
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I don't know if they know distilling then, I know that. I also know how to make black powder. I know how to cast a cannon. I could easily figure out a compound bow.
I think they had glue good enough to make laminates back then, but not sure.
Germ theory, teaching them that would make a big difference. Mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Oh, and yes, I would teach them how to make metal tubes, so I could teach them how to make refrigerators. Also, steam engines, and crop rotation. Canning, that would be another good one to teach. Same for pasteurization. Hot air balloons. gliders eventually (building a wing is actually pretty easy).
Anyway, those are just off the top of my head. Being an Engineer I know how a lot of stuff works. pulley's, ropes, concrete, etc.
"Canning, that would be another good one to teach. Same for pasteurization. "
Both of those require a lot of stuff. First there's the heat question. Then, there's the little matter of sealing the stuff in. (Pasteurization doesn't work if the stuff gets recontaminated.)
I can think of some effective low-tech ways around those issues. Wax makes a seal. However, given the traditional food preservation methods, I am not totally sure what it adds.
Pasteurization does extend milk a LONG ways, and that one would be attention-grabby and big enough to get you listened to about other things.
HYGIENE. Including dental hygiene. First aid and including Heimlich maneuver. Composting, both warm and vermicomposting. Natural contraceptive practices, though how those would be affected by diet I have no idea.
Minor detail, but an important one I think. Why would the language of King Arthur's court be Old English? That was the language of the Saxon invaders that he was fighting against. The language spoken at Arthur's court would have been Welsh.
The whole bit about medieval people being so superstitious that they'd take you for a demon or a witch just because you're dressed funny? Pretty much bogus. Propaganda written by the smug intelligentsia of the "Enlightenment" era. For a better read on medieval culture, watch Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (yes, the Python Terry Jones).
Also, maybe getting too much into it, but the approximate year makes a big difference in a number of ways, not least technology. For instance, if you're thinking of a post-Imperial Arthur (6th c.) they may not have had stirrups; if you're thinking of a very late Arthur (14th+) they have longbows and full plate armor and perhaps guns.
Well, I was taking it a little beyond "dressed oddly". The fabrics we wear today are different, the closure mechanisms were not invented yet, the styles might seem obscene, or there might have been a thousand other problems with showing up in year 1000 england dressed in modern clothes.
Lensmaking would be freaking awesome (and necessary for my myopic self) but I don't know anything aside from the most basic aspects of concave/convex lenses. I'd hope to make friends with the glazier.
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I think they had glue good enough to make laminates back then, but not sure.
Germ theory, teaching them that would make a big difference. Mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Oh, and yes, I would teach them how to make metal tubes, so I could teach them how to make refrigerators. Also, steam engines, and crop rotation. Canning, that would be another good one to teach. Same for pasteurization. Hot air balloons. gliders eventually (building a wing is actually pretty easy).
Anyway, those are just off the top of my head. Being an Engineer I know how a lot of stuff works. pulley's, ropes, concrete, etc.
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Both of those require a lot of stuff. First there's the heat question. Then, there's the little matter of sealing the stuff in. (Pasteurization doesn't work if the stuff gets recontaminated.)
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Pasteurization does extend milk a LONG ways, and that one would be attention-grabby and big enough to get you listened to about other things.
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First aid and including Heimlich maneuver.
Composting, both warm and vermicomposting.
Natural contraceptive practices, though how those would be affected by diet I have no idea.
Um.
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Also, maybe getting too much into it, but the approximate year makes a big difference in a number of ways, not least technology. For instance, if you're thinking of a post-Imperial Arthur (6th c.) they may not have had stirrups; if you're thinking of a very late Arthur (14th+) they have longbows and full plate armor and perhaps guns.
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And, yeah, let's go with 1000 ad.
I will watch medieval lives.
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