The Most Mysterious Ancient Technologies Lost to Time

We don't need pangagans. Dude over at demolition ranch ziptied four shotguns together to make a quad gun. Then he ziptied two quad guns together.

The process of making true Damascus steel was rediscovered fairly recently, there's a whole documentary about it. Turns out there is a trace amount of Vanadium in the iron ore that came from Syria which is what's responsible for the Damascus pattern. It also needs a fairly specific smelting process but the vanadium is the real key.

Everyone wants to harp on the invention of the wheel while ignoring the far more difficult to engineer invention that makes it so useful in the first place: the low-friction load-bearing axle. Without the axle, the best use-case you have for the wheel is putting logs under a heavy load and replacing them from the back to the front as the load is pushed forward.

Regarding Damascus blades, I'm an Arab and I don't claim that I've studied Arab weaponry, however whenever someone mentions the best of the best qualities of blades in poetry and even some prayers, they were always Indian blades, not Damascus blades. I'm not discrediting the Syrian craftsmanship (they are one of the best), I just find it interesting that the Arab themselves don't mention their own blades as much as the Indian ones.

Roman flexible Glass: I was thinking, and I'm fairly certain They could have alchemically produced Nitrocellulose, which is the basis for many types of plastic. Clear, flexible, can be bent back into shape. If you didn't know that plastic existed, what would you call a bowl made out of it? flexible glass. if this is the answer, I guess we can be kind of glad they banned it, due to some of the other properties/.

You could have added Roman concrete to the list too. It's another one that's mostly been solved now, I think, but very very recently. Great video, thank you.

The Damascus steel section shares many of the common misconceptions and incorrect information the Scishow video on Demascus steel that was pulled had. The paper stating carbon nano-tubes were found in the period demascus blades has since been refuted. And most of all, the "formula" for demascus steel isn't lost. The specific wootz steel source the blades were made from was unknown for a long time but not the knowledge of how to make the swords. I strongly suggest people watch Shadiversity's video on this subject as he directly goes over the incorrect claims in it. Also, as others in the comment section have noted, many of the b-roll shots of "demascus steel blades" are just pattern welded blades.

Vanadium. That was the missing part of Damascus steel. We've known that for a couple of years now I believe.

Lars Anderssen actually has demonstrated that Pnjagan was probably a technique, not firing all arrows at the same time, but rather giving them arcs so that all arrows arrive at the same time. Much like the Panzerhaubitze 2000 does with it´s shells, creating one BIG impact.

Alfred Pandray proved it was not the use of organic carbon that resulted in Wootz Damascus but trace elements in the raw ore. He was able to not only to recreate Wootz of identical to the surviving examples we have but became so adept at the process he was able to create different grades of the material by trying different types of ores and smelting processes. Dr. John Verhoeven followed Pandray's work for almost ten years documenting his progress and wrote a book about it "Damascus Steel Swords: Solving the Mystery of How to Make Them".

Actually, we did relearn how to make damascus steal. Turns out the blacksmiths didn't forget how to do it, they simply ran out of the proper ore and the method was lost. But with recent discoveries and rediscoveries, it is possible to recreate the metal alloy with the exact properties necessary for damascus steel.

We figured out how to replicate Damascus steel in the late 90s, the key was in using an ore that naturally had vanadium and melting iron made from it in a sealed crucible with a specific mix of fluxes and carbon. Also, another potential candidate for 'flexible glass' could be a simple plant derrived polymer.

The naval history channel Drachinifel did an episode on Greek Fire that I hightly recommend if you want some more depth. He's an engineer by training, and has worked with volatile chemicals in the past, so he did some testing and came up with an extremely nasty formulation that seems like a pretty good candidate for what Greek Fire was, in terms of behaving as described in the direct records of its use. Unless we discover some alchemist student's cheat sheet on the formulation for Greek fire that was supposed to never be written down, though, there's no real way to prove it correct. So it's just an viable formula for giving dramatic demonstrations of what it might have been like to face that kind of weapon in battle. But yeah, if you want to see a naval historian engineer nearly burn his hair off testing hypothetical formulations for the medieval equivalent of Napalm...very much an interesting watch.

Greek Fire. A cool name for a Mediterranean smooth jazz quartet.🎷🎺🎹🎸

Regarding wootz steel, indian metallurgy is a fascinating study. To say "they clearly had no idea whatbthey were doing" is a fascinating statement. And why everything about india is played down except the caste system, in the west, is intriguing to say the least!

Another "ancient metalurgists didn't know what they were doing" claim, when they in fact knew not only how to add carbon, but how to remove carbond as well. They could closely manage the carbon content through a variety of processes depending on the use to which it was going to be put. They most certainly knew what they were doing. Also, wootz steel was crucible steel and was not limited to India as its source.

Remember, only you can prevent a forest fire.... only you.

One small omission with regards to Damascus steel. Wootz steel ingots were made in Sri Lanka as well (introduced by a South Indian metallurgists). The reason that this technique was lost was because both cultures have a "culture" of not being able to gauge fair pay for work (especially skilled). In Sri Lanka they had an improved technique where they did this during the monsoon season and from all accounts the work wasn't easy. Almost certainly this isn't because they ran out of a certain ore.

The panjagan was invented by the ancestor of Joerg Sprave lol

Hey Simon, Here are two technology questions which have neve been answered, that may interest you. #1. Old Question. Some years back the Louvre Museum was remodeling. Someone bumped the podium with a prized crystal vase. The wine colored vase had been crafted by Leonardo. It fell to the floor and bounced! It did not shatter because it was made of what is believed to be phenelic plastic resin. This was about 500 years before modern science invented the stuff. You explain this please, no one else has been able. #2. New Question. Heavy duty iron brake drums are only produced in a few plants around the world. I trucked these creations from a plant in Rockford Illinois. They cast and forged drums with 7 kinds of iron. Apparently the stuff should have produce about the same results. But for some reason the very best result, by an order of magnatude, was drums made from Brazilian iron ore. These drums are made the same as the others, but have a very different performance. Science can only speculate why this happens. This work is done today.