Forsaken Technologies

Society has managed to forget numerous earthshaking technological breakthroughs, in it's development. This is quite a feat, considering the numerous inventions and discoveries that we have left behind over the years. The list is endless, and cannot be completed, mostly because some of them have been forgotten in full, not just their methods.

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 A prime example of lost technology that could have changed life as we know it is the process of ligaturing a blood vessel shut during surgery. This process was developed around  the turn from B.C.E. to C.E. That's right, approximately 2011 years ago, at the time of this writing. Now, it IS used today, but after it's ancient discovery, it was forgotten until sometime in the 1500s, and again ignored until the late 1800s, when it became part of modern medical technology. Had this been used earlier, who knows how the world may have turned out? Influential leaders may have been saved from an untimely demise, soldiers dying on the battlefield, who would have been destined to make other great discoveries. Another example is the unmatched legacy of James Black's bowie knives, which have yet to be replicated.

When designing the knife, Jim Bowie carved a model out of wood. This he gave to a blacksmith named James Black. James Black produced many of these knives, and as their fame grew, he continued to refine them. His blades were known for being unmatched in many regards, being very tough, yet flexible, an extremely desirable combination as many will tell you. Some even believe he may have recovered the process of making Damascus steel, as we will discuss next. In 1839, James Black was assaulted by his father-in law, he survived but his eyesight was damaged. It was later damaged even more when he sought out medical attention from a Cincinnati physician. His father-in-law had also sold his property illegally while he was away, and dissappeared. Years later, he tried to pass his techniques onto Daniel Webster Jones, but found he had forgotten them, thus ending the storied Black knives. On then, to the metal he supposedly used, Damascus steel.

Coming from the city of Damascus, Damascus steel was known for it's perfect balance of strength, flexibility and just about all other traits desirable in a metal. The swords composed of Damascus steel were renowned in the ancient world, with reports claiming they were even capable of cutting through stones. Admittedly, part of the steel's amazing traits may have come from the ore it was mined from. There have been theories that it's ore contained metals such as vanadium, which gave it greater strength. Whatever it was that made it so effective, the technology has been lost to time.