# Skills and facts average Englishman of today could teach to Englishman of 1015 AD?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 26, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986 "2015-08-26T20:50:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/21 "2015-08-27T02:07:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> Grind glass to make lenses. Aim at stars and at water. Note planets and note micro-organisms.
An interesting fact: the lenses that Leeuwenhoek used for the first observations of micro-organisms didn’t really come from grinding. He would melt a thin whisker of glass to create a tiny spherical droplet to put in his microscopes.
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### Author:  [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/22 "2015-08-27T02:16:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> That’s why we grind glass and make microscopes. --JM
Yes, a collective “we” though. The average Englishman stands on the shoulders of giants.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/23 "2015-08-27T14:39:20Z")
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> Teach them to wash their damn hands!
>
> Forget germ theory - tell them washing removes earthly stain from your hands, so doing before prayer or eating or tending the sick will bring your closer to God and thus favor your endeavor. Use an argument in terms they’ll understand.
However you choose to present the lesson, basic sanitation is the big thing. If you could just get people to bathe and clean up their garbage, the rats and lice that lead to plague could be kept in check.
And ANY kind of sewage system could prevent typhoid and a host of other diseases.
Those are things that wouldn’t require specialized knowledge or skills, and that almost any modern Englishman could teach.
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### Author:  [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/24 "2015-08-27T16:02:52Z")
> [@GreenElf](#):
>
> Unless my cellphone still accessed this information after the time travel, I would have difficulty reinventing a lot of this. For instance, I know the importance of a sewer system on a layman’s level, but if I just said something about “germs” to them, it wouldn’t help much at all and how would I convince them to construct a sewer system? I would have to learn from them how to make soap, absent cellphone information, since I just buy it in a store.
I agree, while the average Englishman knows that there exists a black powder that exists and goes boom when you light it, most probably don’t have the vaguest idea how to make it, nor how to grind the glass to make a telescope, how to make a steam engine etc. For the most part all he would know is that they are possible (which is a pretty big first step), but it would take years of research to bring any one of them about.
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### Author:  [@dunkleosteus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dunkleosteus)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/25 "2015-08-27T16:06:39Z")
It really depends. If we’ve already established that he’s not going to be thought of as a heretic or magical, he might be able to get somewhere. He can go around sprouting ideas from the modern world but I doubt anyone would believe him. I don’t think the concept of time travel was even known at that time. First step is to DO something. Show that you have something to give them, something valuable and you might start to get somewhere. Unfortunately our world is so interconnected that an individual doesn’t have much knowledge that can function by itself. Sure, you know how to use a computer and drive a car, but those things don’t mean much. If he’s smart, he’ll start by not saying anything to upsetting or heretical, and he probably shouldn’t explain that he’s from the future. If he happens to have some technology that isn’t TOO advanced, he might be able to pass as a REALLY bright inventor, assuming he holds back the more modern stuff until he gets a bit further.
Now if he could smuggle some modern information with him, say an electronic encyclopedia or something, that might be a different story. There are certainly some things that could revolutionize their world that are not terribly hard to make, (like gunpowder) but I’m not sure the average Englishman knows how to make it either (iirc, like 75% charcoal, 15% sulfur, 10% potassium nitrate?) he’d have to know what salt peter looked like as well, which isn’t easy.
He might be able to start with something simple like sterilizing wounds and the beginnings of proper sanitation. Being able to prevent gangrene or infections would probably be pretty impressive (and useful) to these people, so if he could start as some sort of sage with real results he might be able to get the respect to build from there.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/26 "2015-08-27T16:11:38Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#):
>
> I agree, while the average Englishman knows that there exists a black powder that exists and goes boom when you light it, most probably don’t have the vaguest idea how to make it, nor how to grind the glass to make a telescope, how to make a steam engine etc. For the most part all he would know is that they are possible (which is a pretty big first step), but it would take years of research to bring any one of them about.
But plenty of Englishmen know the main ingredients of gun powder, and you’d team up with some alchemist to do experiments. Similarly, you’d find a craftsman who was good at glassworks and explain the general idea of a lens-- let the experts of the day leapfrog.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/27 "2015-08-27T16:11:50Z")
Is there any evidence whatsoever that eleventh-century Britons burned witches?
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/28 "2015-08-27T16:19:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> But plenty of Englishmen know the main ingredients of gun powder, and you’d team up with some alchemist to do experiments. Similarly, you’d find a craftsman who was good at glassworks and explain the general idea of a lens-- let the experts of the day leapfrog.
This is the key. Those people _weren’t_ stupid. Give them a bit of future knowledge and a nudge in the right direction and let them do all the heavy lifting.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/29 "2015-08-27T16:43:49Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> This is the key. Those people _weren’t_ stupid. Give them a bit of future knowledge and a nudge in the right direction and let them do all the heavy lifting.
Combine that with the likelihood that you’ll be considered a weird foreigner anyway, with tales like “In a distant land, I saw a piece of glass of a curious shape…”
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/30 "2015-08-27T16:44:09Z")
First thing would be to keep a low profile until you could fit in. You would always be a ‘foreigner’ but that may be no bad thing.
Best idea would be to find someone who was working on anything at all that you vaguely recognise, and steer them in the right direction. You could say that it’s something you leaned ‘back home’ - maybe start some kind of business to gain a reputation.
Then you need a wealthy patron. There were some who were interested in technology and you could probably come up with enough good ideas to enable him to promote them (as his - obviously).
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### Author:  [@dunkleosteus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dunkleosteus)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/31 "2015-08-27T16:50:11Z")
I’m not an average Englishman, but if you wanted a list of simple changes that could revolutionize the time, in the 11th century, European blacksmiths weren’t able to melt iron (1538 C) and so instead used bloomeries to produce an iron bloom which they could forge down into wrought iron (~0% carbon). Fires just couldn’t get hot enough to raise the ore over the critical point to liquify it, so making steels was very difficult, and all metal working had to be done by forging instead of casting. Hooking the bellows of the forge up to a water wheel in a river allowed large bellows to pump enough oxygen into the forges and later blast furnaces for the iron to melt. The blast furnace process produces pig iron (if cast directly as pig iron, the result is known as cast iron), a brittle high-carbon iron alloy that can be reduced to steel with the application of oxygen to burn off excess carbon. It also allows for casting into molds (which can later be forged) for quicker production of (higher) quality tools.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/32 "2015-08-27T17:33:07Z")
Not usable all that frequently, but useful: the Heimlich maneuver.
Also, “back to sleep” for infants.
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### Author:  [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/33 "2015-08-27T18:33:05Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> Is there any evidence whatsoever that eleventh-century Britons burned witches?
Multiple photographic, microfiche and audio sources, actually.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/34 "2015-08-27T18:52:49Z")
I wouldn’t (and probably couldn’t) give them advanced technology, but perhaps I could give them ideas for things that they could implement with what they had. For instance, I would try to get someone interested in the idea of the horse collar, which was a vast improvement over the yoke. I could ask a blacksmith to make a helical drill bit and then see if some carpenter thought it worked better. Heck, maybe I could find a water wheel and invent the tumbler rock polisher, and make a living selling polished pebbles as cheap jewelry.
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### Author:  [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/35 "2015-08-27T20:53:16Z")
**Dendarii Dame** beat me to the Heimlich Maneuver.
You could teach them perspective drawing, but it’s unclear whether they would value it.
What I would do is tell them that I came from a faraway land where the wise knew many great secrets, but that I was not one of the wise myself. Then I would try to write down absolutely everything I could recall of modern scientific knowledge. The brilliant minds of the eleventh century might be able to use my imperfect recollections as clues to the truth, accelerating the development of science.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/36 "2015-08-27T21:25:56Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#):
>
> You could teach them perspective drawing, but it’s unclear whether they would value it.
That’s a good one, vanishing points and all that. I guess you’d have to find a bright 11th-century architect to demonstrate your “discovery” to.
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### Author:  [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/37 "2015-08-27T21:55:49Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> - watch out for the damned Normans
>
> - don’t trust anyone from Normandy
>
> - especially if his name is “William”
>
> - never fight a battle any place called “Hastings”
Even 50-odd years before the invasion, you wouldn’t be telling them anything they didn’t already know or could reasonably suspect. They’d already had problems with the Normans.
In late August of 1015, though, they had more pressing problems, in the shape of Cnut of Denmark invading with 10,000 pissed-off Vikings, Edmund Ironsides attempting to usurp his father Æthelred’s throne, and no way of knowing which one of them any particular earl’s going to decide to side with.
This is not a good year for poorly-prepared time travellers.
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### Author:  [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/38 "2015-08-27T22:14:36Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> However you choose to present the lesson, basic sanitation is the big thing. If you could just get people to bathe and clean up their garbage, the rats and lice that lead to plague could be kept in check.
That leads directly into the principal ethical conundrum of time travel: how much do you change the past? For example, the shortages of labor caused by the Black Death in the 1340s led pretty directly to the end of serfdom in England by 1400. Good sanitation = no plague = no end to feudalism (or at least a longer period of feudalism before something else ended it).
\
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/39 "2015-08-27T22:17:59Z")
> [@bob\_2](#):
>
> Best idea would be to find someone who was working on anything at all that you vaguely recognise, and steer them in the right direction. You could say that it’s something you leaned ‘back home’ - maybe start some kind of business to gain a reputation.
I mentioned it in the other thread, but it fits here too:
Get thee to YouTube and listen to _Good Advice_ by Allan Sherman. He sets a lot of important inventors and discoverers on the right track, with but one horrific and tragic blunder.
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skills-and-facts-average-englishman-of-today-could-teach-to-englishman-of-1015-ad/728986/40 "2015-08-27T23:11:39Z")
> [@WotNot](#):
>
> . . .
>
> In late August of 1015, though, they had more pressing problems, in the shape of Cnut of Denmark invading with 10,000 pissed-off Vikings,. . .
And ever since, Englishmen have called such assholish people cnuts.
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