I know of plenty of horses that just exist on forage. My horses get grain, but would probably be okay on just pasture. Of course, like people, the more you work them, the more they need extra feed. My thoroughbred gelding probably wouldn’t hold up under a lot of heavy plow-pulling, but he could do enough to keep us fed. I’d probably get a mare to bred from. I think the Foxfire collection of books would be handy - people from Appalachia explaining how to build log cabins, dress meat, brew moonshine, etc. Everything one needs sto know about primitive living.
Machine tools (or at least a lathe) would be vital, as with those you could make many of the things which you don’t necessarily have at hand. (One could use water, wind, people, or animals to power the tooling, if you didn’t have access to electricity.)
It wouldn’t be too hard, however, to live better than our forefathers, even if you take the situation where civilization has totally imploded and we’re unable to use things like large scale power generation or have access to things like petroleum based fuels. Greenhouses will allow a wider variety of crops to be grown in even cold climates (and they’re not too difficult to build), knowing how to handle human waste will keep down disease, bicycles are better means of getting around than walking, and long distance communication via heliographs wouldn’t be completely out of question.
In The Stand, Glen Bateman comes up with a very good point, which I think would have borne out if it weren’t for the all Good vs Evil factor.
Basically, he said anyone with knowledge of how to get the lights back on (engineers, scientists) and doctors would be hoarded like gold. There might be a sort of odd slavery set up…these people would be revered, treated like gods, but they wouldn’t be allowed to go anywhere without an armed escort, and they sure as hell wouldn’t be allowed to leave whatever little community they hooked up with.
Not a modern encyclopedia, but a set of 1936 Britannicas would be priceless. The older editions showed you how to do all sorts of things. Formulas, diagrams, specs…whatever you need. And set for a lower level of technology as well.
However, you would also need structural or mechanical grades of steel to manufacture anything of high tolerance. In a temporary abeyance of authority scavenging existing stocks may be workable, but over a longer term scenario the smelting and manufacture of quality steel itself would be an outstanding effort.
You’d have a hard time building greenhouses without glass or plastic (both of which really require industrial capability), and in general, you’re not going to be able to grow enough crops via greenhouse cultivation to support a broad population with preindustrial means. And bicycles are only good transportation on graded or paved roads; on rough track you’d find bicycling to be hard going, even assuming that you could manufacture tires and tubes (not to mention other components that tend to break) with primitive technology.
A modern knowledge of public sanitation, even in a preindustrial setting, might well alleviate some of the more gross health issues, and heliograph communication is certainly possible. Both were used in many preindustrial societies, including China and Rome; likely the Indus Valley civilizations as well.
Perhaps, although I suspect that you’d still be better suited with a few more specific texts on primitive survival methods, basic medicine, rigging and construction engineering, brewing and distilling, et cetera. Most of what you’ll find in any general reference text is not going to be of functional use. The greatest use for an encyclopedia in such a situation is as a general history reference.
Well, first of all, what are you going to need high tolerance steels for? I mean, it’s not like you’re going to be building anything fairly modern with the stuff. There is, after all, a limit as to how well you can machine things without CNC gear. Presumably any collapse of civilization is going to involve an abandonment of large sections of major cities as well as a die off a considerable amount of the general population, thus leaving lots and lots of buildings with high quality structural steel that can be scavenged. Not to mention things like microwaves, PC cases, cars, trucks, refridgerators, electric stoves, etc., etc.
A.) While you’re scavenging steel from those abandoned buildings, you can snag some window panes as well. B.) I doubt that a broad section of the population would be able to survive the loss of modern technology anyway. Once stocks of medicine, canned food, and fuel start running low, the herd’s gonna get thinned pretty dramatically.
You ever heard of mountain bikes? Sure, they’re made with what would rapidly become exotic materials, but there’s not going to be a lot of folks running around (not to mention without heavy trucks, roads are going to last a bit longer they do presently and it’s easier to dodge potholes on a bike if there’s almost no cars around). Eventually, the tires will rot, the chains will break, the frames will (in some cases) rust, but you can make a bike out of wood, use a drive shaft instead of chains, and wooden wheels worked for humans for a very long time. Not a comfortable ride to be sure, but perhaps if you did something like this, you could make it a little smoother.
I still maintain that horses will be the most useful form of transportation, especially if fuel runs out. As mentioned before, all they need to keep going is water and vegetation. They can be ridden through the woods and between trees, and navigate terrain that a vehicle might be unable to. Horse breeding would flourish in a survivalist world in absence of motorized vehicles, and some groups would raise armies of horse-mounted riflemen, as in The Postman.
If you’re not going to be “building anything fairly modern,” you’re not really going to need machine tools, either. Of course, if your intent is to build replacement parts for existing machines using scavanged industrial metals, then certainly machine tools will come in handy, though I think you’ll find it difficult to run them powered by just a human (~1/3 hp) or working animal (~2-3 hp max). A steam engine would probably be your best bet to develop the kind of power throughput you would need to operate a high speed machine tool. But if you’re only using metals that are produced by pre-Industrial technology–essentially pig iron, wrought iron, and artisan crucible steel–then it probably won’t stand up to the kind of fine machining requiring machine tools well.
Mountain bikes are not especially efficient (in terms of energy usage) for riding on level or uphill rough ground, and even with saddle bags you’re limited to carrying less than a normal person could in a backpack, much less what a pack horse or mule could carry. As a sport, mountain biking is a challenging activity, but for practical transport over rough ground feet, animal, or animal-driven cart are more efficient.
“Pre-industrial”? Certainly, a large scale operation would be difficult (though not necessarily impossible), however, as the books sold here show, you can do things (at home) with the same level of quality (or better) than folks in the 1800s could. Also, if you know what you’re doing, water power can run a machine shop just fine.
As I noted above, it still beats walking, and one can carry more on a bike than in just a backpack or saddlebags. You can also have a basket upfront, and a small trailer behind. Sure, it’d be hard work, and you probably won’t be able to go very far, but if you don’t have a horse, you’ll be able to move more goods than you would just by walking and carrying.
I think you’d want to bust into museums and pick up things like carding, spinning and weaving tools for wool, as well as whatever other old, manual-style tools you can find. Or just situate yourself close to your local Amish/Hutterite community, where they won’t notice society collapsing all that much.
Some certainly, but IIRC, they’ll run hotter on alcohol than they will on gas, which could cause some problems. You’re also not going to want to run one that has a two-cycle engine, as oil will be a precious commodity and not something that you just want to dump in the fuel tank to be burned.
