-and you plan to build a steam engine (you are a mechanical engineer that knows how to build a steam engine). can you do it?
You have the best smiths available-and the finacial backing of the current emperor-can you do it?
I suspect you would first have to find a way of making a lath-so that you could make pistons, cylinders, and screws in standard sizes.
My question:if you succeed (and thus laund the Industrial revolution, 15 centuries early), are you:
-lauded by the emperor and awarded a title and high honors, or
-put to death by the emperor (your innovations would disturb the social order)?
The ancient civilisations knew about steam power, utilised it for some things and they were every bit as smart as us. Slave owning societies with unlimited cheap labour sucked in through the never-ending wars needed to bring in wealth had no need for mechanical labour. On top of that the power holders were big land and slave owners.
You’d probably end up with a knife in your back because nothing frightened ancient societies more than a revolt of the masses and millions of useless slaves would not be good news to them.
No Industrial Revolution would have followed your invention because a technology by itself causes nothing.
Sure, it can be built. It might not be pretty but it I’d guess it can be done.
I picture the government wanting to use it for state & military purposes rather than being used for civilian purposes. No Revolution for us. I picture myself happily going along with them. But these were the same guys with the aquaducts and indoor plumbing and cranes and interstate highway systems or whatever. They’d be all over my engine.
MHO? Sure you could build something steam-powered, but the general metallurgy of the time means that even the best smiths couldn’t give you good enough iron to build anything powerful enough to outperform five or ten slaves, at a much higher cost than the slaves.
So, build something? Yes. Impress the emperor with its practicality as a power source (for better or worse)? No.
As soon as I run out of disposable contacts, I’ll be begging for denaris in front of the temple.