Still looking for #environmentalhistory expertise on a geeky question: were Watt's early #steamengine experiments made with coal iron or charcoal iron? Any pointers or reposts hugely appreciated! @eseh.bsky.social @envhistnow.bsky.social - ThreadSky

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barnabascalder.bsky.social • 6 days ago

Still looking for #environmentalhistory expertise on a geeky question: were Watt's early #steamengine experiments made with coal iron or charcoal iron? Any pointers or reposts hugely appreciated!

@eseh.bsky.social @envhistnow.bsky.social

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brunotonelli.bsky.social•6 days ago

Not really sure this actually works, but I've tried ChatGPT:
(Maybe you had already tried it)

theohonohan.bsky.social•6 days ago

It doesn't work! Those two books don't exist, although there is a real book called "The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen" by a different author.

LLMs "hallucinate" and cannot be trusted. On balance, for this particular task, they are a waste of time.

brunotonelli.bsky.social•6 days ago

Of course it doesn't.
The more you need precision the more it's inefficient.

barnabascalder.bsky.social•6 days ago

Thank you - it's the kind of thing where ChatGPT, made for business, just makes it up... It took a long time for English coke coal to become accepted for technically demanding jobs. Govt munitions went to coke iron in the 1780s. For demands of steam I wouldn't be surprised by Swedish charcoal iron.

barnabascalder.bsky.social•6 days ago

One of the most interesting things in the current chunk of my next book is how messy and non-linear the growth of coal was, and how specific its impacts were for decades after the major headline "inventions."

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