I'm really enjoying trying to devise a technological history that unfolds differently than ours did. Overall Ondarra's tech and particularly political development is very late-medieval/Renaissance. Because of the thaumata, however, their mechanical skills have developed much faster. (Weapons of war always get the most R&D, after all.)
Because of this, they went straight for vacuum-powered piston engines, instead of spending a century messing around with Savery-style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Savery) water pumps using vacuum to suck water up a pipe. They weren't motivated by raising water "from lowe pitts". Not a detail I could work into the story, but I like it as background. And I like giving Vaino a background for his grouchy later years, trying to do something radically useful with the tech people keep developing for the rather boring purpose of killing each other. (The greater plot arc has him being introduced to a programmable Babbage-thaumata in about 30 years, hee hee.)
And, again, thank you for getting me thinking about plots involving the mindset change between technological eras. It's such a rich field. :)
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Because of this, they went straight for vacuum-powered piston engines, instead of spending a century messing around with Savery-style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Savery) water pumps using vacuum to suck water up a pipe. They weren't motivated by raising water "from lowe pitts". Not a detail I could work into the story, but I like it as background. And I like giving Vaino a background for his grouchy later years, trying to do something radically useful with the tech people keep developing for the rather boring purpose of killing each other. (The greater plot arc has him being introduced to a programmable Babbage-thaumata in about 30 years, hee hee.)
And, again, thank you for getting me thinking about plots involving the mindset change between technological eras. It's such a rich field. :)