Top all-time · #3245
Anton Howes
Personal blog · ageofinvention.xyzhistoryeconomics
Anton Howes's personal blog at ageofinvention.xyz covers history and economics. Since 2023, 24 different Hacker News readers have linked it 40 times, most often “Age of Invention: Why Salt Matters”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Anton Howes's Age of Invention blog on the history of invention: why techniques such as the steam engine, aviation and early patents came when they did, and the origins of perpetual-motion ideas.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Tales from the history of innovation.
Most-linked posts?
- /p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-the-steam-76c3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-11-30
- Age of Invention: Why Salt Matters3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-03-08
- Age of Invention: Why Scotland Succeeded3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-04-01
- How the Steam Engine Was Invented2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-06-08
- Age of Invention: Just Kiln Time2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-05-06
- Tudor Trade War2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-01-12
- Age of Invention: How Coal Won2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-02-12
- Cash Cows2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-11-24
- Age of Invention: The Coal Conquest2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-10-07
- Age of Invention: Does History Have a Replication Crisis?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-08-29
What Hacker News says?
This suggestion reminded me of the ad-hoc open access decrees (aka "letters patent" (aka H-1B visas)) that might have supercharged modern Venice : whether for inventions of glassmaking, inventions of new books, or inventions of the Americas : https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-the-origin... This involved lobbying the local rulers though... so was restricted to few chosen, and I am not certain that the…
Comment linking /p/age-of-invention-the-origin-of-patents
on “Secret 3D scans in the French Supreme Court”Submitted Age of Invention: The Coal Conquest as a story · 13 points
HN discussionBecause I’m trained as a physicist and (non-software) engineer and I know my field’s history? Here’s the first result that comes up on Google. Seems accurate from a quick skim: https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-... And yes we should seek to understand new inventions. Which we are doing right now, in the form of interpretability research. We should not be making Luddite calls to halt progres…
Comment linking /p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-the-steam-76c
on “Writing a good Claude.md”Submitted Age of Invention: How Coal Won as a story · 10 points
HN discussionYour discussion with DrF jogged my memory a bit. There was a discussion on this topic some time ago (I'm fuzzy on when) that went into detail about how there needed to be a specific use case and demand for this. I'm trying to remember the blog, but a search on HN yielded this: https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-... I think this is the blog in question, and the most relevant part. If somethin…
Comment linking /p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-the-steam-76c
on “The Wright brothers invented the airplane, right? Not if you're in Brazil”Submitted The Coal Conquest – There was no shortage of trees as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThere's perhaps some misunderstanding about where "perpetual motion" comes from : it was about Aristotle's metaphysics, the best today's translation for at least some of these first devices would probably be "powered by changes in atmospheric pressure" : https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-... (Could skip to "Cornelis Drebbel".) So the term was used more as a synonym for "continuously working…
Comment linking /p/age-of-invention-perpetual-motion
on “Superconductivity scandal: the story of deception in a physics lab”Submitted The Dutch Salten Age as a story · 3 points
HN discussionHow readily does reputation change with scandals ? Because we seem to be in the middle of a pretty big one, where the functioning of the whole system is in question. Starting with a milder example : https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-how-to-be-... Followed by a more... radioactive one : https://alexwasburne.substack.com/p/the-sausage-factory-of-p... BTW for this last one, HN seems to be outright block…
Comment linking /p/age-of-invention-how-to-be-a-public
on “Mass Retraction of unethical Chinese Forensic Genetics Papers”Submitted Age of Invention: Why Salt Matters as a story · 3 points
HN discussionYou need to be careful about what you mean by "steam engine time." The link you gave has different interpretations. Gibson said "there was nothing technically stopping the Romans from building big steam engines" while the commenter says "The Romans had the idea of steam engines, but not of strong iron to contain the pressure, nor valves to regulate it, nor the cheap fuel to power it." You apparently disagree with Gi…
Comment linking /p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-the-steam-76c
on “The origins of the steam engine”Submitted How the Steam Engine Was Invented as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAnton Howes, co-author of this piece, earlier wrote "Age of Invention: Why wasn't the Steam Engine Invented Earlier? Part I" at https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-... "Age of Invention: Why wasn't the Steam Engine Invented Earlier? Part II" at https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-... The latter has 304 HN comments from July 2022 at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=…
Comment linking /p/age-of-invention-why-wasnt-the-steam-cc8
on “The origins of the steam engine”Submitted Age of Invention: Just Kiln Time as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere is, sadly, a vast difference in accuracy between a "state-approved high school textbook" and a "peer-reviewed scholarly publication". A state-approved high-school textbook is subject to myriad business and political agendas that practically, by definition, compromise its truth and accuracy. A peer-reviewed scholarly publication is supposed to have a chain back to actual sources and facts that anchors it in spi…
Comment linking /p/age-of-invention-cort-case
on “Stories are bad for your intelligence: How Historians Make Themselves Stupid”Submitted Why Scotland Succeeded as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: Why Scotland Succeeded as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: All Fired Up as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Coal Really Won as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: The Second Soul, Part II as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: Unsung Materials as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Interactive History of the Steam Engine as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Cash Cows as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: How the Steam Engine Was Invented as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: Salt Syndicate, Part I as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: The Second Soul, Part I as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: Does History Have a Replication Crisis? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: Why Scotland Succeeded as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tudor Trade War as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Age of Invention: Tudor Trade War as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
