> If the Irish had wire technology they would have been supplying English > textile industry, but Elisabethan customs authorities had massive > problems > with Continental wire contraband, so obviously there was no wire in > Ireland. > I'm getting a little confused, Roman. First you say the 14th century isn't really early, then you bring Elizabethan England into it. Why? And not only that, but at that time there was a constant state of animosity, resentment and fear between England and Ireland, which you don't take into account, and there is still the question of the willingness to share what could be considered reserved techniques and technologies, not just in terms of those within a tradition and those outside, but between enemies. You know how and why history is written - how research is done, and the motivations and objectives behind gathering information (including what constitutes a valid source and even where to look), interpreting it, drawing conclusions from it and then publishing and distributing it. In an earlier post you mentioned a web article concerning the history of drawn wire and later quoted "From an encyclopedia" - are these the same source? Maybe I missed your post concerning the name of the encyclopedia, and please excuse me if I have, but can I ask which encyclopedia, who is the author of the article you quote from, and what are the sources drawn upon? I've got a friend at the Journal of the History of Technology, who also, as it happens, is a blacksmith - I'll drop him a note to ask if he could point us to any other useful information.
Didn't Stephen Barber take Francis Bacon at his word and string up an instrument with silver strings? I seem to remember something about this, and about quite favorable results. Doc To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
