Laptops of the Ancient World

[@Kinzokan]

I wish our modern tablets had that kind of battery life...

[@JustinTopp]

Kinzokan 3000 year battery life

[@jek__]

Battery life here being a metaphor for screen retention, we do; e-paper can hold its screen for longer than wax can without electricity. There just aren't many companies pairing a full fledged mobile operating system with an e-paper screen, because the refresh rate is still pretty slow for that. Faster than a wax tablet though lol, and probably uses less total calories

[@sneeuwwolf1176]

Look up Alphasmart Neo 2 that thing has battery life for a year.

[@James-en1ob]

_yes._

[@dorkmax7073]

"Have you seen the stylus for my tablet?" Is a phrase that went thousands of years without being uttered before exploding once more

[@paulaccuardi9071]

“I need it to help with rubbing out”

[@genericpersonx333]

Oddly, this inability to easily rub out wax when it is cold would probably explain why Romans seem to have often written with ink on thin wood planks in the northern climes.

[@whiskeyvictor5703]

Like the Vindolanda tablets?

[@jameshead5047]

could they have warmed the stilus over a candle or lamp flame to soften the wax ?

[@johnfraser4591]

Rodrigo Galvão not for writing, for erasing.

[@tasha8591]

That's not a bad idea, actually. I'll have to test that.

[@pomponi0]

@@tasha8591 If you've got a tablet, could you try holding it with one hand and rubbing on the surface with the other hand so that the friction creates a bit of heat?

[@tasha8591]

@@pomponi0 hmmm I think that wouldn't be ideal. Depending on the oil used and how much it won't be enough to soften it. And if it were then you'd get some of it on your hands. Might could use a hot water bottle or a warm trivet though; place it on top and let the heat slowly warm it up. Actually sticking it in the oven for a few minutes on a very low temp might do it. Not very cost effective on the electric bill though.

[@AvrahamYairStern]

No, it doesn't work. I built my own Tabula Cera and spent a long time trying to work out how to erase lettering; heating up the stylus doesn't get it hot enough and will only melt wax for about a second before cooling down, and conduction of heat makes the stylus too hot to hold!

[@ducomaritiem7160]

Before pouring your wax into the crevice of your wooden tablet, mix some lineseed oil into the molten wax. This will make the wax softer. I've used (and made if course) tablet & stylus to write down orders and stuff working as Roman blacksmith in the Archeon Theme park in the Netherlands. It worked really Fine for me, except for the coaldust and cinder from my forge dropping in to it. I used it for 2 years, without replacing the wax.

[@a.d.9415]

Should this be raw linseed oil or the typical boiled stuff found in hardware stores today? And roughly how much linseed oil to wax might I need?

[@ducomaritiem7160]

+Alexander Martin not that much, about 5-10 %.

[@ducomaritiem7160]

+Duco Maritiem And yes, Raw. see also making waxcloth for mixture tips, else on the internet.

[@PaulMurrayCanberra]

+Duco Maritiem If you're content with being less historically accurate, Jojoba oil has the interesting property that it is not an oil at all, but a wax. It doesn't go rancid, and it mixes well with other waxes. Jojoba oil and beeswax is a nice leather treatment.

[@AvrahamYairStern]

I built my own Tabula Cera about a year ago and melted 6 large red candles (it was a large Tabula) and writing works well, however the erasing is difficult; the best technique if the weather is not hot is to actually use an hairdryer to heat up and slightly melt the wax, although it can blow away fragments of wax if you are not careful.

[@lindybeige]

The cursive version of the letter come from Latin letters, which were all capitals, so it is a version of H not h.

[@sarowie]

"Wax" is a pretty undefined class material. Oil, fat, soft wax, wax, hard wax are all kind of in the same continuum of materials. By mixing different wax (or even oil and fat) from different sources you can easily modify the properties. "Accident originals" will be harder now then back then - the softer wax is more likely to evaporate, what remains is the "hard wax" part of the mixture.

[@erikmmccray]

I love how your getting into the more common stuff in day to day life of anchent times. Everyone and their uncle bob covers warfair and royalty.

[@lindybeige]

Also, there was no K in Latin, so no risk of confusing it for that.

if you believe that there was no difference between "V" and "U" in latin, how would they pronounce the word "Vult"? I'm convinced that "c" always went [k], but i doubt they didn't distinguish between [v] and [u/oo]

[@RichWoods23]

Latin does have the letter K, though it was rarely used. C was always pronounced hard and was often used where a modern transliteration might use G (hence the common confusion between Caius and Gaius). V as a consonant was usually pronounced as a W and as a vowel U. G, J, U and W were added in later centuries. The Romans knew to pronounce the word 'VVLT' as 'wult' in the same way that we know how to pronounce the English words 'sceptics', 'ceases' and 'coalesces'. Anyone who can get to grips with the multitudinous anomalies that run amok throughout English orthography and pronunciation will have no trouble getting to grips with Latin.

[@Mephistel]

it's like an ancient episode of Blue's Clues.

[@abk4202020]

Or he got it wrong and it's the how the ancients dabbed

[@AvrahamYairStern]

I built my own Tabula Cera and I spent about an hour trying out very different techniques for erasing the writing, I concluded that the warm Italian summer must be the best time for erasing the script, however I found a hairdryer works stupendously well for melting the wax just enough to erase the lettering.

[@maxradke2189]

I bet it only uses waxtos 98... 1198 that is.

[@alfatazer_8991]

1198 B.C!

[@blairkilszombies]

+max radke Waxtos 98AD

[@self-transforming_machine-elf]

BCEdition

[@bonusduckmann9997]

max radke thats not ancient

[@sparetime2475]

Waxple is better

[@roussos87]

maybe they put the eraser on the top of a candle flame to make it hot and then used it?

[@Milamberinx]

maybe they just scooped some wax from the candle and filled the gouged marks

[@lisakado]

Thanks for this! It'll encourage me to start work on the tablets for the Roman re-enactment group I'm helping out with this summer. (We have one 3-tablet book already, but I'm thinking that it would be good to have some spares where visitors could practice writing.) Earlier commenters noted that other substances could be added to the wax ... I've heard that the surface colour could be changed for more contrast too, with carbon black or mineral pigments. Something to experiment with.

[@TheKyshu]

That's pretty cool. You could even use things that you can form but that don't melt to create copies of this! Pour the "cement" or whatever you would use in there, wait for it to harden, take a new tablet, pour wax into it, and insert the "cement" piece into it, waiting for it to harden. Optionally, heat the "cement" piece, and burn it into a flat piece of wood to make it more permanent. Worlds first photo-copier!

[@walterlyzohub8112]

I hope someone tried it by now. If archeologists found what you described this would be a good way to accurately spread information then, even pictures. Certainly easier than making engraved stamps.

[@SadeGames]

That's more like an ancient notepad

[@DigGil3]

In my country, elder people say that their ancestors would use black Schist and chalk. This makes sense to me because Portugal is abundant in that material. Do you have to points on that?

[@ColasTeam]

The more I learn about the ancient world the more I realize that it was a lot more similar to ours than I originally tough...While simultaneously being a lot more different in areas that I never expected.

[@Slarti]

That's a relief - I thought you were going to wax off live there for a moment...

[@joecool385]

It certainly made an impression on me.

[@akagruntkiller]

No he just rubbed it out.

[@lindybeige]

Well, they had wax tablets. For similar reasons, we have sofas, so frabajuns haven't yet occurred to us.

[@nervozaur]

Your channel is so great i subscribed from the 2nd video. Awesome collection to explore within the next days.

[@xandervampire195]

The etch-a-sketch is one of those rare examples where the cheap "knock-offs" were better than the expensive, name brand item. By "knock-offs", I mean those drawing toys which consisted of a slab of cardboard or plastic and a thin, plastic "screen". The toy was filled with tiny, magnetic particles and you would use a small, magnetic pen or stamp to draw on it which would pull the particles up and make them stick to the screen, creating a picture, message or whatever you felt like drawing. To erase the image, there would be a thin bar of plastic or cardboard inside the toy which stretched from end to end and had a little tab sticking out for you to hold. You would take ahold of the tab and run the bar across the inside of the screen, sweeping away all the magnetic material and allowing you to start again with a blank screen. I can't remember if there was a proper name for those toys but they were really popular when I was a young child in the '90s (although, I think they're a lot older than that). They were so much cheaper than the etch-a-sketch, especially as they could be made of cardboard and were just superior in every way because you could actually draw on them with the pen like you would on a piece of paper instead of trying to do it with two crappy knobs.

[@carlosgonzalez2706]

"I suggested-For Authentility (Authenticity?) and an arusing (arousing?) challenge-mapping a dungeon adventure using my tablet-But the challenge was declined." Awesome video.

[@EZCarnivore]

Authenticity is correct, and the second word is Amusing. Good job getting everything else though, I was having some difficulty with it XD

[@J_Squatch]

The message is transcribe a couple seconds after that was up. Although "A" for effort

[@kayj312]

Authenticity and Amusing - remember how he wrote the M with l’l’ and the C without the top curve

[@tomewyrmdraconus837]

Not bad, I had the most trouble with mapping and "but the".

[@RobertWF42]

Now I'm curious why the Romans didn't use slate tablets? Writing with chalk on slate and erasing with a handy cloth rag would seem far more convenient than wax.

[@oz_jones]

I know that this is a two year old commen, but: slate is less portable and chalk will eventually run out. Wax tablets are more sustainable. You'd also need to write with bigger symbols with chalk.

[@aussiebloke609]

Probably also too easy to smudge into illegibility. Wax would be more long-lived, I would imagine.

[@格温德琳野兔]

@@oz_jones I know that this is a two year old comment, but: I would also like to add, that one of the benefit of slates, also works against them for some purposes. That is how easily things are erased and blurried. Tablets, are closed and aren't as easily earasable. Which makes them way more suitable to take notes on the go, that you want to keep till you get home.

[@MyBoomStick1]

I absolutely love lindys opinions! I want to hear them all!!

[@Managarmr420]

I suggested - For autkentility and an arrvsing challenge- mapping advngeon adventure using my tabbluet battke challenge was declixed. Misreading cursive is an opportunity to create new interesting sounding words. Declixed, I like it.

[@Stefescope]

This was made by the main character of the light novel, “Ascendance of a Bookworm” and I wondered how it really worked. It was really hard for me to imagine the wax could just be smoothed out and rubbed back into the tablet like that after reading about it. Very nice video! 👍

[@slowpokebr549]

I'm forever mixing different consistencies of wax for use in black powder shooting. Beeswax is gummy, parafin wax is very hard and brittle. Beef tallow will make either of them softer and lower the melting point. The consistency I'm going for depends on whether I'm using it for patches or sealing cylinder mouths on a revolver. Olive oil also makes a nice softener. I've even put rose oil into the mix in a pinch. It worked well and smelled nice.

[@MickeyCuervo36]

I know from woodworking that if you add a bit of oil to melted beeswax and stir it up good, when it cools, it's the consistency of chap stick or a glue stick (or yogurt, if you add enough oil), and pretty good for buffing wood to a nice finish. I'm not really sure what kind of wax you were using. I wouldn't think Paraffin (it cracks badly) or pure beeswax (it can get kind of gummy). A nice mix of the two would be ideal. Maybe a different mix on either side of the tablet. One for hotter weather, the other for colder?

[@deektedrgg]

What ingenuity! It's almost like people back in those days were as smart and inventive as us today.

[@coverchrg]

I'd like to see more of that alphabet.

[@DanielA-yg3un]

Very cool, I watched this years ago, robably just after upload. I've only just recently found Lindey Beige's channel, it's like we're connected through time. ; )

[@DasIllu]

That erasing end of you stylus, would it be usful to warm it up on a candle or oil lamp? I mean not like glowing red, just enough so you can make a smooth wax surface with ease. I am just wondering if people did that, when they had to use this all day long. You know people tend to get lazy and dislike repetitive tasks, so thy try to make them easier. That is the origin of technological progress i think.

[@lindybeige]

Yes, I may sharpen it bit for smaller writing.

Mind blown, lots of stuff just clicked into place. Thanks.

[@Fluffmcfluffy]

dont forget about cave paintings and the like! they stayed when you were done, and you could even rub in some dye to make it easier to read/watch. I see no problem in using stones and tools as writing equipment.

[@McFlingleson]

I always hated Etch-A-Sketch too.

[@helios5868]

I loved how easy it was to read the tablet alphabet when you showed it at the end.

[@tehartificer]

Oils or fat could be mixed with the wax while it was molten to make the end result softer. On the other end of the spectrum, resin from plants could be added to make the mixture harder.

[@liamtaylor-warren8656]

I watched this video again after the discovery of the tablets in London today. I glanced over to BBC news and low and behold there was a man demonstrating this exact same technique on a wax tablet!

[@Sneblot]

You reference to Etcher Sketch reminds me of a house party I was at where the host had spent about 3 years drawing out on an Etcher sketch, M.C. Escher's self drawing hands. Only for one drunken guest to shake the Etcher Sketch and erase all of their hard work. Ouch.

[@lisakado]

Also if people happened to have an lamp or a candle next to them, they could hold the tablet near the flame for a few seconds. Period oil lamps (the little pottery kind) have such small flames that there wouldn't be much risk of setting fire to the whole tablet. Like you point out, it doesn't take a lot of heat to soften wax.

[@lisakado]

Not exactly birch bark, but wide thin wood shavings have been dug up at a Roman site in the UK that had inked writing on them. Kind of like the post-it notes of that era. One good thing about the wax tablets is that if you have a 2-leaf book you can fold it up and the writing is protected inside (won't rub off due to friction, as charcoal tends to do even rolled up in a scroll).

[@TemeriaForever]

Fascinating. I've never seen one of these "in person" before.

[@capnclawhammer3024]

I wonder if anybody ever did an abacus and a wax tablet in one unit? (I'm a suan-pan/soroban freak, hobbyist, and collector).

[@PaulMurrayCanberra]

Cold stylus - anywhere you would use one of those things, at least indoors, will have a flame nearby: a fire, a lamp. Perhaps they were wrapped with something to protect your fingers from the heat. The one in the video is so thin, it would be much easer to handle with a wrapping. There's even beading on the ends of the shaft which would make much more sense if there was a twine wrap. I wonder if butter or tallow would work well in a cold climate?

[@swedneck]

Tallow maybe, butter no. You don't want your tablet rotting as soon as spring comes.

[@johnsmith-kj8jd]

warm your writting impliment with a candle to make it easier.

[@jamesking3654]

I just found a metal medieval scribe metal detecting. it has an interesting pattern on it like a corkscrew.

[@jasonscottjenkins]

I noticed Octavian using one while re-watching "Rome" recently. I can't think of any other time seeing it shown like that.

[@warriorcraft4191]

Bee's wax and lamb's tallow makes for a softer wax and is used for lube in muzzle loading firearms.

[@MrMonkeybat]

As fireplaces where a rather common feature of ancient dwellings essential for cooking, I expect that warming up your wax tablet was not much of a problem. Holding it over a lamp or candle flame could be a quick way to warm it up also.

[@lisakado]

I was able to erase shallow scratches on my wax tablet by rubbing them with the back of a heated spoon. It saved me having to melt off the wax and then re-coat the tablet surface. (If people had a lamp or candle on the table beside them, your idea of heating the stylus tip -- or the flattened eraser end -- would be quite feasible.)

[@lisakado]

I haven't experimented with this much, but a diptych tablet like the one you're showing could be folded and stored away -- perhaps secured by tying it with cord and sealing it. Protected from extreme heat and friction, the writing could last for awhile. Long enough for some types of legal documents anyway. It's been argued that this was mainly symbolic (like using sealing wax today), but some examples have been found, like P. Vergilius Ampliatus's from the mid 1st C.

[@CountArtha]

Think of all the meetings that we don't have the minutes of - the Council of Clermont, the Assize of Clarendon, the trial of Peter Abelard . . . .

[@wu1ming9shi]

+CountArtha ...one moment please. I made an error...i'm almost done...one more minute...1 second...hgnnn...hah, finally that's flat again. Ok where were we?That's how i imagine it must have been when you made an error XD

[@christopherellis2663]

wu1ming9shi cross out and carry on

[@gordonlawrence3537]

I could be wrong but in Greece I believe they used olive oil for softening bees wax and soot for hardening it.

[@ncktbs]

um heat the flat bit up over a candle like a soldering iron because candles for indoor lighting and a grip of wood to keep you hand cool

[@Player_Review]

The abacus was the first coprocessor.

[@Szederp]

Apparently laptops were garbage back then as well.

[@krisssoldo1472]

+Alonso de Hojeda Waximus Decimus Laptopus was entertained by it

[@ertstuff]

Try heating the stylus when you write (if its made of metal which it seemed to be) perhaps with a candle nearby, wouldn't have to make it very hot at all and you wouldn't need to use quite as much pressure on the wax, this in turn would make writing a lot faster. Keep up the great work I really enjoy watching your content, even if you're just rambling about something, very entertaining :)

[@S1nwar]

life used to be so hard back then... always frustrating to hear that these basic ressources like paper and salt which are basically worthless today were completely unachievable back then

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Getting salt in the mediteranean is pretty easy. Take a bucket, go to the shore, put the water into a flat pot, wait a few days for the water to evaporate.

[@classifiedad1]

But farther inland without access to large bodies of salt water... Now we're mining.

[@Khoditsky]

That thing is actually amazing.

[@theMedievalBadass]

I have read that the norse have written in Runes quite well on wax tablets.

[@generalerica4123]

Nice Tabula and Stylus there Lloyd.

[@swordwindification]

The found a really cool medieval tablet in York that was complete in it's leather case and had notes and a poem still visible in the wax.

[@zeddtheguru2882]

I felt the same way you did about etch-a-sketch. I never owned one as a kid.

[@Danbotology]

I had Magna-doodle as a kid, the evolution of the Etch-a-Sketch.

[@lisakado]

In her Roman novels, Lindsey Davis shows people melting the wax off tablets over a lamp flame. I'd imagine that you could reuse the wax if you caught the drips in a metal pan. Would be faster today to put it in a baking tray in a warm oven. I'll have to do this with my tablet ... a friend got so excited to try it out that he forgot that it'll have to be resurfaced. Earlier I was able to smooth out the scratches with the back of a heated spoon, but this time the surface is just too roughed up.

[@goneutt]

I still can't believe they didn't have some form of printing. This could be used to make a plaster impression that could be used to print dozens of copies from before the plaster crumbled.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Not that great for quick handwritten notes. Ever made prints with potatoes? Thats basically how printing worked in those days. Just with wood instead of potatoes.

[@theonesaracen6289]

I guess printing is done on paper, which wasn't really available?

[@murrayelliot]

Some light wax was also covered in black soot, to make the writing easier and more legible

[@PatGilliland]

Beeswax is used to thicken oils to make ointments so I suspect a small amount of oil would soften the beeswax.

[@Rundra]

what operating system did these bad boys run

[@edwardburroughs1489]

+Lanthirrhos Nice.

[@atsernov]

+Rundra Linwax. ;)

[@OtakuNoShitpost]

+Rundra FreeBSWX

[@Feiora]

Hold the erasing end near a heat source for a short period of time, then quickly apply to the scripture to erase, repeat as much as many times is required. Alternatively, pour fresh wax in to cover and refresh the tablet.

[@firefox5926]

add oil and turpentine will make its softer but I've never managed to do it right i always end up with something akin to tallow not sure how you would make it harder tho

[@magellanicraincloud]

On a really hot day you'd use a 2H wax. In colder climes you'd pull out the 2B. HB for general use.

[@lukasmakarios4998]

What kind of wax are you using? Modern petroleum wax is definitely not optimized for that purpose. But a mix of beeswax and tallow might do pretty well. Mostly beeswax, probably, and it would have to be thoroughly mixed, of course. Hmmm, linseed oil would also be a good idea, and readily available.

[@Knoloaify]

4:00 And that's why the new Wpad comes with a heatable stylet for more convenient writing, wherever you are. Think different.

[@mrpoisoness5098]

The ancients were more clued up than we give them credit for.

[@MushVPeets]

That's... in theory, better than a notepad. With some refinement. Just need to resolve the difficulty in neatly making lines... But I see potential in the basic idea.

[@swedneck]

The thing is a digital version of this would be superior in almost every way, only disadvantage would be the power requirement, since you can waterproof it and such.

[@zurviver_3747]

I am thinking of using clay that wont dry out

[@illuminarty9145]

I can't believe they released another iSlate so soon after the last one! I hadn't even written on all of the last one!

[@lisakado]

p.s. re: cheap writing materials (parchment and papyrus were so expensive, and wood pulp paper wasn't available yet). The Vindolanda dig yielded large flat wood shavings that had messages inked on them ... and there are examples of broken pottery sherds used for jotting things down. We've gotten so used to having cheap writing paper that it seems odd to do this, except in emergencies. (I once dated an astrophysicist who would write formulae on walls, then come back later to copy them down.)

[@therealquade]

I kinda like to imagine they use bits of string or wire to cut clay to make a small model floorplan, and then later they could just cook the clay and use it like a press. dwarves are quite industrious so it would kind of make sense.

[@Melthornal]

Little known fact, Dwarves love Pyrite. Not only is it correctly shaped by its very nature, but it also makes sparks. Sparks are useful. Dwarves love things that are both beautiful and useful.

[@teatowel11]

You can mix bees wax with oil to make it softer. I use coconut oil but I'm sure olive oil would work just as well

[@lukemcinerny8220]

This makes me think of Cicero's slave (assistant )Tiro who created his own shorthand well apparently but he may of used a system in use prior to him.

[@themomaw]

I would try mixing bee's wax, some appropriate oil and powdered chalk to make it into a kind of gray paste. Then use only a very very thin layer of wax on top of a blackened (scorched?) background. Would give you higher contrast marks, and would erase easier.

[@Myzelfa]

I think it's more like a PDA than a computer.

[@mequedo]

The cool thing about this Is that if you wanted to store or replicate something writen on the tablet and had paper, you could transfer it with a litle of charcoal, making a negative

[@spamletspamley672]

etch a sketch works better than a tablet. You just have to take the waxed board out of the box and use a stylus instead of the knobs. They used to sell the boards like that for kitchen reminder boards. Much less messy than whiteboards and felt pen. Why didn't the Romans use graphite on slate. Or use clay instead of wax for that matter? I'd guess bees wax was better than parafin though.

[@lindybeige]

No, it's rubbish for anything large that you have to keep for ages, but you could write each part of your book, making alterations and the like, then get your scribe to make a permanent ink copy of each section.

[@Orionzeus05]

If the writing utensil were made of metal then you could hold the writing or erasing end over a candle so as to make writing/erasing easier due to the wax being heated as you write/erase.

[@Torome86]

As I was watching this I couldn't help being reminded of how when the ice cream is really hard I would heat the scoop by running it under warm water. Perhaps they would have a small heat source to warm the stylus to make it move the wax with greater ease.

[@RagbagMcShag]

What would happen if they used the broad end to sort of press in the digits? could that work?

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Thats basically how cuneiform script was done. Used by the sumerians and other people in the mesopotamian region to write into clay.

[@neilkhopkar3558]

i,once while trying to make small festival candles was told by my aunt that adding oil in gooey wax keeps it gooey, and it did!

[@lindybeige]

Difficult to keep your hands clean, and one-use only.

[@Pipedog42]

I bet some warm water in a bowl, could work to soften the wax. Either by dipping the stylus in, or setting the tablet on as a sorta cover.

[@Roset03]

If I were using one of those and I needed to clear the tablet, I would either warm up the tablet by the fire place, so as to soften the wax, or warm up the stylus by the fire or by placing it over a flame. That would probably be effective. Worst case scenario, I would warm both up by sitting on it for a while. I do that sometimes when working with cold clay because it is a pain to knead when it's cold.

[@sebwiers1]

They "may" have had things to put in the wax to make it harder or softer at different temperatures? Its certain they did, and could not even really be avoided. Ask anybody who does sculpture (specifically wax for casting in metal) - they have enough strange wax recipes to give you anything you want, and even just straight bee's wax varies a fair bit, so needs to be "tweaked". Bee's wax plus oil (olive, mineral, seed, whatever) is much softer than bee's wax alone, and at lower temperatures. Modern petroleum waxes (alone or mixed with bee's wax) are harder and stay so at higher temps, and various pitches and tars work the same way.

[@SusCalvin]

For added writing fun, try to mess with coinage and math. The dwarf cultures of swedish RPG Eon use an octal (8-base) math system. From what I've learned, you use a mix of soft wax and oil. The ratio could determin how malleable the writing surface is.

[@nadenitza]

Imagine writing notes on that thing nowadays, you will be a total boss

[@ZGryphon]

It took me a few minutes to remember what that special alphabet reminded me of. Remember Palm Pilots? They had their own special alphabet to make handwriting recognition easier for the primitive software of the time. I could probably still write in it if I had to...