Civilization101Blueprint

Energy

Temperature caps what you can make. Wood fires top out around 600 °C in practice, which is not enough to smelt; charcoal with forced air reaches 1,200 °C and beyond; a cement kiln needs 1,400–1,450 °C. Mechanical power arrives with the waterwheel and the windmill, whose output rises with the cube of wind speed. Electricity is a way of carrying energy, not a source of it.
10 steps 13 field guides 4 builds 23 reference sheets 60 books and archives

Tracks

Each track is one line of development climbing the eight levels. A cell holds the step written at that level; cross-listed steps have their home in another sector and are shown here because this subject depends on them. Dashed cells are planned and not yet written; blank ones have nothing planned.

Fire and fuel

Fire, then charcoal, coal and coke, and oil: each fuel hotter, denser or easier to move than the last.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
t0-fire Fire, and keeping it Guide ×3Sheet ×16
Level 1: nothing planned
t2-charcoal Charcoal Guide ×5Build ×2Sheet ×16
Level 3: nothing planned
t4-coal Coal and coke Guide ×2Sheet ×16
t5-oil Petroleum and refining GuideSheet ×16
Level 6: nothing planned
Level 7: nothing planned
Open the track, level by level →

Mechanical power

Water, wind and steam turning a shaft: the first power that is not muscle.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
Level 0: nothing planned
Level 1: nothing planned
Level 2: nothing planned
t3-waterpower Water power Guide ×4BuildSheet ×21 t3-windpower Wind power Guide ×2BuildSheet ×23 2 options by what you have →
t4-steam The steam engine Guide ×3Sheet ×16
Level 5: nothing planned
Level 6: nothing planned
Level 7: nothing planned
Open the track, level by level →

Electricity

Stored, generated and grid electricity, and how to carry it without being killed by it.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
Level 0: nothing planned
Level 1: nothing planned
Level 2: nothing planned
t3-battery Batteries: from the voltaic pile to the lead-acid cell Guide
Level 4: nothing planned
t5-generator The generator Guide ×4Sheet ×21
Level 6: nothing planned
t7-energy Energy without the carbon bill Guide ×5Sheet ×21
Open the track, level by level →

Everything in Energy

Gathered from the steps above: the guides and builds that serve them, the reference sheets those carry, and every book the steps, guides and builds cite.

Field guides

Level 0
Fire

Making fire once is a trick. Never having to make it from nothing again is the skill, and the difference between them is tinder you collected yesterday.

 Level 2
Charcoal

Throw away two-thirds of the energy in a pile of wood and what is left is the only fuel that reaches the temperature of molten iron.

 Level 1
Poisons

The poisonings a rebuilding community is most likely to meet: where each comes from, how it shows, and the first thing to do.

 Level 7
Energy sources

Every source of energy in one place: what it gives, what it takes, and how it can hurt you. Key figures, a reference sheet for each, and where to read further.

 Level 1
Wood and the forest

The forest is the first material store, the first fuel supply and the first thing a group kills itself cutting down. Managed, it is also the only one of the three that grows back.

 Level 2
Minerals and ores

How to tell the ores that matter with nothing but a streak plate, a knife and your hand: colour lies, streak and weight do not.

 Level 3
Earth sciences

Water in and on the ground, the air and weather, rocks and time, earthquakes and tsunamis, and the climate: each result with what it lets you do and who first found it.

 Level 5
Electricity

Not a source of energy but a way of carrying it: make it, move it, store it — and know exactly how it kills.

 Level 3
Physics

Force, energy, heat, light, electricity, relativity and the atom: the laws every engine, wire and lens obeys, each with what it lets you do and who first found it.

 Level 3
Engineering

Turning the sciences into things that work: machines, structures, water in pipes and channels, heat through walls, and feedback control. Each result with what it lets you do and who first found it.

 Level 3
The sciences

Fourteen branches, each with the handful of results a civilization cannot rebuild without, and where to learn the rest.

 Level 3
Chemistry

What matter is made of and how it changes: amounts, gases, acids, the energy and speed of reactions, electrochemistry, and the reactions every industry on the ladder runs on.

 Level 3
Astronomy

The sky as calendar, clock and compass, then orbits, distances and the universe: each result with what it lets you do and who first found it.

Builds

An earthed charcoal clamp part-way through its burn.
Level 2
Earth charcoal clamp

Turn wood into the fuel that reaches smelting heat — no kiln, no metal, just a stack, a cover and a week of attention.
A clay bloomery shaft after a smelt, with the slag pit in front of the tap.
Level 2
Bloomery furnace

A clay shaft that turns rock into iron — the first machine that makes every other machine possible.
An overshot wheel at work, water entering over the top of the wheel rather than under it.
Level 3
Overshot water wheel

A few kilowatts, day and night, without eating — the first energy surplus large enough to support full-time specialists.
The buck of the post mill at Drinkstone, Suffolk, photographed without its sails. The whole body — frame, stones, gearing and miller — turns on the single oak post beneath it.
Level 3
Post mill

A whole building balanced on one oak post so it can be turned to face the wind — the first machine that let a settlement mill grain where there was no falling water.

Reference sheets

Drawn overview sheets, each with its corrections printed under it. They orient; they are never the thing you identify from.

Seven panels: the fire triangle and a wood fire, charcoal made in an earth clamp, a charcoal forge with bellows, how coal forms and how coke is made from it, crude oil and its fractions, the fuel pathway from biomass to petroleum, and a table comparing wood, charcoal, coal, coke and petroleum.
Energy: fire and fuel On: Charcoal · Coal and coke · Charcoal: What charcoal is for · Energy sources: Fire and fuel: wood, charcoal, coal, oil and gas
Eight panels: how coal, oil and gas formed, how each is mined or drilled, the chain from extraction to use, a coal-fired power station, refining crude oil, the uses of natural gas, advantages and limits, and a comparison of the three.
Fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas On: Coal and coke · Petroleum and refining · Energy sources: Coal, oil and natural gas
Fifteen panels, one picture each: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass, biogas, nuclear, coal, natural gas, oil, tidal, wave, hydrogen, energy storage, and other renewables such as concentrated solar and the waterwheel.
Energy types On: Energy sources: The sources at a glance
Six columns from left to right: primary energy, conversion, energy forms, storage, transmission and distribution, and useful work. Below them, a solar example from sunlight to homes, and the parts of a balanced system.
The energy system: from natural sources to useful work On: Energy sources: From source to useful work
Eleven panels: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass, each with a picture, its chain from source to grid and its key points, then tidal, wave, hydrogen, energy storage, the smart grid, and why renewables matter.
Renewable energy: clean power from nature On: Energy without the carbon bill · Energy sources: Renewable sources side by side
Six panels, one per source: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass, and tidal and wave. Each has a numbered picture of how it works and small pictures of its main kinds.
Renewable energy: how each source works On: Energy sources: Renewable sources side by side
Eight panels: the kinds of biomass, how it becomes heat, electricity and fuel, the main routes (burning, pellets, gasification, biogas and liquid biofuels), a biomass power plant, a biogas digester, transport biofuels, advantages and limits, and everyday uses.
Biomass and bioenergy On: Energy sources: Biomass and biogas
Eight panels: how falling water becomes electricity, a dam and powerhouse in section, storage, run-of-river and pumped-storage plants, the main components, the Pelton, Francis and Kaplan turbines, uses, advantages and limits, and the chain from river to consumer.
Hydro energy: from water to useful energy On: Energy without the carbon bill · Energy sources: Falling water
Nine panels: how wind turns a rotor, the parts of a turbine, onshore and offshore machines, the drive train inside the nacelle, a wind farm feeding the grid, windmills and wind pumps, what affects output, advantages and limits, and a table of output against wind speed.
Wind energy: from wind to useful energy On: Energy sources: Wind
Nine panels: sunlight, the photovoltaic chain from panel to load, solar water and space heating, the parts of a home system, a module and a thermal collector in section, what affects output, photovoltaic against solar thermal, and maintenance and safety.
Solar energy: from sunlight to useful energy On: Energy sources: Sunlight
Eight panels: where the Earth's heat comes from, hydrothermal, enhanced and shallow resources, a geothermal power plant, dry-steam, flash and binary plants, direct uses of the heat, ground-source heat pumps, advantages and limits, and the chain from reservoir to use.
Geothermal energy: heat from within the Earth On: Energy sources: Heat from the Earth
Two halves. Tides: how they drive turbines, a tidal barrage, tidal-stream turbines and a tidal lagoon, with advantages and challenges. Waves: point absorbers, attenuators, oscillating water columns and overtopping devices, with advantages and challenges.
Tidal and wave energy On: Energy sources: Tides and waves
Nine panels: fission of uranium-235, a pressurised water reactor plant in cutaway, the fuel cycle from mine to spent-fuel storage, common reactor types, how the heat becomes electricity, safety systems, advantages and limits, a comparison with other sources, and a named example plant.
Nuclear energy: power from atoms On: Energy sources: Nuclear fission
Eight panels: what hydrogen is, grey, blue, green and other hydrogen, steam methane reforming and electrolysis, storage and transport, its uses, how a fuel cell works, advantages and limits, and key facts.
Hydrogen energy: clean fuel for a low-carbon future On: Energy sources: Hydrogen
Six panels: green, blue and grey hydrogen, storage as compressed gas, as a liquid or in chemicals, transport by pipeline, tanker and ship, its uses, advantages, and challenges.
Hydrogen energy: production, storage, transport and use On: Energy sources: Hydrogen
Eleven panels: batteries, pumped hydro, heat storage, hydrogen, compressed air, flywheels, supercapacitors and chemical storage, each with its uses; a chart of how long each can store; benefits and challenges.
Energy storage On: Energy without the carbon bill · Electricity: Storing it: batteries and the alternatives · Energy sources: Storing energy
A tower mill in cutaway — sails, hub, shafts, gearing, brake and stones — with the drive from sail to sack, what the power is used for, the four common kinds of windmill, and the build sequence in outline.
Windmill: parts, working and uses On: Wind power
A multi-blade fan wheel on a timber tower: its parts, one blade cut from a board, the gear drive to the output shaft, the tower, the tail vane, and the machines it can drive.
Windmill for mechanical power On: Wind power
A water wheel, a windmill, pedals, wood-fired steam and a hand crank each turning a generator; a magnet-and-coil generator; and a 12 V battery running lights, a phone, a radio and a fan.
Generating electricity from local resources On: Energy without the carbon bill · Electricity: Where electricity comes from
Four ways to turn a generator, the stator and rotor inside it, how moving magnets drive current through the coils, and a complete small system — generator, charge controller, 12 V battery, DC loads, and an inverter for AC.
Generating electricity: the parts and a simple system On: The generator · Electricity: Generating it: how a generator works, and small-scale power · Electricity: A small off-grid system, from load list to fuse
Materials, a six-step build, the finished machine in cutaway, how a moving magnet induces a voltage, and what the output can run.
A simple generator from a magnet and a coil On: The generator · Electricity: Generating it: how a generator works, and small-scale power
The alternator inside a small turbine — where it sits, the parts, the magnet rotor and coil stator built step by step, the winding, the magnet gap, and the output to a battery through a rectifier.
Wind turbine generator: the permanent-magnet alternator On: The generator · Energy without the carbon bill · Electricity: Generating it: how a generator works, and small-scale power
A 3 m, six-blade turbine on a 6 m timber tower: the parts list, cutting a blade, hub and generator layout, the foundations, and the wiring to a 12 V battery.
Small wind turbine for electricity On: Energy without the carbon bill · Electricity: Generating it: how a generator works, and small-scale power

Books and archives

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