Civilization101Blueprint

Materials & Chemistry

What you can make is capped by the hottest fire you can sustain and contain. Cord and containers come first, pottery and the kiln next, then brick, lime, metal and glass. Pure iron melts at 1,538 °C, which no bloomery reaches, so early iron is worked solid rather than cast. Salt, alcohol, acids and alkalis are the chemical prerequisites for soap, glass, batteries and medicine.
19 steps 20 field guides 12 builds 24 reference sheets 90 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.

Fibres, textiles and leather

Cord, thread, cloth and leather.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
t0-cord Cordage Guide ×4Build ×2Sheet ×7
t1-textiles Fibre, thread and cloth Guide ×2BuildSheet ×2 t1-tanning Tanning and leather Guide ×2BuildSheet
Level 2: nothing planned
Level 3: nothing planned
Level 4: nothing planned
Level 5: nothing planned
Level 6: nothing planned
Level 7: nothing planned
Open the track, level by level →

Ceramics and glass

Containers, fired pottery and the kiln, brick and tile, then glass.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
t0-containers Containers Build
t1-pottery Pottery and the first kiln GuideBuild
t2-brick Brick and tile Guide ×3Build ×3Sheet ×10
t3-glass Glass Guide ×2Build ×2
Level 4: nothing planned
Level 5: nothing planned
Level 6: nothing planned
Level 7: nothing planned
Open the track, level by level →

Metals

Smelting, steel and heat treatment, the blast furnace, and electrolytic light metals.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
Level 0: nothing planned
Level 1: nothing planned
t2-smelt Smelting: first metal Guide ×6Build ×4Sheet
t3-steel Steel and heat treatment Guide ×2Build
t4-blast Blast furnace and cheap iron Guide
t5-electrochem Electrochemistry and light metals Guide ×2Sheet ×6
Level 6: nothing planned
Level 7: nothing planned
Open the track, level by level →

Binders

Lime for mortar, plaster and whitewash, then hydraulic lime, pozzolana and cement.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
Level 0: nothing planned
Level 1: nothing planned
t2-lime Lime Guide ×6Build ×2Sheet ×10
t3-cement Cement and concrete Guide ×4BuildSheet ×10
Level 4: nothing planned
Level 5: nothing planned
Level 6: nothing planned
Level 7: nothing planned
Open the track, level by level →

Chemicals

Salt and fermentation, acids and alkalis, then synthetic nitrogen and polymers.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
Level 0: nothing planned
Level 1: nothing planned
t2-salt Salt Guide t2-brew Fermentation and distilling Guide ×4Build
t3-acid Acids Guide ×3 t3-alkali Alkalis Guide ×2
Level 4: nothing planned
t5-haber Synthetic nitrogen Guide t5-polymers Polymers
Level 6: nothing planned
Level 7: nothing planned
Open the track, level by level →

Everything in Materials & Chemistry

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
Rope, knots and lashings

A dozen knots cover almost everything. Two of the most familiar ones — the reef knot and the granny — have killed people who used them for the one job they cannot do.

 Level 1
Fibre to cloth

Cloth is a chain of slow jobs — growing, retting, spinning, weaving, finishing — and for all of history the slowest link was spinning. A weaver needed several spinners working full time to keep one loom supplied.

 Level 0
Fish and water foods

The highest calorie-return food source available to a group with nothing — and the one most often worked in the least productive way.

 Level 0
Hunting and trapping

A trapline works all night while you sleep. A hunt works only while you are awake, usually returns nothing, and burns the calories it was supposed to find.

 Level 1
Livestock husbandry

Animals turn grass nobody can eat into milk, meat, wool, leather, manure and traction. They also turn raw milk, a birthing ewe and a dog fed on offal into diseases that kill people.

 Level 1
Clay and firing

Fired clay is the first material a group makes that does not exist in nature: a rock with a shape you chose. Getting there is mostly patience — in the drying, and in the heating.

 Level 3
Properties of materials

Density, stiffness, expansion and melting point for the materials the ladder makes, and what each number decides.

 Level 1
Stone and earth building

How to build a dwelling that stays dry and standing for thirty years from subsoil, stone and timber: choosing the method, setting out, foundations, walls, roof, drainage, and how to inspect, repair and maintain it.

 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 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 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 2
Smithing

Iron is shaped by colour. Read the heat right and a bar of scrap becomes a chisel that holds an edge; read it wrong and it cracks, burns, or stays as soft as a nail.

 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 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 2
Lime

Burn a rock, add water, and it turns back into rock in the shape you gave it. Mortar, plaster, whitewash, soap and tanning all start there — and so does an alkali burn that can blind in seconds.

 Level 1
Soils and plant nutrition

What a soil is made of, why its acidity matters, and how to read a nutrient shortage in the leaves before it costs a harvest.

 Level 1
Food preservation

A glut eaten in the week it arrives is a feast. The same glut dried, salted, fermented or cellared is the difference between March and a famine.

 Level 3
Micro-organisms

The two dozen that decide who lives where there is no doctor: what each does, how it spreads, what kills it and which step stops it.

 Level 3
Essential medicines

The basic set from the WHO list: what each treats, what it is made from, and the earliest tier that can make it. No doses, on purpose.

 Level 3
The sciences

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

Builds

A woven funnel trap — passive gear that works while you sleep.
Level 0
Funnel basket fish trap

A woven basket that fishes all night while you sleep — the highest return-per-hour food gear in tier 0.
Fish held by the gills in the mesh — the whole principle of the net, and why mesh size selects the catch.
Level 1
Gill net

A wall of near-invisible mesh that fishes a whole channel while you do something else.
Twin bag bellows worked alternately into a hearth — the two-chamber arrangement this build describes.
Level 2
Double-chamber bellows

Continuous forced air — the component that decides whether you get metal or roasted rock.
An updraught kiln at full firing. Pottery is the first step that needs real temperature control.
Level 1
Updraught kiln

The first machine that holds a temperature — pottery, brick and tile, and the training ground for every furnace above it.
A Rumford fireplace: tall, shallow firebox with sides splayed outward, which throws radiant heat into the room and leads the smoke smoothly into a narrow throat.
Level 2
Fireplace and chimney

A fireplace that throws its heat into the room and a lined flue that takes every trace of smoke out of the house: the part of a house most likely to burn it down or poison the people in it.
A stone draw kiln cut into a bank — mortar, plaster and clean water all start here.
Level 2
Continuous draw lime kiln

Burn limestone into quicklime — mortar, plaster, whitewash, flux, tannery liquor and soil correction, from one shaft.
A replica of a Leeuwenhoek microscope, about 5 cm tall: the tiny glass lens sits in the hole at the top of the brass plate, the specimen goes on the point just behind it, and the screws move the point to focus. The eye goes right up against the plate.
Level 3
Bead microscope

A glass bead the size of a pinhead magnifies 150–350 times: enough to see yeast, blood cells and the larger bacteria that cause disease.
Galileo's two surviving telescopes, 1609–10, Museo Galileo, Florence: long thin tubes, because a single-lens objective only gives a sharp image at a long focal length and a small aperture.
Level 3
Refracting telescope

Two lenses in a tube: a 1-metre objective and a 25 mm eyepiece give 40×, enough to see Jupiter's moons and the phases of Venus.
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 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 forge fire in use: a small, deep heart of burning fuel, not a spread bed.
Level 2
Blacksmith's forge

A controlled hot spot you can hold a bar in — the hearth every other trade's tools come out of.
A column showing the media profile — fine sand on top, graded gravel supporting it below.
Level 1
Slow sand filter

Clean drinking water with no chemicals, no power and no moving parts — the highest lives-saved-per-effort structure on this site.

Reference sheets

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

Where cordage fibre comes from — tree bast, plant stalks and leaves, roots and vines, and animal sinew, hair and rawhide — with the cord each yields and the raw → fibre → cord sequence at the foot.
Natural materials for cordage On: Cordage · Rope, knots and lashings: Splicing: the strongest way to make a loop or a join · Fibre to cloth: The fibres, and what each is for
Harvesting fibre from bark, bast, grasses, vines and leaves; preparing it; a six-step twisting and plying sequence; the variations; finished cords and their uses; tips and common mistakes.
Cordage making: from plants to rope On: Cordage · Fibre to cloth: The fibres, and what each is for
Common freshwater and coastal fish, the water each holds in, the methods and baits that take them, and the handful that are toxic or regulated.
Fish: species, habitats and fishing methods On: Fish and water foods: Read the water first
Ten passive water traps — basket, funnel, weir, V-weir, box, basket weir, lift net, baited cage, stone-and-log, and dammed pool — each with side and top view, bait, and the mechanism that stops an animal leaving.
Trapping: passive capture methods in water On: Fish and water foods: Methods, ranked by return per hour
What a shoreline yields — bivalves, gastropods, crustaceans, echinoderms, seaweeds, intertidal animals and eggs — and where on the shore each of them is found.
Animal and shore foraging On: Forage, trap, fish · Fish and water foods: What is safe to eat — and what will kill you
Shore species to leave alone: toxic shellfish, venomous snails and fish, stinging and spined animals, protected species, and the contamination that makes an otherwise safe species unsafe.
Animal and shore foraging — what to avoid On: Fish and water foods: What is safe to eat — and what will kill you
Snares, deadfalls, cage and live traps alongside the fish traps, each shown in three build stages with its materials, its best quarry and where to set it.
Trapping: passive capture on land and in water On: Forage, trap, fish · Hunting and trapping: Snares
Twelve panels in order: site, ground preparation, foundation, floor, walls, doors and windows, roof frame, roof covering, eaves and drainage, plaster, a cutaway of the finished house, and a final checklist with ongoing maintenance.
Permanent shelter: the complete construction sequence On: Stone and earth building: The order of work
Ten panels: a safe location, areas to avoid, sun, wind, shade and materials, soil types, slope and drainage, a homestead layout, orientation, clear space round the house, future expansion, and a site checklist.
Site selection and building layout On: Stone and earth building: Choose the site and set it out
Ten panels: why water control matters, eaves, gutters and downspouts, ground slope, drainage options, plinth protection, roof runoff, water management, common mistakes, and a checklist.
Rainwater, eaves and drainage On: Stone and earth building: Where the water goes
Nine panels: the trench, soil types, a gravel layer, the stone foundation, a cross-section, damp-proofing options, plinth and floor level, drainage round the foundation, and three common foundation types.
Foundation and ground moisture protection On: Stone and earth building: Foundations and plinths: the boots
Twelve panels: preparing the ground, the gravel base, the fill layer, surface options, a cross-section, finishes, the door threshold, damp-proofing, floors for different climates, common mistakes, and a checklist.
Floor construction On: Stone and earth building: Floors
Eleven panels: wall materials, adobe, rammed earth and stone masonry, cross-sections, corners and bonding, a thickness guide, openings, plaster, water protection, and common mistakes.
Earth and stone wall construction On: Stone and earth building: Building the walls
Nine panels: a typical door and window, lintel options, how a lintel carries the wall, construction steps for each, opening dimensions, common mistakes, and key checkpoints.
Doors, windows and lintels On: Stone and earth building: Openings, lintels, corners and arches
Eleven panels: roof parts, roof types, pitch and runoff, the frame, construction steps, eaves, the roof-to-wall joint, the ridge, covering details, common mistakes, and checkpoints.
Roof structure and construction On: Stone and earth building: Roofs: the hat
Ten panels: why to plaster, the three coats, material options, surface preparation, application steps, finishes, details and protection, common problems, repairs, and key checkpoints.
Plastering and weather protection On: Stone and earth building: When it goes wrong: diagnosis and repair
A labelled cutaway of the finished house (roof, eaves, walls, foundation, lintels, windows, interior, floor and site), cross-sections of the wall, floor and roof, and an inspection checklist.
Finished shelter: technical cutaway and inspection On: Stone and earth building: Maintenance calendar
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
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
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

Books and archives

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