Civilization101Blueprint

Metals

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

Materials Levels 2–5 4 steps written
2
Level 2 · Forge · 1 of 4 in this track

Smelting: first metal

Unlocks Blacksmithing · ToolsBatteries: from the voltaic pile to the lead-acid cell · EnergyFungible token and the mint · Economy
3
Level 3 · Mill · 2 of 4 in this track

Steel and heat treatment

Unlocks Machine tools and precision · ToolsPrinting · KnowledgeSteam, iron hulls and the load line · TransportGliders and the control problem · Transport
4
Level 4 · Engine · 3 of 4 in this track

Blast furnace and cheap iron

Unlocks Rail and bulk transport · TransportCity water and sewerage · WaterRefrigeration and the cold chain · FoodIron-framed and multi-storey building · ShelterSynthetic nitrogen · MaterialsSteel frame and reinforced concrete · Shelter
5
Level 5 · Current · 4 of 4 in this track

Electrochemistry and light metals

Unlocks Submarines and submersibles · TransportSynthetic nitrogen · MaterialsAntibiotics and vaccines · HealthRadio · ComputingSemiconductors · ComputingEnergy without the carbon bill · EnergyBiology as engineering · Health

Everything in this track

Every guide, build, reference sheet and book reached from the steps above.

Field guides

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 3
Properties of materials

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

 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 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.

Builds

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.
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.
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.

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
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

Other tracks in Materials & Chemistry

Fibres, textiles and leatherCeramics and glassBindersChemicals