So rubber vulcanization was done by some people in the Yucatan long before Goodyear. Suppose this technology was brought back to Europe; could this have affected technological development in the Spanish/Hapsburg Empire and around the world? Were there any early machines that would have benefited from shock absorption? I guess better roofing and insulation could be a big one. Could we see icebox refrigeration? Bicycles seem to require a lot of technological knowledge besides rubber, as fun a bicycle cavalry sounds. I don't think even animal skin water hoses were a thing yet. Would water hoses getting big sooner change much? Raincoats and rainboots could come about sooner, too.
My main thought is that soldiers with better footwear could maybe have a huge advantage over their enemies, but one potential obstacle is production. Is there any reason this might lead to an earlier boom of consumer goods? Neither the Spanish not the native empires were above working people hard to make a lot, but I don't know if the industrial capacity to make much was there yet. Could this also lead to earlier, more serious attempts at colonizing Africa, or perhaps attempts at making synthetic rubber with the Kazakh dandelion? That had a much lower output than rubber trees. Would vulcanized rubber soles even be a big upgrade over the leather boots of the time? Could rubber just be limited to luxury goods, or is this whole idea just kinda wrongheaded and the reason the technology was lost is because it couldn't have been useful in that time period?
On luxury goods, I could see luxury horse carriages having rubber tires for a smoother ride, which got me thinking, would already having rubber tires maybe mean we might see steam powered cars sooner. It seems like a natural thing to try when you can get a train going. If cars were around much earlier, what kinds of advancements might we see earlier? Earlier blimps seem like another possibility, though I have no idea if they had any advantages over rigid airships in transport or warfare. Mostly I'm just trying to figure out what kind of alternate technology my setting might have, even if it's just some existing technology being more to the forefront and other technology being less prevalent.
My main thought is that soldiers with better footwear could maybe have a huge advantage over their enemies, but one potential obstacle is production. Is there any reason this might lead to an earlier boom of consumer goods? Neither the Spanish not the native empires were above working people hard to make a lot, but I don't know if the industrial capacity to make much was there yet. Could this also lead to earlier, more serious attempts at colonizing Africa, or perhaps attempts at making synthetic rubber with the Kazakh dandelion? That had a much lower output than rubber trees. Would vulcanized rubber soles even be a big upgrade over the leather boots of the time? Could rubber just be limited to luxury goods, or is this whole idea just kinda wrongheaded and the reason the technology was lost is because it couldn't have been useful in that time period?
On luxury goods, I could see luxury horse carriages having rubber tires for a smoother ride, which got me thinking, would already having rubber tires maybe mean we might see steam powered cars sooner. It seems like a natural thing to try when you can get a train going. If cars were around much earlier, what kinds of advancements might we see earlier? Earlier blimps seem like another possibility, though I have no idea if they had any advantages over rigid airships in transport or warfare. Mostly I'm just trying to figure out what kind of alternate technology my setting might have, even if it's just some existing technology being more to the forefront and other technology being less prevalent.