[Low-Tech] Musical Instruments: Water & Pipe Organ?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

How big is a "loaf" actually?

One meal's worth of course.

Seriously, who cares? No price list is accurate enough it matters. Real world prices for identical items can easily vary by a factor of 2 depending on where you check them - my local grocery runs a buy one get one free deal on some brand or other of bread more weeks than not. People who insist on calculating these sorts of things to 2 or 3 decimal places are fooling themselves with imaginary precision.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Near the beginning of Elric of Melnibone, it mentions "music slaves" who have been trained (and modified) to sing one perfect note each, and whose efforts are goaded by their masters through the infliction of pain. I don't believe any more detail than that was given. Is that the part you mean?

That is what I recall as well. Music produces through the torture of slaves. I do not recall the torture being described as being controlled in detail via some kind of organ keyboard system or the like.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by malloyd

One meal's worth of course.

Seriously, who cares? No price list is accurate enough it matters. Real world prices for identical items can easily vary by a factor of 2 depending on where you check them - my local grocery runs a buy one get one free deal on some brand or other of bread more weeks than not. People who insist on calculating these sorts of things to 2 or 3 decimal places are fooling themselves with imaginary precision.

It's true that going for excessive precision is silly.

On the other hand, it is a distinctive feature of the iron age and medieval periods that food was scarce, and that those of the huge lower class were keenly aware of starvation as something that might happen to them (again). Therefore, taking an interest in the cost and availability of staple foods is priper.

[Polydamas]

In those kinds of situations the buying power of grain tends to vary widely, with value highest just before harvest when the previous harvest was poor, and lowest just after a good harvest. I don't think that anything in the GURPS economic model should be taken too seriously ... there are academic books (and Harn Manor!) for people who want consistency and historical accuracy.