Just to avoid misunderstandings, I'm not challenging your opinion. Do you know of anything that actually documents the existence of water-wheel-powered sawmills or hammer smithies in Europe before the 1600s? I've read a number of texts that claim that, but I've not yet found anything that actually substantiated their existence before 1600. Among other things, I'm interested in this issue because I find it difficult to believe that it really might have taken that long to implement this technology.