So how far back are we likely to go……………..

[Lightspeed]

(14 December 2014, 16:33)bigpaul Wrote: making steel and machining it is I think wishful thinking, without power I believe we will go back to pre industrial levels before everyone started leaving the countryside and moving to the cities, that would be 1750s not 1850s, without power no finance/banking, no telecommunications, and no mass production, someone may be able to knock something up on the equivalent of a blacksmiths forge but its going to be hard manual labour, time consuming and dirty and I cant see many wanting to do it.

BP I disagree with you here:

Finance... There could quite quickly be some kind of convertible currency. Society recognises and values the ability to have an easily carried and universally accepted repository of value. That knowledge is not undoable, and I think will accelerate the return to cash.

If iron and steel goods are needed and in short supply, entrepreneurial instinct will drive supply. For both, electrical power is not prerequisite:

Steel: Time and hard manual labour will be the way of life. If the component needed is sufficiently needed, the time and effort will be found to re-forge material already in existence.

Iron: Getting back to industrial revolution levels of industry is quite doable. Iron smelting will be totally feasible in areas where ore deposits and forests are found close together. Once iron can be smelted, its a progressive step to move on to production of steel.