They were the ones that brought us to this age of cnc and everything if you look at how everything went from nothing to now it was blacksmiths that brought it all together and I'm including japanese sword smiths also with their folding of the steel. It's amazing to see how we went from rough blades and horse shoesk to cars, carbon steel chisels, bridge ports, to cnc's all in a little over a 100 years all from coal, bellows, hammers, and anvils.