Comment by Aurornis

No, it’s an internet thing. I’ve also installed bathroom fixtures recently (in the US) and my experience is the same as yours.

My other comment pointing out that these materials are still available and easily found online is getting downvoted.

I suspect a lot of the comments and arguments are coming from the perspective of people who haven’t done any of this type of work, so under a thread about a historical document they assume that the content of the document was only available in the past?

This is on of the stranger comment sections I’ve seen on HN lately. The comments about how only our grandparents learned how to do things like read manuals or change oil in their career is really revealing.