No Tech Magazine

The battle of the bowlturners

Man versus machine (video). Traditional bowl turner Robin Wood on his foot powered lathe races a friend on an electric lathe to see who can make a bowl fastest. Related: the museum of old techniques.

Tigchel heaters and finovens

Picture gallery. Previously: Sunbathing in the living room: oven stoves and heat walls.

The electric man & the electric horse

Here. More Victorian Era robots. Thanks, David.

The woodmobile

 

Who needs gasoline or batteries? John Dutch's Volvo 240 is powered by wood.

"After 2000 kilometers on woodgas everything worked properly. Top speed is 120 km/h. Cruising speed 100-110 km/h. Fuel consumption approximately 30 kilos of wood for one hundred kilometers, which is also one effective filling of the fuel bin. The back seat loaded with sacks of wood make the total range approximately 400 kilometers."

Update: "Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank".

Lost London

Picture gallery. Via Things Magazine.

Kite aerial photography

Introduction / Picture gallery / What you need / More at Wikipedia. Via Cabinet Magazine.

Scrap it

"Because between 15 and 20% of a car’s emissions are produced during its manufacture, the optimal age for a car, the paper says, is 19 years. It would make more sense for the government to pay us to keep our old bangers on the road." Read at Monbiot.

The development of the electric motor

Picture gallery at the Spark Museum.

Lost knowledge

Makezine goes low-tech with a weekly column on lost knowledge and a special issue (on paper).

Early Machine Technology

At BibliOdyssey.

Street life in 1905

(Source)