No Tech Magazine

Micromachines: Decentralized Urban Services in South-Asia

Architects Damien Antoni and Lydia Blasco have compiled an interesting document that focuses on small-scale technology in countries like India, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. They photographed, and made technical drawings of miniature taxi's, family run water turbines, domestic rain harvesting systems, pedal powered kitchens, home digesters, and the like.

The architects consider their work to be a toolbox, a starting point for thinking outside the conventional norms and recepies. They argue that decentralized services are more flexible, provide more autonomy, and are more efficient in space, energy and materials.

Antoni and Blasco present, in their own words, an equivalent to Neufert's "Architect's data", the book for architects that records standardized dimensions for centralized systems. "Micromachins" is written in French but the visuals dominate.

"Micromachins", Damien Antoni and Lydia Blasco, 2011 [download the page to get the high resolution PDF-document]. Thanks to Yann Philippe Tastevin. Update: the architects have added a new link with colour pictures and English translation.

Gas Bag Buses in Shawan, China

This photo shows at least six operating gas bag buses in Shawan ("Sandy Bay"), Shandong, China, in 1965. I have added the picture to the article on gas bag vehicles. Cars and buses powered by uncompressed gas in large bags were used in many European countries in World War One and Two, and remained in use in some regions of China and other Asian countries until the 1990s. They are more than a historic curiosity, however. In a comment on our earlier article, Paul Nash notes:

"On further reflection, I think the best application for this system, and certainly the one with the least government regulations to hinder the process, would be for powering of farm equipment.

• The gas bag could be installed on a frame on top of the tractor, or on a trailer behind, or a carrier in front or to the side, or some combination of these.
• Aerodynamics are a non issue, and neither is the height of the bag.
• There are no road safety rules to be dealt with.
• The short range is often not an issue, the refueling station is never far away and the diesel engines can still operate on diesel alone if need be.
• The gas bag system also eliminates the $4000 home compressor station needed to fill car CNG tanks from home.

And, of course, the farmer can produce the fuel himself, from waste material - manure, straw, even wood chips, instead of using the harvested grain for ethanol or biodiesel. A wood gasifier could also do this, but needs a warm up and cool down period - the gas bag can be used instantly and for short duration running - a common situation on farms."

Read more about Gas Bag Vehicles and Wood Gas Cars (another answer to the limited supply of gasoline in World War One and Two).

Picture credit: Ray-Wu.

Poop by the Bucket: A Sewer Catastrophe Companion

"This illustrated guide presents a series of graduated responses you can do to keep yourself and your community safe from disease during the short term and long term disruption of sewer services. It's a solution for managing excreta that’s not excreting problems later. This flexible system is built around ubiquitous and freely available 5-gallon buckets and based on World Health Organization guidelines for excreta reuse. On two occasions it has been successfully deployed from available resources with little pre-planning."

Previously:

• Recycling animal and human dung is the key to sustainable farming
• Sewage, Toilets, and Nutrient Cycles for Dummies.

Think Outside the Bowl

Caribou Skin Clothing Beats High-Tech Expedition Clothing

"Inuit elders continually stress the importance of wearing caribou skin clothing whenever travelling out on the land in the fall, winter, or spring. They believe caribou skin clothing provides protection from extremely cold weather that is superior to fabric ensembles recommended for the Arctic by some manufacturers. Inuit have used caribou skin clothing since pre-historic times. The purpose of this research was to collect laboratory and ethnographic data on the thermal comfort of Inuit-made caribou skin clothing, and expedition clothing produced for arctic travellers."

"There were no significant differences in changes over time between the military and expedition clothing ensembles with either the perception of comfort data or the skin temperature data; therefore, these data are grouped together. Findings indicate that the overall skin temperature, as well as the cheek, thigh, toe, and torso temperatures, remained significantly higher when wearing the caribou skin ensemble compared to changes observed when wearing the military or expedition clothing ensembles."

Comparison of traditional and manufactured cold weather ensembles (PDF), Jill Oakes, in Climate Research, February 23, 1995. The paper might be a bit outdated, but it is interesting to read. Picture: Inuit woman's winter suit, pre-1927 at Liverpool Museums. More about caribou skin clothing at Gates of the Arctic. Thanks to Jon Freise.

Directory of Open Access Journals

"The aim of the Directory of Open Access Journals is to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. The Directory aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the content. In short a one stop shop for users to Open Access Journals."

Especially interesting for Low-tech and No Tech Magazine readers are the journals in the categories History, Archaeology, Technology & Engineering, and Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Dedicated to Aaron Swartz. Also: #PDF Tribute to Aaron Swarz (via TechCrunch), a mass protest uploading of copyright-protected research articles. Previously: Censors of Knowledge.

Earthen Solar Cooker

"The Earthern Solar Cooker is a large parabolicly shaped hole in the ground lined with reflective materials such as salvaged pieces of broken mirrors or reflective can lids. The mirrors reflect and concentrate sunlight to the base of the hole where ten one gallon black containers of water can be boiled per hour and used for drinking or food preparation. Cooking/water boiling containers are accessed via steps carved into the side of the Earthen Solar Cooker."

"A 2.5m diameter hole, 1.5m deep cooks 10 gal of rice/hr from 11am to 3pm on an 85f summer day in south central Oregon. Since the power of a parabolic concentrator is proportional to the surface area of it's aperature (A = 3.14 x r^2), doubling the radius of the hole increases the power of the Earthen Solar Cooker by a factor of four. An Earthen Solar Concentrator the size of a small amphitheater might be capable of casting bronze or boiling the water near the surface of a shallow well located at the vertex, thus making possible the creation of a solar bubble pump that could lift pasteurized water to a tank above ground level." Read more about the project at Appropedia.

Previously: Parabolic Basket and Tin Can Solar Cooker / Solar Cookers that Work at Night / Build a Solar Powered (Interior) Kitchen.

"Gravity Powered" Lights (and How to Make Them More Powerful)

The GravityLight uses a sack of sand or stones to gradually pull a piece of rope through a dynamo mechanism which generates electricity to power an LED. It is a cheaper and more sustainable option than a solar powered light, which requires not only a solar panel but also a battery. The product is aimed at the developing world and its makers raised 400,000 dollars at indiegogo.

The technology could be further improved by including pulley mechanisms that were used to operate human powered cranes and lifting devices in pre-industrial times. This would allow a person to lift heavier weights and thus power more powerful lights.

To be precise, the light is not powered by gravity. It is muscle-powered, while gravity stores the energy and fulfills the role of a battery. Hat tip to Bernd Vleugels.

Abandoned Flour Mill in Spain

Lugares Abandonados is a fascinating blog documenting abandoned buildings in Spain.

There are quite some photo reportages about factories, and this one in particular is noteworthy: a forgotten flour mill with part of the machinery still in excellent condition.

The author does not reveal any location for any of the buildings on the blog.

 

Cargo Cycle for Egg Deliveries

The Pashley Model CT2 is described as "a really handsome, well built and strong light delivery vehicle for confectioners, egg deliveries, grocers, accumulator stations, etc."

Found at the Museum of Tradesman's Delivery Bikes, which has a collection of (mostly) English cargo bicycles dating from 1905 to 1982. This is one of the few tricycles on the blog.

Related: Tandem Cargo Tricycle (1940) & More Vintage Dutch Carrier Bikes.

 

DIY Glaciers: a Low-Cost Alternative to Dams

"A remote Indian village is responding to global warming-induced water shortages by creating large masses of ice to get through the dry spring months. People in Skara and surrounding villages survive by growing crops such as barley for their own consumption and for sale in neighboring towns. In the past, water for the crops came from meltwater originating in glaciers high in the Himalaya. But in recent decades, climate change has uncoupled glacial melt cycles in the Tibetan Plateau from the traditional agricultural season, causing water shortages in April and May when Ladakhis typically begin sowing seeds for the summer season."

"One winter in the late 1980s, an engineer from Skara named Chewang Norphel came up with a possible solution to his village's problem while strolling around his backyard. Norphel noticed that a small stream had frozen solid under the shade of a poplar grove, though it flowed freely elsewhere in his sunny yard. The reason for this, he realized, was that the flowing water was moving too quickly to freeze, while the sluggish trickle of water beneath the grove was not. Over the next several years, Norphel worked to create an irrigation system that functioned using the same simple natural principle. The result has been Ladakh's artificial glaciers. Ten have been built to date."

Read more: Artificial Glaciers Water Crops in Indian Highlands.

The Art of Inventive Repair

"Antiques with inventive repairs (also known as "make-do" repairs) are unique examples of necessity and thrift, made during a time before Krazy Glue was invented. Unlike today where we discard anything chipped or cracked, broken household items were repaired at home or taken to a metalsmith to be brought back to life, often with whimsical results. Once regarded merely as damaged goods by antiques dealers and collectors alike, antiques with inventive repairs are justly receiving the respect they deserve."

Read more: Past Imperfect. Check out the 'staples/rivets' category. Via iFixit.

Previously: Repair is Beautiful / The Japanese Art of Kintsugi / Dealing with Holes.

Rivet Spacers

"A rivet spacer was originally designed for evenly spacing rivets on aircraft, but it can be used for evenly spacing anything, from buttons on a sweater, to finish nails on those infernal Ikea drawers you are trying to put together nicely."

"It completely eliminates any need for calculations and weird fractions. You just stretch the fan to the end points with the number of holes you want. It is one of those tools that you never knew you missed until you use it once." Found at Cool Tools.

Repair is Beautiful

"Brazilian, London-based designer, artist and all-around maker Paulo Goldstein has lended his model-making talents to such films as The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Frankenweenie, but after receiving a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design from Central Saint Martins in London, it appears he is opening a whole new chapter. His graduate project, called Repair is Beautiful focuses on repairing broken objects from a craftsperson’s eye."

Via REculture.

The repair process of all objects (a chair, an anglepoise, headphones, an iPod) is explained step by step with photographs.

The Fastest Sailboat in the World

The Sailrocket, a sailing boat that we have talked about before, is the fastest craft under sail, after breaking the 2010 record held by a kiteboarder.

During the last run in Namibia in November 2012, an improved version of this unconventional boat reached an average speed of 65.45 knots (121.21 km/h or 75.31 mph) over a distance of 500 meters. Earlier this year it set speed records of 59.23 and 59.37 knots.

Record sailing speeds have almost tripled since the beginning of the 1970s. Those who think that sailboats are a technology from the past, think again.

See and read more at YachtPals and Sailrocket.