Click on the image to view the pictures in high resolution. Source: Mémoires et compte rendu des traveaux de la société des ingénieurs civils, Vol.113, 1924.
Archives for August 2009
How Far Back?
On the appeal of steampunk:
“Compared with an earlier and more thoroughly handcrafted era, a return to the late 1800s or early 1900s does not mean having to give up all the most basic modern conveniences. Most of these, including indoor plumbing, electric lighting and even air conditioning, had been invented and put into use by this time—in the main by the privileged, but then it is their lives (and not those of common men and women) that are the stuff of historical fantasy. Travel no longer meant riding in cramped stagecoaches over dirt roads or wind-and wave-tossed sailing vessels, but in luxurious automobiles
and handsomely appointed cabins aboard trains and steamships.”
Via Clockworker.
Wind-Powered Knitting Machine
Finally, a real-world use for small windmills: the wind-powered knitting machine.
Human Powered Dredger (1859)
Click on the illustration below to see the plan in high resolution. Source: “Mémoires et compte rendu des traveaux de la société des ingénieurs civils, Vol.12, 1859“.
