NO TECH MAGAZINE

Primitive Kitchen Timer by Ludvik Cjep

November 24, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Art, Automata

“This wooden chronograph works according to the principle of a kitchen timer. An interval from 0 to 60 minutes can be set on the yellow clock face. When the time elapsed a tinkling signal sets off at the Bottle on the upper right side of the timer. The forefinger of the blue hand under which the yellow clock face is gliding, indicates the time set, resp. the time left. At zero the finger falls into the notch at the circumference of the clock face. Hereby the whole arm is lowered and the blockage of the ringing mechanism is lifted.”

Kitchen Timer by Ludvik Cjep. Don’t miss his other work.

Metropolis II by Chris Burden

November 24, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Art, Cars, Travel

“The California artist Chris Burden may be in his 60s, but he is still playing with toys. The thing is, the older he gets the more outrageously complicated the toys become. ‘Metropolis II’ includes 1,200 custom-designed cars and 18 lanes.”

Cars as they should be: toys. Metropolis II by Chris Burden.

Horse-Drawn Public Transportation

November 19, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Animal power, History, Horses, Obsolete technology, Public transport, Travel

“For a hundred years, from the early 1800s to the early 1900s, Europe and America had cities of at least a million people that ran on a massive, sophisticated network of carriages and streetcars. By 1880, according to historian John H. White, Jr., US cities had 415 horse-drawn railways running, with 18,000 cars on 3,000 miles of track, carrying 1.2 billion passengers a year. Most of these lines continued decades into the age of electricity and coal, simply because the horses worked better than any other option.” Read: Horse-drawn public tranportation. Thanks, Johan. Previously: Bring back the horses.