Low-tech Magazine underscores the potential of past and often forgotten technologies and how they can inform sustainable energy practices. Sometimes, past technologies can be copied without any changes. More often, interesting possibilities arise when older technology is combined with new knowledge and new materials, or when past concepts and traditional knowledge are applied to modern technology. Inspiration is also to be found in the so-called ÒdevelopingÓ world, where resource constraints often lead to inventive, low-tech solutions. Contains 268 images in black & white. Contents table: How to downsize a transport network: the Chinese wheelbarrow Medieval smokestacks: fossil fuels in pre-industrial times The bright future of solar powered factories Pedal powered farms and factories: the forgotten future of the stationary bicycle Bike powered electricity generators are not sustainable The short history of early pedal powered machines Insulation: first the body, then the home Aerial ropeways: automatic cargo transport for a bargain Hand powered drilling tools and machines Boat mills: water powered, floating factories Recycling animal and human dung is the key to sustainable farming The status quo of electric cars: better batteries, same range The sky is the limit: human powered cranes and lifting devices Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank Gas bag vehicles Trolley canal boats How (not) to resolve the energy crisis Hoffmann kilns Wind powered factories: history (and future) of industrial windmills Water powered cable trains Get wired (again): Trolleybuses and Trolleytrucks Electric road trains in Germany, 1901 Ð 1950 The monster footprint of digital technology Cargo ships, then and now Moonlight towers: light pollution in the 1800s Tiles as a substitute for steel: the art of the timbrel vault A steam powered submarine: the Ict’neo The Citroen 2CV: cleantech from the 1940s Life without airplanes: from London to New York in 3 days and 12 hours Satellite navigation in the 18th century Email in the 18th century: the optical telegraph, Renewable energy, low-tech, history of technology, , Kris De Decker| 9781794711525 | 618PAGES
