Low-tech Magazine

Sailing at the touch of a button

Lloyd Alter at Treehugger talks about our article on cargo ships and wonders if it is time for a new age of sail. One reader comments that sailing boats require a much larger crew than today's cargo vessels, which would make a comeback of wind power unrealistic. Maybe, but these days, sailing boats can also be controlled by computers instead of sailors.

Cargo ships, then and now

On an early afternoon last month, the Eugen Maersk (the world's longest ocean freighter at 1,300 feet) has left Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on the tail end of a journey from Shanghai. But the giant freighter is cruising at 10 knots, well shy of her 26-knot top speed. At about half speed, fuel consumption drops to 100-150 tons of fuel a day from 350 tons, saving as much as $5,000 an hour.

The German Preussen (picture above), the largest sailing ship ever built, was launched in 1902 and travelled mainly between Hamburg (Germany) and Iquique (Chile). It was rammed by a large steam vessel in 1910. A one way trip between Germany and Chile took the cargo vessel between 58 and 79 days. The best average speed over a one way trip was 13.7 knots. The lowest average speed was 10 knots.

One giant container ship can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50 million cars, study finds. Time for a new age of sail.

Picture credit.

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Only idiots travel by train

Can you create a website like Low-tech Magazine and then hop on a plane to visit your family for Christmas? I don't think so. This year my girlfriend and I will travel from Barcelona to Brussels by train. An expensive business.

The age of speed: how to reduce global fuel consumption by 75 percent

If we cut the average speed of all vehicles by half, fuel consumption would decrease by a whopping 75 percent.

Breaking speed records was an almost daily occurence throughout the 20th century. Cars, ships, planes and trains became faster and faster, year after year. Because the power needed to push an object through air increases with the cube of velocity, this race to ever higher speeds raises energy consumption exponentially.

Engineers treat velocity as a non-variable, while in fact it is the most powerful factor to save a really huge amount of energy - with just one stroke, at minimal cost, and without the need for new technology. Lower speeds combined with more energy efficient engines, better aerodynamics and lighter materials could make fuel savings even larger.                                                                     Picture : Mando Maniac

The Citroen 2CV: cleantech from the 1940s

If you sometimes wonder why more energy efficient technology does not bring about more energy efficient cars, you should take a look at this collection of Citroën brochures (most of them in foreign languages) from the fifties, the sixties, the seventies and the eighties (more here, here, here and  here).

These are all original, scanned leaflets of the legendary French hippie car "2CV" or "Deux Chevaux" (known as the "duck" or the "goat" in several European countries). In spite of all the high-tech that has been squeezed into cars since then, the 2CV from 1949 is still more energy efficient than the smallest model of the French car designer today. Why?

Life without airplanes: from London to New York in 3 days and 12 hours

Flying has become cheaper than taking a train or driving a car. Yet, environmental concerns, dwindling fuel reserves and fast rising kerosene prices are threatening to turn airline travel into a privilege for the rich again. This should not mean the end of mass travel or tourism, however.

Before mass air travel took off in the 1960s, people crossed the globe in majestic passenger ships. Reintroducing ocean liners would be more than a nostalgic move: it could be a much more energy efficient (yet slower) way to travel.

A world without trucks: underground freight networks

If water, sewage, gas and oil can be transported through underground pipelines, why not consumer goods as well?

Some Western European countries are getting serious about transporting consumer goods through automated subterranean networks – introducing a fifth transport mode next to road, rail, air and water. This rare combination of low-tech sense and high-tech knowledge could lead to a further economic growth without destroying the environment and the quality of life. Super fast underground cargo transport is a favourite subject of futurologists. Yet, the key to the feasibility of the proposed systems is their very low but constant speed.

Reinventing the wheel

The Museum of RetroTechnology has an amazing collection of pictures and drawings of motorized monowheels. These one-wheeled vehicles (the driver was placed inside the wheel) evolved from pedal-powered monocycles at the end of the 19th century. They became sort of a wet dream for boffins during the first decennia of the 20th century.

Solar powered cars

If racing cars can drive on solar energy, then why do normal cars still need fossil fuels?

Around 30 cars race 3,000 kilometres across the Australian continent in the “World Solar Challenge”. Solar cars are electric vehicles that generate their own electricity, by means of around 6 m² of solar panels installed on their bodywork, and a series of linked up batteries that serve as a fuel tank. If we want the car to survive in the longer term, it should become slower and lighter again, trimmed to the efficiency of solar panels and batteries. (Picture: Venturi Astrolab)

The revival of the sailing ship

Considering the wind as an extra source of power, the fuel use of cargo ships can be reduced substantially.

Steam power and diesel engines relegated cargo sailing ships to the history books, since motorized ships are a lot faster, cheaper and more reliable. But now that the fuel use of ships and the ecological damage involved passes all bounds, there is a renewed interest in wind power as an extra source of energy; thanks to an extreme water sport.