Obsolete technology

There is a lot of potential in past and often forgotten knowledge and technologies when it comes to designing a sustainable society.

• April 2020

  Fruit Trenches: Cultivating Subtropical Plants in Freezing Temperatures
• December 2019

  Too Much Combustion, Too Little Fire
• March 2019

  Low-tech Magazine: The Printed Website
• August 2018

  Could We Dredge the Netherlands Without Fossil Fuels?
• May 2018

  History and Future of the Compressed Air Economy
• March 2017

  Heat Storage Hypocausts: Air Heating in the Middle Ages
• March 2016

  Power Water Networks
• December 2015

  Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s
• February 2015

  Restoring the Old Way of Warming: Heating People, not Places
• September 2013

  Burning the Bones of the Earth: Lime Kilns
• September 2013

  Power from the Tap: Water Motors
• March 2013

  The Mechanical Transmission of Power (3): Endless Rope Drives
• February 2013

  The Mechanical Transmission of Power (2): Jerker Line Systems
• January 2013

  The Mechanical Transmission of Power (1): Stangenkunst
• February 2012

  The Art of Producing Sustainable Consumer Goods: Basketry
• December 2011

  How to Downsize a Transport Network: The Chinese Wheelbarrow
• November 2011

  Gas Bag Vehicles
• September 2011

  Medieval Smokestacks: Fossil Fuels in Pre-industrial Times
• May 2011

  The Short History of Early Pedal Powered Machines
• January 2011

  Aerial Ropeways: Automatic Cargo Transport for a Bargain
• December 2010

  Hand Powered Drilling Tools and Machines
• November 2010

  Boat Mills: Water Powered, Floating Factories
• June 2010

  Lost Knowledge: Ropes and Knots
• March 2010

  The Sky is the Limit: Human-Powered Cranes and Lifting Devices
• January 2010

  Wood Gas Vehicles: Firewood in the Fuel Tank
• December 2009

  Trolley Canal Boats
• October 2009

  Rings of Fire: Hoffmann Kilns
• October 2009

  Wind Powered Factories: History (and Future) of Industrial Windmills
• September 2009

  Water Powered Cable Trains
• November 2008

  Tiles as a Substitute for Steel: The Art of the Timbrel Vault
• August 2008

  A Steam Powered Submarine: The Ictíneo
• June 2008

  The Citroen 2CV: Cleantech from the 1940s
• June 2008

  Life Without Airplanes: from London to New York in 3 Days and 12 Hours
• March 2008

  Life Before Television
• February 2008

  A World Without Trucks: Underground Freight Networks
• January 2008

  Satellite Navigation in the 18th Century
• December 2007

  Email in the 18th Century: The Optical Telegraph