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LOW←TECH MAGAZINE

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Obsolete Technology

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

Heat Storage Hypocausts: Air Heating in the Middle Ages

The heat storage hypocaust could keep a room warm for days with just one firing of the furnace.

Medieval Heating System Lives on in Spain

The expression “estar en la gloria” (to be inside the gloria) means that someone feels happy and comfortable.

Pigeon Towers: A Low-tech Alternative to Synthetic Fertilizers

Pigeon towers helped Persian farmers cultivate all kinds of crops on previously arid, thin-soil land.

Power Water Networks

Hydraulic power transmission is very efficient compared to electricity when it is used to operate powerful but infrequently used machines.

Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s

From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, urban farmers grew Mediterranean fruits and vegetables as far north as England and the Netherlands, using only renewable energy.

Garum: Fermented Fish Sauce for the Ancient Roman Masses

Fish fermentation allowed the ancient Romans to store their fish surplus for long periods, in a time when there were no freezers and fishing was bound to fish migratory patterns.

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

Most modern heating systems are primarily based on the heating of air. This seems an obvious choice, but there are far worthier alternatives.

Burning the Bones of the Earth: Lime Kilns

Lime burning is a now-forgotten industry that sustained many agrarian communities before energy became cheap.

Power from the Tap: Water Motors

In the nineteenth century, miniature water turbines were connected to the tap and could power any machine that is now driven by electricity

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

The trend towards small-scale, decentralised power production means that rope transmission might have a place in our energy system again

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

Jerker line systems can be used to operate water pumps or sawing machines, to forge iron, to process food or fibres, or to make paper.

The Mechanical Transmission of Power (1): Stangenkunst

Long-distance power transmission predates the invention of electricity by almost four centuries.