The Printed Website: Volume III & The Comments
The printed archives of Low-tech Magazine now amount to four volumes with a total of 2,398 pages and 709 images.
Stuff
Interesting possibilities arise when you combine old technology with new knowledge and new materials, or when you apply old concepts and traditional knowledge to modern technology.
Technology has become the idol of our society, but technological progress is—more often than not—aimed at solving problems caused by earlier technical inventions.
There is a lot of potential in past and often forgotten knowledge and technologies when it comes to designing a sustainable society.
The Printed Website: Second Volume Out Now
The second volume features a third of the web articles published in the earlier years, carefully selected for their continued relevance and interest today.
How to Make Wind Power Sustainable Again
If we build them out of wood, large wind turbines could become a textbook example of the circular economy.
How Circular is the Circular Economy?
As long as we keep accumulating raw materials, the closing of the material life cycle remains an illusion, even for materials that are, in principle, recyclable.
Non-Electric Hearing Aids Outperform Modern Devices
Those who can overcome their vanity can revert to technology that has proven to work.
Why the Office Needs a Typewriter Revolution
Could we rethink and redesign office equipment, combining the best of mechanical and digital devices?
Modular Cargo Cycles
Modular cargo cycles are cheap to build and easy to customize.
How Sustainable is Digital Fabrication?
Automation is more energy-intensive than mechanisation.
Burning the Bones of the Earth: Lime Kilns
Lime burning is a now-forgotten industry that sustained many agrarian communities before energy became cheap.
How to Make Everything Ourselves: Open Modular Hardware
A modular system unites the advantages of standardisation (parts can be produced cheaply in large amounts) with the advantages of customisation (a large diversity of unique objects can be made with relatively few parts).
The Art of Producing Sustainable Consumer Goods: Basketry
Virtually all human cultures have made baskets, and have apparently done so since we co-existed with ground sloths and sabre-toothed cats.
The Bright Future of Solar Thermal Powered Factories
To power industrial processes like the making of chemicals, the smelting of metals or the production of microchips, we need a renewable source of thermal energy.
Lost Knowledge: Ropes and Knots
Ropewalk factories are some of the most remarkable industrial workshops and buildings in history.
Tiles as a Substitute for Steel: The Art of the Timbrel Vault
The craftsmanship associated with timbrel vaulting has long vanished, but the achievements are still with us today.