Hand-crafted Maps

December 16, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Maps

Anglo-Saxon-map-being-drawn-300x224 “Over the past year, we’ve been publishing hand-crafted maps of various bits of London, drawn by readers. You can view the complete set of entries here, including Brixton as a tree, and this beauty. Now, we’re delighted to say that the Museum of London will be running an exhibition of the best hand-drawn maps, from 21 April next year. That’s still a long way off, so there’s time for new submissions. If you’d like to be considered for inclusion in the exhibition (and be featured on Londonist), simply send us a doodle of your local neighbourhood, the area you work in, or some random part of town that deserves more attention.”

Read, via The Map Room.

Peak Health

December 13, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Health

“A 20-year-old today can expect to live one less healthy year over his or her lifespan than a 20-year-old a decade ago, even though life expectancy has grown”. Read.

Tree Windmill (1901)

December 6, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Random, Trees, Wind Power, Windmills

windmill treeLast year, William Kamkwamba made headlines around the world with his crude windmills built out of tree trunks and scavenged materials.

He could have saved himself some work if he had seen the illustration on the right, which I copied from a 1901 Dutch newspaper. The accompanying text says:

“Windmills are ugly contraptions and many attempts have been made to make them look better. This illustration shows how nature and mechanics can coexist.”

“It is a windmill constructed in combination with two trees. The trees only serve as a support for the upper part and for the ladder to reach the top. The mill was built in Illinois (US) and worked so well that several have been constructed.”

I could not find any more information about it.

Primitive Kitchen Timer by Ludvik Cjep

November 24, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Art, Automata

Kuechenwecker “This wooden chronograph works according to the principle of a kitchen timer. An interval from 0 to 60 minutes can be set on the yellow clock face. When the time elapsed a tinkling signal sets off at the Bottle on the upper right side of the timer. The forefinger of the blue hand under which the yellow clock face is gliding, indicates the time set, resp. the time left. At zero the finger falls into the notch at the circumference of the clock face. Hereby the whole arm is lowered and the blockage of the ringing mechanism is lifted.”

Kitchen Timer by Ludvik Cjep. Don’t miss his other work.

Related: “Automata: engineering for a post-oil world?“.

Metropolis II by Chris Burden

November 24, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Art, Cars, Travel

Metroplis II “The California artist Chris Burden may be in his 60s, but he is still playing with toys. The thing is, the older he gets the more outrageously complicated the toys become. ‘Metropolis II’ includes 1,200 custom-designed cars and 18 lanes.”

Cars as they should be: toys. Metropolis II by Chris Burden.


Horse-Drawn Public Transportation

November 19, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Animal power, History, Horses, Obsolete technology, Public transport, Travel

“For a hundred years, from the early 1800s to the early 1900s, Europe and America had cities of at least a million people that ran on a massive, sophisticated network of carriages and streetcars. By 1880, according to historian John H. White, Jr., US cities had 415 horse-drawn railways running, with 18,000 cars on 3,000 miles of track, carrying 1.2 billion passengers a year. Most of these lines continued decades into the age of electricity and coal, simply because the horses worked better than any other option.” Read: Horse-drawn public tranportation. Thanks, Johan. Previously: Bring back the horses.