Technology for Luddites
Overview of endangered professions at the National Public Radio (via Obsoletos): “As computers and automated systems increasingly take the jobs humans once held, entire professions are now extinct”.
I would like to add to this: As fossil fuels run out, some of these professions might return. And then I want to become a River Driver. Previously: the panorama of professions and trades.
Engines of our ingenuity is an American radio program “about the machines that make our civilization
run, and the people whose ingenuity created them”. The program is written and hosted by John Lienhard and it has been running since 1988. Illustrated transcripts of the more than 2,500 episodes are available online, recent episodes are also available as a podcast.
The “Diamond Hitch” is one of the most high-tech knots ever created. It was used to tie loads to pack animals. Many versions existed, not only for different types of loads but also for different types of terrain.
In rough country, where there was a frequent trouble with pack animals falling with their load, packers tied the Diamond Hitch so that the final knot was on top of the animal’s back where it could be easily reached and loosened with the animal down.
There was also a distinction between the one man and the two man Diamond Hitch. The one man version was employed by only one packer and required that he made two trips around the animal in tying it.
Detailed and illustrated instructions for tying the high-tech knot can be found in the 1916 “Manual of pack transportation“.
The Archdruid Report discusses some early applications of solar energy by Augustin Mouchot (late 1800s) and Frank Schuman (early 1900s). An overview of historical experiments and applications of solar energy can be found here and here.
