Prison Treadmills

May 11, 2009 by kris de decker Filed Under: History, Human power, Jailhouse technology, Treadwheels & treadmills

Prison Treadmill

The prison treadmill was invented in England in 1817 by Sir William Cubit, who observed prisoners lying around in idleness and put himself to the task of “reforming offenders by teaching them habits of industry.” Forty-four prisons in England adopted it as a form of hard labour that could also grind grain (although some treadwheels were only “grinding the wind“).

The punitive treadmill was then implemented in America for two long years, between 1822 and 1824, at Bellevue penitentiary outside New York. Prisoners stepped on the mill for 10 hours a day (with 20 minute breaks per hour), grinding grain, often with a large audience of jeering onlookers housed in a specially built viewing house. Read here and here. Picture credit. See more images.

Related: Human powered cranes and lifting devices.

Supporters and Opponents of Technology

May 7, 2009 by kris de decker Filed Under: Luddites, Technology

“Having read and listened to the arguments of technology enthusiasts and technology critics, I find it striking that different people look at the same history, the same society, the same products and services, the same jobs – and come to diametrically opposed conclusions about what they see. There is a fundamental difference in the world view of supporters and opponents of technology. It is more than the difference in seeing a glass half full or half empty.

The difference seems to be one of contrasting views of what should be in the glass. Supporters of technology see an upward trend in quality of life beginning with people living at the mercy of nature with an empty glass that technology has been gradually filling. Neo-luddites view the glass as originally full when people lived in small communities with little impact on nature; they see technology as draining it.”

Quoted from: “A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing and the Internet, by Sara Baase (Amazon link). Excerpts of the book.

The Folly of Building-Integrated Wind

May 6, 2009 by kris de decker Filed Under: Ecotech Myths, Wind Power, Wind turbines

Building integrated wind

“The study found that predicted performance exceeded actual performance by a factor of 15 to 17. With the worst-performing systems, the electricity required to run the electronics exceeded the electricity production, so the wind turbines were net consumers of electricity”. Read.

Thanks, Brent Eubanks. Related: Small windmills put to the test / Urban Windmills harm the environment.

Sailing Rockets

May 5, 2009 by kris de decker Filed Under: Boats, Racing, Sailing ships, Travel, Wind Power

sailing rocket fast sailboat

This unconventional sailing boat, named the SailRocket, reached a record speed of 47.35 knots (87.6 km/h or 54.43 mph), on average over a distance of 500 meters. During another run, the boat reached a speed of 52 knots before lifting off
for a spectacular in-the-air wipeout (also caught on video). More below.

[Read more…]

Materials = Energy

May 5, 2009 by kris de decker Filed Under: Energy, Metals, minerals, materials

Minerals scarcity

Following the intriguing but oversimplified graphic on materials scarcity published by New Scientist (a graphic that turns out to be 2 years old, by the way), this in-depth article at the Oil Drum Europe (original article here) gives a well founded look at the problem of metal minerals scarcity. Especially interesting is the link between energy and minerals:

“In case of unlimited energy supply, metal minerals extraction would only be limited by the total amount of mineral resources. However, due to the scarcity of energy, the extraction rates of most types of metal minerals will cease to follow demand. Probably the only acceptable long-term solution to avoid a global systemic collapse of industrial society, caused by these resource constraints, is a path towards managed austerity. Managed austerity will have to be a combination of changes in technology and changes in both individual and collective human behaviour.“

Related: Historical statistics for mineral and material commodities.

Bookbinding: a tutorial

May 5, 2009 by kris de decker Filed Under: Books, DIY

Bookbinding

Step-by-step instructions. More tutorials can be found here, here and here.