Found at Live Auctioneers. Description: “Painted cast iron original double wheel generator to provide the power to Knapp model trains and trolleys. In talking to various collectors we feel this is the first Knapp toy train generator to have surfaced and it is in near perfect state. The top of the motor sports the Knapp name plate; this piece appears in the 1908 Knapp catalog 16″ l. , 12″ t.” [Read more…]
Knapp Double Wheel Generator
September 8, 2015 by Filed Under: Engines & Motors, Human power, Toys
African Vernacular Architecture Database
September 6, 2015 by Filed Under: Africa, Architecture, Buildings, Random
Malawi home built with rammed earth and thatch roof in Chizogwe village. Picture: Jon (Twingi) Sojkowski
I am a registered architect and I have a passion for African vernacular architecture. I recently (Sept. 2014) traveled to Malawi to document the vernacular architecture in the entire country. 4,700 pictures are on the web page.http://www.malawiarchitecture.com/
I also wanted to share with you my latest project… a data base on African vernacular architecture. This project was started because of the lack of information available on line. The data base includes images from every African country. Here is the link to the site:
http://www.africavernaculararchitecture.com/
The goal of the project is to have people, who live or work in an Africa country, submit pictures of vernacular structures to the data base to share with the world. Full credit is given for every picture submitted. For too long, African vernacular architecture has been a topic that has been both under-documented and, unfortunately, ignored. People say there needs to be documentation but yet nothing is done. Whether this is due to difficulties in obtaining funding or just apathy, the fact remains that very little data can be found online.
House with porch in Malawi. Picture: Jon (Twingi) Sojkowski
Architecture is as much of a part of a countries culture as is language, music or art. African vernacular architecture is disappearing. I witnessed that fact in Malawi. There are many reasons why vernacular materials and construction techniques are being abandoned in favor of western ones. One main reason is the lack of documentation, especially finding information on line.
I am hoping you could share the project with your readers, the more awareness, the better the chance to convince people to submit pictures to the data base. There is no other resource for African vernacular architecture like the data base: there is no organization gathering information, there is no active research, there is no voice for it. I will gladly answer any questions that you might have about the project.
Cheers,
Jon (Twingi) Sojkowski
Why Trains Are the Best Aid to Thought
“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts that we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape…
Of all modes of transport, the train is perhaps the best aid to thought: the views have none of the potential monotony of those on a ship or plane, they move fast enough for us not to get exasperated but slowly enough to allow us to identify objects…
Every time the mind goes blank, having hit on a difficult idea, the flow of consciousness is assisted by the possibility of looking out of the window, locking onto an object and following it for a few seconds, until a new coil of thought is ready to form and can unravel without pressure.
At the end of hours of train-dreaming, we may feel we have returned to ourselves — that is, brought back into contact with emotions and ideas of importance to us. It is not necessarily at home that we encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, but who may not be who we essentially are.”
Quoted from: The Art of Travel
No Tech Reader #2
August 20, 2015 by Filed Under: No Tech Readers
“The robots aren’t taking our jobs; they’re taking our leisure.” (The Automation Myth, Vox)
- Dark Thoughts on Ecomodernism. [The Dark Mountain Blog]
- The End of Walking [Aeon Magazine]
- A Fading Tradition in Spain Gets an Unusual Boost: Shepherd School. [NYT]
- Tinder and the Dawn of the “Dating Apocalyps”. [Vanity Fair]
- Fly or Die: Air Travel and the Internationalisation of Academic Careers. [The Demand Centre]
- Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway — With me in it. [Wired] Via Death By Car.
- The Automation Myth. [Vox] Via Aaron Vansintjan.
How to Work in Engineering for Global Development
August 7, 2015 by Filed Under: Work
“So, you have decided to put your engineering skills to use in the service of global development, but you’re not sure how to get started. We asked some of our happily employed members and other experts and came away with two different kinds of answers. The first is that it’s hard, and the second is that it’s possible.”
Read more at Engineering For Change. Image: Envisioning the American Dream.
Recharging Groundwater with Water-Harvesting Ditches
August 6, 2015 by Filed Under: Irrigation, Random, Water, Water management
“Simply put, swales are water-harvesting ditches, built on the contour of a landscape. Most ditches are designed to move water away from an area, so the bottom of the ditch is built on a modest slope, usually between 200:1 to 400:1. Swales, however, are flat on the bottom because they’re designed to do the opposite; they slow water down to a standstill, eliminate erosion, infiltrate the surrounding area with water, and recharge the groundwater table. When water moves along the flat bottom of a swale, it fills it up like a bathtub — that is, all parts of the bath tub fill at the same rate. The water in a swale is therefore passive; it doesn’t flow the way it would on a slope.” [Read more…]
