TECH TALES…
At a time of need, intermediate technology comes to the rescue.

Intermediate or appropriate technology occupies that territory between low/traditional tech and hi-tech. It is more accessible than hi-tech costwise and can often, as in the case in the photo, make use of reusable materials. It can be fabricated locally with basic skills.

But, war stimulates innovation. Innovation is make-do with what is at hand. Innovation exists where there is a need. Russia’s war is what stimulated the innovation we see in the photograph. With electricity supply destroyed, the need is for heating. So what is there that is laying around that can be made into heaters? Car rims. Steel car rims turned into heaters and fuelled by wood.

Speculative fiction author, Cory Doctorow, could have been talking about this production of car rim heaters when he wrote in his Book, Makers: “This thing wasn’t invented. All the parts necessary to make this go were just lying around. It was assembled.”

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant, wrote Horace. And, here, during this awful war forced on a people by a greedy, authoritarian state, adversity has done just that.

#energy #heating #cooking #innovation #reuse #recycling #intermediatetechnology #appropriatetechnology #ukraine

TALES OF TECH SOLUTIONS…
Lunch time. So, let’s get the cooker out, toss some suasages in the frypan, cook then until thet are dark and crispy on the outside, pour on the tomato sauce and eat.

It must have been something like that which went through this couples head as lunchtime approached. They were out in the countryside near Windsor, NSW, not all that far inland of Sydney.

Their solar stove folds so it is easier to transport. I think it is a homemade job. Whatever, it works. Soon those sausages were sizzling, their aroma making those nearby hungry.

Devices like this used to be called intermediate technologies because thay sat between low-tech and hi-tech on the technology development scale.

#solar #cooking #food #technology #solarcookers #appropriatetechnology #intermediatetechnology #australia

My first #introduction was about my blog and podcast. This one is about myself.

#history #blacksmithing #nature #woods #sailing #music #trees #archaeology #folklore #dogs #linguistics #words #science #pirates #SustainableFarming #horror #RealHomemadeCooking #politics #AtlanticOcean #IntermediateTechnology