Out of the wild. “The ideal of nature as it used to be before human intervention is one that Western urbanites created in the late nineteenth century, chiefly as a foil for their own modernity...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2023/06/no-tech-reader-40.html
“In walking you are bounded by every sea and river, and in a common sailing-boat you are bounded by every shallow and shore; whereas, a canoe can be paddled or sailed, or hauled, or carried ove...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2015/07/canoe-and-kayak-sailing.html
A Floating Grain Mill on the Hwei River in China (19th/20th century). Source. Previously: “Boat mills: water powered, floating factories“.
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2013/07/a-floating-grain-mill-in-old-china.html
“Taraibune (tub boats) were once found along the Echigo coast of the Sea of Japan and on Sado Island. Now they are used only in six small fishing villages on Sado Island. They have survived to ...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2012/02/japanese-tub-boats.html
“The wooden work boats of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (French Indochina) have a long and fascinating history of sail and trade in South East Asia and beyond. Today, the sails are nearly all gone...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2012/01/wooden-work-boats.html
“Barge haulers on the Volga“, a late 19th century painting by Ilja Repin.
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2011/10/barge-haulers-on-the-volga-1870-1873.html
“The Dugout Canoe Project (.pdf) began as an experiment to use traditional Native American technologies. Archaeologists are reliant on just a few ethnohistoric sources that mention how Native A...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2011/09/making-a-dugout-canoe-using-stone-tools-and-fire.html
“The Junk Blue Book of 1962 is a detailed catalog of the indigenous boats of what was then South Vietnam, during a period when most such vessels were still powered by sail. It was a manual put ...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2011/07/the-junk-blue-book-indigenous-fishing-and-cargo-craft.html
“Boat mills: water powered, floating factories” at Low-tech Magazine. Some extra images below: Above: Boat mill, Encyclopédie Diderot, 1751 Above: boat mill, Fausto Veranzio, 1617 Above: boa...
Three wonderful collections from the Library of Congress, showing obsolete technologies. 1. The World’s Transportation Commission Photograph Collection contains nearly nine hundred images by Am...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2010/07/obsolete-technology-photograph-collections.html
“An improvement made by Mr. P. K. Dederick, of Albany, N.Y., was a horse-hoisting machine that very materially reduced the labor of the horse in hoisting. Previous to this, the horse walked for...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2010/07/hoisting-coal-from-canal-boats-with-dederick-machines.html
“In the late 90s/early 2000s my interest was in developing boats that can sail directly into the wind. To some, this seems impossible, and they find it hard to accept that it is possible to ove...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2010/01/sailing-directly-into-the-wind.html
This engraving, published in 1798, shows the gigantic St. Malo raft, designed in 1791 during the French Revolution. The engraving informs us that this extraordinary structure was 600 feet long by...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2009/11/floating-citadels-powered-by-wind-and-water-mills.html
Click on the illustration below to see the plan in high resolution. Source: “Mémoires et compte rendu des traveaux de la société des ingénieurs civils, Vol.12, 1859“.
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2009/08/human-powered-dredgers.html
“The horse-powered ferryboat, though patented in 1819, can trace its origin of design back to the time of the Romans. The Roman ox boat was an early war vessel propelled by a team of oxen. Duri...
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2009/06/horse-powered-ferry-boat.html
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 reac...
Following kitesurfing, kite buggying, kite landboarding and snowkiting (no slope required); kiteboating: Airplay Kitesailing, Kite For Sail, KiteCat, the pioneers. Previously: kitesurfing for car...