RAIN Journal of Appropriate Technology · · · Ancil Nance INSIDE: p. 4 .PLEASANT UNDERTAKING Malcolm Wells p. 6 A.T. UPDATE p. 8 PEDAL POWER S.S. ·wilson p. 12 PIONEERING COMMUNITIES Dulcie Brown
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October '1976 RAIN Page 3. ' ' RAIN is a monthly info.rmation access journal and: reference·.service for people developing more satisfying living patterns that·increase local self-reliance and press l~ss heavily on ~mr limited resources. ·. We.try to give access to: ·· . · . . · · · . • Solid technict:zl support for evaluating new ideas and implementing them. . • Ecological and philosophical perceptions that can help create more satisfying options for living, working and playing. • Other people; information and resources. • Up-to-date information on current pr<;>jects, groups, events and publications. dation. The Federation is also partidpat:- ing in the noncommercial FM rulemaking currently before th~ Federal ComIT}Unications .Commission. Associate memberships are available for $15; members receive the 8:-page monthly NFCB Newsletter. · .The .Radio Program Service of the NFCB make~ available tapes from Fed-. . eration stations ·to other noncommercia:l . stations (such as National Public Radio, affiliates a,nd college' radio stations) at a cost of $5 per 1/2-hour tape. Contact: Bill Thomas, 7os N. Lincoln, Urbana, . IL 61801, for mol;'e information on the service. (RE) · Sex & Broadcasting: A llandbook on . Starting a Radio Station for the .Community, by Lorenzo Milam, 3rd r~vised edition, 1975, 352 pages, $5 from: · Dildo-Press 251~ Maple . Dallas, TX 75201 . . . A literary surprise. Not for radio cnizies only. (RE) · · National Alternative R~dio Conference · (NARC) . In June 1975,.150 community radio · people from around the country held the first gathering of radio folk in three years in Madison, Wisconsin, and called it NARC. A year later they met again in Telluride, Colorado, under the sponsorship of the NFCB. This is the place · to meet people actively involved in community radio. Stay tuned for NARC IlL (RE) · Media Report to Wome# 1977 Index/ Directory · 3306 Ross Pl. NW Washington, DC 20008 Martha Leslie Allen, ed. Accepting listings for women's media groups and individual media women. All listings are free and limited to 15 words (not including name, address, phone). Deadline Nov. 1. Half-price $3 rate for those listed in Index. (RE) . TAP New~l(!tter, · 4 pgs., $4 for io issues per year,' from: · TAP . ·Room 504 152 W. 42nd St. New York, NY 10036 Remember bh.ie boxes,. p.hone-freaking and blind kids with perfect pitch whistles who learned .how to call arourid the world for entertainment? Well; TAP is their newsletter full of helpful hints that makes the phone company cringe and · electric and gas utilities worider how many of their meters are·stopped or running backwards. The technology runs from beginner to advanced, and many ideas are submitted by and for non-technical people. TAP is expand- . ing irito such frontier areas as pirate radio stations, lock·picking, and getting your money's wort-h frorri a vending. ·. . ma.chine. For information purposes 'only, of course. Nikolas Tesla would have understood, but not Tom Edison. (LJ) (ENERGY SAVING) Skylight Energy Performance and. Systems Analysis for Skylight Energy Performance, by Donald A. Moore, 197 5, · from: · · Center for Industrial and Institutional Development McConnell Hall .University of New Hampshire · Durham, NH 03824 · Skylights and roof windows are excellent ways to get daylighting and solar heating far inside of buildings. They save electricity for lighting, fuel for heating and make rooms feel good. Combined with insulating shutters, or Zomeworks' "Skylid," and letting the sun shine on water-filled containers, they make a simple and effective direct solar heating system. These ·two papers evaluate the savings and extra costs from use of skylights over a year's time and show that if properly ,designed they will save energy in almost every climate. The second report is a guide to both manual ~nd computer calculations to enable engineers, code officials or people to analyze overall performance of skylights-including data necessary. (TB) Energy Conservation through Automobile Parking M.(magement, Newsletter Number 6 of the Energy Conservation Project, May 1976, fre.e from: · Environmental Law Institute. 1346 Co~necticut Ave~, N~W. ·Suite 620 · · Washington, DC 2003.6 ·. · The Energy Conservatiort_Project is pre- .paring a series of handbooks addressed . .to state and local officials, legislators and interested citizens setting out al- .ternative legal strategies for conserVing energy (available Spring 1977 from · Ballinger Publishing Co:). This issue . from one of these books, Energy Cons~rvation and Urban Transportation, provides a useful exploration of legal ways to reverse the subsidy to automobile transportation and sprawling urban patterns that people have felt helpless . trying to control. Valuable information on effectiveness and problems ofexisting projects that are trying various strategies of taxing, residential parking permits, parking bans, zoning, subsidy elimination, and redesign of parking fa- . cilities. (TB) . Energy Costs of Usi.ng Columbia River Water for Irrigation, by David ·1' .. Schuy, jan. 1975 (E.M~ 3891), available from: Cqoperative Ext~nsion Service Washington State University. Pullman, WA 99163 This study describes an old shell game on a grand scale. Large corporations in. eastern Washington and Oregon request use of Columbia River water t() irrigate the desert- "We need food, you kiww." Removal of the water from the river would decrease hydro-electric genera.; tion, requiring new and ex·pensive nuclear power plants to make up the deficit. The irrigation would also require a lot of electricity itself to pump and distribute the water. And who pays the costs? Not those who benefit, but the electrical users of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and California-to the · tune o~ $88 million per year. The ga.me is called passing the buck. "The Columbia River as a Resource" by Hastay, Millard, et. al. (State of Washington Water Research Center Report No. SA, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99163, June 1971) discusses similar proposals for eastern Oregon. If we wouldn't pave our good fields, we wouldn't have to farm the desert. (TB)
Page 4 .RAIN October 1976 Pleasant Undertaking We're ge:tting closer to a world where we can die in peace and'. be buried with dignity, affirming the miraculous dance oflife · giving way·to life. Until the client got coldfeet at the last · minute, it lo_oked like Philadelphia was going to get a cemetery tlesigned exclusively for organic burials. Malcolm Wells, the architect'of the dream and the builder of'underground, homes and offices, te!ls about it: We make so many mistakes, most of us, even when we're trying hardest to do good; that simpk, direct acts of gratitude ·toward life-acts like the return of our own bodies to the living land that produced them-seem; sometimes, like the only un~ complicated and selfless acts we can ever perform. And then we find that it's virtually impossib1e even to arrange that final gesture without tearing whole families apart at their blackest · · hours; the·simple act of organic burial is virtually denied us . by archaic customs, by perversions of religious teachings and· . by existing laws. . . The anachronism of our S!ill trying to cheat death through . the use ofpoisons, .powders and waterproof vaults seems almost unbelievable today; especially when we see noble deaths.,- deaths for the sake of life-occurring all around us. Each radish we crunch, every steak we eat, even the drop of blood whisked away from our arm by a mosquito, dies in the support of this miraculous, continuing, fantastically interdependent life we s};lare-something we can never say about human deaths caught up in the undertaker-graveyard ritual. Admittedly, "under- . taker" and "graveyard" are now "funeral director" and "cemetery," but.the ritual goes unchanged, getting, if anything, steadily worse as more plastics and more phoniness ·creep into it. . But now, at last, the death-practices of the Seventies are .showing faint but hopeful signs of becoming dying practices by 1980. The ecology movement and growing national revulsions against poisons and plastics are creating whole new ind~s: tries and ~re changing some of the old ones. And funeral directors, those most conservative of conservatives, seeing greater · social acceptance and undiminished profits ahead, are cautiously starting to test the wind. . ·In a Philadelphia suburb, for instance, a new branch build- . ing is being desjgned, to be used exclu_sively for organic funer~ als, by a big-name funeral home chain. All ceremonies at the riew center (there will be no shortage of ceremonies) are slated to be positive, life~affirming, natural, reverent and, ·hopefully, on some occasions, even joyous. Instead of somber, muted organ music and hushed voices there'll be tributes to the miraculous life-death-life cycle that produced the life currently passing through death. Instead of the body lying ridiculously 6n display in a grotesque comedy of shined shoes and tufted satin-instead of its being poisoned, powdered arid painted in . a futile attempt to make .death look like sleep, it will be wrapped in simple burial cloths arid placed, for the services, on a slab just a few feet away from a great glass wall overlooking·a wild landscape teeming with life. (The small mammals and birds on the grounds outside :Will be fed near-the window to assure constant activit)' there; a life~spectacular · that will positively astound those to whom it is unfamiliar.) Instead of random, half-relevant Bible quotations, read by someone who in all likelihood hardly knew the deceased, he will be remembered through brief reminiscences by his friends, through biographical material, and through pictures. Following the ceremonies at the memorial center, the .guests will leave for the cemetery, where everything from the. carrying of the wrapped .body to the graveside ceremonies themselves will still further tend to emphasize the eternal . miracle rather than the temporal tragedy. · .And talk about organi~ gardens! The ~ew cemetery will be a mossy woodland filled with the sounds of birds and other animals going about the business of life. Such a cemetery will never have to expand to_make room for more and mote concrete burial vaults; with well-spaced trees as the only grave markers, there will be almost no limit to the number of burials possible. Human compost, like other kinds, returns very quickly to life again. The new cemetery can quite literally become the transitional repository for an endless number of lives.
October 1976 RAIN Page S ·Potential in all this, of course, is the pos.sibility-:-no, the certainty-:-that out of it, and out of the shared experiences of like-minded funeral directors a.ll over the country, will come ever more meaningful burial practices to affirm the ,best parts of all religions rather than to deny them as.is·most emphatical- ·ly the case today. Simple Burial It's becoming easi'er to avoid the expensive ministrations· . t . Life, to ·death, and back to life.again: the miracle of the living world. It's been the·theme of artists, poets and philoso- .phers for centuries. Moved by Its spell, Walt Whitman dosed · ·his greatest poem with this tribute to life's magic circle: of undertakers altogether ·with simple burial and cremation, memorial societies and the like. The excellent Manual of Death Evaluation and Simple Burial is n·ow available in its seventh edition, $}.50 from the ..Celo Press, Burnsville,.NC 287)4. . Death information, how to o.btain .simple, dignified and ecoI bequeath myself to .the dirt to grow from the grass I l~ve, If you .wa~ t me again . nomical burial, how to locate the increasing number of memorial societies and bowlhey work, and how the dead can help th.e living through body, organ and tissue donation. look for me under your bootsoles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, ·· but J shall be goo4 health to you· '· nevertheless, . And filter anc/ fiber your blood. ·Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, . Missing me o·ne place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you. But, ironically enough, Walt Whitman waits for your today in a Camden, New jersey., tomb. A granite-w;tlled house he designed himself, tucked away there as conventionally as any, ·with 'embalming fluid, casket, burial vault, and all. So it will .be · ·.a long, long time before his body begins to grow from the grass · .he loved. Too bad he couldn't have lived tO see the beginning. of the orgap.ic burial movement. But maybe it was enough that poetry like his did so much to get it all started. · · · · This report first appeared in the now-defunci:.Environmental Quality Mo.nthly in August 1972. Malcolm Wells can be contacted at his archi- . tectural office: P.O. Box 183, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034, where he's dreaming up the next step in gentle architeCture. in Oregon contact: Biodegradable··Coffins ·· Oregon Memorial Assn. 525 5 S.W. Dosch Rd. Portland, OR 97201 We'll also pass on the happy news we saw in a recent Not M~n Apart: biodegradable coffins are .now available, made of woodlike plastic that eventually decomposes into organic matter in . the soil. Almost as simpleas the.real thing. · ·(GROWTH ) Yerba Buena, Chester Hartman, 1974. $4.95 from: . . . Glide Publications, 330 Ellis St. San FranciscQ, CA 94102. "The costs of growth are clearly shown in the above studies-but not who profits. 'Verba Buena gives an excellent picture of th~ politics of profit behind .urban "development" ... who promotes it, who profits, how finance and cit-y. councils are manipulated and controlled, and how the costs are forced onto the poorer members of the community. Factual and strongly documented. (TB) ."Santa Barbara~ The Impacts of Growth," reprinted in the Second Alternative Public Policy .Reader, Shearer and Webb, ed., $7 .SO from: .Conference on Alternative State and Local Pllblic Policy . Institute for Policy Studies . 1901 Q Street, N.W.. Washington, DC 20009 A solid and straightforward discussion of the questions people have about growth of a.c·ommunity: Will growth controls raise my taxes? Will growth provide jobs? For whom? -with wellreasoned answers. Gives a good, simple view of the issues involved and some of the realities behind them. (TB) Urban Growth Management Systems, American Society of Planning Officials, Planning Adv:isory Service Report Nos. 309, 310, 1976, $12 from: ASPO 1313 E. Sixtieth Street Chicago, IL 6.0637 Analyzes ~n interesting range of thirteen · operating growth management systems and surveys legal considerations in growth management, socio-economic and environmental impacts of such ac., tivities. Informative on the actual effects and communitv response to vario.us measures. (TB)
Page 6 RAIN ·· October 1976 Appropriate Technology People are always asking tis who's doing what in appropriate technologies, and if anyorie is putting together a directory so they can contact other people. Well, this has been the summer of directori'7s-:-a number have beenor are being prepared: e Probably the most.comprehensive listing :for the U.S. is being prepared by Integrative Design Associates, 1740 N St., . N.W., Washington, DC 20036 (Eugene Eccli, Cecil Cook, Ann Becker), in conjuncnion with other groups around the cou11-. try as part of a,n NSF grant. To appear· in final form around the first ofthe year,it nowcontains 700-800 listings and is coded in twenty-five categories relating to the group's/person's activities.. It will be free to the listed groups, with probably a small charge to others to cover printing costs. e . The Northeast Appropriate Technology.Network, ·c/o Craig Decker, Box 134, Harvarq Square,,Cambridge, MA 021l8, has prepared a list of people in that area interested/working in a.t. who participated in the Towards Tomorrow Fair in Massachusettes this summer. They are also planning a new.sletter-for .a.t. people in the Northeast. · e A Handbook on Appropriate Techno'logy, $7.50 from the Canadian Hunger Foundation, 75 Sparks Street, Ottawa, Canada; K1P 5A5, contains a good listjngof groups and individuals involved in international a.cdevelopments, along with essays explaining a.t., case studies from many countries, a catalog of tools and equipment, and a useful bibliography. As wit~ all these directories, the listings are incomplete .and I . miss many active groups; also they don't tell you who is doing what and who does good work and who's just ·riding the wavebut no list can give you thitt! e A short~r list of major international centers that have been active for some time in a.t. work was prepared by OECD, reprinted in the May 1976 RAIN ($1 from 2270 N.W. Irving, Portland, OR 97210) and expanded with the list of participants in the Habitat Exposition of Appropriate Technology in their flyer. William Ellis,7410 Vernon Square Dr., Alexandria, VA 22306, who coordinated that exhibit at Habitat, is now coordinating the 'development of an internationala.t; network, TRANET, based upon those groups and the participants in the . activities at Habitat Forum.· e In the preparation of the U.S. Agency for Internati.onal . . Development's proposal for their appropriate technology cen- . ·ter, voluminous surveys of a.t. organizations active in Africa · ·and the Indian subcontinent (Attachment "I", prepared by ITDG) andLatinAmerica (Attachment "J", prepared by VITA) have been compiled. These listings, again, have not been annotat-ed or evaluated in·regard to the kindandquality of work done an<;! would at this point be of use only to people with special and specific interests in those areas. A small number of Xerox ·copies are available.from Ted Owens, Di'rector of Rural Development, U.S. AID, Department of State, ~ashington, DC 20523. {TB)' California Office of Appropriate Technology P.O. Box 1677 . Sacramento, CA 95808 Judy Michalowski, coordinator; Things are moving along at OAT.. Current projects underway include de.signing a traveling energy van,.putting together materials on the relationship between joqs and en~rgy, training solar technicians,: and the incorporation of a.t. ideasinto the Capitol Area Plan (a design for thedowntown Sacramento urban renewal area). They're also beginning a project to ·test the health problems of waterless toilets for urban and rural areas; as well:as.a study on the use of waste heat from state heating plants and buildings. A series of annotated bibliographies 'are available on a.t., solid waste management, sun-tempered greenhouses, landscaping ·for energy conservation, methane and more. Write for a complete publications list. . · . . · . . Meanwhile, a few blocks away,·Sim VanderRyn, California State Architect (who is also director of OAT), is hard .at work .along with his staff and Living Systems of Winters, California, · on an exciting design for a new state office building. The building is to be totally heated and cooled by passive (direct) systeins..:_sun shading, naturallighting,and ventilation, the works. It's the largest such system we know about yet attempted. We'll keep you posted .on its progress as it develops. ·· ·· .(LdeM) . . _Discovery of the South.Pole Van Loon·'$ Geography, Hendrick Willem van Loon, Simon and Schustet:, 1932, . into a colorful map! We paid $4. Here's what he was saying in 1932: "We are all of us feilow passengers on the same plan~t and we are all of us equally responsible for the happiness and·the wellbeing of the world in which we happen to live. (LdeM) out of print · Found this when.we went to a used bookstorewith Wilson Clark last week (a trip in itself-we decided that Wilson . has missed his calling!). A truly beautiful and basic book on the geography and history of our planet--:-one to read aloud in frorit of the fireplace. The pen and ink illu~trations are gems that will blow your mind and tweak your perceptions of how things are. Check in the library or old bookstore and try to find one with a dust jacket-it folds out
Update National Center for Appropriate Technology P.O. Box 3838 Butte, MT 59701 If you were about.to give up on the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) ever becoming a realityor a reality you coul.d live with_.:.look again. A new (finai?) proposal (dated Sept. 7, 1976) has just been submitted to the Community Services Administra~ tion, and it looks like it will be funded by the time you read this. Written by Harriet Barlow and Craig Decker, the proposal now incorporates many of the. ideas many of us·were hoping for-,-six regional planning meetings, a rela~ively small administrative staff (much of the work to be done by out~ide ~onsultants, presumably-people doing existing grassroots work), a separate technical staff, and the funding of existing projects to act as regional coordinators. The pro- .posal itself is written in such a way that you can really learn something about. a.t. by reading it! We're excited about it. Now, if the reality can just live up to our dreams. Much depends on the people who are part of it, so get a copy of the proposal and find a niche for yourself. ·Let's get appropriate technologies ~ut to the people who need them. • Maine Times 41 Main St. Topsham, ME 04086 207/729-0126 John Cole, ed. . ' · Weekly, $12/yr. We;ve been reading the Maine Times for several months now and find it to be a delightful mix of environmental, entertainment and local news of what's happening in Maine. Even the display and classified ads are enjoyable-how many publications carry advertisements for wood stoves arid sewerless toilets? In all, very well done. (RE) ..( :APPROPRIATE .... .TECH . A Ha~dbook on Appropriate Technology, 19.76, $7.50 from~ .Canadian Hunger Foundation ) 1.5 Sparks St. · · Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P SA5 A good working document for people interested in a.t. Compiled in cooperation .with the Brace Research Institute. -' Essays explaining a.t.; case studies from many couf}tries, a catalog ·of tools and equipment, bibliography' and a beginning international listing of groups and individuals involved in a.t. development. (TB) Medical Self-Care: Access to Medical Tools, quarterly froni: ' P.O. Box 718 Inverness, CA 94937 $7/yr. At last! Someone is doin,g an ac~ cess journal for self-help care. It's the area of a.t. we've been wanting to get into but lack the know-how to do in depth. Editor Tom Ferguson recently finished at Yale Medical School and just moved to the Bay Area to do community medicine. The scope of the magazine looks wide and exciting: how to take care of ourselves apd ou·r neighbors and famlly; first aid and long-term health needs; books, drugs, networking and how-to. Only one issue so far, but ifthe quality stays the same, it's a winner. (LdeM) · Overseas Volunteer Work for pe~sons with a degree and experience in the areas of agriculture·, engineering, health ser- . vices, small business development, and . other technical fields. Assignments are for two years on multinational teams in Asia, Africa and·Latin America. Volunteers receive $80-$150 a month phis all expenses, including travel, cost of living and insurance. Interested? Send resume to: Ed Allen International Voluntary Service~ 1555 Connecticut Ave., N.W. · Washington, DC 20036 202/387-553 3 October 1976 RAIN Page 7 Florian Wipter breezed.in one day last spring on a tour around the world looking at alternativ_e energy organizations for the United Nations. We spent a very· . pleasant evening with him- one of those people with whom you feel at home the minute they walk in. When we get a copy ofbis report we'lllet you know. in the meantime, here's a letter he wrote recently:_ Hi! Well, I'm in Bangkok now trying to figure out what they're doing down this way in line of alternatives. Problem is; it's cheap<;r to have a dozen Thais pedaling generators for 20 years than to buy a wind genera- .. tor.... . In Australia, all sorts of alternatives underwent a painful abortion when the Whitland governmen! was "fired" by . the jackass governor general last year. ·The first government with an open atti- ·tude towards alternatives had to be sacked~ As far as these kinds of things are concerned Australia is the prime example of how not to do it. Earlier this year people were busted because of. participating in, in fact organizin-g, an alternative technology fair, The commonwealth poli~e who were the judicial organ behind this even admitted doing . this through a public release. As you can see, RAIN could be a .good lu'mp of yeast in a dissolving brew; The people I would suggest contacting ·are an information exchange group-the only one doing anything really relevant in terms of grass roots innovation. They· . are a very loose and nonchalant bunch of young people · Environmen-tal Resource Exchange Center (EREC) 400 La Trobe St. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Also: Low Impact Technology, Australia 34 Martin Street South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia · Autonomous House Group School of Architecture Sidney University Sidney, New South Wales, Australia They have .an open house every afternoon when people can ..come in and check out their version of alternatives. The house is in the middle of Sidney; solar heated, wind-cooled (breezes) with a methane generatorthe whole lot.' Lots of people drift through there. · . There is also a kind of Mother Earth News called: Earth Garden P.O. Box 378 E_pping, 2121, Australia ($2 per copy, see RAIN, Vol. II, No.5) Until I'm in the mood to write again, Good Luck and God bless you all, Flo
Page 8 RAIN October 1976 PEDAL : .. .. ·· . . Michael Shakespearon his pedaled lawnmower. e The contrast between the bicycle and the.motor car is a very good illustration of technology of human scale. The bicycle is a supreme example of ergonomics-the optimum · adaptation of a machine to the human body, so that it uses this power efficiently. Hence the worldwide success of the bicycle and its derivations in meeting the real needs of people in both rich and poor countries; with a minimum demand for energy and raw materials or ill effect on the environment. The motor car, on the ·other hand, is a machine of inhuman scale as regards size, its weight, its power (.from 100 to 1,000 times that of the driver himself) or its speed. It is for these .reasons that not.only is it a great consumer of .fuel and raw materials, but it is·a great polluter of the environment-by fumes, noise and also visually. The social costs are immense, though largely . overlooked, not least the fact that vastly increased mobilicy · has scattered families to such an extent-that rarely are the three generations close enough for mutual support.. ' ? Chinese bicycle transport using vintage equipment still provides a-de'quate transportation service. · e In general, pedal drive can be expected·to give ~ c~ntinuous power output of 75 watts or 1/10th.H.P. per man, but.up to 10 times this amount for short bursts. In consequence it can be considered as an alternative to any fractional horsepower motor drive for a machine or tool, e.g. spin drier, washing . machine, lathe, handsaw, faris (forge blower), small compressor or hydraulic pump. Pedal power is of .course only one m·anifestation of muscle · power; it seems that muscle power, the most fundamental and indefinitely sustainable ·source of power-of e'ssentially human scale-is.unduly neglected in the present discussion, of energy sources. Other animals~horses, donkeys, etc.-are also possible · . sources of power, as well as the more frequently-canvassed wind power and.water power. All.of these deserve widespread attentiori, particularly in the way of prototype·design, production, testing and development.·Not until the practical problems are faced and overcome ·can any proposal be taken seriously,. but unfortunately suitable faCilities for such work-people, facilities and inoney-tend ~o be.in short supply. . . Energy-Cycle, developed by the rese~rch wing of Rodale' Press, is adaptable for a variety of uses. . Tho ii()(W.( .. !N!IICY·CVCU - ~
"Incidentally whil~t talking about muscle power, its efficiency is interesting. Ifyou assume that.a man east 2,500 to 3,000 ccllories a 4ay . .. this is equivalent to about an eighth of a ton of coal a year. Ifyou take our earlier assumption ofworking 8 hours a day for 200 days a year at a tenth of a horsepower, it means that a man treated as an engine is about 10 to 15 percent efficient. It is really very good, it is almost as good as a petrol engine and costs far less ... " P.O. DUNN Lectures on Socially Appropriate Technology POWER by S. S. Wilson, M.A., M.I.Mech.E. · Department of Engin~ering Science, Oxford University ·Oxford, ENGLAND . · ' ~ E .Jtt .... . Q) Q. C> .... Q) • Q. ~ C · ~ + 0 Q. Ill ·c: c ,_ + .... 0 ~ Ill 0 (.) October 1976 .. RAIN Page 9 0 ·100 o oer- • I -:- 0 ·60- • Mice • - 040- .. . e LemminQ 0 ·20 Frutt '~ 81! eeee • Ro~ O·IC f-. fly .- oe 0 ·6 eLacust eRot~bi-t 0·4 . . - HumminQbird • • Helico~r 0 ·2 BudQerioar • eooo • . Gull ecaw 0 ·1 f-. eSI'Ieep - . 0·8 • . ·~ PiQeon· Mone ~ Au'tamo'!'' 0·6 0 ·4 • . 1-krses . . Jet Salmon 'tranaoort0 ·21- . ... Mon on btcycle • 0 ·1 . I ·I I -i06 . -10~ 4 -10 3 -10 2 -ld 10' t<J 10 3 tc! lrJ I~ -10 I Body wt. (kg) Energy Efficiency of Different Means of Transport e Apart from the ubiquitous bicycle, still a growing field, pedal powe~ e Other uses of pedal power actually demonstrated are for c:'ln be applied to goods transport and to a.variety of stationary . ~orn milling a.nd for water pumping, in which pedalling can power uses, most of which are applicable in the U.K. as well as. Improve the output by a factor of three over manual effort. in less developed countries. The OXTRIKE, below,.is a basic· One use for the pedal pump is as a standby for a windpurnp tricycle chassis to take a variety of bodies for trans,port of · during periods of insufficient wind. · · goods or people. Profocype construction has been funded by ~mong the plans awaiting the building of prototypes is a OXFAM, and it is designed to be built from kits in any smaJl design for a two-man pedal-driven winch. One major . workshop, e.g. school/community workshops. The innova- use for such a winch is for cable ploughing and cultivation on tions include sheet.steel construction, three-speed gears, power- the lines of the '~nail,' .as described in an earlier pape.r. For ful foot brakes and a simple form of differential drive. Such a· many purposes, mcludmg small plots and allotments, the pedal vehicle fitted with box vim, hopper or flat truck body would winch may be as effective ·as a motor-driven w:inch; .be useful for OXFAM shops or for use with the OXFAM · Wastesaver project, as an alternative to a 3 5 cwt van-the . OXTRIKE payload is 3 cwt, which is more than the average load in the majority of city delivery vans. . , . OXTRIKE chassis, designed for transport of goods or people. •' ... ';t;..r • .~o.~. '•·· ' ::it :· ~) ,;; 'l7~ :i.0;~t' These excerpts are/rom "T~cbnology ·of Human .Sc{lle" by S. S. wilson. · Wilson bas been instrumental in recent development ofimproved people-powered vehicles. His more extensive essays in Lectures on · SoClally Appropriate Technology (see RAIN, june 1976) and SCientific American, March 1973, explore both the social and technological . aspects of improved bicycle transport. · · Pedal~powered diaphragm water pump, developed by IRRl for irrigation use. · · . . :?~c~roe tube · : / . . .... -----...... __ ·~ --- . . \
Page 10 RAIN October 1976. Cycle DiscQveries . . . Bicycling Science: Ergo~~mics and Mechanics, by Frank Whitt and David Wilson, 1974, $4.95 from: · MIT Press · 28 Carlton St. · r· Cambridge., MA 02142 · . . · . . The bicycle of today is'the simplest, quietest;, most efficient and least lethal of modern vehicles. This is an excellent book fo,r the person who wants to know how a.ndwhythey work so · well: power required, muscle efficiency, gradient resistance, drag coefficient values, quantitative measurement of the roll~ ing resistance of pneumatic tires,·and more, much more. Sprocket Man, from: Urban·Bikeway Design Collective 1791 Beacori St. · or Brookline, MA 02416 UBDC-West Coast . P.O. Box 2983 Stanford~ CA 94305 . . . This is a very good, commonsense comic book on bike safety put together for the Stanford Dept. of Public Safety. A very .nice use ofthe comic book medium 'cause it makes you read it from cov~r· to cover and you even learn something. I'm not sure about' its availability, but it ought to be reprinted if they're running short. A b~ck and a stamp should cover it. Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition 3410 Baring Street Philadt;lphia, PA 19104 215/EV2-6693 A calendar, a bike-route map for Philadelphia (one in progress . for the region), a campaign to get Bicentennial tourists to bike around the city, and a list of people willing to teach bicycle repair and,maintenance. Also the Ben Franklin Brigade- a network of citizen groups in Philly federated with similar · groups in other cities- is working towards a "park and pedal" transportation system. Cars, buses, boats and trains should be equipped to carry bikes; theft-proof ·parking devices should be supplied at public buildings, transit nodes and tourist sites, • .· and bike lanes should be established on roads aryd bridges. Send a SASE for more information. . . . . . . ' American Biking Atlas and Touting Guide, by Sue Browder, · 197'5, $5.95 from: · Workman Publishing Co. 231 E. 51st St. . New York, NY 10022 If you're ready to take off on your bike-short trip or-long-' . . this is your book. 150 different tours laid out, ranked as to : difficulty and carefully mapped. Not good if you're only interested in one specific area, but there's a good ride or three in each state. And-neato!:-'-the pages.are perforated ·~o you ·don't have to carry the whole·thing iri your pack. How to Fix ·Your Bicycle, by Helen Garvy and T. White, 48 . pp., 1972, $1 from: · Shire Press · ' . P.O. Box 40426 . San Francisco, CA 94110 . . . I don't know much about fixing bikes myself, but I think I'll be able to do it with this book .in hand. Clear, simple line . . drawings with point-by-point directions get you into the nuts -and bolts of the problem..Small enough to fit into your pack too. · - . . . . East Coast Bicycle Trail Guidebook, 1976: $4.95 from: . East Coast Bicycle Congress 5300 Akron St. .Philadelphia, PA 19124 _The trail traverses the densely-populated corridor from Boston, Mass., to Richmond, Va. (where it joins theTrans-America Trail), yet it_is a collection of quiet back roads, historic towns and even a ferry ride or two. They have really scoped out the . most beautiful parts of the eight-state region, missing the · · · wors~ of the megalopolis by many miles. The trail arid the bo~k we're put together by the scores of cydists and organizatiOns who have formed the East ·coast Bicycle Congress to develop arid refine .an exciting system of bike routes up arid . down t~e east coast. The Guidebook has a large index _map and 21 detail maps; along with ·service listings and general information. (LdeM) . · ,A.LMIYYo NE: W Y.ORK ·---·-.---, .JqtNf;,~. ~ fENNS'(LVANIA H.AAfl/SfJ(.II(JJ . 0 TH£. E/\ 5T COI\5T BICYCL.f TRAJ L. . ~~ron ro ttlcH MOND .C>
(SHELTER The Use of Earth Covered Buildings, . 1976, National Science Foundation NSF/RA-76006, limited number of free copies available from: · RANN Document Center National SCience ·Foundation 1800 G St., N.W. Washington, DC 20550 Proceedings ofthe July 1975 Fort Worth, Texas, conference on underground buildings. Most comprehensive and up~to-date_ source available on under-· ground building, Down-to-earth information on legal, economic, insurance, structural, p'sychological, historical and energy considerations. Life cycle costs show underground building is increasingly viable as energy .costs to operate buildings increase. Very comprehensive bibliography, list of people actively working on ·underground building, etc. (TB)· · A Manual on Building Construction, Rev. Harold K. Dancy, 1948, £1 from: ·.IT-Publications 9 King St. London WC2 England Originally a guide for cm1stru_cting church missions in Africa, this manual contains a wealth of information on building from scratch-on-site brickmaking, manufacturing doors and windows (from trees still on the hoof) and ma~ing roofing tiles. Details on a lot of building processes uncommon in the U.S.-grass roofs, mud roofs,, mud domes, preparing paints and finishes, as well as design for tropical conditions, business and labor details. (TB) Alternative Ceme1lts in India,. Robin ·Spence, May 1975, and Lime and AI~ ternat_ive Cerizents, Oct. 1974~ both from: . -Intermediate Technology Publications · · 9 King S.rreet . London WC2E 8HN England Inquire for current prices and other publications. These reports from ITDG _ initiate a program for finding appropriate alternatives to expensive and often scarce Portland cement. Use of natural cements such as pozzolanas, lime and small-scale production of cement is investigated. Capital costs of small vertical kiln plants are less than large rotary kilns, they have better heat efficienc-y, provide more employment, and are more flexible to schedule and quality changes. More work needs to be done in this area, but these reports give an excellent coverage of present knowledge. (TB) The Eco-Cabin: Plans for the OwnerBuilder, 16 pp., plans, photos, drawings, 1976, $3.50 plus a 7-112"x10-112" selfaddressed envelope from: ECO-CABIN PLANS Greenpeace Experimental Farm· RR 1, Denman Island .British Columbia, CANADA VOR1TO An excellent first in a series of publications on the results of G.E.F. work-in appropriate technology, this booklet thoroughly covers the construction of a 120-sq. ft. icosahedron cabin costing less than $600, using recycled materials and requiring no power tools at possibly remote forest sites once major components (foundation, floor and struts) have been prefabricated. (LJ) · Design Guidelines for Creating De- _ fensible Space, by Oscar Newman, 1975, $2.95 from: . U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 Hearing of Newman's earlier work inostIy made me shudder at the state of a society that had to design urban buildings to withstand armed assault. Newman deals with that because, sadly, it·is real. But there's a lot more in this book than its excellent section on choosing locks and other security measures that work. It deals, actually, with responsible space-with basic neighborhood and building arrangements that permit and encourage people to take responsibility for private, semi-private and public spaces in and among buildings. Simple things _like having entrances to-people's homes along the street so it is super-· ·vised rather than an unclaimed, anything-goes wasteland. Things that rriake a big difference. (TB) October 1976 RAIN Page 11 (GooD THINGS ) 99 Ways to a Simple Lifestyle, David Taylor, editor, 1976, $~.50 ($11 instF tutions), from: Center for Science·in the Public · Interest 1757S St., N.W. Washington, D.C 20009 Here's the book I always meant to write. Lots and lots of things to doeach section is followed by a good bibliography. Nothing fancy and not much new here, but it's nice to see it all in one place. (LdeM) And-hot off the CSPI press-the revised Lifestyle Index 76, by Anne Pierotti and Albert J. Fritsch, $2.- · This little booklet will help you tally up your energy ·score-what you use in your life, from hairdryers to your share of the national defense budget. We've found it extremely useful in "living lightly" workshops. It helps to see where . it all goes. Andyou might also want to use its companion, the Simple Lifestyle Calendar 1977 (single copy $2.25). · Each day has another idea. doing it! Bi-monthly, $10/yr, from: Box 303 · · Worthington, OH 43085 _ This fat (80 pp.) new magazine looks _like a good one. Their emphasis is on urban alternatives. Some articles are on groups which are becoming old hat, like . Briarpatch, New Games and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (each time · you say it more people find out about them), buflots of new things (for us) too-a community loft in NYC and the "grey rabbif! bus lines. Articles cover things in much more depth than we attempt to do, while access info is given. And they're requesting articles (brave souls), so send them stuff you want out. (LdeM) ' .•
Page 12 RAIN October 1976 This is a somewhat·shortened version of a piece sent to Joel and Sherri Davidson of . · Living in the Ozarks. They didn't.have room for it, so they sent it on to·us. Dulcie Brown . now lives at 2412 E. Thomas Street, Fresno, California 93702. · Pioneering Commuri by Grandma Brown My parents ~ere Americans from several branches of American pioneers ahd in their youth traveled the Oregon Trail with their parents, at different times, not knoWing each other until aft(!rward. They had the knowledge of homesteading and of mutual survival techniques. A man had to know a number of skills: the care of livestock, the maintenance of equipment, building of fences, houses and out-buildings, how.to sink a well, when to plant, when to harvest, and many other things. He could well have passed college exams in husbandry as well as give the college afew pointers not included in their courses. Although many of them were somewhat short on sophisticated education, theirs was education of a different sort, based upon experiments of their ancestors in America. · :My maternal grandfather chose mountain farming and had an up and down farm at Beaver, Oregon, whilemy other grandpa chose to live near the sea at Tillamook. He was a . carpenter. My young parents, during their first years of marriage, lived in the deep forest and peeled tan bark. Now this is the taking of bark from certain·1trees to be used for tanning, but without permanently injuring the trees. They kept two horses, 13 sheep, bees, pigs, a cow, and chickens. · I was the first born, and when I was three we traveled from Tillamook County to Lane County, and my father took a timber claim near Springfield. The trip was made via covered wagon, and I can remember how it rained just about all the way, the horses sometimes walking in water up to their knees; drawing the wagon over graveled roads. We.would have to find a barn by nightfall to shelter the team or they would be sick. The community was well established, but there was one remaining parcel of 13 T acres, which my father filed claim to. But there was a sizable stream running·alorig the roadside edge of it and the strip was occupied by a man named Putnam, as well as the rest of his acres along the side of ours. Upon this strip there was a.maple grove and two springs, and Mr. Putnam I i L __ _ was charging campers 25¢ a night to camp there. ]:>eople were litterbugs in those days too, and the grove and the creek were full of pollution. The whole acreage was one jungle of tall trees, underbi:'"Ush and foliage, woven together with vines. Space for living had to ·be cleared. It was an insurmountable job for one man with nothing but a saw and some axes. But we weren't alone." Soon our forest rang with the sound of ax and saw and calls of ''Timber." The men of the community made short work of it, and soon there was space for a ra.ad, a barn·and a house. The logs were trimmed and sent to the government sawmill up on the hill. And it caine backneatly sawed into lengths of lumber for building. It was stacked o"n the property and left to season. · For a while my father helped Mr. Donaldson on his place, but there was need for a man to work at the sawmill. The government furnished but one overseer at the mill, and the rest of the labor had to be voluntary. There were three government houses at the mill, and one was vacant, so we moved up there for a time. My father was doing his part for his community, the other two families for theirs. · Times when there was no work at the mill, Dad was doing. , things on his place. Having a great deal of skill and knowledge from his carpenter father, he began to erect a barn. Grandpa came by and said, "You don't have enough tools." So in no time Grandpa's.set of complete carpenter tools arrived by· freight. In those days a carpenter did everything necessary when building a house. So there were sets of saws, hammers of several weights; tools for building fireplaces, putting in window sash, installing locks, hanging doors.and installing pipe. There .were levels and planes and chisels and files and screw . drivers. And countless other gadgets, all useful. They were·. ·made of the finest materials imported from Germany. (My people were not German; they were Irish.) Grandpa and Dad finished the barn. On one side were the stables, in the center a place to house wagons and buggy. And . on .the other side bins, a tool room and a bunk room complete . with bunks on the wall and a pot-bellied stove. It was large, that barn. Iri the top of the middle section was the place for storing hay, the hay mow. A one-room house was built as temporary living space, and we moved down from the mountain. Dad made some chairs and tables, and Mr, Donaldson gave us the.stove from the hop house. We had brought beds and some other articles with us from Tillamook. The spring was some d.istance from the house, and wa.ter had to be carried from it until Dad drove down a · pipe and installed a hand pump_. The first winter on the homestead was a bad one. To begin with it was good because there was a barn warming and neigh~ bars came bringing gifts. One brought a young black gelding named Barney, another a milch cow, another a pregnant sow, chickens, hives of bees, a heifer calf, seeds and sprouts for planting, and one barefoot little boy came clutching a brindle kitten which he presented to me. I also had a dog named Brian .that my maternal grandfather had given me when we left. He
ities was a toy shepherd and my constant companion..Tha women brought all kinds of preserved foods for storage, the men donated bushels of potatoes and apples for the bins, and bacons. and hams. . ·. Young men brought their fiddles and guitars and there was· · dancing all night in the barn. .Breakfast was on long tables laden with steaming plates of biscuits, bacon, eggs, jars of jam and milk and coffee and cider. · . · . I remember a foggy day when I woke up with a sore throat and weakness. I cried. Outside I saw Barney come out of the barn and lie dowri on the ground. He gave one long moan, then lay stilL He was dead. The other horses were sick too, Dad · said. Through a mist I knew people were coming·and going; someone sat at my bedside coristaritly. The doctor came out · from town and said I had scarlet fever. We were quarantined and I was given calomel.' It made my teeth fall out, and som.e of them never grew in again. I floated on a river away from · everything, and the do"ctor said; "She won't live until morriing." Mr. Donaldson had gone on an errand to town. He brought back a bottle of medicine called "Swamp Root;" . "Give her some of this," he said .to my father. '~Well, the doctor has given her up; we can do no less.than try it," my father . said. He somehow got the dose down me, and I awoke in the morning smiling. I·was a skeleton, the skin peeling from my ·body, but I was better. I reached out my hand and said "Milk," and they gave me milk, fresh and warm from the cow. I lived because of the love that surrounded me; Outside, the world was breaking into spring and it was a time of resurrection. . And early in that spring my brother was born. I was five years old. · The sow had six pigs, all of them females, and Dad took · that to mean that his surplus for.the community would be pork. Every member of the community raised a surplus-to be distributed among the members. Mr. Donaldson had a large · orchard with a variety of fruit, and he fattened cattle on the river bottom during the summer. Mr. Carney had.sheep; he · furnished mutton and wooL So it went. The timber crew came and the clearing of the land began. Dad had been busy slashing out a lot of the underbrush, but it was necessary for skilled men to take out the big trees. The logs were floated down the river to sawmills downstream, but some of them Dad took up to the high sawmill, and they were cut into lumber for our house.·In taking out timber the pioneers were always careful to leave some, so each homesteader had part of his place left in forest. This, too, is better thinned out, the dead and diseased trees used for fire wood. Stumps· were blasted out with dynamite, but one must know how to handle that stuff. There were about 25 families in our community, and each · community was determined by the boundaries of its school . district, although each ran into the other and exchange went .on among people for miles around. The areas of the farms varied. Some had not claimed their 160 acres limit, but each. October 1976 RAIN Page 13 . tried to raise as much for his own family as he could and depend on t_he surpluses for the rest. Surplus and labor were always free. You did not insult a man by offering him money for his help. . , Each two weeks the members of the community met at the school house..The first thing the men held a meeting to assess · the progress of the community and to decide the order of . work. for the next two weeks. Every man would explain his own needs, and volunteers would be assigned to help him in · whatever he had to do. · When problems arose there was voting, and usually all . members abided by the will of the majority. There were no elected officers; but generally they sought the advice of Mr. Donaldson, who was the oldest and most experienced. When the men had decided exactly what was to be ·done in the next ·half month, the youJ!g men held their meeting and discussed vital issues of the day, often scheduling debates on vital issues affecting the state or nation. Noon time lurich was on long tables outside, or, if it was rainy, inside the school house. The ladies then displayed their handiwork for all to admire. After that they discussed problems concerning housekeeping and children. Evening brought entertainment. Young men played their · instruments, someone sang, and children recited poems. During the early evening there was a time devoted entirely to young children, when any one of us could say anything we wanted, tell our problems, or just show off. Each member, big and · little, was made to feel his.importance to the community as a whole. If.a decision went against a member, he was offered opportunities to perform some important service which was ·designed to restore his confidence. Each family was a unit revolving within a unit of the community. . As girls grew up, they were given opportunities to stay for short periods in homes other than their own to learn different ways of doing things than their mothers did. Or they often worked outdoors gardening or grooming animals. There was a . wide range of choices, one of which was to help with birthing and care of infants and mothers. Our midwife was an Indian lady, who was always ready to tell others the necessary things to do. She usually only stayed until the baby was born and
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