Interesting possibilities arise when you combine old technology with new knowledge and new materials, or when you apply old concepts and traditional knowledge to modern technology.
Technology has become the idol of our society, but technological progress is—more often than not—aimed at solving problems caused by earlier technical inventions.
There is a lot of potential in past and often forgotten knowledge and technologies when it comes to designing a sustainable society.
In the mid 20th century, whole cities’ sewage systems safely and successfully used fish to treat and purify their water. Waste-fed fish ponds are a low-tech, cheap, and sustainable alternative to deal with our own shit — and to obtain high protein food in the process.
From the Neolithic to the beginning of the twentieth century, coppiced woodlands, pollarded trees, and hedgerows provided people with a sustainable supply of energy, materials, and food.
During the first half of the twentieth century, Soviet citrologists grew (sub)tropical plants in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius – outdoors, and without the use of glass or any fossil fuel-powered assistance.
The fire – which we have used in our homes for over 400,000 years – remains the most versatile and sustainable household technology that humanity has ever known.
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For centuries, the Netherlands were mainly dredged by hand, supplemented by animal power, wind power and tidal power. Could it be done again?
Historical compressed air systems hold the key to the design of a low-tech, low-cost, robust, sustainable and relatively energy efficient energy storage medium.
Those who can overcome their vanity can revert to technology that has proven to work.
The heat storage hypocaust could keep a room warm for days with just one firing of the furnace.
The expression “estar en la gloria” (to be inside the gloria) means that someone feels happy and comfortable.
Pigeon towers helped Persian farmers cultivate all kinds of crops on previously arid, thin-soil land.
Hydraulic power transmission is very efficient compared to electricity when it is used to operate powerful but infrequently used machines.
From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, urban farmers grew Mediterranean fruits and vegetables as far north as England and the Netherlands, using only renewable energy.
Fish fermentation allowed the ancient Romans to store their fish surplus for long periods, in a time when there were no freezers and fishing was bound to fish migratory patterns.
Most modern heating systems are primarily based on the heating of air. This seems an obvious choice, but there are far worthier alternatives.
Lime burning is a now-forgotten industry that sustained many agrarian communities before energy became cheap.
In the nineteenth century, miniature water turbines were connected to the tap and could power any machine that is now driven by electricity
The trend towards small-scale, decentralised power production means that rope transmission might have a place in our energy system again
Jerker line systems can be used to operate water pumps or sawing machines, to forge iron, to process food or fibres, or to make paper.
Long-distance power transmission predates the invention of electricity by almost four centuries.
Virtually all human cultures have made baskets, and have apparently done so since we co-existed with ground sloths and sabre-toothed cats.
For being such a seemingly ordinary vehicle, the wheelbarrow has a surprisingly exciting history.
The old-timers on these pictures are not moving furniture or an oversized load. What can be seen on the roof is the fuel tank of the vehicle - a balloon filled with uncompressed gas.
Almost all of the leading economies in Western Europe during the last millenium relied on a large-scale use of fossil fuels such as peat and coal.
From the 1870s onwards, pedals and cranks were attached to tools like lathes, saws, grinders, shapers, tool sharpeners and to boring, drilling and cutting machines.
Cargo tramways can be fully or partly powered by gravity, and some deliver excess power that can be utilized to generate electricity or to drive cranes or machinery in nearby factories
During the last quarter of the 19th century, a radically improved generation of tools appeared.
Boat mills, bridge mills and hanging mills were almost as widespread as windmills.
Ropewalk factories are some of the most remarkable industrial workshops and buildings in history.
The only advantage that fossil-fuelled powered cranes have brought us, is a higher lifting speed
During the Second World War, almost every motorised vehicle in continental Europe was converted to use firewood.
Only four years after the first experimental trolleybus, an ordinary steam canal boat was adapted to a trolleyboat.
Depending on the size of the kiln, it took between one and six weeks for the fire to complete a full circle.
Would it make sense to revive the industrial windmill and again convert kinetic energy directly into mechanical energy?
Cable trains (or funiculars) are one of the most energy-efficient modes of transport out there.
The craftsmanship associated with timbrel vaulting has long vanished, but the achievements are still with us today.
Narcís Monturiol successfully resolved the two basic obstacles presented to submarine inventors: air supply and mechanical power.
In spite of all the high-tech that has been squeezed into cars, the 2CV from 1949 is still more energy efficient than the smallest Citroen today.
If we would stuff people in the ‘Queen Mary 2’ like we fold passengers into airplane seats, the ship could transport more than 500,000 people
Turn off your flat screen television and get lost in 17th, 18th and 19th century optical entertainment.
If water, sewage, gas and oil can be transported through underground pipelines, why not consumer goods as well?
More than two centuries ago, it was possible to very accurately pinpoint your position on earth by means of ‘satellites’.
More than 200 years ago it was already possible to send messages throughout Europe and America at the speed of an aeroplane – wireless and without need for electricity.