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How to Escape From the Iron Age?

We cannot lower carbon emissions if we keep producing steel with fossil fuels.

Thematic Book Series: How to Downsize a Transport Network?

We have launched the second volume in a new series of books opening up Low-tech Magazine’s archive by theme.

How to Design a Sailing Ship for the 21st Century?

It is surprisingly difficult to build a carbon neutral sailing ship. This is even more the case today, because our standards for safety, health, hygiene, comfort, and convenience have changed profoundly since the Age of Sail.

Could We Dredge the Netherlands Without Fossil Fuels?

For centuries, the Netherlands were mainly dredged by hand, supplemented by animal power, wind power and tidal power. Could it be done again?

Boat Mills: Water Powered, Floating Factories

Boat mills, bridge mills and hanging mills were almost as widespread as windmills.

Trolley Canal Boats

Only four years after the first experimental trolleybus, an ordinary steam canal boat was adapted to a trolleyboat.

Sailing at the Touch of a Button

If you want a revival of sail the high-tech way, you can have it.

Cargo Ships, Then and Now

Time for a new age of sail.

Life Without Airplanes: from London to New York in 3 Days and 12 Hours

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

Satellite Navigation in the 18th Century

More than two centuries ago, it was possible to very accurately pinpoint your position on earth by means of ‘satellites’.