Low-tech Magazine Volume II (2012-2018)

Low-tech Magazine underscores the potential of past and often forgotten technologies and how they can inform sustainable energy practices. Sometimes, past technologies can be copied without any changes. More often, interesting possibilities arise when older technology is combined with new knowledge and new materials, or when past concepts and traditional knowledge are applied to modern technology. Inspiration is also to be found in the so-called "developing" world, where resource constraints often lead to inventive, low-tech solutions. This second volume contains 36 articles published between 2012 and 2018. It has 263 images in black and white. Compared to the website, we have partly rewritten some stories, updated all references, and added more or better images. Third, revised edition (2026) Originally, published in 2019. Contents table: The solar envelope: how to heat and cool cities without fossil fuel Cargo cyclists replace truck drivers on European city streets Electric velomobiles: as fast and comfortable as automobiles, but 80 times more efficient How to make everything ourselves: open modular hardware The Mechanical Transmission of Power (1): Stangenkunst The Mechanical Transmission of Power (2): Jerker Line Systems The Mechanical Transmission of Power (3): Endless Rope Drives Back to Basics: Direct Hydropower Power from the Tap: Water Motors High Speed Trains are Killing the European Railway Network Modular Cargo Cycles Well-Tended Fires Outperform Modern Cooking Stoves If We Insulate Our Houses, Why Not Our Cooking Pots? The Revenge of the Circulating Fan Restoring the Old Way of Warming: Heating People, not Places How Sustainable is PV Solar Power? How Sustainable is Stored Sunlight? Why We Need a Speed Limit for the Internet How to Build a Low-tech Internet Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s Reinventing the Greenhouse Power Water Networks Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? How to Get Your Apartment Off the Grid The Curse of the Modern Office Why the Office Needs a Typewriter Revolution Heat Storage Hypocausts: Air Heating in the Middle Ages Could We Run Modern Society on Human Power Alone? How (Not) to Run a Modern Society on Solar and Wind Power Alone How to Run the Economy on the Weather Bedazzled by Energy Efficiency How Much Energy Do We Need? History and Future of the Compressed Air Economy Ditch the Batteries: Off-grid Compressed Air Energy Storage We Can’t Do It Ourselves How to Build a Low-tech Website?