Whereas the first volume contained all but a handful of web articles published between 2012 and 2018, this second volume features a third of the web articles published in the earlier years, carefully selected for their continued relevance and interest today. Overall, we wanted to make an attractive book with timeless articles rather than an exact copy of the website.

The second volume of the printed website is out now and contains 32 articles originally published between 2007 and 2012. The book, which has 618 pages and 268 images, is for sale in the Lulu Bookstore .

The printed version of Low-tech Magazine can be viewed with no access to a computer or a power supply -- or when the solar powered website is down due to bad weather.

Low-tech Magazine 2007-2012, Kris De Decker, ISBN 9781794711525, 618 pp., December 2019. [+Kindle version]

Design Changes

Based on the feedback we received on the first volume, we made a few changes to the design. This volume has more images and they are now located in the middle and not at the end of each article. None of the images is dithered. The cover is almost identical to that of the first book, but the spine has a different color.

For most of the period covered in this volume, Low-tech Magazine did not make use of footnotes, but rather hyperlinks in the text. For the book, these links have been converted to references, and dead links have been replaced by links to copies of pages recorded by the Internet Archive. Ironically, the references in the book are now more up-to-date than those on the website.

This book is printed on demand, meaning that a copy is only printed when someone orders it. It takes a bit longer to receive the book, and because each copy goes straight from printer to client, there is no way for us to control the print quality. If you receive a copy that is badly printed, you should notify Lulu to get a replacement. It’s a very smooth process and there’s no need to return the damaged copy.

More Books?

With the availability of this second book, the most important articles from the first twelve years of Low-tech Magazine are now available on paper. A third volume containing all articles published after September 2018 is anticipated but unconfirmed as yet. We are considering waiting until there is sufficient material to fill another 600-700 pages; alternatively, we could publish more often.

We also plan to bring out a print version of No Tech Magazine, Low-tech Magazine’s sister blog that has been curating shorter posts since 2009. But for now, the focus is back on writing.

Contents

How to downsize a transport network: the Chinese wheelbarrow

Medieval smokestacks: fossil fuels in pre-industrial times

The bright future of solar powered factories

Pedal powered farms and factories: the forgotten future of the stationary bicycle

Bike powered electricity generators are not sustainable

The short history of early pedal powered machines

Insulation: first the body, then the home

Aerial ropeways: automatic cargo transport for a bargain

Hand powered drilling tools and machines

Boat mills: water powered, floating factories

Recycling animal and human dung is the key to sustainable farming

The status quo of electric cars: better batteries, same range

The sky is the limit: human powered cranes and lifting devices

Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

Gas bag vehicles

Trolley canal boats

How (not) to resolve the energy crisis

Hoffmann kilns

Wind powered factories: history (and future) of industrial windmills

Water powered cable trains

Get wired (again): Trolleybuses and Trolleytrucks

Electric road trains in Germany, 1901 - 1950

The monster footprint of digital technology

Cargo ships, then and now

Moonlight towers: light pollution in the 1800s

Tiles as a substitute for steel: the art of the timbrel vault

A steam powered submarine: the Ictíneo

The Citroen 2CV: cleantech from the 1940s

Life without airplanes: from London to New York in 3 days and 12 hours

Satellite navigation in the 18th century

Email in the 18th century: the optical telegraph

Images: Jordi Parra.