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263 comments on DrumBeat: May 12, 2007

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Greg in MO on May 12, 2007 - 6:08pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks for the link to the "Engines Of Our Ingenuity" website.

All those interested in tools, mechanics, physics, and the history behind our inventions (and looking for some quick light non-depressing reading) should check it out.

Here is a link to the Overall Index page:
http://www.uh.edu/engines/keywords.htm
2217 short articles!

Here is a quick sample...
2020 The screwdriver: archetype of subtle obviousness
[screwdriver, obvious, screwheads, invention]
1509 Late 18th century competition among roads, canals and railways [transportation, power, mines, mining, locomotive, Trevithick]
1512 The corner store: a retail outlet that is lost but not forgotten
[merchandising selling grocery store Galveston Beasley immigrants urban architecture]

Having recently started a business selling a modern version of a very old agricultural tool - still used world round by small farmers and called a grub hoe or digging hoe here in North America - I have been amazed at how many decent manual tools have been forgotten and have gone out of production since we started focusing on electric tools and farm tractors. Some I am able to find still available in other countries.

Thinking about the amount of effort needed to revive some of these tools and produce them here in the US is a bit overwhelming sometimes. One step at a time I guess..

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GreenMan on May 12, 2007 - 7:04pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

While we are talking about great hand tools...

This spring I have been using my new broadfork:

http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=1824&itemT...

It's a fabulous tool, and built to last a century. Surprisingly easy on the body (burns a lot of calories, though).

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totoneila on May 12, 2007 - 7:25pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hello Greenman,

Thxs for responding. Good tool that could be easily improved by simply adding a fulcrum point. After sticking into ground: swing out steel arms with metal pads on the end to act as a fulcrum point--then the leverage required is reduced by the teeter-totter action. Save your back and arms!

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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GreenMan on May 12, 2007 - 7:55pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Ah, you are missing the point. The crossbar is the fulcrum.

You step on the crossbar to drive the tines into the ground, then grab the handles and lean back. The crossbar on the surface of the soil is the fulcrum, and you just swing your weight back. Works very well.

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kjmclark on May 12, 2007 - 9:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Yeah, they're fun to use. Just make *sure* when using your broadfork in rocky soil, that you don't lean back into a *big* rock. The tines are quite solid, but you have tremendous leverage with a broadfork, and straightening those tines after you bend one on a big rock is not fun.

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ET on May 13, 2007 - 11:42pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Good tool that could be easily improved by simply adding a fulcrum point.

Hi Bob. A good friend of mine who frequently travels to India says that it is common there for 2 laborers to operate a simple hand shovel. One digs in a normal fashion while the second pulls on a rope that is attached near the shovel's head, thus sharing the real digging effort of moving the dirt up and out of the hole. Makes sense when labor is plentiful.

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WNC Observer on May 12, 2007 - 9:46pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Got one and do use it. The idea is to initially double dig a bed using the French intensive system, then never ever set foot on the oil again. Use your broadfork every spring to lift the soil for aeration and to loosen it so that you can work in more compost with a spading fork. The broadfork isn't really designed for TURNING soil, but for LIFTING it.

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notintodenial on May 12, 2007 - 9:03pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

In Tennessee archiologists have excavated a Native American "industrial" site specializing in the manufacture of chert digging hoe blades. The site has chert nodules of just the right size and having a near-ideal combination of toughness and workability. The workshop arrangements imply worker specialization, and were used over a long period of time. Their hoes have been found hundreds of miles away, re-sharpened down to a nub.

Maybe in a couple of hundred years that site will be back in production.

Errol in Miami

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WNC Observer on May 12, 2007 - 9:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

If you haven't dicovered him yet, Eric Sloan's books are loaded with facinating info about old tools and ways of using them.

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