string can phone

My sister likes to live simply, but sometimes she still msses the forest for the trees. “Although it enters from the workshop, there is no electricity in the workshop itself. IE, it couldn’t actually function as a workshop, despite it’s name.”

Her contrarian Brother would like to point out that there are plenty of non-electrically-powered hand-tools that still work in this day and age. First and foremost is the hand-saw. But a rotary hand-crank drill is not hard to find nor use.

And if you’re really hard-core, you can do it the opposite way — turn your power tools into hand-cranked generators!

Washboards are still around, if not selling like hotcakes.

Waxy waxes re oscilloscopes.

OLPC News brings us video of India’s XO Laptop Cow Power Dynamo.

Holy s**t!

Reports are in that Leonardo’s lathe works.

and an eccentric to steer by

Although we had heard of this project, we somehow failed to realize that the driving mechanism was a punch-card:

Treehugger brings us a handcrafted lightbulb in California that has been working since 1901. It was made by the Shelby Electric Company, has a carbon filament and an approximate wattage of 4 watts. It has been left burning continuously in a firehouse as a nightlight over the fire trucks.

SCP apologizes for its quietude. In truth, we have been too busy refreshing our 1337 T3L3GR4PH1C 5K1LLZ (rather rusty, we shame-facedly and shame-fingeredly admit) to post lately. In short, we have been enraptured with Mr. Hugovk’s new gem:

[A] dodgy prototype for Series 60 phones. Tap in some Morse code, and then send it as an SMS.

SCP wishes to thank the New Renaissance people at SpringSpring for our awareness.

From the late nineteenth century until just after the second world war, the Philadelphia based North Brothers company produced a line of very high quality tools based on a push to spin mechanism. (North Bros was an established company before they licensed the patents of Maine native Zachary T. Furbish, and produced many other quality tools like eggbeater drills, breast drills, braces, even ice tongs.)

In nineteen-fourty-six Stanley purchased the North Brothers company and from here there is a gradual decline in the quality of the tools. Stanley is still today manufacturing push drills/screwdrivers bearing the Yankee name — but only in England. Yet for two or three times the price of a new one, a used one fifty or more years old can be found, and that older tool will outlast the newer.

In this age of cordless electric screwdrivers, some might attribute the lure of the Yankee Drill to mere antiquarianism. Those people have never compared using the North Bros tool to a modern equivilent. Firstly there is the advantage of no batteries to replace or charge, and no cord to plug in. The screwdrivers are favored still today for several reasons. Boatmakers like a tool that won’t over-torque and damage the wood, yet can also be used one-handed underwater. The drill bits have sturdy straight fluted shanks, less prone to breakage; are very easily used one handed, while one holds the piece in place; and are almost as quick as a power tool for the small hole sizes of the original bits.

It is perhaps inevitable that quality companies will not last forever, but it is comforting to know that most of the tools from North Bros were built with such skill and care that they continue to be serviceable long after their maker’s demise.