Scan barcode
jenenglish's review
4.0
This book thoroughly covers a topic that has not been written about much: powering household and garden devices with the human body. It discusses the history of human power and the physics behind human-powered devices, and provides a survey of products on the market and very detailed plans for making your own pedal-powered devices such as blenders, juicers, and grain mills. It is a very practical book, and thankfully does not devote any space to rants about the evils of technology or reasons why we should all switch to human-powered devices.
One added bonus of this book its information about technology transfer to developing countries, including [b:success stories|3228917|Outliers|Malcolm Gladwell|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41bbHmtqpQL._SL75_.jpg|3364437] of pedal-power projects in African and Central American countries. If you have considered donating time or money to projects that donate goods to developing countries, the sections on this topic in the book are worth reading as a good basis for questions to ask before doing so.
One added bonus of this book its information about technology transfer to developing countries, including [b:success stories|3228917|Outliers|Malcolm Gladwell|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41bbHmtqpQL._SL75_.jpg|3364437] of pedal-power projects in African and Central American countries. If you have considered donating time or money to projects that donate goods to developing countries, the sections on this topic in the book are worth reading as a good basis for questions to ask before doing so.
More...