Lost Knowledge: Wood Gas Vehicles
Vehicles powered by wood gasification were popular during WWII. Could they make a comeback? Enthusiasts think so.
Transportation
Mail trains delivered the post non-stop
Here’s a part of a documentary about an impressive set of mail-carrying trains in the United Kingdom.
How-Not-To: Be seen
Justin Shull built this solar-powered terrestrial shrub rover, sort of the diet version of a cupcake car.
Jason Sacks in Xtreme Outlaw 250 race
MAKE pal Jason Sacks will racing in this weekend’s Xtreme Outlaws 250 race in and around Reno, NV (June 17-20). Jason is being sponsored by the fine folks at ShopBot. People who have worked on or presented at Maker Faire probably know Jason. He works as a production manager with the amazing crew that produces […]
Enclosed Belgian recumbent tricycles
No Technology Magazine has a lovely photo gallery, which points to far more extensive galleries, of enclosed Belgian recumbent trikes. Belgian Recumbent Tricycles More: See all of our recumbent coverage on MAKE
Zany hybrid rickshaw
Dubious practicality aside, you can’t deny this zany hybrid pedicab turns heads. Suspend your disbelief for a moment and marvel at the dual-action windmill/rotating sign’s purported ability to use the wind to assist the rider. If anything, it should attract copious potential customers.
Radially expanding and contracting table
Some observations: The table top pieces are only truly circular in their larger arrangement. In the “contracted” table, the 6 wedges in fact form a kind of rounded-off hexagon, and the outer table edge is made circular by the rotating rim, which has a complementary inner profile. Besides the wedges, there are two other types of pieces that make up the table top–6 “darts” having two parallel sides that rise to fill the spaces between the wedges, and the “star” (a dodecagram, in fact) that rises up in the middle. The table is locked in either configuration by one or more threaded detents which are quite clearly shown in the upper video.
