Volute Shaped Blower [video] | Hacker News Reader

Volute Shaped Blower [video]

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58 pointsthunderbong23 comments

I love the fact that he goes through all that and discovers that it's less effective and unergonomic. Most other channels would've scrapped the video and found something "good" to show. I appreciate people dealing with reality.

This is a great answer to the question: Why don't they just ....

The next stage of technology requires advancement in several areas - like gearing AND the shape and proportions of the blower.

While you are experimenting, your solution will be WORSE than the existing technology. Think about the social pressure and shame that might come with that - not every time, not in every community - but pretty often.

Videos by Primitive Technology are so weirdly fascinating. It seems unlikely that a video with no dialog of a guy making bricks from scratch would be compelling viewing, but it is.

Not to mention that the hut he's making the bricks in was also made from just clay and wood, as was the kiln he's using to make the bricks...

I agree. Maybe it is fascinating because it has zero bullshit, skips no details and brings us back to our human nature? A state where most of humanity were in, very different from the current life. Spiritual home?

Could be, yes. It's nice to see stuff that is not sponsored by some VPN, and has no "like, subscribe, etc" in it (although I understand why people do that).

Also, for me, there is a real-life Minecraft feel to it all. I guess it is 'experimental archaeology', in a sense?

But also, it brings me back to childhood, dicking around on the beach or in forest streams, building dams and other such things. It all looks like the kind of thing anyone here would or could do if they were out in the sticks like that.

He has another channel? Can you link? I found nothing:

https://primitivetechnology.wordpress.com/about/

https://www.patreon.com/user/about?u=2945881

Weird, I was sure that there was another channel - maybe the logo changed and that fooled me, or it was some beautiful dream. Sorry about that.

edit: Argh, I have a horrible feeling that I used to watch some copycat channel that re-uploaded his videos, which is why I thought he had several :(

There are impostor channels using similar logos and fake builds using cheap labor and concrete. They do this mostly in India in order to gain views and make ad revenue from it. Maybe you were talking about such a channel?

No, pretty sure it was the same guy - I've seen one or two of the knock-off videos, and it's not as interesting (and as you say, fake). There's mention on the wiki page for Primitive Technology that he had problems with re-uploaders.

Don't forget to turn on closed caption as he explains things during the video

You'd probably like 'red hot nickel ball' on a channel called 'cars and water'. Short, 2-5 minute videos sans dialog where this person just heats a nickel ball until its red hot and puts it on top of something. He just answers a question you didnt know you had and then the video ends. It is genius.

I never miss one of this guy’s new videos. He’s a true artist. And it gives you even more appreciation for the brilliant people who figured out how to smelt iron and other things like that thousands of years ago without having any books to consult.

I can't wait to see what he is going to make with all those prills.

Don't forget to turn on subtitles/closed captions!

I don't know why this particular video was submitted, the idea did not pan out.

Failure is always an option. Some of his earlier designs for furnaces, huts, methods didn't pan out and the next iteration explained why and what he fixed. I think that's really valuable.

I like how some of the shots hint at future possibility of improvement.

* The inside connection from the blower to the tuyere was a sharp transition. Perhaps it could be smoothed to reduce back-pressure.

* Poor ergonomics for spinning the rotor (mentioned near the end of the video). Might be improved by having a longer central shaft for the rotor, so it could be operated while standing.

I hope one day Primitive Technology makes it out of the early game.

Looks like iron toolheads will be coming around soon. Possibly even mild steel.

What do you want to see? Bronze?

Probably not; he did a "reset" some time ago (probably after publishing his book), starting over from scratch.

To be honest, I'm getting kinda tired of his videos; it feels like most of them are repeated variations of building a hut, making clay/bricks, charcoal and smelting iron.

This is our future if we believe the AI companies.

This is quite interesting.

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