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S-trap / P-trap (Eg in sinks and toilets)
And zip ties 👍
Pretty much anything with an interplay of water and air pressure fascinates me. Someone else mentioned siphons. I’ll mention diving bells and bongs.
Perculator coffee!
The moka pot
+1 Moka pot
My not-vented s traps are not impressive
A fountain pen is just a controlled leak
I use a Kaweco Sport as my daily driver.
Bonus: Nobody ever “borrows” it at work because it confuses and terrifies them.
Manual can openers are better than electric can openers
Especially the kind that uncrimps the can instead of cuts it.
Do vinyl records count? I really like that they make beautiful noise from a simple electromechanical process.
There are some records which are “threaded” backwards, in that you start at the center and work out rather than start at the edge and work in. This is not standard, automatic turntables might not be able to handle this, but the reason they do this is because of the effect above. You can get greater dynamic range near the outside of the disc, and you probably want greater dynamic range near the end of the recording as the music reaches a climax. Consider Ravel’s Bolero, which is one long crescendo.
String/rope. With a couple of knots, loops and tension you can make a lot of things with it.
INDOOR PLUMBING
I live in an apartment complex. The thought of having to share an outhouse (more than 1 if lucky) with hundreds of strangers TERRIFIES ME. And/or use chamberpots. FUCK NO
A BLESSED ETERNAL AFTERLIFE OF BLISS FOR ALL HUMANS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO INDOOR PLUMBING SCIENCE 😩
See, in the past we solved that by just not having cities the same way, and no buildings taller than maybe 6 floors. And the smallish cities there were were so disease ridden the population self-limited.
Lathes. You spin a thing and cut it, which sounds unimpressive, but from there you can bootstrap to pretty much all modern technology.
Partially buried housing (ground cooling effect)
Do you have any good resource for beginner to learn about this?
YT Our Self Reliant Life.
On this same note, insulation in general. We can only make something so strong, conductive, heat-resistant, light or hard, so we’ve internalised the expectation that there’s always practical limits. But insulative? There just isn’t one. That means that with an arbitrarily small source of energy - body heat is not only possible but typical - you can overcome unlimited external coldness. We’ve being doing this since before we were human, by many definitions.
Wheels are pretty cool
Dice.
Automatic (mechanical) wristwatches.
I love the idea of a truly symbiotic relationship between a thoughtfully and carefully designed mechanism and a human. I walk around and live my life, and by doing so, I give it the kinetic energy it needs to keep its mainspring wound, and in return it tells me what time it is. Always. Without fail. I just have to tweak the time if it starts to get too far off, but that’s barely even an imposition. After a good long while, it’s prudent to have them serviced, but if you’re not observing any problems, it’s generally perfectly fine, and will keep ticking along as long as you wear it regularly.
also, knowing you are listening to the same exact tick tock that has been heard for centuries
I had a cheap automatic in college, sadly lost it in a move.
But I loved it so much, kept itself wound up without issue, and it was amazing to look at all the tiny parts that made it work.
There are some good enough automatics out now at very reasonable prices.
Of course there are also crazy expensive ones also, but they all do essentially the same thing - convert your movements into time measurements 😀
Similarly, I have a cuckoo clock. I could watch the internal mechanism for hours.
Siphons
Rock.
Consider the humble pillow.
Fun fact, some cultures don’t use pillows, and instead have carefully shaped head stands.
I am fully aware
I fear every person from any of those cultures. Those who sleep on hard surfaces are not to be trifled with, for they are stronger than all of us.
I’ve heard it’s actually more comfortable in really hot conditions. If its metal, the whole thing can be a cold spot I guess.
Anyway, I’d like to flex about all the rough sleeping I’ve done. It’s not usually braggable.
I bought a can opener years back that doesn’t cut the can, instead it separates the lid from the can with no sharp edges. It’s dumb but I love it.
Those are great, but somehow all the cans that i am buying now seem to come with their own “zip”. Haven’t used the opener in a good while.
Not dumb. Awesome.
