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Kerosene fridge, anyone? God bless the Amish.

Kerosene models do exist

Really they just need a source of heat.

In any case the risk of "burning to death" could be possible with any liquid fuel powered device (even eg: Lawnmower, or car).

You can get the 48 light deal and setup a grid of lights to provide night time lighting for six hours and you won't have to pay the electricity bill.

Nokero claims "over" two hours of light on a typical daily charge - which is about right if you want a direct replacement for a bottled gas or kerosene lantern.

This story reminded me that there is still a market for the kerosene fueled refrigerator.

Before the machines they used scrub boards in a washtub. It's a flat board with ripples in it, you scrub the wet clothes against it. Then the clothes were hand wrung and hung dry, or they had mechanical crank "wringers" to get the extra water out. (I still own this stuff as backup, and yes, have used them enough to get fair at it). I also have one of these things as a further, more modern biodrive backup washing machine. Does small loads, but it does work.

Anyway, check that whole catalog/site out, tons of neat "no electricity required" gadgets, including a more full size hand cranked washing machine.

A specialty store sometimes you can find things made in maybe Europe somewhere, but US made things are hard to find and anything non-chinese is pretty hard as well.

Check out Lehman's. They're smack in the middle of the Ohio Amish/Mennonite community, and cater to their need for simple and non-electric tools. Some of their stuff is hand-made by the locals, including some toys. Sure, they're not the snazzy plastic baubles you can get everywhere else, but are more simple things, often made of wood. I see that the "Toys" link off the main page boasts "Made in the USA".

We went to French press method in our house many year ago. Good stuff. Been contemplating the Turkish method as of late, but haven't invested in a set of hardware yet.

I have friends who have run these things for years and they are trouble free. The main problem with them is that their thermodynamic efficiency is poor, so they end up producing a great deal more heat than cold. Therefore the fuel costs are higher than the electricity costs would be for the more common phase-change process used in ordinary everyday appliances.

There is nothing special about propane as a heat source. Kerosene is also used though other fuels are plausible. The caloric output of the heat source has to be fairly steady, which makes a wood-fired system more problematic, but still more plausible than a vortex system.

In reality a phase-change compressor driven by bicycle pedals would be more practical, if human-powered refrigeration is the goal. The technology is established and the efficiency has the benefit of decades of development.

Milk Stool

See, they are still dangerous. They can still milk some poor fools.

I am dismayed by the lack of usable suggestions. Here is some more practical.

1. Purchase a very large fan
2. Get a 12v to 120v inverter
3. Purchase one of these turbines
4. Install the turbine on the rack and wire up the inverter to your gear
5. Plug in the fan and enjoy your creativity (Great cooling performance is a bonus)

Think outside the box? I believe that the is no box!

SD

Sure, I think that we all find the net-ready fridge is silly, but we have market forces that will take care of these things. If nobody buys it, it will smoothly fade into the background of failed gadgets and dissapear from our lives. And even if there are enough consumers out there who really do want a WebFridge (/. readers, no doubt.) that does not mean that _you_ have to buy one. Every person retains the magical ability to say "This is a piece of shit and I'm not buying one." Ta da! Problem solved.

What if the only refrigerators available on the markert were WebFridges? At that point, your "choice" is to (a) get a WebFridge or (b) learn why they used to be called "iceboxes."

I run into this all the time with children's toys. I would like to be able to buy simple, classic, durable toys for my kids that aren't

• cartoon ads
• V-Tech "speech enhanced"
• beschpreckled mit der blinkenlights und der bleepinklangen
• cheap plastic sh** that breaks in two days

The Amish experience this on a much more profound scale. There are a few places like Lehman's which stock items which the Amish consider "appropriate technology," but in a number of ways, the Amish struggle to determine their own technology destiny against the overwhelming tide of the "English".

Jon Katz wrote about Clotho.org being a "non-coercive" way to restrain technology. I can only assume that he considers any attempt to say "let's decide not to pursue technology X" to be "coercive" to the technophiles who want to be Wired To The Max. What he fails to consider is the coercive nature of a society hell-bent on implementing all that is possible and profitable for those who wish to walk a different path. But I guess such "Luddites" aren't worthy of consideration.

"Civilization has run on ahead of the soul of man, and is producing faster than he can think and give thanks."
-- G. K. Chesterton