[Greenbuilding] Jevons's plumber

RT archilogic at yahoo.ca
Wed Aug 1 10:45:02 CDT 2012


On Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:22:18 -0400, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 7:13 PM, Clarke Olsen <colsen at fairpoint.net>  
> wrote:
>
>> "inflection points". I thought of the WWIIabout period as a low point

>> I have some 19th century machinery which shows superb casting technique.
>> I had assumed that without the follow-up machines, they cast a finished
>> unit, whereas later a finish grinding was assumed.

> Studying the water consumption of US flush toilets one is struck by the
> fact that in the 1920s toilets used a comparable amount of water per  
> flush that today's (1992) EPA standard compliant toilets use.

> So how to explain the interim nuttiness that included 12 gpf in the  
> sixties,
>  And washing machines that used 70 gallons of water per load?!

I think that nostalgia is probably a lot like what childbirth must be for  
women -- one forgets the pain.

When I was a student who put on the hat "building contractor" during  
summer break, I'd take on one or a few vacation home projects in the lake  
country of Northern Ontario as a paid "holiday".

ie We'd work during the week when we had the lakes to ourselves and go  
back to the city on a weekend when the people from the city invaded.

One of the vehicles that we often used for the trip back and forth to  
civilisation was a 1938 Chevrolet Master Deluxe  (same as this one:  
http://ipocars.com/vinfo/chevrolet/master_deluxe_town_sedan-1938.html  )

Yes, it was pretty nifty to tour around in (at a time when Honda Civics  
were just introduced to North America) and one would tend to say "They  
don't built 'em like that any more"  the reality is that the behemoth  
weighed almost 3000 lbs, and only got about 80 hp out of a 3.5 litre 6  
cylinder engine and at best, maybe 15 litres/100 kms ( 15 mpg US) if one  
was going downhill, with a tailwind and some luck.

And the thing was prone to vapour lock

                   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor_lock

Sure, one thinks of cruising around in that old girl with fond memories  
but the day-to-day realities of living with its ancient/inefficient  
technology was susbstantially more rude (ie filled with expletives).

As for the 1920's toilets, my parents' house that I grew up in had one of  
those "modern" 1920's era toilets. "Modern" because the reservoir was a  
porcelain tank down by the bowl rather than a lined wooden tank up near  
the ceiling.

The memories of life with that concraption are less fond. It may have used  
less water per flush than
toilets of the 60s and 70s but I seem to recall that it didn't flush  
particularly well, often requiring multiple flushes to accomplish the task.

The craftsmanship and materiality (ie aesthetics) may have been better in  
yesteryear ( ie the "lost wax" casting process:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost-wax_casting  )

but the technology which they employed in order to do the tasks for which  
they were intended often left much to be desired (when compared to  
today's).

Moral of story : Art and Craft may have been more evident/better in the  
old stuff but there is no comparison to operating efficiency of 21st C  
technology.  And as past discussions re: embodied-energy vs life-cycle  
operating energy illustrated, LCOE is far more important from a Green  
perspective. But From the "I too will something make ... And Joy in the  
process" perspective, products of the Past, win.

The challenge then becomes "Can one take one of those arty/crafty Products  
of the Past and adapt them to utilise efficient 21st C technology."


-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom					AOD257
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

< A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a  >
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