Coolest Desk in the World
erco
Posts: 20,256
As I often say, people were much more clever mechanically in the time before processors, servos, even electricity and steam! I agree with Gizmodo's title, this self-transforming desk is a mind blower. From the 1700's! Watch the video. Of course, those are likely lead weights moving the internal mechanisms, so it's not ROHS compliant...
http://gizmodo.com/5967661/where-is-this-mind+blowing-antique-transforming-%20desk-hiding-its-autobot-logo
http://gizmodo.com/5967661/where-is-this-mind+blowing-antique-transforming-%20desk-hiding-its-autobot-logo
Comments
but I'll need to find out about the Sand Sifter in relation to the ink well.
But seriously, Erco, when I saw the thread title, my mind was headed more in this direction:
-Phil
Better not let the slavemasters at Microsoft see that crappy desk you've got there: coders would never be allowed to leave their work, then.
All it's missing is one of these:
*Takes a dramatic pose*
By the Power of Google!
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/156685-sand-used-instead-of-blotting-paper/
Quite an interesting read.
"My pocket-book was constantly incommoded.."
"...singularly disagreeable..."
Sigh, whatever happened to our beautiful language? They seem to have had a lot more words to choose from back in those days and put them together in delightful ways.
I did some searching but did not run across that gem.
The craftsmanship of that time period using hand tools was amazing.
I used "sand sifter inkwell"
FYI, that kind of craftsmaship persists to this day. I have a friend who makes and restores violin bows. No fancy CNC or 3D printing is involved. He uses the techniques and tools of the French masters of the 17th century, and the products of his efforts are total works of art, Here's an example:
Another friend is a luthier (instrument maker). 'Again, no computer-controlled gizmos involved:
Where I live (Port Townsend) is also a hot-bed of wooden boat-building ...
... not to mention some pretty amazing hand-made furniture:
I guess my point is that craftsmanship has not disappeared. Far from it. But, behind the noise and din of modern technology, you just have to look harder for it.
-Phil
My father learned boatbuilding at a local shipyard back in the 50s, building boats like these:
https://www.google.no/search?q=skorgenes+snekke&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ThwvUYG7IMqK4gSP4YGoBw&ved=0CEsQsAQ&biw=1345&bih=667#hl=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=skorgenes+tresnekke&oq=skorgenes+tresnekke&gs_l=img.3...66601.67293.0.67921.3.3.0.0.0.0.167.266.2j1.3.0...0.0...1c.1.5.img.8QuZzEAW4lg&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43148975,d.bGE&fp=476749e23f332680&biw=1345&bih=667
Here's a picture he took during the early stages of a build:
http://www.vestnes.kommune.no/modules/media.aspx?ObjectType=Image&Image.ID=2574&Category.ID=1753
Later he started up his own company to build wooden boats up to about 32'
He even built sloops for cruise ships.
(I bet that if you tried, you could still find some of his boats in use on Iceland or the faroe islands as he exported quite a few fishing boats.)
But then came fibreglass boats...
That invention really did a number on the boatbuilding tradition.
If anyone wonders, the big difference between a first-class cabinetmaker and a boatbuilder was that the boatbuilder also had to account for high humidity...
And in the case of people like my father, they also had to master upholstery, understand fluid dynamics(You can't design a hull without understanding how water flows around it.), metalworking, electrical works, weight distribution and a lot of other skills not usually associated with building a desk.