Video Travel Diary: The Beginning
Thursday, December 15th, 2005Omigod, it’s my very first video podcast! Paste the link into your iTunes to subscribe and view the movie. This is a short series of clips that I filmed using the movie function on my Canon Powershot A80 at the Hagley Museum in Delaware. The museum is the original site of the DuPont gunpowder mills.
The scenes I filmed are from the machine shop and a gunpowder rolling mill, both of which have the original machines in working order, powered completely by water. I took notes so that I can build machines to power my lights and computers when the oil runs out. I was fascinated by all of these machines with their open gearwork and ingenious drive mechanisms - they are unwieldy and elegant at the same time. The immense wheels that were used to crush the gunpowder are 8 tons of cast iron each - but move so quickly and gracefully that they are beautiful to watch. The whole thing is activated by opening a sluice gate - the water rushes down into a turbine, which turns gears that rotate a drive shaft, which extends laterally into the bottom of the rolling mill, and turns an enormous gear to power the wheels. So simple - and accomplished without the use of polluting gasoline or coal. It’s really too bad that DuPont is all about the scary chemicals now.
If you ever find yourself in Wilmington or the greater Phildelphia area with some time on your hands, go to the Hagley Museum and tour the grounds - it’s definitely a must-see if you are interested in pre-industrial-revolution technology.
