Here’s something from the US we could use
Posted on April 29, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
To the Australian eye, Berkeley, the famous University town on the outskirts of San Francisco, has a pleasing aspect; many of the street trees are Australian eucalypts providing a gentle reminder of home.
Berkeley is a famously radical city and the home of numerous famous scientific research laboratories. Part of this heritage is an interesting approach to how their community works, typified by the local library running one of the world’s first Tool Lending Libraries.
Situated at 1901 Russell St Berkeley the Tool Lending Library(TLL) is staffed by some helpful (ie good for advice) people. The tools, which range from the obvious such as shovels and hammers to the more complex such as cement mixers or hammer drills, are free to borrow, although fines accumulate fairly rapidly.
The usual loan periods are two, three or seven days. The TLL seems to have ironed out all the legal issues and it is not excessively bureaucratic. Robert Young and Angel Estes, the two blokes who were running the show when I visited, were very helpful: they seemed like men who had a good job and enjoyed their work.
The bigger tool hire companies apparently don’t regard them as serious competition as the TLL tool borrowers borrow very basic tools and tend to ask a lot of questions and often need advice. The Library would also provide a good way into gardening/renovation/making stuff for people with limited resources who can’t afford to buy tools they might only use a few times a year.
This idea might be one that Community Men’s Sheds could investigate.
Random Excuse Generator - Video
Posted on February 8, 2008
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment
Hoke’s Tool Co products in UK?
Posted on January 28, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Mr Lea-Jones has tracked down what maybe one of Henry Hoke’s earliest inventions, photos of which are shown here. A 2 foot long brass pump arrangement, the device has a flared horn with a hinged mesh cage covering the orifice. It seemed very obvious that this was a useful, well-crafted tool… but for what?
At the base of the tool are stamped the letters “MADE IN UK”… possibly. The letters have faded considerably (no doubt from the sweaty palms of its’ operators wearing down the brass over many years) and it is entirely possible that the lettering could have read “MADE IN HOKE’S BLUFF”.
Initial discussions between Mr Lea-Jones and myself concluded that the device may have been a patent Arachnid Arrester, made to capitalise on the mass panic resulting from the spate of dunny seat spider bites that took place in the humid Australian summer of 1926. In fact Mr Lea-Jones used the device in this capacity, and found that it worked perfectly, capturing, I notice, a very rare 5-legged spider. 
After a troubled night’s sleep I have come to the conclusion that I am not quite satisfied with this hypothesis. My latest ‘feeling’ is that it may have been a Vacuum Pump for Hoke’s Credulity Strainer and that the device’s spider-trapping qualities are simply a bonus. There is also the possibilty that it could have been one of Hoke’s Self-Absorbtion Appliances, a tool highly important to a man such as Henry Hoke who was allergic to his own dandruff.
We may never know. Or maybe we will. Your suggestions are welcome.
My thanks to Julian Lea-Jones for his interest .
The Random Excuse Generator - firing on all three cylinders.
Posted on January 23, 2008
Filed Under News | 1 Comment
Dr Chris Block and I recently completed a trial run of the reconstructed Random Excuse Generator - the little known masterwork of mechanical genius Henry Hoke.
It was a great occasion: achieving a sort of closure to many years of hard work by Dr Block (who is the Technical Director here at the Insitute) and I.
A film crew was present to record the final triumphant moments and it is viewable on Youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_CvIg_z1rM
(You’ll have to copy that and paste it into your browser)
We are endeavouring to present the REG at a number of public events in the upcoming year.
Ron Edwards passes on
Posted on January 16, 2008
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment
Ron was one of Australia’s most successful self publishers. Through his Ram’s Skull Press, which he started in 1950, he put out a staggering number of self published and mostly self printed books. Anybody seriously interested in leatherwork, saddlery or bush skills would usually have some of his books. Written in a casually informative way and illustrated with his beautiful sketches, Ron managed to put out many dozens of titles over the years.
His series of books (at least 7 of them) on Bushcrafts are the single largest collection of information about old fashioned bush skills ever amassed in Australia. They are an amazing piece of historical research, done without the aid of any formal qualifications, large institutional backing or funding body - just Ron’s curiousity and interest in spreading useful information. No-one has done more to record the day to day fabric of life in colonial Australia and how people made things to survive. He was interested in music of all kinds, in boat building, all aspects of Aboriginal culture, architecture, everything around him. If you wanted to make a saddle or a piece of complex ropework or a whip or a small ship, Ron knew how. And he kept drawing and painting his simple, elegant pictures his whole life.
We need more Rons.
What are we here for again?
Posted on January 8, 2008
Filed Under News | 3 Comments
The sort of shed culture that I am keen to propagate is about a sort of frugal thoughtfulness blended with the sort of creativity that has become unfashionable. Creativity is not an easy subject to raise in these circumstances because in many people’s minds it brings up images of.. well, wankers and artists who are obsessed with themselves. It’s a bloody tragedy that ‘creativity ‘ has now become a specialised activity and that people have bought the idea that there is a small specialised sector of zany, whacky creative types - usually weird messy or otherwise being outsiders - and that there is everybody no is normal and not at all creative.
This proposition strikes me as crap. I meet large numbers of peole who I think are stunningly creative and innovative in many ways but because they haven’t gone down the official art path, or worse still, make things that are useful, they are somehow not ‘creative’. Officially creative means that things have a big white space around them so that you know they are creative, such as in an art gallery or a framed picture (I went to art school, so I know these things)
Saying that most of the art world is basically up itself and a waste of time makes me, of course, an ungrateful barbarian to many of my former colleagues in the art world.
And I would leave it at that but I feel that not harnessing or recognising the full creative talents of a culture could be a fatal flaw for any culture.
I’ve recently been reading “Collapse” by American biologist/geographer Jared Diamond in which he outlines numerous cultures and societies which have collapsed and vanished and why. The story of Easter Island is particularly disturbing. Jared Diamond points out; what could they have been thinking when they cut down the last tree, thus leaving them on a very isolated Pacific ocean with no way of making a boat to leave the place?
“Collapse” certainly makes convinces me that anyone who thinks that somehow the vast magnicient edifice of western civilisation couldnt fall over very easily is deluding themselves.
Hoe\wever I’m starting to rant I think. I’d better go out to the shed and make something.
That’s why I want to encourage a sort of personal sense of responsibility for how the world works around each of us
(Limited Edition) Institute T-Shirt
Posted on January 7, 2008
Filed Under Clothing, Large, Medium, Products, Small, X-Large, XX-Large | Leave a Comment
Now that the Institute has gone international, this is the one (and only) run of shirts with the “Australasian” logo. On the front is the Institute’s logo, while on the back are the five principles of shed science:
- Never throw anything out.
- I know where everything is.
- Yes, I need seven of those.
- Leave that alone.
- It works better that way.
   |
Price: $20.00 (AUD)
The Maker’s Bill of Rights
Posted on December 19, 2007
Filed Under News | 1 Comment
Things are different now. Americans seem to have different things on their mind such as reducng third world countries to dust and misery or ignoring global warming to the point of calamity. They’re not as easy to like.
Until yesterday when my jaded view of the US took a sudden turn for the better. From my friend Genevieve in Oregon (who is transplanted there under most unusual circumstances) I received a copy of The Best of Make: 75 projects from the pages of Make.
Make Magazine is a US Magazine that has only been going for a few years but has found a vast niche market: the people who are the shed tinkerers of the US, the hard rubbish collectors, the try-anything-for-a-bit-of-a-laugh types, the frugal people who never throw anything out because they can see use still in that stuff.
The projects they make a somewhere between art/craft/engineering… and fun. Most important… fun.
At last! We here at the Institute of Backyard Studies salute Make and the many activites they propagate such as Makers Faires and lots of online material (see www.makezine.com)
The book is even better. It starts with a story from Mister Jalopy about trying to repair his car’s non-functional fuel guage which was going to cost over $500. He decided to try to do it himself and ended up finding it was a very simple problem involving a broken clip which would have cost about a dollar.
What the Maker people are about is forcing manufacturers not to do this sort of wasteful foolishness and they pursue with a missionary zeal.
Their Makers Bill of Rights should go up on any respectable shed wall. It includes things like Cases shall be easy to open! Batteries should be replaceable! Special tools are allowed only for darn good reasons! Screws are better than glues! And many others usually relating to eletronics (they are very keen on liberating electronics from geekdom).
There’s also an eagerness and openness about sharing ideas and knowledge that is quite infectious.
This book will gladden the heart of any tinkerer and it is especially good for a child who needs to get some hands-on experience and will see some results from that experience. It would be a nice addition to any library in a community men’s shed..
‘Henry Hoke’s Guide to the Misguided’ launched
Posted on December 6, 2007
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment
After a frantically busy day and by the skin of the Institute’s teeth, Henry Hoke’s ‘Guide to the Misguided’ was launched on Monday 3rd December 2007 at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.
This latest book, subtitled “An Inventor’s Thwarted Genius - A Speculative History”, is the story of an unsung inventive genius whose work should have revolutionised the modern world.
Henry Hoke’s story deserves to be told and the new book was launched with a speech by the Honourable Steph Key MP, Member of the State House of Assembly and with a demonstration of Henry’s masterwork, the Random Excuse Generator by the Institute Research Director Mark Thomson and the Technical Director, Dr Chris Block.
The successful resolution of the demonstration was greeted with massive applause from the 100-strong crowd who were thrilled at the recreation of one of technology’s possibly greatest moments.
Their excitement was assisted, no doubt, by consumption of Hoke’s Muddy Ale and Hoke’s Red or White Bore Water.
Research Director Thomson gave a brief speech in which he outlined some of the Institute’s coming projects for 2008.
Then we all went home.
