History of Industrial Design Week 2 Part 4: BONUS ROUND! Power Sources

[@JM-zp9ik]

Matthew Bird deserves his own high-end Netflix series. His production and editing alone is so tasteful and effective.

[@frankye3005]

Dear Professor Bird, my name is Frank Ye. I am a 3d artist for AAA games. What you taught in your videos is truly meaningful to me. My job requires me to recreate high quality realistic props and tools, your course provide information that's really hard to find elsewhere. Your stuff is truly gems

[@virginiacharlotte7007]

"The life of a turn-spit dog was quite ...Ruff." I see what you did there!

[@faithinverity8523]

Thank you for noticing that modern Americans don't notice that power is a thing. We a so lucky to have washing machines, for example. And we could nearly not care less.

[@bthedwards]

I am loving your videos!! Thank you so much for sharing with those of us not in your class =)

[@grzegorzswist]

Imagine building the world biggest water pumping facility and use it for fountains and not running water in your Palace.

[@anastasiaistryalforova8134]

I currently live in Poland in Silesia region that historically has a lot of mines. The silver mine in Tarnowskie Gory, I had a chance to visit, first used the human-powered wheels (mostly kids and women powered) to pump the water out of the mine, then they used the horses, then started to use the steam-powered engine, and then got back to the horse-powered wheel, because it was a cheaper power source. Then they made a huge cascade tunnels system that stretches for over a hundred miles to make the water naturally flow out of this silver mine and then used this water flow to power machinery and use as drinking water in the city. Now you can take a boat tour on the short part of the tunnel that has the air to breathe, which is really entertaining!

[@Thabosshoss]

Simply a,axing how industrious and inventive people were back then.

[@deborahmatatall]

This was very informative and you’re right. We should be more mindful of where our power comes from. But it also made me sad, understanding what we did to humans and other animals to give ourselves a more comfortable life. Now I will eat some ice cream to feel better. Is that irony? I’m never sure.🌸

[@erikschaepers]

This is a great series, thank you for making it available to everyone

[@drdghattierdc]

Wonderful even the scond time.

[@josieTheDuck]

Wow! I want more on power sources. So interesting about the dogs.

[@RD2564]

I feel very good about the fact that I graduated from high school in 1982 and I did not see, nor have I ever seen, Conan the Barbarian. The notion of a musclehead becoming a movie star always struck me as absurd.

[@larryhampton7587]

thank God for the SPCA. Some of that was hard to watch.

[@masc6287]

This video is a power-full source of history.

[@csours]

The horse-powered monorail is the way of the future I tell you!

[@morlanddong9869]

so much to think about!! loved it

[@aaronjohnson4604]

could you share your recommended reading material?

[@HistoryofID]

There is no one perfect text book to use for an Industrial Design history class. For a more general overview of design history, David Raizman’s History of Modern Design is excellent. For this class I use Industrial Design A to Z (Fiell) which has LOTS of beautiful pictures and a short entry on a wide range of content, but not lots of big ideas and little to link them all together. I pair that with The Industrial Design Reader (Gormam) which is a collection of primary source writings. No pictures, but LOTS of ideas. And Gorman does a beautiful job introducing them and guiding us through them.

[@aaronjohnson4604]

@@HistoryofID Thank you. I can’t tell you how helpful your lectures are too me. And also how much my new little factoids about everything makes me a hit at parties. :). I’ve started reading Christopher dressers book as well as you mentioned in one of your lectures. Adding your suggestions to the list. Best, Aaron

[@ItsACityOfApesMovieReviews]

When the post apocalyptic realities happen - they will be watching this episode the most. That's if they can walk the 20 miles in the nuclear ash to logon to the internet.

[@ThatsAllFolkss]

I loved this one. The irony of the treadmill is honestly sad. We are so dumb. Imagine harnessing the power of all the treadmills on earth though. Or capturing any sort of energy from gym equipment. 🤔

[@timrasim1515]

First of all, I really enjoy your lecture even if I design interfaces instead of "the industry". On the off-chance you might actually read through all the comments, here is something that really bugs me: in many of your videos you mention prices / estates and give the "current value". I really hate it because you can't multiply a sum from 1940 by 18 to get the current value. So you sometimes add "which was much for the time", making the conversion obsolete anyway.

[@HistoryofID]

Thanks for your comment!! I don't disagree with you at all! I have found that my students make the wrong leap from a 1940 price tag of $5 to the assumption that something was inexpensive or affordable. So I just run everything through an inflation calculator to give us an easier time discerning and understanding the approximate value. It gets REALLY complicated when the original price was in a now defunct currency!!!!