Handmade high-tech

> From: [email removed]

>Handmade High-tech: where do you draw the line? Some of the parts required
>to build more advanced and efficient machinery simply MUST be manufactured?
>Is it alright if it's powered by 'natural' factories, like a mill that uses
>a water wheel? I can tell you how a jet turbine works, but I wouldn't know
>what to build it out of to accept the streeses--and you might not be able
>to make the alloys without a masive foundry (which is a kind of factory).
>You need to be more discriminating in your definition. But it's a good idea.

One of the nice things about this definition is that it is applied by human
beings and is therefor not required to be consistent. If you asked them, the
Ajabarans would tell you that they couldn't give you an exact definition,
but that they would know a factory if they saw it. Anything like an
assembly line is out. I guess that the main factor would be the scale of
the enterprise. A blacksmith, OK. A small foundry, propably OK. A massive
foundry, propably not. Of course, that really ought to rule out a number of
low-tech stuff like ocean-going ships, but, as I said, people are not
required to be consistent.

> From: Dan's Traveller Mailing List Mail [email removed]
> Subject: Re: Handmade high-tech
>
>I think one would have to know what your definition of hand made was.
>I believe there is a car manufacturer in the south U.S. that hand
>manufactures limos (Blackhawk?). In this case all parts are indivdually
>fitted, milled, etc. But using a drill press or a lathe isn't really
>hand made is it?

I don't know what a drill press is, but using a lathe would be acceptable
(a handbuildt one, of course ;-).

>>making a few submachineguns per year. Noone is going to make a career out
>>of manufacturing one jet-plane per decade.
>
>If I could make a jet by myself (or with a small crew of assistants) in
>a decade, with cash up front, and contiuation money, plus a large
>completion bonus. Then as long as I was making at least a average
>wage, then why not?

If such a concept as money up front and continuation money existed, yes. I
hadn't thought about that possibility. I'll consider it. But what I had in
mind was craftsmen making stuff and getting their money when they sell it.

>I don't think that any electronic components could be hand made.
>(depending on your definition). It would be pretty hard to even make
>vacuum tubes by hand (which of course includes televisions). A lot
>of modern machinery also requires fairly tight tolerances. The pistons
>in your car have to be almost perfectly cylindrical. Tese are hard
>to do without some level of machinery.

Right. Some machinery is needed. What I had in mind was the kind of
machinery a late 19th Century goldsmith or weaponsmith would have
available. Perhaps the power source would be a good lithmus test. Any
hand-crancked machinery is allowable. But since I'd want people to be
able to use any high-tech they do manage to build, petrol, electricity,
and whatever must be acceptable as long as it is not used for further
manufacture.

Hmmm. It's a good thing consistency is not required, because there are
holes in that logic that you could drive a truck through...

Anyway, handmade means muscle-powered tools only, OK? And no assembly
lines, not even with only muscle power.

>I think that this type of culture is interesting, however. What happens
>to visitors to the planet?

That's what I want my players to find out some day ;-) They get treated to
anything from a cold shoulder to physical abuse, depending on the bigotry
of the native.

>How could you tell by casual inspection that a gun was mass-produced, not
>hand made?

Depends. With slugthrowers you might not be able to. OTOH I think that the
local craftsmen add a lot of individual flourishes to the ornamentation on
their guns. That's one of the effects I'm striving for: Submachineguns
with finely engraved battle scenes! And not two alike, of course.



      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]
- ------------
        "The referee should determine the nature of subsequent
         events based on the individual situation."
                                _76 Patrons_, p. 8