#Fraser made this hour-long #video about the history of #alchemy including Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan). #toread
on 02025-12-04#Fraser #video on adding flour water and vinegar to “wild” clay for #ceramics to improve plasticity
on 02025-12-04#Fraser #video on pit-firing #ceramics: 10–25% temper by volume for open-flame firing in under an hour, the temper consisting of mortar-pulverized charcoal. He fans the fire to get the pots up to temperature before letting the fire burn down.
on 02025-12-04#video of #Fraser looking at ancient Greek #automata, replicating a wooden mobile robot described by Heron of Alexandria. He talks through a bit of the #history of the Greek automaton tradition. A weight sinks down into an hourglass, supported by the sand (or in this case seeds) and pulling on cords which move the automaton; the cords are wound around axles, which have pins in them around which the cords can be wrapped to alternate directions of motion, without cam #mechanisms.
on 02025-10-12#Fraser makes a more powerful blow-tube lamp for glassworking #bootstrapping #video #toread
on 02024-05-18#Fraser #video on #electrolysis and Faraday changed how I thought about electrolysis and electrochemistry.
on 02024-04-10#Fraser building a lampwork blowtorch #bootstrapping #manufacturing #video shows different oil lamp designs. He’s going to use a bellows and a check valve with a balloon reservoir I guess? Sort of like a pneumatic buck converter. Probably doesn’t have a bladder to use. Before he gets into #glassworking he demonstrates soldering copper with it. He’s using a check valve explained by Faraday, using a latex diaphragm similar to a bicycle Dunlop valve, though Faraday used cloth. He decided to use an (99% isopropyl) alcohol lamp instead of an oil lamp to get higher power and less smoke. On the fifth attempt he succeeded at sealing a test tube into a Hermetically sealed ampoule.
on 02024-04-05#Fraser builds an 800-year-old blowtorch or "blow lamp" design: a terracotta #ceramics oil lamp, sealed by being cooked in milk and then coated in linseed oil, blown with a copper mouth blowpipe. It works to solder copper wire. He built two separate wicks onto his oil lamp so he can light the larger wick when he wants more power, and eventually used a 3-D printer hotend for the blowing aperture. He recommends T.P. Danger’s 19th-century book “Art of Glassblowing” for lampwork and scientific glassblowing information. And of course one way to make a blowpipe is by glassblowing. #bootstrapping #video #manufacturing
on 02024-04-03copper chloride synthesis with a spirit lamp. #Fraser just reacts muriate of lime with blue vitriol is all, why do you even need a lamp for that? Oh, he wants the copper chloride for a spirit lamp, so he can make green fire. #materials #video
on 02024-04-03