Community Technology (COMTEK) Festival 1979

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This Cretan sail-type wind generator was built by the Center for Alternative Technology in Wales
This Cretan sail-type wind generator was built by the Center for Alternative Technology in Wales
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A low-volume water-pumping windmill was also on display
A low-volume water-pumping windmill was also on display
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TOP: Bird's eye view of the community technology festival. BOTTOM: Crafts vendors at the festival service customers.
TOP: Bird's eye view of the community technology festival. BOTTOM: Crafts vendors at the festival service customers.
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LEFT: Constructing a dome. CENTER: A metal stove made at Lauriestone Hall. RIGHT. A six-volt, five-watt wind generator made from bicycle parts.   
LEFT: Constructing a dome. CENTER: A metal stove made at Lauriestone Hall. RIGHT. A six-volt, five-watt wind generator made from bicycle parts.   

MOTHER EARTH NEWS’ own Copthorne Macdonald recently returned from an extended European trip. During his travels, he attended the U.N. Conference of Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) in Vienna, the Non-Governmental Organizations Forum (NGO Forum) held in that same city, and Britain’s Community Technology Festival (COMTEK). The following article is the second in a series of reports from Cop on these attempts to determine how technology can best meet the needs of the world’s people.


Though Britain’s Community Technology Festival — held in Milton Keynes, England — featured solar water heaters, wind generators from 5 to 700 watts, a paper recycling operation, and wood-burning stoves, the most exciting aspect of the fair (to me, at least) was the help-others-do-it-themselves attitude that pervaded the event.

Make It and Take It Home

For example, one group that championed this concept was Laurieston Hall . . . a community of 15 adults and 10 children who live in a large country mansion in Scotland and are involved in working with sheet metal and building stoves. If such metalwork interests you, you could — for about $10 a day to cover room and board — live with these people, use their shop, benefit from their advice, and build your own  wood-burner. The average cost of materials ranges from about $45 per stove to nothing at all if you bring your own oil drum or sheet metal with you. It’s hard to beat the organization’s “learn by doing and take the finished product home” approach!

  • Published on Mar 1, 1980
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