Technical Briefs and Manuals
Cashew bear fruit that can be made into snackfood.
Barrie Axtell for Food Chain, March 1991, 3 pages.
How to make and use a simple retort for separating gold-mercury amalgam
ENGLISH-ESPAÑOL
Edmund Bugnosen for Practical Action, updated 2007, 5 pages
In 1996 Practical Action commissioned Paragon Ceramics to build an experimental lime kiln at Dedza in Malawi in partnership with local lime burners.
Appropriate Technology Journal, 10 pages
This technical brief shows how a woodwoking bench with vice can be made without the use of steel compenents.
Practical Action, 1997, last updated January 2006, 5 pages
Earth has been used for building for thousands of years. Good quality durable earth buildings can be built to suit local conditions and structural requirements.
Otto Ruskulis for Practical Action, 2008, 6 pages
Earth has been used for building for thousands of years throughout the world, and is a multi-component system usually consisting of stones, sand, silt, clay and water.
Otto Ruskulis for Practical Action, updated 2008, 6 pages
An introduction to ropeway transport in Nepal, and a description of some improvements made by Practical Action to traditional systems.
Neil Noble for Practical Action, 2009, 10 pages
Cement is an essential ingredient in most forms of construction. It is the vital binding agent in concretes, mortars and renders, and is used for the production of walling blocks & roofing tiles.
Otto Ruskulis, Updated 2005, 6 pages
The Anagi tray dryer was developed to allow small scale processing of casahew nuts.
Practical Action South Asia, Last updated 2006, 9 pages
Aonla or amla, popularly known as the Indian gooseberry, is a small sub-tropical fruit which grows widely on the hillsides of sub-mountainous Northern India.
Punjab Agricultural University, 2006, 3 pages
Although support materials exist in the form of technical information on various household energy technologies, there are few training materials to guide users.
Lydia Muchiri & May Sengendo, 1999, 43 pages
There are many ways of making things out of waste paper and card, but they are not usually referred to as ‘technology’.
Last updated by Bevill Packer in 1995.
People are destroying coral reefs at an unprecedented rate. One part of a solution could be for the community to build artificial reefs.
Paul Calvert for The Appropriate Technology Magazine, September 1995, 5 pages
A guide for brick makers and field workers to help identity technical problems.
Kelvin Mason for BASIN (Building Advisory Service & Information Network), 1998, 6 pages
This simple guide gives the most important process steps for the installation of the
Axial Turbine. Practical Action, 12 pages.
A low-cost low-head axial turbine design developed for manufacture in Peru.
There are a number of approaches to preserving bamboo. This extract from Building With Bamboo looks at some of these approaches.
Dr. Jules A. Janssen for Practical Action Publishing, 1995. 5 pages
Banana beer is made from bananas, mixed with a cereal flour (often sorghum flour) and fermented to make an alcoholic beverage.
Practical Action, updated by Sue Azam Ali, 2008, 3 pages
Banana chips are a snack food similar to potato chips. This Brief explores what a banana chips project might look like as an income-generating activity.
Dr. S. Azam-Ali for Practical Action, 2008, 6 pages