Summer 1991
Dear friend:
Greetings from Ithaca! For those of you who we long-time S.T.E.V.E.N.
Foundation connections, be it known that after a four-year hiatus we are
putting together another newsletter. For I those of you whom we only met
more recently, thanks for your interest and we hope this letter will be
the full of many to update you on our ongoing efforts to develop simple,
low-cost technologies for people all over the world who need them.
One note: we haven't let so much time go between newsletters
for lack of anything to report. Rather, the core of the group (Jaroslav,
Wilda, and son Francis Vanek) have all been busy with day-to-day commitments,
so what time we had available generally went directly into experimenting
with the technologies and contending with the steady stream of requests
for information about them. Now that the summer of 1991 has arrived, we
have some breathing room to get everyone up to date who hasn't been the
benefactor of a 'mission', a course at Cornell, or an information
packet on how to build lout designs. Hopefully, we will get in the
habit of doing this at least once or twice a year: why should we appear
dormant to the outside world when in fact we have so much going on?
Please read on to find out about the new technological developments, and
how we are promoting them both in Ithaca and on the road.
Yours in solidarity,
Jaroslav Vanek, dir.
Francis Vanek,asst.
Improved Solar & New Energy Sources
With the STEVEN Foundation, no technology is ever safe
from improvement, and even the mainstay of our line, the parabolic trough
collector, has evolved over the past few years. We now include a transparent
jacket of transparent plastic around the boiler to keep winds off and therefore
reduce convection losses. The current design has three 4x8 plates to capture
more insolation, and seasonal adjustment of the inclination of the collector
with a turnbuckle system reduces angular losses of rays. We have also developed
an interactive tracking mechanism to rotate the collector during the day
which senses the sun’s position rather than using the earlier wind-up mechanism.
In 1987, after hearing about widespread interest in solar
box cookers, we came up with our own version. Our current model has evolved
since then and features a plywood box for durability, a mirrorized cone
to capture more sun, sheet metal walls and a double-glazed glass cover
to capture more heat, and a jacket of styrofoam insulation to keep the
heat in. Also on the cooking front, we recently heard that box cookers
fared poorly in India because of an aversion to food cooked out of doors,
so we have now adapted our double-boiler design so that the parabolic trough
required can be outdoors but the steam it generates can be ducted into
a home so that the cooking can occur in a kitchen.
We have also realized that our answers to 'vital economic
needs' did not have to be limited to solar energy, and so we have sought,
inexpensive ways to harness other power sources. These include experimenting
with a paddle-wheel type windmill in 1988, and on a wave energy con-version
system in I 990. Perhaps most successful, though, was our advances
with hand pumps, where we developed both a shallow-well 'ten-dollar pump'
and a deeper hydraulic pump as alternatives to conventional cast-iron hand
pumps. Not only do these technologies tackle one of the most widespread
needs in developing countries, but due to their simplicity serve as pedagogical
stepping stones for people who wish to eventually learn the thermal and
mechanical applications.
As in the past, our documentation consists of three portions,
a prospectus to explain how the technologies work and are applied, a manual
to explain how to build them, and a videotape to help recipients visualize
them in action. The prospectus was recently updated (and is available to
anyone who has not yet received a copy); the manual and videotape date
back to 1987 and will hopefully be updated soon.
Recent projects out-of-state and overseas
Although the STEVEN Foundation has dispatched fewer missions since its trip to Africa in 1984 and the round-the-world trip in 1986, we certainly have not stopped demonstrating the function of the various prototypes in places where they might serve. Here is a rundown.
TEXAS: In the fall of 1988 we set up a solar pumping station on a sustainable agriculture ranch in Blanco, TX, fifty miles west of Austin. We are also looking in to a solar desalination project for the 16 Septiembre cooperative in Brownsville, TX.
TAIWAN: In September 1989 we built a solar parabolic trough collector for a Trappist Monastery in the central mountains, for the purposes of hot water and sterilization. We also built a scaled-down STEVEN windmill to test the viability of this material.
MEXICO: Over the past two years the Foundation has made four trips with demonstrations in Mexico City, Cuernavaca, and Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco. We are now conducting an ongoing handpump construction and installation project with Netlacaneco AC, an earthquake reconstruction group in the latter location. In August of last year, a group of four students used a Cornell “Faculty-in-Service” grant to spend a month building 8 pumps and instructing Netlacaneco staff on how to build others. We intend to return this October, possibly to begin installing other technologies.
WEST AFRICA: While no travel has occurred to this part of the world since Jaroslav’s trip in 1986, recent contacts made this semester hold much promise for the future. Greg Kelly, Peter Rice, and Barry Wheeler, who all have years of experience of doing development work in this region, took the AT course in the spring and are designing a refrigerator-oven with this region in mind. The STEVEN Foundation would like to welcome these three as associates, in order to recognize the effort they have made to master the technologies and add their expertise to our knowledge base.
NEW YORK CITY: Sorry, we didn’t set up any STEVEN systems here and we do not foresee doing so any time soon! However, in February we did visit the UNICEF office to make a presentation about our work. We may apply for a UNICEF grant at some point.
Our Research Park & Visit Center
The backyard of the Vanek home at 414 Triphammer Rd. in
the suburbs of Ithaca by now has established itself as the site for most
of our appropriate technology ("A.T.") tests, and for hosting visitors
interested in seeing the working prototypes; we also make use of the local
gorges when we need a big vertical drop (e.g. where testing a handpump).
This year alone, AT enthusiasts – many of them studying at Cornell -- from
Kenya, India, Costa Rica, Tibet, and Slippery Rock College (PA), among
other places, have toured the prototypes. Incidentally, we welcome any
readers of this newsletter to do the same during the warm months, provided
you call or write ahead, and plan to arrive between 10 and 3 when we have
plenty of sun in the yard (weather permitting of course!!).
We take advantage of our proximity to the Cornell University
campus as well. Prof. Vanek teaches a progression of two courses over the
two-semester academic year to expose any interested students to the S.T.E.V.E.N.
technologies and their production in the setting of a cooperative firm.
In the most recent edition of the course, fifteen students built box ovens,
pumps, a collector, and a solar refrigerator. In addition, we periodically
lecture for campus organizations, and we have run solar pumping set-ups
for puzzled spectators at Earth Day and Alternative Energy fairs in the
area.
Uploaded January 4, 2002 by Francis Vanek. Back
to the S.T.E.V.E.N. Foundation homepage.