Paul Bartone

Vinay Gupta <hexayurt@gmail.com> to Paul Bartone <BartoneP@ndu.edu>, Marcin Jakubowski <joseph.dolittle@gmail.com>, cc Charles Setchell <csetchell@ofda.gov>, mhess@usaid.gov, scatlin@usaid.gov, Melissa Sinclair <SinclairM@ndu.edu>, "Wells, Linton III" <linton3@gmail.com>, "Hurtado, Juan, CIV (L)" <juan.hurtado@hq.southcom.mil>, Charles Setchell <csetchell@usaid.gov>, Justin Power <JustinGZA@aol.com>, Wells II Wells <linwells@gmail.com>, date Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 9:10 AM subject Re: Low-Cost Brick Maker?

Marcin of Open Source Ecology has a diesel-powered open source brick making machine which also may be of interest.

There is some video of the prototype here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ77i6ukirA&eurl=http://blog.opensourceecology.org/?paged=3

and you can find a much more complete write up of the engineering here: http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=CEB_Press

It's about 5% - 10% of the cost of the closest equivalent system, and as it matures all of the intellectual property is published in an open way.

I think this will be quite an important innovation as it matures. They should be building the first house using the open source compressed earth block machine as soon as building season opens up on the farm in Kansas.

Vinay

-- Vinay Gupta - Designer, Hexayurt Project - an excellent public domain refugee shelter system Gizmo Project VOIP: 775-743-1851 (usually works!) Cell: Iceland (+354) 869-4605 http://hexayurt.com/ Skype/Gizmo/Gtalk: hexayurt Two's company. Three's Musketeers

On Apr 1, 2008, at 3:38 PM, Bartone, Paul wrote:

   Hi Chuck,

   I'll be in Honduras from about 16-24 April  to participate in a "Crisis
   Management Experiment", a cooperative activity between US SOUTHCOM and
   the Honduran FEMA and parts of their military that are dedicated to
   working on domestic disaster response.  The activity is aimed at finding
   new and more effective solutions for responding to an earthquake
   disaster.  I'll be demonstrating some emergency, low-cost shelter
   solutions including hexayurts build with local materials.

   In addition, this would be a great opportunity to demonstrate the
   low-cost brickmaker you described earlier, and perhaps other items that
   you think might fit well in this part of the world.  There'll also be
   some follow-on cooperative activities with the Hondurans and other
   Central and Latin American countries, and we'd like very much to have
   your expertise and knowledge to help inform our efforts.

   If you think it's possible to ship a sample brickmaker to Honduras for
   us to demonstrate, I can get a shipping address.

   Alternatively, I know that Lin has asked for drawings and/or multiple
   photo views to build a sample brickmaker prototype.  I understand your
   time is tight, but there still might be time to build a demonstration
   model, either in the States and ship it, or perhaps right in Honduras.

   Thanks for whatever help you can provide!

   Best regards,

   Paul

   Paul T. Bartone, PhD.
   Senior Research Fellow
   Center for Technology and National Security Policy
   National Defense University

   Ps.  Lin also mentioned the possibility of establishing a closer
   relationship with ReliefWeb.  I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions
   you might have as to how we can accomplish this!