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The popular Primitive Technology blog features an unnamed man in Far North Queensland, Australia building tools and structures using only raw, found materials. In this instalment, the man builds a new device he refers to as a ‘bow blower’ – a combination of a primitive drill and a manually powered fan – used to keep a fire burning hot enough to produce iron. The result is a stunning combination of ingenuity, expertise and determination. To learn more about the step-by-step process while watching, turn on closed captions in the YouTube video player.
Video by Primitive Technology
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Animals and humans
Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?
57 minutes
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Archaeology
What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation
16 minutes
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Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
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Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
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History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes
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Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
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Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes
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Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes