ANCHORS AWEIGH: Whether you're setting out in a sailing ship or a steamship, you have to haul up the anchor. Brown & Harfield's widely used designs for capstan and windlass made that task easier. Scientific American, October 11, 1862
ANCHOR TRIPPER: Designed as a secure way to make dropping a big anchor easier. Unfortunately, in high waves the anchor would have bashed a hole in the side of the boat. Scientific American, July 26, 1862
SWING BRIDGE: Canals criss-crossed the country in 1862, leading to this design for a bridge that does not need approach ramps, activated by a crewman on a passing barge (apparently to the surprise of the horse that was about to cross). Scientific American, October 25, 1862
EVOLUTION OF NUTCRACKERS: An elegant and efficient design in the form of a bird's head. By 1862 English walnuts and native black walnuts were readily available for eating and cooking. Scientific American, March 1, 1862
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LETTERBOX: a sensible and aesthetically pleasing design. Stoutly built, it could last longer than the U.S. Postal Service. Scientific American, November 22, 1862
SECURE STAMP: The envelope has a die-cut hole and the stamp is affixed directly to the letter; the dated cancellation mark leaves its imprint on the letter for posterity—and for any future legal cases. Scientific American, July 12, 1862
EASY LAUNDRY: “The accompanying engraving illustrates another alleged improvement in machines for washing clothes.” Apparently even back then we didn’t think this device was going to lighten the burden of domestic labor. Scientific American, March 29, 1862
TOWEL DRYER: Old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity. The wooden bars fold out to hang wet dishtowels on, and fold up and away when not in use. My family has one like it in the low-tech kitchen in our old summer house in Maine. It's very useful. Scientific American, March 8, 1862
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ROAD SCRAPER: Patent number 34,194 for moving earth or stones while building roads, ditches or cellars. Within a few years he would have upgraded the motive power from bullocks to steam engine. Scientific American, April 19, 1862
STEAM EXCAVATOR: An early but cumbersome attempt to harness the power of steam. “The use of the ponderous machine here illustrated is to excavate earth,&rduo; which is dumped into hand-pushed carts (only one of which is shown here). Scientific American, January 18, 1862
We hear every day about the need to conserve freshwater. That goal seems sensible—although knowing if humankind is making any progress could be impossible without a reliable way to quantify how much water nations use. To find out, engineers Arjen Hoekstra and Mesfin Mekonnen at the University of Twente in the Netherlands calculated the water footprint of the world's countries as well as per capita water consumption in those nations.
Overall, the world is using 9,087 billion cubic meters of water per year. China, India and the U.S. consumed the highest annual totals: 1,207 billion, 1,182 billion and 1,053 billion cubic meters, respectively, followed by Brazil at 482 billion. But the water consumed per person in these and other countries varies considerably, due primarily to higher living standards or widespread waste among consumers. The U.S. had the world's highest per capita water footprint, at 2,842 cubic meters per annum. Meat consumption accounts for 30 percent of the American figure, and sugar consumption is responsible for another 15 percent, Hoekstra says. In India, where few people consume much meat, the individual footprint is only 1,089 cubic meters a year. The global annual average per capita is 1,385 cubic meters.
As you might guess, populous countries use a lot of water to produce their food and products, but inefficient agriculture or dependence on water-intensive foods such as meat can exacerbate demand. Some countries also export significant quantities of water in the form of food and products, complicating their own water balance, as shown in Scientific American's June 2012 Graphic Science column.
Hoekstra and Mekonnen went through exhausting calculations to figure out each nation's water footprint. Basically, they added three quantities: the consumption of rainwater (the so-called green water footprint); the use of ground- and surface water (blue); and the volume of gray water polluted (and therefore depleted). The specific calculations can be found in their online paper as well as its supplemental material.
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