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I'm so surprised that people have not heard of the late R.G. LeTourneau. The man was a mechanical genius, and the father of modern earth moving machinery. Here

by milesf 10y ago

I'm so surprised that people have not heard of the late R.G. LeTourneau. The man was a mechanical genius, and the father of modern earth moving machinery. Here's a video of his Concrete House Machine from 1946: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWjyZO2lPU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWjyZO2lPU This was 70 years ago! I read about them in his autobiography "Mover of Men and Mountains". He went with concrete because it was cooler in the summer, and warmer in the winter. Seems to me the "Not Invented Here" mentality has been around for a very long time.

hutzlibu 10y ago
The machine is impressive, but not really comparable to this. As it could only do fixed shapes. With this printer you can do any shape, and also change the inside struxture of the walls. And while this one is quite limited in its range, it is still impressive and a glimpse, of what will come, soon ...
- sitkack 10y ago
  Shape diversity is often a requirement that is specified but not needed. It comes down to a flexibility vs quality and bandwidth tradeoff. From the looks of it, a different mold could be swapped out in the vehicle. How many molds would one need? Kitchen, School, Light Manufacturing, House 2-4 bedroom, etc. 3d printed parts are great because of zero RE costs, but quality is reduced and cost is high for a single part. Some economics hold for this technique as well. I see both having broad applicability.
Animats 10y ago
The idea goes back even further, to Edison in 1908.[1] His system used a large set of metal molds which latched together to make a house-sized mold. Then just pour in the concrete and go. The houses were quite elaborate, with lots of architectural detail, all the way down to bathtubs and picture frames. A few are still around. There's no problem mass producing concrete houses. Or apartment buildings. Building shells aren't really that expensive. The interior parts cost more. [1] http://www.concreteconstruction.net/_view-object?id=00000153-968d-dbf3-a177-96bdeb600000 http://www.concreteconstruction.net/_view-object?id=00000153...
- Lazare 10y ago
  >Building shells aren't really that expensive. The interior parts cost more. And land in a desirable location with a building permit costs even more, if it's even available.
  - branchless 10y ago
    Can't beleieve I had to scroll this far down. Land prices in urban areas are set by ability to pay, so with cheaper construction you can pay even more to the land owneer! Prices won't fall in urban centres one cent. The problem of expensive housing is man-made: by bakers lending enough fiat credit to match your surplus value.
    - sokoloff 10y ago
      If land prices are set by ability to pay (rather than willingness to pay), that could be a good thing for buyers. A reasonable model for the seller is to sell to the highest willing buyer. Each individual purchaser has an ability to pay and willingness to pay and will presumably only offer the lower of those two prices. If land trades on ability to pay rather than willingness, that means that the highest bidder would have been willing to pay more but was only able to pay what they settled on, and I don't see a significant problem. The buyer is presumably quite happy, having paid less than they were willing to pay. The chief downsides I see in such a system is that either the buyer is not actually able to pay (they misjudge their ability to pay), or for the non-buyers who are out-bid by other buyers with a greater ability to pay. (It could be frustrating to only be able to pay $X while land or properties change hands at 1.5 * $X, but no reasonable seller will sell for 2/3 the market price, so...)
      - branchless 10y ago
        > If land trades on ability to pay rather than willingness, Banks create fiat on request for a loan. It's infinite. You have to bid all your surplus value or someone else will, either a dweller or a speculator.
noonespecial 10y ago
I went to LeTourneau University. You are preaching to the choir, brother. (Yep, he founded an engineering school too. If you built a giant hacker space, and university classes suddenly broke out, LU is what would happen. Even the campus itself was hacked together out of an old army base.) The sheer amount of things he was involved in back in the day is mind blowing.
- milesf 10y ago
  I would love to hear more about your experience there (my email is miles at coderpath dot com), and would like to learn more about R.G. My only knowledge about him was through his autobiography.
  - mysterydip 10y ago
    Not sure how much of it overlaps, but I've been going through the biography "God Runs My Business" which is from the 40s and might show more detail from that time in his life. It's definitely a product of that era, too, just in the way different subjects are brought up, so I think it's interesting for that glimpse into the USA as well. There are lots of pictures as well. A very interesting man.
    - milesf 10y ago
      I'll have to read that as well. Thanks for the tip :)
ehnto 10y ago
Unrelated, LeTourneau was a name from Old French, meaning The Starling, and is the origin of the surname Turner. I only mention it because I had been taught that Turner came from the profession of wood turning, but it turns out that was unlikely to be correct after all!
- saalweachter 10y ago
  Multiple origins?

by milesf 10y ago

hutzlibu 10y ago

The machine is impressive, but not really comparable to this. As it could only do fixed shapes. With this printer you can do any shape, and also change the inside struxture of the walls. And while this one is quite limited in its range, it is still impressive and a glimpse, of what will come, soon ...

sitkack 10y ago
Shape diversity is often a requirement that is specified but not needed. It comes down to a flexibility vs quality and bandwidth tradeoff. From the looks of it, a different mold could be swapped out in the vehicle. How many molds would one need? Kitchen, School, Light Manufacturing, House 2-4 bedroom, etc. 3d printed parts are great because of zero RE costs, but quality is reduced and cost is high for a single part. Some economics hold for this technique as well. I see both having broad applicability.

Animats 10y ago

The idea goes back even further, to Edison in 1908.[1] His system used a large set of metal molds which latched together to make a house-sized mold. Then just pour in the concrete and go. The houses were quite elaborate, with lots of architectural detail, all the way down to bathtubs and picture frames. A few are still around. There's no problem mass producing concrete houses. Or apartment buildings. Building shells aren't really that expensive. The interior parts cost more. [1] http://www.concreteconstruction.net/_view-object?id=00000153-968d-dbf3-a177-96bdeb600000 http://www.concreteconstruction.net/_view-object?id=00000153...

Lazare 10y ago
>Building shells aren't really that expensive. The interior parts cost more. And land in a desirable location with a building permit costs even more, if it's even available.
- branchless 10y ago
  Can't beleieve I had to scroll this far down. Land prices in urban areas are set by ability to pay, so with cheaper construction you can pay even more to the land owneer! Prices won't fall in urban centres one cent. The problem of expensive housing is man-made: by bakers lending enough fiat credit to match your surplus value.
  - sokoloff 10y ago
    If land prices are set by ability to pay (rather than willingness to pay), that could be a good thing for buyers. A reasonable model for the seller is to sell to the highest willing buyer. Each individual purchaser has an ability to pay and willingness to pay and will presumably only offer the lower of those two prices. If land trades on ability to pay rather than willingness, that means that the highest bidder would have been willing to pay more but was only able to pay what they settled on, and I don't see a significant problem. The buyer is presumably quite happy, having paid less than they were willing to pay. The chief downsides I see in such a system is that either the buyer is not actually able to pay (they misjudge their ability to pay), or for the non-buyers who are out-bid by other buyers with a greater ability to pay. (It could be frustrating to only be able to pay $X while land or properties change hands at 1.5 * $X, but no reasonable seller will sell for 2/3 the market price, so...)
    - branchless 10y ago
      > If land trades on ability to pay rather than willingness, Banks create fiat on request for a loan. It's infinite. You have to bid all your surplus value or someone else will, either a dweller or a speculator.

noonespecial 10y ago

I went to LeTourneau University. You are preaching to the choir, brother. (Yep, he founded an engineering school too. If you built a giant hacker space, and university classes suddenly broke out, LU is what would happen. Even the campus itself was hacked together out of an old army base.) The sheer amount of things he was involved in back in the day is mind blowing.

milesf 10y ago
I would love to hear more about your experience there (my email is miles at coderpath dot com), and would like to learn more about R.G. My only knowledge about him was through his autobiography.
- mysterydip 10y ago
  Not sure how much of it overlaps, but I've been going through the biography "God Runs My Business" which is from the 40s and might show more detail from that time in his life. It's definitely a product of that era, too, just in the way different subjects are brought up, so I think it's interesting for that glimpse into the USA as well. There are lots of pictures as well. A very interesting man.
  - milesf 10y ago
    I'll have to read that as well. Thanks for the tip :)

ehnto 10y ago

Unrelated, LeTourneau was a name from Old French, meaning The Starling, and is the origin of the surname Turner. I only mention it because I had been taught that Turner came from the profession of wood turning, but it turns out that was unlikely to be correct after all!

saalweachter 10y ago
Multiple origins?