Starting a car’s internal combustion engine in winter — especially after a long period of inactivity — is often a serious problem. The issue is even more pressing for powerful trucks and agricultural machinery, much of which is now privately owned and is typically stored outdoors without a garage. And the cause of a difficult Read more…
Finnish house designs have proven themselves to be cozy, warm, and resistant to seasonal conditions and the effects of time. Finnish builder Pentti Jurmalainen discusses the specifics of laying bases and foundations for such country houses. Do you know what the parts and elements of a house are called? If not, carefully study Fig. 1. Read more…
My new house is good in every way, but it has no gutter. Rain runs off the roof onto the foundation, and in windy weather it also hits the walls. In the store, drainage gutters with brackets and especially the elbow pipes with funnels inspire a quiet melancholy with their appearance. I did not want Read more…
The need for a large guest table at a country plot does not arise very often — only when friends or relatives come together to relax in the fresh air or to celebrate some family event or occasion. But it hardly makes sense to make special furniture for such a case, furniture that will remain Read more…
Having read in issue No. 1 of “M-K” for 1989 a description of an electronic vehicle ground cut-out, I decided to use it as a simple anti-theft device. However, when the toggle switch is replaced with a push-button (as recommended by the designer V. Arapov) or with a reed switch, a highly undesirable effect occurs: Read more…
A diamond glass cutter cuts window glass perfectly, but using it correctly is not that simple. Unfortunately, the skill comes only after a dozen or two panes have been irreparably ruined, and even then a precise cut is far from always achieved. To prevent this, while cutting you must keep the tool constantly perpendicular to Read more…
The compact moped I designed, unlike production models, fits freely in a passenger elevator. That is perhaps one of its main advantages, since the two-wheeled little machine (which, incidentally, reaches the same speed as the “Riga-7”) can also be “parked” on the balcony of a city apartment. The moped frame is taken from a children’s Read more…
Cockroaches: people have tried everything to get rid of these black and reddish-brown sneak insects, but… Exterminating such hardy pests is still a problem. Especially for residents of densely occupied apartment blocks, dormitories, and rundown Khrushchev-era buildings. Among quite promising ways to fight cockroaches, in my view, are even the simplest electroshock devices. I, for Read more…
In a hallway, even the smallest one, there is always room for clothes — a hanger of any design — and for shoes — a special floor rack or galosh stand. Even scarves, hats and gloves can be put away. Only umbrellas always seem out of place, especially after rain, when they are wet: where Read more…
Steam-powered submarines are regarded today as something of a design curiosity, although the motives for their creation were entirely rational. The French set the fashion here. Despite the concept’s rapid failure, these boats took a very active part in the First World War. And one of the most successful steam submarines of the Third Republic’s Read more…
