Aw, they’re so cute! Check out Life’s Small Cars photo gallery. It becomes apparent looking at these tiny cars from yesteryear - modern small cars have got it all wrong, they just look like ‘a small car‘ that’s designed to be small. If they made them look like big cars, but in miniture, that would be way more appealing, well to me anyhow.
Via: Coudal.
Interesting photos of The World’s First Nuclear Power Plant, built in Russia, 1954. I’m a sucker for big industrial dials, switches, gauges and such like, this thing has a fair few. Not sure what that circular thing with the grid pattern is, but it looks pretty cool.
Via: Martin Klasch.
While I’m on the subject of Trunki’s, Rob sent me this amazing shot he managed to capture of a fricking real live tiger carring one in her mouth! Apparently this huge man eater really took a liking to Tipu the tiger Trunki, they had a right job getting it back off her.. Check out Trunki’s Flickr for more shots of tigers and monkeys.
I‘m really taken by Piet Hein Eek’s scrapwood collection of furniture, all the excuse I need to start collecting old bits of wood ;) The rest of this guys stuff is all top notch and this shed is two times awesome.
Via: Lark About.
Ifirst clapped eyes on the stove top Atomic Coffee Maker on FutureConscious: Philly’s Wish List. Loved the look of it, beautiful curved lines and rugged mechanical utility. I started to look into it a bit and was quite surprised to find vast amounts of info from all sorts of sources. It really seems to be a much loved and ‘cult’ coffee machine. Anyhow fascinating stuff, there’s a quick summary of what I’ve found so far:
It was designed in 1947 by Italian Giordano Robbiati, it stayed in production (not changing a great deal) until 1986 when the factory burnt down. It’s been re-badged by various importers round the world, such as: Stella (Austria), Qualitat (Hungary), Robbiati (Italy), A&MG Sassoon (UK), Bon Trading (Australia), La Sorrentina and Thomas Cara.
There’s a blog dedicated to nothing but the Atomic - Worlds Best Loved Coffee Machine. Or you can buy a whole book about the Atomic - Enduring Design. Maybe you fancy getting a secondhand Atomic, then check out the eBay buying guide. And if that’s not enough, you can get all you will ever want to know about the history, care & maintenance, restoring and making coffee with one from this Atomic Site from New Zealand.
Recently the Atomic has been resurrected as the La Sorrentina Coffee Machine by an Australian entrepreneur (Ikon exports?) who has begun manufacturing a premium reproduction of the Atomic which is a best seller in Oz.
For us Limeys the brand new models are being imported to the UK exclusively by Atomic Coffee House, you can buy one from their site for £279.
For me the new ones feel a little cold, have a look at some of the beautiful vintage ones for sale here, the worn aluminium casing feels so much warmer and friendly. Shame they’re in Australia though, will be keeping my eyes peeled on eBay until I find a good one :)
