The Amish and Technology

Amish heat their homes in various ways, including wood and coal stoves and natural gas heaters.  How do they stay warm when they hit the road? The answer to this question would depend in part on what kind of buggy you drive. Those Amish whose Ordnung prohibits a storm front (the “windshield” enclosing the front), […]

Continue Reading How do Amish keep warm in the buggy?

As mentioned before, this spring the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College will be hosting a 3-day conference entitled “Amish America: Plain Technology in a Cyber World“.  From the description: This international conference will highlight the challenges and impact of recent technology (the Internet, social media, and telecommunications, for example) on […]

Continue Reading Amish Tech Conference registration now open

A reader in Indiana shares photos and a description of a water pump system in an Amish home: This is the most common configuration for a well pump in the Northern Indiana community. A water pump driven by a Honda engine. This picture was taken in one of the houses we looked at buying. This […]

Continue Reading How do Amish pump water?

We recently looked at how Amish use turbines to harness the wind and create power.  But what about when they need to do the reverse–generate a little wind of their own, say to keep cool in the hot summer months (remember those)? You may have seen Amish-engineered ceiling fans before.  They are common in Amish […]

Continue Reading Amish Ceiling Fan

A year ago I noticed a stark change while in an Indiana Amish community.  Solar panels and spinning wind turbines had populated many an Amish roof in the 5 years since I’d last visited. Later, in an Amish-owned store in another settlement, I viewed an array of technologies designed to harness the wind and sun. […]

Continue Reading Do Amish use solar power?

We started the week with Amish GPS but now head in the opposite direction, technologically speaking. Brenda shares photos today from the Carroll County, Tennessee Amish settlement, of an old Maytag washing machine.  Brenda has previously shared photos from Amish wash day in this settlement, so this makes a good follow-up.  Amish are known to use old-fashioned machines […]

Continue Reading Old-fashioned Amish washer

Today’s photo, from Mike of Primitive Christianity: Mike adds:  “I know Old Order Amish are not opposed to some forms of modernity. It just strikes me as a good representation of the mixture of old and new. Somehow one doesn’t seem to think that GPS units are needed on such a slow-moving, short-distance vehicle.” I […]

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Sometimes individuals and even whole communities transition away from being “classically Amish”, becoming something different while keeping elements of Amishness. We saw the example of the ex-Amish in Parke County, Indiana last week.  Today Karen Johnson-Weiner shares photos from a group in Missouri which has also moved in a different direction.  These people, previously considered […]

Continue Reading A mule-powered washing machine

A friend of mine does regular “no technology” days with his family. This means one or two scheduled days a week when they turn off all the computers, iPods, and the like, and go with the “old-fashioned”: books, peace and quiet, family time (anyone ever try this?). I’ve admired the discipline it takes to do […]

Continue Reading Which technology could you give up today?

Just a note on the Amish Technology conference, to be held June 6-8, 2013 at the Young Center at Elizabethtown College.  The call for papers deadline has been extended from October 1 to October 15.  One other important point: proposals are welcome for any Amish-related topics, not just those connected with technology. From the conference […]

Continue Reading 2013 Amish Tech Conference update