Visiting saw windmill De Ster and RTV Utrecht

Posted by Tjeerd on September 14, 2008

Besides celebrating my birthday last Saturday I also visited saw windmill De Ster in Utrecht together with my brother and his wife and children. It was a so called Monumentendag (European Heritage Day), which means that a lot of monuments are open to the public. De Ster is the only original saw windmill in The Netherlands which still functions and runs every Saturday. It delivers about 60 horsepower to saw wood into shelves. The trees sawed in the windmill come from the city of Utrecht self. Since last year they make benches which you can buy for a few hundred euros. At the moment there is a waitinglist of about a year before you can get your own handmade bench. Click on the pictures belowe to zoom in.

Sawing a piece of wood View from the mill The saws Wood sawed in pieces

Today our local tv- and radiostation, called RTV Utrecht, was open to the public and me and Nina went there to see what’s going on inside that building and how the news, radio and television is made. Not that I watch RTV Utrecht much, only when zapping around sometimes I watch it for five minutes. There was an opportunity for visitors to do an interview with a policewoman to experience how it feels to be a host. Furthermore we walked into a room where we witnessed live how radio is made. And we also peeked into the “television broadcast room” (as I call it), where quite some screens where hanging and where everything is “aired” from.

Try an interview with the police yourself Radio host Television control center

Categories: /home

Sulfur Hexafluoride

Posted by Tjeerd on September 8, 2008

Most people know helium as a gas which is used in filling balloons and as a gas which can alter your voice, it raises the tone of your voice. This is because helium is light weight. But there is also a heavy gas called sulfur hexafluoride which does the opposite: it lowers the tone of your voice because of it’s higher density. See the movie below to hear what that sounds like. It is not fake.

Categories: /media