Batch rocket resource

Due to questions and suggestions of members here and on donkey32 I started two months ago to fill a website. This site is meant to be a central information resource of the batch box rocket core. At the moment it is bi-lingual but far from completed. Most of the Dutch side is translated into English, let me know what you think of it.
http://batchrocket.eu/en/ will launch straight into the English section.

Thanks for doing this.

However, I would say an native English-speaking editor is needed to check the texts. I understand pretty well everything written there, but if the site is to propagate the idea among the laymen, it has to be more simplistic, the reading more logical.

In other words, there is no warmth for the reader (reading pleasure, if you will) that is reading for the fist time in his life about such a thing.

Terry, a man from Australia is doing the proof reading in order to spot the typos and suggest corrections. Most of the corrections he suggested are done, my writing style isn't enthousiastic, I know that. Can't be helped, that's my writing style. However, I take it as compliment that you as a non-native speaker are able to understand pretty well everything.

Seriously, I understand because it's almost one year that I read daily (literally) about rockets, have done two of them and plan doing more. Also, having a long experience as a professional English translator helps. But even then, the batch box has a complicated jargon that even I cannot figure out completely or immediately (the only resources being donkey's forum). That's why I got excited by you doing this website.

You can't understand this, because it's just like the writer who goes over an error and doesn't spot it. Even if the error is shouting out there: "here I am!", the writer is thinking with his mind (which is correct).

Imagine it this way: if you are unable to write and dictate to somebody who doesn't know jack about rocket stoves and batch boxes, but is serious enough about thinking and writing. This person would stop you, ask for clarifications, and present to the world a very enjoyable text.

I've translated texts from literary theory, and there is the concept of the reading pleasure. About every text, if it doesn't give you pleasure reading it, it hardly sticks its meaning into you, it pushes you away. So, if you are a bee-keeper and read a very valuable book but the language is bad, unconsciously you refuse the text.

Back to the batch box site: it will be a crucial point of reference and I think what I'm saying is important for the propagation of the idea. You have tons of info about the J-tube, presented by everybody, at every corner of the internet, you have text, pictures, animated gifs, videos. Everybody can make a J-tube in a few minutes. The batch box is another beast and the main, fundamental, crucial presentation of it should be very logical, nice to read, well-illustrated. Let the rest of the world do the rest, but the main resource should be crystal-clear.

I don't want to be seen as a pain in the ass, just as somebody who wants to polish something so that it fully shines. The old habit of trying to make the world a better place...

:-d

Best regards
Blendi

Blendi Kraja wrote:However, I would say an native English-speaking editor is needed to check the texts. I understand pretty well everything written there, but if the site is to propagate the idea among the laymen, it has to be more simplistic, the reading more logical.

In other words, there is no warmth for the reader (reading pleasure, if you will) that is reading for the fist time in his life about such a thing.

fist time in his life about such a thing. typo first

just as an aside, some of the non english when translated to english can accidently be delightful after the translation, well to me anyway. I love this bit 'there is no warmth for the reader'. What a lovely way to say it! I doubt a native english speaker would come up with a turn of phrase like that. (that is assuming that you, from albania with a surname of Kraja is in fact a non native english speaker. If that is not correct then I just made an ass of myself)

Peter van den Berg wrote:Terry, a man from Australia is doing the proof reading in order to spot the typos and suggest corrections. Most of the corrections he suggested are done, my writing style isn't enthousiastic, I know that. Can't be helped, that's my writing style. However, I take it as compliment that you as a non-native speaker are able to understand pretty well everything.

my writing style isn't enthousiastic, typo, enthusiastic

To be honest, these last two posts were meant to be a bit of a laugh, and Blendi replied whilst I was doing the first response. It is clear then that me mucking about might muddy the waters a bit. I cannot speak for Peter of course but essentially I agree with Blendi's viewpoint. I think what peter is doing is extremely valuable and it would be a shame for his site to not have the impact it can have due to factors such as simple spelling mistakes as a first example. It is pretty quick and easy for me to go thru and correct the most obvious ones and I gladly do it.

But, as blendi rightly points out, even after that the underlying skeleton of the language can still be awkward at times. In a couple of instances I have suggested some alternative wordings and peter had no hesitation in adopting them. What I feel very keenly when suggesting these alternatives is that, even to me, they sound like me and definitely NOT Peter. That makes it hard for me to suggest more, because it then feels like I have taken over. Yet, to be completely honest, I do feel that quite a bit more editing than mere spelling corrections is needed to aid in readability etc. But I am hesitant to suggest further, whether it will come across as an insult (hardly! Crikey, for someones second language at a minimum it is pretty damned good!) or that I feel like an invading force coming into someone's land and taking over.

So, for the moment, I am limiting myself to simply correcting typos and such when the successive pages are published. That way Peter can let his 'creative juices flow' and the data gets out there. After that, my hope is that Peter will agree and allow me to have a go at the other side (or someone else) and do any needed re-working of what was written in order to increase the reading warmth (still love it!)

If Peter agrees that that would be a worthwhile exercise it is still down the track a little. For now, none of these types of distractions until he has done HIS side, the giving of the hard data that very few others have.

In any case, I am sure peter knows what he wants and seems to me a strong enough character to be able to articulate and hold firm to those wants.

Gents,
I am aware of the fact that my use of the English language isn't perfect. It is my second language, yes, but in school I enjoyed only one year of very basic education on that subject. The rest of it came to me by reading and following the original text on television. Nothing on telly in the Netherlands is synchronised in Dutch, all foreign languages are undertitled. During this translation from Dutch to English Google Translate is my friend, otherwise the typos would be all over the place.

I am posting on one American forum for 6 years now, and I think I am ready as ever to take up this mammoth task. So please, have patience, some people offered to do a French translation which is simply greek to me (is that an English expression?). I investigated how to allow a human translator to type directly into the website by means of access to the online text editor. This is possible, but as Terry rightfully remarks, let me do my thing first.

As of today, I completed the translation of the "Core designs" chapter. Proof reading, spotting typos and suggesting correstions to awkward sentences by Terry hasn't been done yet. Next will be the "Applications" chapter, with real-life examples, this will probably become the largest chapter eventually. The writing of the articles is done in Dutch first so every time there's one of those done I'll start translation. I'll announce every published article here.

http://www.batchrocket.eu/en

Bell theory is added to the "Applications" chapter and changed a couple of times. I expect it to be finished now.
http://batchrocket.eu/en

Three barrel batch rocket is added to the "Applications" chapter. Will probably change a bit in the coming days, all of the pictures are there.
http://batchrocket.eu/en

Bell with dead-end benches is added to the "Applications" chapter. Text need some corrections so there will be changes in the following days.
http://batchrocket.eu/en/

There's more to come but this will take some time, I need to write the articles in Dutch first. Articles in the pipeline are: cast single bell mass heater in a passive house and a central heating boiler powered by a batch rocket, both in daily use and succesful last winter. Could take a week or more, watch this space.

Bell heater dry stacked entirely with cast parts is added to the "Applications" chapter of the batchrocket.eu site. Text need almost certainly some corrections so it will be changed slightly in the following days.

Another article is added to the "Applications" chapter. This time about a pressureless central heating system ran by a batch rocket.
http://batchrocket.eu/en/
Text is a little bit sketchy at places, corrections are likely to be done in the coming days.

A pizza oven cum pool heater has been added to the "Applications" chapter. Some notes need to be made and Terry need to read through it before it is fit to be declared ready. This isn't a translated article, the author wrote it in English himself. See http://batchrocket.eu/en

Some people offered to translate to French and Spanish. Both languages are on the site, Introduction is done for both plus Workings for French. It will be definitely a multi-lingual site instead of bi-lingual as planned, much to my surprise. And , I must add, delight. Interesting times!
Oh, there's also a Contact item for Dutch (of course!) and English.

Peter - many thanks for taking the time to post this. It's a great resource for all batch rocket experimenters.

Keep the updates coming!

Thanks again.

Another article has been added, about "Bell sizing" in the "Applications" chapter.
Terry, my Australian editor, thought this aspect was sadly missing in the "Bell theory" section.
I think he was right.
http://batchrocket.eu/en

More useful information - many thanks again Peter and Terry.

The Building chapter is translated into French by Yasin Gach, the Workings chapter is translated into Spanish by Pablo Kulbaba. It looks like these updates will be once a week at average.

The complete Core designs chapter is translated into French by Yasin Gach and I implemented it on the site. The CC license is now in four languages, each at their respective site versions.

Part of the Applications chapter is translated into French by Yasin Gach.
Plans are on the way to implement a Slovenian and an Albanian translation. This starts to look a lot like a worldwide project, I need to think about updating the content from time to time.

Two more items of the Applications chapter are translated into French by Yasin Gach.
The complete Building and Designs chapters are converted to Spanish by Pablo Kulbaba. Especially that last one caused a flood of new visitors to the site, Argentina shot up from 9th to 3rd place in the ranking and a new day record is reached.
I had to ditch the Albanian version due to incompatible differences of opinion with the proposed translator. The structure is still there, so it could be picked up by another volunteer coming by.
The Slovenian version has the Introduction done and a Polish version is in the wings.
batchrocket.eu/en

Peter van den Berg wrote: and a Polish version is in the wings.batchrocket.eu/en

Shall you happen to be in need of an extra polish eye - pm me.!

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. My proposed translator has been very quiet lately, so perhaps I need a second volunteer. Could that be you or do you know somebody who's capable and willing to take up the job?

It  may be me and I'd dare to ask members of the rocket stove subgroub of Cohabitat community to give a hand   (or "eyes" rather with the task

Peter van den Berg wrote:Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. My proposed translator has been very quiet lately, so perhaps I need a second volunteer. Could that be you or do you know somebody who's capable and willing to take up the job?

Dear Peter, Jura Rafał has contacted me. I'm happy to take this responsibility as a part of our mission in Cohabitat and get this job done. Just give me your blessing and we are ready to go

ps. I really  appreciate that you've open sourced this piece of knowledge. Thank you for that!

Hi Pawel,
Thanks for the offer, I'll contact the guy who'd offer to translate to Polish originally to hear he's OK with a shift of personnel. In the mean time, contact me via the contact page of the site so I'll get your mail address. It would be a good thing when we would be able to start as soon as possible.

Recent additions are articles in the Spanish and French versions of the "Applications" chapter. Not ready yet, but both are quite close.

The French translator, Yasin Gach, just completed the translation of the entire site. When French is your first language, please see http://batchrocket.eu/fr/

As of today, the Workings chapter made it into Slovenian, thanks to Klemen Urbanija.
The Slovenian section is reached easiest at batchrocket.eu/slo

Another chapter is translated into Slovenian, so Building is ready now.

The chapter "Designs" is translated into Slovenian by Klemen Urbanija and published at the batchrocket website. So the SketchUp drawings of the respective core designs are available now in this language version.

Another part of the Applications chapter is translated into Spanish by Pablo Kulbaba. When Spanish is your first language, see batchrocket.eu/es/aplicaciones.

Klemen Urbanija translated another article of the Applications chapter into Slovenian.  See batchrocket.eu/slo/applicatie when Slovenian is your first language. Also, Bell theory and Bell sizing articles are translated as well but moved to the Building chapter.

And Pablo Kulbaba rounded off one article and translated another of the same chapter into Spanish, see batchrocket.eu/es/aplicaciones#redbell when Spanish is easier for you than English.

Pablo Kulbaba finally completed the Spanish translation. He also led a workshop to build a 10" batch box rocket heater, the first as far as I am aware of. See http://batchrocket.eu/en/building#dimension

As of today, Klemen Urbanija completed the Slovenian translation of the Batchrocket site. See http://batchrocket.eu/slo/ if Slovenian is closer to your home language. I am looking for a person who's willing to translate the site truthfully in Russian or another large language. Any takers?