Filed by KOSU News in Business.
February 22, 2013

The Amish are known for living simply. They don’t drive and don’t connect to the electrical grid.

But that doesn’t mean Amish men don’t want power tools.

Yet a growing number of Amish people are now leaving farming for manufacturing. That means they need tools — and power.

At the Buckeye Tool Expo in Dalton, Ohio, venders show off every loophole by which the Amish can get their hands on power tools.

There are 127 venders selling some form of Amish twist on technology.

The problem, however, is the more technology they add, the more technology they need.

For instance, as some of the Amish were building bigger workshops and factories, they found out that using gas lamps wasn’t cutting it. One booth offered an electricity-free solution.

Amish computers were being sold at another booth. The machines are battery powered, have no audio or video and certainly no Internet. The computers have an old-fashioned spreadsheet and word processor for business.

Decades old technology for a new market. [Copyright 2013 NPR]