THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE—FACT AND FICTION
CHARLES BABBAGE was a nineteenth century mathematician who recognized the computational drudgery of assembling tables of logarithms, trigonometric and other mathematical functions. This was the Industrial Age, after all. Why … Continue reading
WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS (SHOW)
THE 2012 Paris Mondial de l’Automobile has been reported as a combination of scintillating excitement combined with doom and gloom. Having stayed right here in southern California (see Atkinson and … Continue reading
MY WORD!/MY MUSIC
TWO OF the most entertaining uses of radio waves were the BBC programs My Word! (1956-1990) and My Music (1966-1993). Anchoring these two panel shows over the years were Frank … Continue reading
W. EDWARDS DEMING—A MAN OF HIGH QUALITY
IT’S RARE that one person can be credited with transforming an industry—not to say a country. However, there’s a good argument that W. Edwards Deming did just that. It was … Continue reading
A GLOSSARY OF COOL
CHANGES ARE coming in the refrigerant used in automotive air conditioning, so it seems a good time to bring things up to date with a Glossary of Cool. Also, it’s … Continue reading
COOLSPRING POWER MUSEUM
INTERNAL COMBUSTION engines built before 1900 are celebrated as “centennial engines.” And, among enthusiasts of things mechanical, the Coolspring Power Museum is a real treasure trove of these wonderful devices. … Continue reading
THE ENGLISH MOTORWAY, 1959
WE THINK of freeways, expressways, motorways, autobahns, autoroutes and autostradas as ubiquitous. And, in fact, in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France and Italy, respectively, these high-speed limited-access highways are … Continue reading
ENDEAVOUR 2012, MAIA/MERCURY 1938
CALIFORNIA IS home to a lot of the space industry, and many of us here were wacko about seeing the welcome-home flybys of the Space Shuttle Endeavour atop its Boeing … Continue reading
2013 NISSAN NV200 TAXI OF TOMORROW
“I GO somewhere, I take a cab.” This world view of New Yorkers is about to change to “I take a Nissan.” This company’s NV200 Taxi of Tomorrow (NV, as … Continue reading
WHERE’S MY PROP? PART 2
IT WAS disquieting enough when a prop disappeared, as it did in the transition of Saab 21A to 21R (see http://wp.me/p2ETap-dW. Yet in the early days of aviation, there were … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 