CURTISS OX-5
THIS PARTICULAR aircraft engine earns being my all-time favorite not because of its power, but through its engineering evolution, its eventual ubiquity—and its wonderfully bizarre valve gear. The engine is … Continue reading
MARIA MONTESSORI
TO SOME, the word “Montessori” conjures up an image of unruly kids being taught frou-frou things by means of artsy pedagogy. But nothing could be further from the truth—or the … Continue reading
SOLAR HYDROGEN
THE PROMISE of a hydrogen highway populated by highly efficient fuel-cell vehicles depends on readily available—and inexpensive—H2. The electrolysis of water is one source of this hydrogen: Applying an electric … Continue reading
HOLMES OUT OF TIME
GIVEN THAT Sherlock Holmes is timeless, it’s no wonder that he and his colleague Dr. John H. Watson now and then appear anachronistically. Here are several of my favorites, decidedly … Continue reading
TRINOMIAL CUBE
I FIRST encountered a Trinomial Cube—as opposed to its purely algebraic and possibly intimidating namesake, (A+B+C)3—when I lived in the Caribbean in the 1970s and daughters Suz and Beth went … Continue reading
TRAVELERS’ CODE
IN THE early days of telegraph communication, sending a “cable” was priced by word count—and it cost a pretty penny. A ten-word message from New York City to Chicago in … Continue reading
SAP @ Y MBCU CAST 35
THIS TITLE—SAP @ Y MBCU CAST 35—is so wonderfully evocative of traditional time-speed-distance rallying that I’ve recycled it from an old Tech Tidbits piece. The extended version resides at http://www.roadandtrack.com/column/sap-y-mbcu-cast-35. … Continue reading
THE COMPUTER: A PHOTO ESSAY
UBIQUITOUS THOUGH it is, the digital computer is a relatively recent thing. Plenty of us remember our first significant encounter with its wonders—mine, an IBM 1620 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute … Continue reading
BERTIE
BEING THE Anglophile that I am, I enjoy my biweekly London Review of Books. Worth sharing here are details of Bertie: A Life of Edward VII, reviewed by Bee Wilson … Continue reading
SIR HERBERT’S GLOBAL OFFSPRING
THE AUSTIN Seven was Sir Herbert Austin’s concept of the perfect small car. As he said at its July 21, 1922, introduction, “The British working man will not stand any … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 