IEA OIL GUSH
RECENT HEADLINES (“U.S. Oil Output to Overtake Saudi’s”) have interesting subtexts cited in Science, 30 November 2012, Vol. 338 and in The New York Times Magazine, December 16, 2012. The … Continue reading
GABRIEL VOISIN VS THE WRIGHT BROS.
WELCOME TO today’s debate. Its topic, who invented the aeroplane? The Wright Bros. of Dayton, Ohio? Or Gabriel Voisin of Billancourt, Paris, France? In composing the Wright Bros. argument, I used … Continue reading
INDIANA JONES, OHIO SIMANAITIS
A RECENT refurbishment of Disneyland’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye Adventure reminds me of my own Ohio Simanaitis Adventure. As noted in R&T, April 1996, Henry “Indiana” Jones, … Continue reading
WACKY’S NEAT CARS
CHICAGO ENTREPRENEUR Stanley Harold “Wacky” Arnolt was more than a car importer; his company S.H. Arnolt was a licensed automobile manufacturer in the state of Illinois in the 1950s. Arnolt’s … Continue reading
BIOCHAR AND MR. FORD
AN ARTICLE in Science, 23 November 2012, Vol. 338, discussed “biochar,” a technical term that I felt compelled to investigate. The article described biochar as “Carbon Storage with Benefits.” Specifically, … Continue reading
REWRITE? CLARIFY? STET?
ODDITIES APPEARING in print are fun to collect. Most of my collection consists of straight news items. Others are typos either corrected or left unaltered. I share the latter with … Continue reading
COMMON INTERESTS, UNCOMMON FIBER
A CARBON-FIBER link is being forged (er… woven) between BMW and Boeing. According to Reuters, the two companies will cooperate in research and development of this lightweight material. Carbon fiber … Continue reading
THE WRIGHT BROS. VS GLENN CURTISS
ON DECEMBER 17, 1903, on the windy sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the world’s first pilot-controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight. Others before had piloted … Continue reading
GEORGE B. SELDEN VS HENRY FORD
IN 1879, GEORGE B. Selden patented the automobile. Selden wasn’t an engineer. He was a tinkerer, though, and more important, a patent attorney. Selden recognized the value of delaying the … Continue reading
TRANSAVIA PL-12 AIRTRUK
ODDITIES OF aviation usually exist in ones and twos. Yet the Transavia PL-12 Airtruk, one of the oddest, had a production run of 118 examples over a 27-year period, 1966 … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 