ELEMENTAL RACE CARS
FOR BETTER or worse, race cars today are replete with aerospace engineering. But it wasn’t always this way. Immediately after World War II, British motor enthusiasts wanted to race cars—surely … Continue reading
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND JAPAN
“EVER SINCE I discovered the print,” Frank Lloyd Wright wrote in his 1932 autobiography, “Japan has appealed to me as the most romantic, artistic country on Earth.” The Frank Lloyd … Continue reading
A TECH TRIO OF MERIT
SAE INTERNATIONAL publishes Tech Briefs, a monthly magazine of “Engineering Solutions for Design & Manufacturing.” Three articles in its January 2018 issue show the range of its editorial coverage extending … Continue reading
LAFAYETTE, THEY WERE THERE
IT WAS just about 100 years ago that American pilots transferred their service from the Escadrille Lafayette to the newly formed U.S. Army Air Service. In addition to the 38 … Continue reading
“AN AMERICAN CAR WITH THE EUROPEAN LOOK”
R&T MAGAZINE nailed it with this headline announcing its road test of the Studebaker Commander Coupe in the September 1953 issue. Early in the road test, they wrote, “Although not … Continue reading
BORRONI-BIRD’S AFREECAR
CHRIS BORRONI-BIRD has proposed an innovative means of personal mobility and mobile power particularly optimized for sub-Sahara Africa. The Afreecar, a play on “Africa Car,” is an advanced bike-trailer system. … Continue reading
FERRARI 4.1 VIGNALE COUPE
“THE FABULOUS Ferrari,” R&T wrote in a September 1953 road test, “lives up to all the thousands of words which have been written about it.” This particular road test subject … Continue reading
I AM EMBARRASSED
IN MY continuing series of Etymology for our Times, today I examine the word “embarrass.” Merriam-Webster defines its first meaning as “to cause to experience a state of self-conscious distress.” … Continue reading
HOLMES’ FUTURE SHOCK
ALVIN TOFFLER wrote Future Shock in 1970, but certainly Sherlock Holmes experienced the late-Victorian/Edwardian equivalent of this disruption caused by accelerated change. Here are several examples. The Telephone. During much … Continue reading
THE $1.3 MILLION VODKA BOTTLE CAPER
AT FIRST, it sounded like fake news, or maybe a 21st-century version of Dada art: The New York Times, January 6, 2018, reported, “It was meant to be a collector’s … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 