Interesting gear factoids discovered wasting time on the Net while pretending to be working...The first four-function mechanical calculator was built by the mathematician Gottfried Leibniz in 1694. While not commercially available for nearly 200 years, the design was the basis of many such calculators until well into this century.
In our unceasing attempt to further educate our readers - and find new and creative ways to waste time at work - the Addendum staff has spent many long hours (and many dollars on popcorn) to bring you our latest research on gears in film.
In spite of being the "Second City," Chicago has always cultivated a reputation for bigness. We're known for big talk, big shoulders, big basketball players - and big gears. While not necessarily the biggest in the world (more about that late), some Chicago gears are among the hardest working.
More Gears in Cyberspace
Dial in to the web site of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry for an online version of the museum's Gears from the Century of Progress exhibit.
The word gear, in various forms, has been in use since around A.D. 1200, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Last issue we brought you Shakespearean gears. Now we'd like to show you some of the uses Americans have given our favorite word (from the Random House Dictionary of American Slang).
As part of the Addendum Team's never-ending quest to improve the overall cultural tone of the gear industry, we bring you the following: April 23 is the 432nd birthday of William Shakespeare.
There's nothing like a new year - with the possible exception of birthdays ending in zero - to remind one of the passage of time. Keeping track of time has always been part of the brief of the gear engineer. One of the earliest gear assemblies is the remains of the Antikythera machine, a calendar/calculator dating from the first century B.C. Until the industrial revolution, clock makers and gear designers were usually the same people.
Your Addendum team has come across a number of Good Ole Boys in its time; now we bring you something of even more interest - a Good Ole Gear Book. Mr. Robert Price, of Automation - Gears - Machinery, a gear consulting firm in Delanson, NY, shared with us a real find.
221B Baker Street
We've always said that gears show up in all the best places, even, it turns out, among the papers of that most famous of detectives, Sherlock Holmes. "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" is, according to Dr. Watson, a case "so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details," that it merits a mention even in our exalted pages.
Gear Technology's bimonthly aberration - gear trivia, humor, weirdness and oddments for the edification and amusement of our readers. Contributions are welcome.