Most of us would agree that the idea of a perfect world is absurd. Just for starters, who gets to decide what perfect means? "The Perfectionists" by Simon Winchester explores this theme as it relates to engineering.
A recent visit to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, located in Dearborn, Michigan, helped remind this editor how different the manufacturing floor looked when the Ford Model-T was first being produced in the early 1900s.
John Harrison (1693–1776) - a British clockmaker (and carpenter) whose extremely precise chronometer enabled seafarers to calculate longitude (also known as east-west axis) with a degree of accuracy that until then was unheard of.
Lego Technics actually just turned 40 last year. Technic kits have always differentiated themselves from their blocky contemporaries with a focus on additional parts such as gears, motors and axles to facilitate motion, and while the window dressing has changed over the years from the bulldozers and helicopters of yesteryear to the newest, coolest sports cars today, that core premise hasn't.
When discussing the thinning of this country's potential manufacturing workforce, it is often maintained that technical training opportunities should be made available to grade school-age children who express interest. Get their attention while they're young and impressionable, the thinking goes — and
hope their parents don't talk them out of it.
The definition is pretty straightforward: An association is an organization of persons having a common interest. Basically, it's a group that shares a purpose or mission that exists for the mutual advancement of its members.
Faithful readers of this space know we sometimes like to use Addendum to give relatively unknown 19th Century mechanical engineers/inventors their well-deserved props. Like, for example, William Brunton (1777-1851), who is credited - but generally unknown - with inventing the Steam Horse, also known as the Mechanical Traveler.