Some advances have made devices cleverer, faster, cheaper and more reliable. But they've lost out in artistic and craftsman appeal as a result. Here are the innards of the Hamann 505 mechanical calculator, from 1965.
I'm hoping for Room Temperature Superconductors. That will be a great day for humankind. I'm p. sure the bright girls and boys'll figger it out sooner or later.
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Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
I call them 'clothes horse hinges' when I use them on the rudder and other control surfaces of model aircraft.
I call them that because the old fashioned racks for drying washing, called 'clothes horses', were often hinged the same way.
Here's a boat rudder hinge (full size) done the same way - it's just a length of cord wound through two sets of holes - one set in the stern post and the other in the rudder. In plan view the cord traces out a figure-8 shape.
I've not been able to find any information on the ancient versions yet - but I don't really know the correct name for this kind of hinge to search for.
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The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.
-- Official Bunny Hero
I remembered that the Jacob's ladder toy also uses the same type of hinge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia article
Despite urban myths prevalent on the internet, there is no known documentation dating it to King Tut's tomb or ancient Egypt or to the Pilgrims. It has been theorized that its origin is from a Chinese falling-block toy, called "Chinese blocks".
The Japanese polymath Hiraga Gennai 平賀源内 (1729-1779) constructed a Jacob's ladder which later came to be called "Gennai's Wondrous Click-clack"
I understand that the Virgin Volcanic WS-1® is going to be powered by the new KUBE X15
__________________ Old Pain In The Ass says: I am on a mission from God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; to bring faith to the doubtful and doubt to the faithful.
I don't see a reason why the technology wouldn't work in space as well. Which means that it could be used to bore into asteroids to create colonies and for mining.
I've wished there was such a thing since I was a kid. SCUBA gear is so fucking heavy and unwieldy to lug around when you're above water, and you can't refill tanks just anywhere (and refill is pricy).
I can't wait until this is commercialized.
Of course it won't totally replace SCUBA or rebreather systems, because some water is anoxic (you can't pull oxygen out if it's not there), or toxic.
Many years ago, I helped move and set up some Leslie speakers for Hammond organs. They used a similar, albeit more old-fashioned, technology to produce a distinctive vibrato/tremelo effect.
Back in the early 2000s I decided that holographic images in free air like you see in science fiction are probably impossible, because there is nothing in the air to reflect the projected light back to a viewer's eye.
They found a way. It's still very crude, but everything is when it's first developed. I mean take a peak at the first transistor: