Since Otis revealed the first fully automatic, multi-car elevator system in 1948, automation has been creeping silently, or not so silently, into our everyday lives. Now, automation appears in almost everything from the washing machine that can determine just how much water to use every cycle to the computers that […]
Tag: Engineering
How to Build an Elevator: Seven Steps to Success by Vizzini
Disclaimer: Ethan Jo, upon careful review of Vizzini’s advice, does not guarantee that success can be reached according to these procedures. Building an elevator requires experience with electronics, structural forces, and, most of all, ample money. Vizzini mentions none of these crucial elements. Proceed at your own risk. So, […]
“If It’s Boeing, I’m Not Going”
If It’s Boeing, I’m not Going. In 1967, the first Boeing 737 came off the production lines in Seattle, Washington. In the fifty-four years since that date, over ten thousand 737s have been produced, making it one of the most ubiquitous aircraft in the whole world. Then, in October 2018, […]
Three Mile Island and Nuclear Energy: the Failure and the Lesson
On March 28, 1979, reactor TMI 2 at the Three Mile Island power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania experienced a partial meltdown, which released unknown amounts of radiation into the surrounding area and damaged the reactor beyond repair. It also damaged something else beyond repair: the reputation of nuclear energy as […]
United States and Divided Units
On September 23, 1999, NASA’s 193-million-dollar Mars Climate Orbiter entered orbit around Mars—or was supposed to. Instead, it was lost, either by falling into the Martian atmosphere and disintegrating or by flying straight through the atmosphere and falling into orbit around the sun. Initially, engineers and officials at NASA were […]