Engines of our Ingenuity - The Engines of Our Ingenuity is an American public radio program that describes how culture is molded by human creativity. The site carries transcripts of each broadcast since the program's inception in 1988. If you're at all curious about how art, technology, and ideas have shaped us then take a listen. Every episode reveals a nuance about how we have come to a culture with cable cars and civil wars, submarines and bar codes. As with all good multimedia presentations there are a few spinoffs for consumption too. Material for talks, classroom materials (still under construction unfortunately), there is even a free text book of college-level engineering - A Heat Transfer Textbook, by presenter John Lienhard IV and John Lienhard V available as well as an audio CD called Inventing Europe. The online episode at the time of this review was number 1720, which is rather impressive run to say the least. Episode 1720 talks about the Silk Road, the almost mythical trade route between China and the eastern end of the Mediterranean that went by way of Tibet, Siberia, Samarkand, and Baghdad. The show's presenter John Lienhard IV has presented some 1720 episodes so far and is still an active emeritus professor of the University of Houston and presents episodes like the Silk Sea Lane with much passion. Rating: 9 out of 10 (22 February 2003) DB
http://www.uh.edu/admin/engines/engines.htm
Fighting the U-boats - To counter the threat from German U-boats in World War II, the Allies mounted an offensive that included code-breaking at Bletchly, improved detection methods, and a weapons arsenal of depth charges, rockets, hedgehogs, and the Fido torpedo. The site's account of the successful breaking of the Enigma cipher makes for a lively read. It is interesting to note how wars quicken the pace of technological development. The High Frequency Direction Finder known as Huff Duff was helpful in locating potential wolfpack formation, which had proved devastating to Allied covoys. An excellent design helps to organize the tremendous amount of information, gathered by an Icelandic who first became interested in matters of the sea at the age of 5. Rating: 10 out of 10 (18 December 2002) AD
http://uboat.net/allies/technical/
The Old Timer's Page - A child with freshly scrubbed feet was a key player in the process of making sauerkraut back in the old days. In this series of recollections, members of farm families discuss the ice house, potting meat, curing ham in brine, the chore of gathering water, the charm of spring houses, butter making, and the pros and cons of outhouses. Instructions for building an outhouse are illustrated with photos of both plain and fancy ones. An outhouse FAQ begins with 'Did these things stink?" and ends with an explanation of the half-moon on the door. There are fondly recalled recipes, including one for head cheese, and yes, it does involve heads. Old-time home remedies for coughs, dysentery, and sores on man or beast are given, along with warnings from the editor about the hazards of using turpentine as an ointment ingredient. In response, a turpentine fan writes a remarkable letter defending its curative properties. Rating: 10 out of 10. (1 November 2002) AD
http://waltonfeed.com/old/index.html
The Technology Source - This well-designed, peer-reviewed journal addresses the many challenging situations faced by educators as they adapt technology into their curriculums. In the current issue, one teacher talks about the new rules encountered with online courses, when a class never meets face to face, interacting only through the course site. Some problems remain the same, as when hard-working students resent the slackers in a group project, and fellow teachers will find her solutions helpful. In another article, an educator is initially reluctant to attempt an online general chemistry course, citing the many difficulties he expected. These were overcome with sophisticated web tools, and as a result, students can elect to take the on-campus version or the distance-learning one - each uses the same CD-ROM and website. Rating: 10 out of 10 (15 October 2002) AD
http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp
The Museum of Ancient Inventions - The Virtual Museum of Ancient Inventions is fascinating. It has its origins in the "Ancient Inventions" course at Smith College in Massachusetts. Students studied inventions such as textiles, pottery, glassmaking and metalworking in ancient societies. They then researched and reconstructed some of them for this exhibition. There is a picture of each invention, with an explanatory text written by the students. The earliest inventions are from around 7000 BCE, such as looms and cloths, while the most recent is a 1700 CE earthen oven from Papua New Guinea. In between you'll find cosmetics such as kohl eyeliner and olive oil soap, medical tools such as forceps and a trepanation kit, musical instruments, and a fearsome arsenal of war-machines including catapults, trebuchets, and crossbows. One unusual exhibit is the "Baghdad Battery", an electric cell dating from about 250CE which used vinegar, copper, and iron in a clay jar to produce about 1.1 volts. Apparently, it may have been used to electroplate metal items, for example plating gold onto silver. The website is a simple collection of images and text, with no flashy animations. This works well and its clean design is easy to navigate. Just as we learn from the exhibits themselves, the most modern technology is not always necessary. The students of the "Ancient Inventions" course can be quite rightly proud of their work. Rating: 7 out of 10 (29 August 2002) DP-P
http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inven...
Devices of Wonder - Roll up, roll up, for "Devices of Wonder", a carnival of strange inventions billed as the "surprising and seductive ancestors of modern cinema, cyborgs, computers, and other optical devices". Based on a recent exhibition at the J. Paul Getty museum, the pages will teach you about optical illusions, magnetic toys, mechanical automata, and early experiments with moving pictures. Most of the exhibits date from the 18th and 19th centuries, but the spirit of slightly offbeat inventions is still alive: take a look at the UniBug BIObot, an insect-like robot which uses analogue rather than digital circuits and was made in 1998. It's with Flash, Java, and RealPlayer that the site comes into its own. If you have the patience for the downloads you can play with many of these gadgets on your computer. Decipher distorted 'anamorphic' images, and then paint your own pictures on the screen. Ask questions of "L'Oiseau Bleu", a fortune-telling bluebird, or play with Indonesian Shadow Puppets. These features add even more interest than the simple web pages. The interactive material is well designed, if a little fiddly at times, and it is great fun to explore. However, this part of the site is best used with a fast connection and computer so that you don't have to wait for the downloads. On slower machines, or over a modem, the non-interactive pages are still worth a browse. The site also provides further reading material, teaching resources, and an online store. Rating: 8 out of 10 for 'interactive' site, 7 out of 10 for the 'plain' site (19 July 2002) DP-P
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/devices/...
SoloTrek helicopter - Ever since the first helicopters came into use, people have dreamed of one man helicopters that you could strap on your back, and flitter off like a dragonfly. But, most of them have suffered from the same problems that the first one, made in Austria in 1944, did: excessive weight and a tendency to corkscrew out of control. With the coming of lightweight synthetic materials and miniaturized computer controlled avionics systems, the wearable helicopter is now rapidly becoming a reality. Solotrek, an American company developing a one man helicopter, has already appeared several times in the pages of New Scientist and just completed its first tethered flight. Before you put any cash into that new car, maybe you should look at this site first to see if there's a helicopter in your future. Or, you could look at the Japanese competition at www.engineeringsystems.co.jp/prd_GENH-4.html which is winding it's way towards home-built certification. One of the now nearly forgotten early attempts at a one man helicopter, the Hiller YROE-1, can be seen at www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/aero/aircraft/hiller_yroe.htm, while a more successful attempt, which may have possibly lent some ideas to Solotrek, is the Flying Platform at www.hiller.org/exhibits/online-exhibits/flying-platform.html. Rating: 7 out of 10 (7 April 2002) WTS
http://www.solotrek.com/mjet/index1.html
