The Lichtenberger Engineering Library announces an addition of 24 new items to the Tool Library. The tools are made available through the donations by the Engineering Electronic Shop and the Engineering Computer Services.
Various screwdrivers, wrenches, measurement devices, an eyeball webcam, and 2 LabQuest data devices with 19 accessories are some of the tools available for check out. For a complete list of all tools, as well as descriptions and links to user manuals, click on the Tool Library LibGuide at http://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/toollibrary. Tools are arranged by category and, unless noted otherwise, can circulate for 1 week.
Youth, Young Adults, and Educators, Come into my office, conference room, and laboratory – Experience my adventures, teams, challenges, thoughts, travels, and sudden insights. Engineering Stories are Realistic Fiction, short story dramatizations allowing the reader, through narration, description, dialogue, and thought to experience the adventure and satisfaction of being an engineer, or inventor. Stories are very plausible, being fictionalized compositions of author experience. Herein, you are able to listen into the mind of an engineer, see how they think, observe how they might behave, understand what motivates them. The objective is to encourage students to consider or continue careers in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM), show what it may be like, dispel a myth or two, and encourage creativity, problem solving, instilling the confidence to make the world a better place. Seven realistic stories are included in this volume. The focus is engineering product development which involves the activities of developing a product to satisfy the needs and desires of a customer. The customer could be a company, a work group, or an individual. The product could be a method of transportation, fabrication, spacecraft, or medical utility. These stories illustrate how customer needs are gathered, how product requirements are refined, and how creativity is used to determine good potential solutions to the product requirements. Examples are included showing the process by which options are evaluated, selected, designed, built, tested, and put to work for the customer. Like any good story, Engineering Stories show character development, how individuals work on their own and in teams to tackle challenges and build better products. Engineers travel, engineers learn, engineers struggle, engineers grow, and engineers feel joy in what they accomplish. Educators, This book can be used as supplemental material for the classroom. At the end of each story, mentor notes and exercises have been included to emphasize engineering ideas and encourage critical thinking, a very important engineering quality. The teacher is encouraged to assign this material to the student or use these questions for class discussion, and the student is encouraged to write responses to the questions. Finally, enjoy these stories. Encourage others to read them. If you can relate to these protagonists, these engineers, and find yourself improving upon what they have done, then you are probably an engineer, or should be.
Iowa is known for many things: the butter cow, John Wayne, ethanol, and the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). On July 20th, 8,500 riders will mount their two-wheeled pedal machines to cover more than 400 miles in one week. Would this have been possible without the engineering feats of light-weight carbon fiber materials, multiple-speed performance gears, durable traction wheels and brakes, and ergonomically adjustable handle bars and seat posts?
The original pedal-driven bicycle (velocipede) as it appears in Pierre Lallement’s U.S. Patent No. 59,915 of 1866.
The earliest sketch of a bicycle-like machine was drawn in 1493 by a student of Leonardo da Vinci. However, the earliest claim to a two-wheel “running machine” was called the Draisine, named for its inventor, Karl von Drais. who patented his wood-built, steerable design in 1818. Soon after, Denis Johnson of London patented a similar version called the “velocipede” or “pedestrian curricle.” The rider walked or ran on top of the two-wheel machine. It commonly was referred to as the “hobby-horse” since it was an alternative to riding a horse as a means of transportation.
In 1863, a French metalworker, Pierre Lallement, introduced the first crank and pedal-operated serpentine-frame velocipede. His 1866 U.S. patented design became the basis for the first popular and commercially successful “bicycle.” By the 1890s, continued improvements had been made to the steering, safety, comfort and speed of the bicycle design, as well as the addition of the chain-drive from the front wheel hub to the rear.
By the start of the 20th century, cycling had become a viable and popular means of transportation. Mass production increased its affordability and recreational riding clubs formed. Susan B. Anthony coined the phrase “freedom machine” because the bicycle gave women unprecedented mobility. It also reshaped the women’s fashion industry since corsets and angle-length skirts encumbered riding.
REFERENCES
Books:
Bicycle design : an illustrated history / Tony Hadland and Hans-Erhard Lessing ; with contributions from Nick Clayton and Gary W. Sanderson. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2014] (eLibrary)
The racing bicycle : design, function, speed / foreword by Robert Penn ; general editors, Richard Moore, Daniel Benson. New York : Universe, 2013. (Engineering Library TL437.5 .R63 2013)
Racing bicycles : 100 years of steel / David Rapley ; [photography by Susie Latham]. Mulgrave, Vic. : Images Publishing Group Pty, 2012. (Engineering Library TL410 .R37 2012)
Cyclepedia :
a century of iconic bicycle design /
Michael Embacher ; foreword by Paul Smith ; photographs by Bernard Angerer. San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 2011. (Engineering Library FOLIO Tl410 .E43 2011)
The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind.
There is so much we don’t know, which leads us to make so many irrational decisions that we need scientists and science writers to share their inquiries and discoveries in welcoming and lucid prose. Stellar examples of just this sort of cogent and compelling writing sustains this invaluable and exciting series. This year’s guest editor, Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics and author of The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty (2012), kicks things off with a provocative introductory essay about how we can and should use science to improve our lives. His commanding and eye-opening selections run the gamut from the micro (gut biota) to the macro (global air pollution) and steadily ramp up our sense of awe and concern. His engaging contributors write of food allergies (Jerome Groopman), the evolution of feathers (Carl Zimmer), the extraction of DNA from Neanderthal bones (Elizabeth Kolbert), and crowd disasters (John Seabrook). In the most intimate essay, Sy Montgomery describes her unexpectedly emotional encounters with Athena, a very smart and expressive giant Pacific octopus. How wondrous and complicated life is. –Donna Seaman
About the Author
Dan Ariely, author of The Upside of Irrationality and Predictably Irrational, is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University.
It Looked Good on Paper is a remarkable compendium of wild schemes, mad plans, crazy inventions, and truly glorious disasters. Every phenomenally bad idea seemed like a good idea to someone. How else can you explain the Ford Edsel or the sword pistol—absolutely absurd creations that should have never made it off the drawing board? It Looked Good on Paper gathers together the most flawed plans, half-baked ideas, and downright ridiculous machines throughout history that some second-rate Einstein decided to foist on an unsuspecting populace with the best and most optimistic intentions. Some failed spectacularly. Others fizzled after great expense. One even crashed on Mars. But every one of them at one time must have looked good on paper, including:
The lead water pipes of Rome
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge—built to collapse
The Hubble telescope—the $2 billion scientific marvel that couldn’t see
The Spruce Goose—Howard Hughes’s airborne atrocity: big, expensive, slow, unstable, and made of wood
With more than thirty-five chapters full of incredibly insipid inventions, both infamous and obscure, It Looked Good on Paper is a mind-boggling, endlessly entertaining collection of fascinating failures.
Bill Fawcett is the author and editor of more than a dozen books, including You Did What? It Seemed Like a Good Idea . . . , How to Lose a Battle, and You Said What? He lives in Illinois.
Why don’t jumbo jets flap their wings? offers a fascinating explanation of how nature and human engineers each arrived at powered flight. What emerges is a highly readable account of two very different approaches to solving the same fundamental problems of moving through the air, including lift, thrust, turning, and landing. The book traces the evolutionary process of animal flight-in birds, bats, and insects-over millions of years and compares it to the directed efforts of human beings to create the aircraft over the course of a single century.
From Publishers Weekly:
This book is for everyone who’s ever wondered how something gets into the air, stays there and lands safely. A close look at the aerodynamics of wings introduces the basic concepts of lift, thrust, drag and weight, the basic forces that affect flight. While the principles don’t differ between animals and machines, design and purpose do. Bird and insect wings have evolved to provide lift and maneuverability, ward off predators and attract mates. Manmade flyers, on the other hand—even sailplanes—require a separate means of thrust to create lift. Alexander, who teaches biology at the University of Kansas and studies biomechanics, explains how birds and machines hover; how rotary plane and jet engines work; what keeps airplanes, with their rigid wings, stable in the air; and how various tools help pilots fly blind. Sections on flying predators and aerial combat, as well as human-powered flight, are especially interesting. Extensive references, a glossary and suggested reading should give even novices a good understanding of flight and how it works.
Are grandparents, aunts & uncles and friends stumped as to what to purchase for your graduation gift? Let an engineering librarian research and suggest a few ideas including wall-frame patent art, stylish pens & pencils and interesting magazines and books.
Mechanical Pencil Patent Art Print OccupationGifts.comHenry Petroski is a professor both of civil engineering and history at Duke University as well as a published author. ComputerGear.comIrrational Numbers Wall Clock Signals.comAn iPad with a magazine subscription AppleThe Institution of Engineering & TechnologyNextIssue.comEngineer’s Triangular Scale Tape EngineerSupply.comAutomatic Drafting Pencil set AmazonThe Givenchy Pi Collection for Him Macy’sCufflinks by Jewelry Mountain AmazonThrow in a few BBQ tools to complete the gift. CafePress.comHow about an iPhone, too? Zazzle.comChoose stocks from iRobot, Boeing, John Deere & more. GiveAShareFor the fashionable engineer Zazzle.comJewelry for Her ComputerGear.comDuct tape fixes everything. Amazon“I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer…” – Neil Armstrong
Happy Earth Day! Today, April 22, Earth Day celebrations are occurring throughout the United States as well as around the world. This year’s theme, Green Cities, focuses on sustainable communities. Denis Hayes was the first coordinator of Earth Day, an environmental “teach-in” held on April 22, 1970. In the first Earth Day participants from two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States “brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform.” He founded the Earth Day Network in Washington, DC and expanded it to 192 countries. Time Magazine named him “Hero of the planet” in 1999. His mentor, former US Senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson, originated the idea 44 years ago, in 1970, to promote and support responsible protection of our environment, the Earth. Gaylord Nelson hired Denis Hayes, a student attending the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to organize the first Earth Day. In 1995, Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his work.
The first to propose an international day to honor the Earth was peace activist John McConnell. His vision, formed at a UNESCO conference on the environment in 1969, included a celebration to be held on the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere: March 21, McConnell’s proposal led to a proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations in 1971, initiating an annual Earth Day on April 22nd. McConnell later founded the Earth Society in 1976 with anthropologist Margaret Mead.
he racing bicycle : design, function, speed
