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How do they make stuff?

anglolawyer said:
Can you build a bridge? Can you build one of the piles(?) under water? How? The water is going to wash the concrete away while you pour it and the construction workers will all drown.

Please use Roman era technology in your reply :D
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Have you read the books of David Macaulay? They explain, with great drawings, how a Roman city, or a cathedral, or a pyramid was constructed. Loved those books as a kid (and still have them).
 
I Ratant said:
That I believe!
Probably the Rolls Royce factory, where every part that falls off is of the finest British craftsman ship.
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Think on it... threading the hole drilled through the world's smallest drill shank... :)
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WIth the world's smallest tap!

Somebody must ask "What's a tap for"
 
anglolawyer said:
No, I never heard of him. The books sound like fun.
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They are, and not just for kids, though my kids did also love them.

For the more humorously inclined, don't miss Great Moments in Architecture, a collection of humorous drawings including such things as a fallen-over Eiffel tower (le Tour I-fell), the Notre Dame redone with vinyl siding, and so forth; and Motel of the Mysteries, a spoof of archeological reconstruction in which an imaginary future society unearths a 20th century motel, and gets it all hilariously wrong.
 
It blows my mind that engineers can design a system that's nineteen feet tall, about ten feet wide, centered over a base that's 56.5 inches wide, is over a mile long and can go 70mph for hundreds of miles.

In case, you're wondering, I just described a 75 car auto-rack train. Been in the railroad business for over 35 years, and it still impresses me...
 
Hellbound said:
Thank you, Doubt.

Thank you for bringing back memories of trying to set up a Bailey Bridge, to standard, in a set time period.

I had forgotten about that unpleasantness.

Jerk. ;)
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It's all fun and games as long as the platoon sergeant does not have you push the span out to far and drop the nose into the gap.

Never had that happen to me or anybody I knew. But there were stories about it.
 
I am very proud that I know what a governor is, thanks to Richard Dawkins. That is a beautiful solution to a problem with steam engines.
 
What's this obsession with bridges? What're you people, like five? Here's an adult question: How do you get a seamless, stemless, dripless candy coating on an M&M?

And if your link doesn't include the words "antigravity," or "leprechaun-style magic," don't bother.
 
anglolawyer said:
I am very proud that I know what a governor is, thanks to Richard Dawkins. That is a beautiful solution to a problem with steam engines.
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I recall many years ago, when studying philosophy, I took a course with Hans Jonas based on his recently published Phenomenon of Life, in which he credited Watt with his invention of mechanical feedback, and thus hitting on a principle vital to life. Now Dr. Jonas, unsurprisingly, did not come to all the same conclusions as Dawkins, but I thought I'd mention this, as, aside from being an interesting observation that stuck with me as well, it occurred in 1967, so Mr. Dawkins was not the first to see it.
 
Ryan O'Dine said:
What's this obsession with bridges? What're you people, like five? Here's an adult question: How do you get a seamless, stemless, dripless candy coating on an M&M?

And if your link doesn't include the words "antigravity," or "leprechaun-style magic," don't bother.
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I know this one because we use the same technology in fireworks manufacture. It's called a "sweety barrel."
 
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