The persistence of engineering

The ubiquitous cigarette lighter socket

Have you ever read that old ditty about the persistence of engineering? In case you haven't, I'll repeat it here for you:

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceptionally odd number. Why was that gauge used?

Because that's the way they built them in England, and the U.S. railroads were built by English expatriates.

Why did the English build them that way?  Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing?  Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions.

The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? The ruts in the roads, which everyone had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war chariots.  Since the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever.  So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back end of two warhorses. Thus we have the answer to the original question.

Now a twist to the story... When we see a space shuttle sitting on it's launching pad, there are two booster rockets attached to the side of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah.

The engineers who designed the SRB's might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad tracks, and the railroad tracks are about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.

I think you get the parallel. When it became necessary (back in the 60's?) to have a source of 12V in cars for some newly developed accessory, the cigarette lighter socket got pressed into service as the source of that 12V - it was right there, in every car.  Plugs were developed to tap that resource.

Today, cars still all come with that cigarette lighter socket, but no actual cigarette lighter.  And the socket is not labeled 'Cigarette Lighter' - it is simply called '12V', if it has any label at all. 

Modern generations of kids have no idea why a 12V source in a car needs to have such an awkward size and shape, not knowing its origins.  And they are right.  It is only because of 'persistence of engineering' that we are saddled with these things. 

But today a new standard is emerging: the USB plug.  The USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard was developed as a means for data transfer.  The provision of power via the plug was almost an afterthought.  And yet today, every cell phone, eBook, and in fact virtually every electronic device with a rechargeable battery inside it (even my remote control helicopter), uses a version of USB plug, not for data, but for power.

The new standard.  But with a still familiar shape...

To provide USB sockets on a boat, the old molds for the cigarette lighter socket were used to make the outer casing.  And because of that, the new socket will fit in the hole exposed when a cigarette lighter socket is removed.  For new installations however, it remains to be seen whether a more compact form factor will appear in the future. 

You are seeing a real, live case of persistence in engineering, right here in River City.

The persistence of engineering

Tethered aeronautics

What do you do on a warm spring evening?  When you have a Styrofoam birthday glider with a three foot wingspan?

And you live on a boat?

If you're Zak over across the dock on s/v Ghost, you have it figured it out.  You tie a fishing line to it!  Then after each water landing (some good, some not so much), you just reel it back in for another flight.  And you get your sister Ellie to hold the fishing pole during the launch.

You might have guessed: Zak's dad is a pilot.

Tethered aeronautics

Nano-tech super hydrophobia

Saw this amazing stuff over on Rhys' blog The World Encompassed:

Has any of you thousands hundreds 4 readers out there used it on a boat?  Say, on canvas or Sunbrella?

Nano-tech super hydrophobia

Best small sailboat for Puget Sound

A reader recently visited this blog because it showed up in the search results for "best small sailboat for Puget Sound".  Sadly, the reader did not contact me :( 

Dear Reader, please imagine that you had contacted me, and that consequently we are sitting in Eolian's cockpit on a warm spring afternoon, sipping beers.  Here's what I would say:

I'm sorry but I cannot answer your question without a lot more information.

First, you ask for the best small sailboat...  what is your definition of "small"?

• Do you have a particular size in mind?  How did you settle on this size?
• Are you looking at a particular price ceiling?  What is it?  
• Are you looking for a new boat?  A used boat?  Why?  Are you willing to do a little work on the boat?  (You had better say "yes" to this question - whether new or old, boats all require work...)
• "Small boat" could imply trailerable.  If this is what you have in mind, do you have a rig capable of pulling the boat (Accords and Camrys need not apply)?  Do you have a place to store the boat when out of the water?  The disadvantage of a trailerable boat is that a fair amount of time (roughly an hour) needs to be spent rigging the mast and transferring everything from the towing rig to the boat before use.  But it does enlarge your cruising grounds considerably - The San Juans are close when you are traveling at 65 mph.

Next, what is it you see yourself doing with the boat?

• Racing?
• Day sailing?  Where?  
• Cruising?  Do you want to overnight on the boat? 

Does the simplicity of sail power appeal to you? Or do you enjoy all the bells and whistles?

Will your boat have a motor?

• Outboard or inboard?
• Gas or diesel?

Finally, what do you mean by "Puget Sound"?  Are you talking about:

• Day sailing on Lake Union?
• Lake Washington?
• The Sound itself, above the Tacoma Narrows?
• The South Sound?
• The San Juans? 

And the items are interrelated too.  The price of the boat is going to directly reflect its condition (are you willing to work on it?), the included gear and systems (simple or complex?) and intended use (day sailor, cruiser, racer).  Trailerable boats will not need moorage, thus saving that cost, but at a cost of time required to rig and derig at each use.  And you will have to pay for, license and maintain the trailer.

And now that you have answered, "Well, all of them!" to some of those questions, then I must say that you have some further contemplation before you are ready to make a purchase.  No boat is going to be good at racing, cruising and day sailing, for example.  You really do need to prioritize things.  A boat that tries to be all things does none of them well.

And now that we're done with that second (third?) beer, I'd tell you to go look at boats. Look at lots of boats. Look at boats that are in your parameters, and boats that are not.  The seller (whether broker or private) wants to show you their boats - take advantage of that. Sit aboard and imagine yourself under sail.  Feed the dream.

Come back again when you have done that - we'll have a lot more decisive conversation then.  And more beer.

Best small sailboat for Puget Sound