6 min read
Let a Hundred Mechanisms Bloom.
Spencer Wright on antique apple parers, and how an old tool can force you to confront a problem anew.…
7 min read
Ford and Macadam.
It used to be rare that more than a couple of sentences at a time were cut from drafts of…
A More Fun Ride
Jan Heine on the physics of pneumatic tires, the rise of gravel cycling, and his role in the bike industry.…
On Pneumatic Tires.
Pneumatic tires were invented (and then promptly forgotten) in 1846. Then, they became perhaps the quintessential twentieth-century transportation technology.…
On Gravel.
Spencer Wright on the National Forest System's staggering quantity of unpaved roads.…
On Naphtha
How naphtha -- one of the first fossil fuel derivatives ever made -- played a key role in the commercialization of rubber.…