The origin of drilling for oil

Number of words: 170 “Oil is found in the minds of men.” So says a bumper sticker popular among petroleum engineers. True enough. In 1859, Colonel Edwin Drake struck oil in Pennsylvania by drilling, rather than digging, for oil; he adapted the old Chinese trick of drilling for salt. That prompted the world’s first oil … Read more

The French Influence on the US Auto Industry

Number of words: 273 Modern America and automobile grew up together. But like so many early-twentieth-century Americans, it was born elsewhere. “Automobile” is a French word. The nursery of the industry was France. In 1900, just seven years after the French people gave the United States the Statue of Liberty as a belated centennial birthday … Read more

Evolution Vs Revolution

Number of words – 398 There are two major forms of product innovation: one follows a natural, slow evolutionary process; the other is achieved through radical new development. In general, people tend to think of innovation as being radical, major changes, whereas the most common and powerful form of it is actually small and incremental. … Read more

The Impact of Proper Hardware

Number of words – 222 Some doors have appropriate hardware, well placed. The outside door handles of most modern automobiles are excellent examples of design. The handles are often recessed receptacles that simultaneously indicate the place and mode of action. Horizontal slits guide the hand into a pulling position; vertical slits signal a sliding motion. … Read more

The History of Steel

Number of words – 5,176 The story of steel begins long before bridges, I-beams, and skyscrapers. It begins in the stars. Billions of years before humans walked the Earth—before the Earth even existed—blazing stars fused atoms into iron and carbon. Over countless cosmic explosions and rebirths, these materials found their way into asteroids and other … Read more

Space Laws

Number of words – 1,305 Most likely, this is the best-known picture of a flag ever taken: Buzz Aldrin standing next to the first U.S. flag planted on the Moon. For those who knew their world history, it also rang some alarm bells. Only less than a century ago, back on Earth, planting a national … Read more

Self driving cars

Number of words – 412 Zoox founders Tim Kentley-Klay and Jesse Levinson say everyone else involved in the race to build a self-driving car is doing it wrong. Instead of retro-fitting existing cars with fancy sensors and smart software, they want to make an autonomous vehicle from the ground up. The one they’ve built is … Read more

Resistive Vs Capacitive Touch

Beyond matters of form, the team focused on the function of the multi-touch. Most touch devices at the time used resistive touch screens, based on two thin sheets of conductive material separated by a thin gap of air. When the screen is pressed, the two layers make contact, registering the touch. Resistive screens were typically … Read more