I can’t believe that it’s 2026 already. I don’t have a speech prepared, and I have nothing suitable to wear. I just realized that it’s now been more than six years since I started my Cool Beans Blog with my Best Day Ever! meandering musings. All I can say is that a lot of Poohsticks have passed under the bridge since then.
As is usually the case these days, I’m up to my armpits in alligators workwise, with little free time to do the fun stuff, but I do have a couple of tasty treats I’d like to share, starting with Chris Boden’s short video on a Watt flyball governor used with an electric motor, the link to which was sent to me by my pal Matt Pulzer. I love Chris’s way with words (he’s a bit of a cunning linguist), like when he says, “This is an obligatory accoutrement for anything steampunk” and “Here’s an innovative way to get your balls in a twist.”
Talking about retro machines (we weren't, but we are now), my chum Rick Curl sent me a link to a video about some guys who are restoring the telemetry system from an Apollo spacecraft. This particular offering, Apollo's Weirdest (But Genius) Analog Circuit, is about a really unusual analog multiplexer using ferrite cores and dual-emitter transistors.
Suffice it to say that I could happily spend the rest of today reading the comments accompanying the above video. Last, but certainly not least, my friend Jay Dowling sent me a link to a video titled The Ridiculous Engineering of the World’s Most Important Machine.
Although this is closing in on 1 hour, watching it is time well spent. In addition to providing a great introduction to how silicon chips are made in general, it makes you realize just how innovative and incredible human beings can be.
Once again, the comments accompanying the video are almost as entertaining as the video itself, like the people who said, “I’m sorry for breathing the same air as these geniuses,” and “There should be a Nobel Prize for engineering, not just in physics and chemistry.”
As usual, I’ll end this blog by (a) asking what you think about any of this and (b) requesting that you share any similarly mindboggling and thought-provoking offerings.
Speaking of flyball governors- did you know the term “balls to the wall” actually referred to a flyball governor at maximum speed?
That’s one I used to know, but had forgotten over the years — thanks for reminding me 🙂
I believe “balls out” is from the flyball governor, while “balls to the wall” is from aviation; where there is a ball on the end of the throttle, mixture and RPM levers. When all the balls where to the (fire)wall everything was running wide-open.
Hi Mark- Well, my grand-dad told me about the origin of the phrase, and my grand-dad has never been wrong about anything- so that settles it!
Actually, you provoked me to dig a bit deeper, and I can find references to both origins of the phrase, but the one about aviation does seem to be more prevalent. I done learnt something!
RE: The Ridiculous Engineering of the World’s Most Important Machine.
Fantastic!
To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, (who actually said, “Critics are legless men who teach running”)“Skeptics are legless men who don’t believe anyone else can run either”.
Remind me to tell you about the little boy and the “glass half full” joke one day 🙂