(4/4) Operation: The details of setting up the Harmonic Analyzer
This series on Albert Michelson’s Harmonic Analyzer celebrates a nineteenth century mechanical computer that performed Fourier analysis by u...
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Engineerguy videos & audio
Bill Hammack's audio and video work emphasizes the creative role of engineers in designing and creating our world. He's a regular commentator on radio - based at Illinois Public Radio in Urb...
Episodes
20 of 40 episodesBonus: Rocker arms: sinusoids in two different directions
This series on Albert Michelson’s Harmonic Analyzer celebrates a nineteenth century mechanical computer that performed Fourier analysis by u...
Bonus: Watch the machine spin around over and over...
This series on Albert Michelson’s Harmonic Analyzer celebrates a nineteenth century mechanical computer that performed Fourier analysis by u...
Page-by-Page Guide to the Free PDF of the Book Albert Michelson's Harmonic Analyzer
his series on Albert Michelson’s Harmonic Analyzer celebrates a nineteenth century mechanical computer that performed Fourier analysis by us...
(3/4) Analysis: Explaining Fourier analysis with a machine
► Learn more at: http://www.engineerguy.com/fourier ► Buy the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0983966176/ ► Buy the posters...
(2/4) Synthesis: A machine that uses gears, springs and levers to add sines and cosines
This series on Albert Michelson’s Harmonic Analyzer celebrates a nineteenth century mechanical computer that performed Fourier analysis by u...
(1/4) Intro/History: Introducing a 100-year-old mechanical computer
This introduction to the series Albert Michelson’s Harmonic Analyzer celebrates a nineteenth century mechanical computer that performed Four...
The Cigarette machine
Bill nominates, perhaps only provocatively, James Bosnack's cigarette machine as the invention with the greatest economic impact on the 20th...
How home air conditioning triumphed over the open air movement
Bill explains how the rise of home air conditioning had to battle the open air movements in public school: They regarded it as only for fact...
Kodak
Bill tells the story of how George Eastman invented film. Its use in the Brownie camera revolutionized photography; that it changed the way...
How the Donner Party inspired food packaging
Bill tells us about packaging, a sub-discipline of engineering that is essential to our society. This radio commentary was originally broadc...
Theremin: How science fiction got its sound
Bill discusses the theremin, and how it lead to one the music industry's most fundamental assets, the electronic synthesizer. This was origi...
Ferris Wheel: How the Eiffel Tower wasn't good enough
Bill tells the story of the origins of an engineering marvel found at every amusement park, the Ferris Wheel. This radio piece was first bro...
Coffee makers: How baseball put them in our homes
Bill describes how the household drip coffee maker evolved. This was originally broadcast on August 29, 2000. Visit this link to view comple...
Why the Dvorak keyboard didn’t take over the world
Perhaps no technological failure is better known than that of the Dvorak keyboard. Since the early 1870s nearly every typewriter used a keyb...
PicturePhone: How Bell Telephone lost a half billion, but nearly created the internet
How Bell Telephone’s PicturePhone, introduced in 1964, flopped yet nearly catalyzed the internet. Technically, it was an amazing achievement...
How Sony’s Betamax lost to JVC’s VHS Cassette Recorder
In 1976 Sony introduced the Betamax video cassette recorder. It catalyzed the “on demand” of today by allowing users to record television sh...
Stories of Technological Failure: PicturePhone, Dvorak keyboard & Betamax
Introduction to a short series of three videos that takes a "snackable" look at the failure of three famous engineered objects: The Bell Sys...
How a Lead-Acid Battery Works
Bill details how a microwave oven heats food. He describes how the microwave vacuum tube, called a magnetron, generates radio frequencies th...
What Keeps Nuclear Weapons from Proliferating
Bill explains that the hardest step is making the proper type of uranium. Weapons and power plants require uranium that contains a greater a...