Tech: Making things

 A gold stamper from Scientific American, 1859, and a monitor (hydraulicking hose nozzle) from Oriental Claims goldfield near Omeo, Victoria.

In the middle of the 19^th century, gold rushes in California and Australia funded science and industrial technology, and finding gold was all about separating large amount of rock and soil from tiny amounts of gold. Stampers were used to smash up gold-bearing quartz and hoses collapsed cliffs and hills so the mud could be ‘washed’. No part of our past is separated from any other part.

Women worked as blacksmiths in the 19^th century.

The world has changed: 19^th century science and technology could be easily understood by lay people, who often made their own equipment, based on what they saw or read. Most Australians who have heard of Mark Twain know him only as the author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Just a few Australians have read his 1897 book Following the Equator, describing Twain’s time in Australia, but his A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is almost completely forgotten here.

The story is about a 19^th century American, time-travelling, and knowing how to make handy stuff like revolvers and ammunition in Dark Ages Britain. Could you go back in time and make any of the devices in your modern home, except maybe the clothes line?

We have lost something, but we can get it back, if we try. Let’s start here:

A Notice to Young Readers and Older Readers Whose Education is Sadly Lacking.

If you haven’t heard of Heath Robinson, Rube Goldberg and Robert Storm Petersen (or Storm P), you have missed some serious fun. Robinson was British, Goldberg was American, Storm P was Danish, and they all invented curious mechanical devices—or at least they drew them.

The styles are all slightly different, as you can discover by searching for their work on the web.

From left to right, Heath Robinson’s pancake machine, Rube Goldberg’s self-operating napkin and Storm P’s door alarm..

In the next few blogs, I show you how make rather practical things, starting with topology, the branch of mathematics that says a donut is equivalent to a coffee cup. Topology is also involved in the four-colour map problem. This has now been proven, but the proof will never fit in the margins of any book. (That is an obscure joke for the in-group.)

Topology also tells us that when you put a four-legged stool on an uneven floor, you won’t have to turn it more than 90º to get it steady, and it studies Klein bottles and a paper structure that only has one side, one surface, a Möbius strip. Let’s go there, first.

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