The Institute of Non-Theoretical Science
--------------The Efficiency of Machines---------------
Your Bicycle is powered by sandwiches All makes of parts the same You soup it up with manwiches Just to impress a Dame
Have you ever considered just how important it is to the environment to have a machine made of generic parts that fit all makes and models and how harmful it is to create things of fashion.
All the old English motorcycles, and there was a bundle of them in the day. Velocette, AJS, Matchless, Norton, Triumph, BSA, Vincent, Brough, James, Francis Barnett, Ariel, Rudge and others all had a wide variety of parts in common. All only used three wheel rims known as WM1, 2 and 3. The 125cc to 200cc bikes used a 1 on the front and a 2 on the back. The larger bikes used the 2 on the front and the 3 on the back. All carbs (well most) were made by Amal and were leaky as heck. All the wiring systems were powered by only one manufacturer. There were only two battery sizes and almost all transmissions were made by Burman and only in two sizes with just a few gear choices. One seat fit on any English bike and the headlamp’s were all Lucas. When the Honda’s came out they didn’t even have the same condenser in all bikes and a condenser is a minute part about the size of a thimble and does exactly the same thing on every application with exactly the same power. The average Honda shop couldn’t even carry all the batteries to fit all the models of one single year because they were all different. A 50cc domestic bike had a different size and shape battery from a 50cc sport bike but all the batteries gave out exactly the same power..12 volts.
When honda got into cars they had as many as four major body changes within a single model year, meaning that a door from a ’75 Honda Civic may or may not fit onto another ’75 Civic. Naturally they had a bundle of tripe that the factory touted to explain the cause of these discrepancies. It was something about the cottage industry factor in Japan..yada yada. The fact was that the Japanese had figured out the profit margin of planned obsolescence and they probably got it from the American lightbulb manufacturers. The first lightbulb ever made is still in a museum someplace and still works but the incandescent lightbulb industry has never been able to figure out how to make a bulb last longer than a year ever since Davy, Swan, Edison, Whitney and Coolidge did it in ’02.
Computers have a wonderful side that makes every hacker (well I was going to say hard) but happy, because the makers have never been able to conceive a method of making computer electronics self destruct. They can make them obsolete by bringing out a six gig model when everybody has just finished buying a five gigger but that’s no big deal. For some reason all computer parts and there are really only about six to ten of them, are all the same regardless of make or model. All the internal cables fit every single machine on the market and I’m only talking about PC’s and not all the other gadgets that could be called computers. There are exceptions to what I am saying all through this discussion but generally speaking there is only one hard drive, one floppy drive, a generic CD-ROM and DVD drive, a variety of mother boards with all the same cable connectors, an ATX or ATX mini box for all the junk and even the power supplies have never changed. This is great considering what could have happened. Honda could have invented the PC and made 113 models in the first year without even one screw that fit another machine. Instead Bill Gates was a hacker at heart and somehow kept the industry from ever making even two models of the ubiquitous floppy drive. Also to fix Billy’s wonderful machine you need a complete toolkit that consists solely of one phillips screwdriver. On some you also need a very large hammer but then I digress.
How much extra truck transportation is required when company’s collude to deliberately causes the standards to be shoddy. How much gas and diesel fuel was put up into our atmosphere by the light bulb industry’s unnecessary transportation needs before the energy efficient 5 year florescent’s put these criminals out of business?
How much longer are we going to put up with car companies producing throw away’s that work great for ten years and then wind up in the land fill?
End Of Session One
Assignment: Either try to find the answer to the last two questions or send some examples of your own regarding good practices and bad practices.
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