The Danger Of Fake Ball Bearings
Karl Denninger posted about fake ball bearings recently. The thing is that while he writing in very hyperbolic language, he’s not exaggerating very much.
Heavy machinery
George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse was one of the most important people in the US. His birthday passed recently without much notice. Most people don’t even know who he is anymore. Which is a true shame because his achievements still affect us every day. It’s well known that Westinghouse developed the air brake for railroads and had that been his only achievement he would still be one of the greatest engineers of all time. But his work and the work of his companies went far beyond just the airbrake.
Old Engines, A Tech Stuff Special
Recently I posted this video in Tech Stuff. Since people seemed to like it and I really like big massive machinery I thought that I would make Tech Stuff special post with engines, lots of the big engines and some not so big. Also The CT Antique machinery show is coming up and this is a good way to show off the show.
Living At Sea
This showed up in my twitter timeline recently.
http://gizmodo.com/the-techno-islands-that-may-replace-the-maldives-1704872022
Now I don’t actually believe that the Maldives are being submerged by rising sea levels caused by global warming. Still the idea of repurposing old drilling platforms as seasteads is interesting. They might interesting places to live. Though living would be, by necessity, be confined in some ways. Larhe apartments and spaces are going to be rare, for instance.
http://www.seasteading.org/community/contests/design-contest-winners/
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/silicon-valley-letting-go-techie-island-fantasies/
https://reason.com/blog/2013/12/27/seasteading-new-nations-becomes-a-practi
Still there aren’t really any showstoppers. Huge ocean structure are already being fabricated for oil drilling and production. People live on them for long periods of time. It’s likely that offshore structures for various activities are going to get larger in the near future.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/03/29/building-the-largest-structures/
http://www.shell.com/about-us/major-projects/prelude-flng.html
Not just oil and gas, but mining as well
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/about-that-ocean-mining/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sea_mining
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3240156.htm
New technologies are making possible to grow vegetables very efficiently.
http://weburbanist.com/2016/02/02/veggie-factory-worlds-first-vertical-farm-fully-run-by-robots/
People are also developing new ways to farm the ocean.
Who knows where it’s going to lead. Even without the supposed AGW catastrophe seasteading might become no different than any other minerals town. It might even move like the town in Gargantia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargantia_on_the_Verdurous_Planet
http://www.fandompost.com/2014/07/04/gargantia-on-the-verdurous-planet-ova-gets-first-promo-images/
http://suisei-no-gargantia.wikia.com/wiki/Hideauze
With advancing genetic and regeneration technologies they might even reinvent themselves to better suit the ocean environment, though I doubt that they would turn themselves into giant space squids.
Living at sea has some exciting potentials and the possibility of a new kind of living. Only though if we create the fertile ground that lets pioneering like this happen. Otherwise we risk the kind of world like the one that Poul Anderson came up with in Orion Shall Rise.
Getting Water To NYC
Feeding the thirst and keeping the toilets flushed for 9 million people is a HUGE undertaking. Doing it so well that people bottle your water is a truly incredible engineering achievement. Yet that is what the water Dept. of NYC has done.
Here’s the NYC DEP website.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/home/home.shtml
Here’s the map of NYC water supply.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/wsmaps_wide.shtml
The DEP has been conducting a truly massive project to ensure that NYC has clean water far into the future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Water_Tunnel_No._3
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/dep_projects/cp_city_water_tunnel3.shtml
http://www.water-technology.net/projects/new-york-tunnel-3/
Of course the huge requirements of NYC’s water supply has always required large construction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_water_supply_system
The need for water has been growing as the city does right from the 19th Century.
http://www.dukelabs.com/ForTeachers/NYC_Water_Supply/NYCWaterSupply.htm
As the needs increased the water needed to be brought from points ever further away.
Starting with Westchester and Duchess Counties:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croton_Aqueduct
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Croton_aqueduct
Then up into the Catskills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catskill_Aqueduct
And the Delaware.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Aqueduct
All built by sandhogs.
The NYC water system is a true monument to getting things done.
Building The Largest Structures
On their side.
A long time ago, a good friend of mine tried to get me a job in Corpus Christi TX. It didn’t work out, but I got a good look at some of the largest structures ever built, the giant oil rigs for the Gulf and other locations. I found some old photos that I took a while back and them some Youtube videos.
The gigantic rigs are fabricated at Gulf Coast Marine.
And Keiwitt Offshore Fabricators.
Here’s a bunch of links and videos to put these amazing structures in perspective.
Picture of the Day: Just the Base of an Oil Platform Being Towed Out to Sea
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a6055/where-giant-oil-rigs-are-born/
http://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/3718/gulf-island-fabrication-confirms-jacket-construction-deal/
http://www.kiewit.com/projects/oil-gas-chemical/offshore/peregrino-topsides-and-jacket/
http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/baldpate/baldpate3.html
Building The Second Ave Subway
The Second Ave is the largest and longest awaited expansion of the NY Subway in the last 50 years. In fact a proposed expansion of the Subway onto 2nd Ave has been a part of NY Subway planning for over a Century. At last phase 1 is almost completed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Avenue_Subway
A wonderful gallery of pictures in the tunnels.
http://jalopnik.com/these-photos-of-nycs-subway-project-are-astonishing-513446087
More from business insider.
http://www.businessinsider.com/new-photos-mta-progress-of-2nd-second-ave-subway-nyc-mta-2013-12
Some pics on flikr.
Some Albums from the MTA.
More here.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtaphotos/albums
A drone takes a trip.
And more video from WCBS.
And the NY Times.
A video from the MTA.
The Second Ave sagas blog.
http://www.secondavesagas.com/
MTA’s info page.
http://web.mta.info/capital/sas_alt.html
In spite of all the complaints it’s important to remember that these are huge projects under very trying conditions and severe constraints. And they seem to be doing well.
Big Logistics
How do you get a 285 ton anode from it’s fabricator to the mine? Very carefully with some big logistics.
Crossing a bridge.
Up and down a hill.
Some more video.
The final mile.
Precision Heavy Haul’s videos.
To Move The Big Rocket, You Need A Big Machine
When NASA designed the Saturn 1b and V they decided to erect them in what was then the largest enclosed space in the world and move them to the launch pad. The Russians used railroad trains equipment for that job. NASA used this.
http://gizmodo.com/massive-spacecraft-transport-vehicles-are-still-going-a-1687787349
Essentially it’s the crawlers from large excavators tied to a platform that can have the launch platform and spacecraft put on top. the small rockets in this article do no give what’s happening justice. When the Saturn v and it’s pad were on top of the crawler, it was the largest moving vehicle ever built.
The Arts Mechanical 