Today in History – January 13, 1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile.

The plastic car Ford patented used soy-based plastics and was 25% to 33% lighter than conventional cars of his day. Ford’s dream was to use agricultural-based plastics to provide another market for farmers to sell their crops.

Sustainability in design is beginning to make a comeback as manufacturers are using recycled products in car interiors. However in today’s oil-conscious world, car manufacturers are focusing most heavily on hybrid vehicles and fuel diversity. A variety of new cars are equipped with engines that are designed to run on both traditional gasoline and an ethanol blend. And although many more plastics and composites are being used in cars, they are not of the type that Ford envisioned. A recent article in Business Week (“Lighter Cars Can Help the U.S. Kick Oil”) points out that vehicle weight has only risen over recent decades. A significant decrease in weight, like the one that Ford initially achieved, could be just as beneficial to fuel economy.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s related resources plastics and their applications. Or visit the Materials Engineering Education or the Mechanical Engineering Education community sites.

Today in History – December 15, 1939 – First commercial manufacture of nylon yarn. Wallace Hume Carothers led a team of researchers at DuPont to develop the world’s first totally synthetic fiber. Dupont turned their experimental laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware into a full-fledged industrial process and industry. Before the invention of nylon became a name associated with stockings, DuPont tested prototype machinery on a product called Dr. West’s Miracle-Tuft toothbrushes that had bristles made from nylon. DuPont kept the chemical nature of the new bristles secret during this trial period. The response was positive as consumers liked having a toothbrush that dried out between uses, unlike the old boar’s hair bristle brushes.

During World War II, nylon replaced Japanese silk for parachutes and tents. After World War II nylon and nylon composite products became popular for wind breakers, backpacking gear, lingerie, “wash and wear” clothing, carpeting, fishing line, rope, sails, automobile parts, and strings for musical instruments.

With concerns of global warming, environmental pollution and sustainable engineering, pervasive use of nylon has come under question, with estimates that 10% of the annual increase in atmospheric NOx may come from nylon production. New research in green chemistry and bioplastics emphasizes “developing economically viable products and processes that require fewer reagents, less solvent, and less energy than conventional processes, while being safer, generating less waste, and having a lower environmental impact”. Consumers are leading the way in demanding more environmentally friendly forms of nylon and alternatives.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on Dupont and Nylon, as well as global warming, environmental pollution, and green chemistry. For related curricular resources, visit the Chemical Engineering Education or the Environmental Engineering Education disciplinary communities.

Also on this date in 1965, Gemini 6 launched and made first rendezvous in space with Gemini 7.

Today in History – November 27, 1895 – The first gasoline-powered automobile race in the United States. The Duryea brothers – Charles and Frank – created their first gasoline-powered “horseless-carriage” in 1893. The Duryeas were bicycle mechanics who built their first car in a workshop located in a building in downtown Springfield, MA. in September 1893. It was built around a one-cylinder, gasoline engine and a three-speed transmission mounted on a used horse carriage, hitting a stop speed of 7.5 mph. In 1894, Frank developed a second car with a more powerful two-cylinder engine that he drove in America’s first automobile race on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1895 and ran a 54-mile course from down-town Chicago to Evanston, Il and back. Taking a little over 10 hours, Frank Duryea was the first to cross the finish line, averaging 7.3 miles per hour and winning a prize of $2,000 ($49,500 in today’s money).”

A few years later the first U.S. automobile show opened in Madison Square Graden, NYC. (See November 3 blog). Henry Ford’s development of mass production techniques in the automotive industry in 1913 made the automobile affordable to the general population.

The National Academy of Engineering named the automobile as the 2nd greatest invention of the twentieth century. Through continuous improvement and the ingenious application of new technology, the automobile reconfirmed and updated its status as a triumph of engineering throughout the 20th century.

The challenge today is to make automobiles and their impact on the environment sustainable for future generations. Hybrids and automobiles using alternate fuels such as solar, biofuels or hydrogen are promising directions for research and development. The solar car, human powered vehicle and supermileage vehicle engineering student competitions at universities today help students develop integrative design and team skills, as well as provide engaging examples for the next generation of engineering students.

See the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources in automotive engineering and design or visit the Mechanical Engineering Education Community site.

Many Americans will celebrate today as “Thanksgiving Day”. In 1789, the first national Thanksgiving in the United States was proclaimed by President George Washington. The holiday that Americans celebrate annually on the last Thursday in November commemorates an event on the Virginia Berkeley Plantation on December 4, 1621. Although saved by the charity of the local Native Americans who supplied much of the food for this “thanksgiving” event, the clash of Native and European cultures was to lead to bloodshed on all sides. The “Indian Massacre of 1622″ led to the abandonment of the Berkeley settlement as surviving colonists withdrew to Jamestown and more secure settlements. Future thanksgiving events were tainted by scores of deaths of Native Americans from smallpox and other diseases brought by the Europeans. It is no wonder that Native American engineers are extremely rare; the numbers are low in the general population and the hard technology approaches are at odds with their more organic view of human’s role in nature. AISES (American Indian Science and Engineering Society) and ACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) are professional societies dedicated to encouraging Native American and Chicano/Latino students to pursue education in science and engineering, develop leadership skills, and prepare for professional and teaching careers at all levels. For more educational information see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on Native American and Hispanic engineers and scientists.

Today in History – November 22, 1927 – Carl Eliason patented the first snowmobile. Eliason built the prototype snowmobile in a small garage behind his general store over a two year period during his spare time. He purchased the bicycle parts required for the drive train and track assembly from Milwaukee. The small 1924 snowmobile used running boards made of two downhill skis, countoured in the belly pan, a front mounted liquid cooled 2.5 HP outboard engine, slide rail track guides, wooden cleats, rope controlled steering skis and two-up seating located over the track (left image).

Off-road recreational vehicle design competitions can provide exciting opportunities for engineering students to develop teamwork and divise intergrative engineering skills i in multiple disciplines. Examples include the mini baja competition (right image).

Off-road recreational vehicles can have a huge impact on the environment, however, and environmental impact needs to be considered in their design, use and related governmental policy. Snowmobiles produce carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon pollution, in addition to having a deleterious effect on vegetation and wildlife in pristine environments. This is one reason that the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) started the clean snowmobile competition.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on student competitions.

Also on this date in history in 1904, the first patent for a direct current electric motor, called a “variable speed motor”, was issued to Mathias Pfatischer. The motor could run under a variable load at a variable speed, in both forward and reverse.

Today in History – “ November 18, 1963 – “Bell Telephone introduces push button telephone, eventually to replace the rotary dial telephone that had dominated the market since its invention in 1891 when Almon Strowger patented the twin inventions of the automatic telephone exchange and the pulse-driven telephone in the home. Although early prototypes had been built earlier by Bell Labs in 1941 in a 302-style case with F1 handset with two rows of five keys on the front that plucked reeds to produce two tones for each digit. The design was shelved during World War II and forgotten until many years later after the transistor was developed and tones could be produced with electronic oscillators.

Henry Dryfus, an industrial designer working for Bell Telephone, is credited with inventing the interface notion of the pushbutton, working as a consultant to Bell Telephone. One of the first prototypes of the design was made of wood (second photo above) showing how early prototypes can be quite effective in communicating new concepts and getting customer feedback. The version that Bell Systems / Western Electric introduced in 1962 at a World’s Fair in Seattle and as a commercial product on November 18, 1963 was based on this wooden model (third photograph above). They replaced the basic design language from a circle to square to visibly highlight the change from dial to pushbutton design.

The pushbutton concept was considered as the seed for revolutionary telecommunications concepts, such as the one pictured in the right-most image above for the videophone concept published as an advertisement in 1963. The “button” continues to be a winning design concept for telecommunication devices and is used in the recent introduction of a new generation of phones and advanced button designs inspired by Apple Computers’ iPhone.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on push buttons and telephone design or our resources on industrial design. For related educational resources, visit the Computer Engineering Education, the Electrical Engineering Education, the Computer Science Education disciplinary communities or the Design Education and the Industrial Design Education interdisciplinary communities.

Today in History – November 3, 1900 – first U.S. automobile show opens at Madison Square Garden, NYC. Columbia completed 1500 electric- and gasoline-powered vehicles in Hartford, Connecticut during the year and Locomobile of Bridgeport built 750 steamers, representing the top two most successful automobile companies at the time in terms of number of sales. Between 7000 and 10,000 people paid 50 cents apiece that first evening to see $565,000 worth of wares from 69 auto and accessory exhibitors.

Only four years previously the Duryea motor wagon had been demonstrated at the Garden as the star attraction of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. The Chicago Times-Herald sponsored America’s first automobile race just a few years earlier in 1895. Frank Duryea was the first to cross the finish line, averaging 7.3 miles per hour and taking home a prize of $2,000 ($49,500 in today’s money). Looking ahead, it would take Henry Ford’s development of mass production techniques in the automotive industry in 1913 to make the automobile affordable to the general population.

The National Academy of Engineering named the automobile as the 2nd greatest invention of the twentieth century. Through continuous improvement and the ingenious application of new technology, the automobile reconfirmed and updated its status as a triumph of engineering throughout the 20th century.

The challenge today is to make automobiles and their impact on the environment sustainable for future generations. Hybrids and automobiles using alternate fuels such as solar, biofuels or hydrogen are promising directions for research and development. The solar car, human powered vehicle and supermileage vehicle engineering student competitions at universities today help students develop integrative design and team skills, as well as provide engaging examples for the next generation of engineering students.

See the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources in automotive engineering and design or visit the Mechanical Engineering Education Community site.

Also on this day, the first commercially produced synthetic rubber was manufactured in 1931 and NASA launched the Mariner 10 towards Mercury in 1973.

Today in History – October 7, 1952 – the barcode was patented: US Patent 2,612,99.

The first barcode using the universal product code (UPC) was  scanned many years later on June 26, 1974 by a cashier at a supermarket checkout counter. A shopper named Clyde Dawson handed a cashier at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio named Sharon Buchanan a 10-pack of chewing gum. The gum’s black and white barcode was scanned with a $4000 laser scanner from PSC, Inc. and rang up at 67 cents. A new era in supermarket shopping was born.

The barcode was originally patented by Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver on October 7, 1952 for “Classifying Apparatus and Method”. Although it was commercially available in 1966, it took work in standardizing to make it successful. George J. Lauer is credited with the invention of the Universal Product Code (UPC) that made barcodes viable (left image above).

If you are interested in seeing Clyde Dawson’s package of Juicy Fruit gum, go to the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History. Today supermarket barcodes are standard and available for a fraction of their original cost.

Thirty-four years after their introduction, barcodes on supermarket items may soon become as antiquated as audio cassettes – they only tell the cashier which type of product is being sold, while Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) allows retailers to track every item individually through the use of smart tags.

Because such tags transmit the information they contain to any RFID reader nearby, employees locate misplaced items more easily and hopefully deter theft. While cost concerns have hindered the adoption of the new technology, just like its predecessor in the 1970s, the humble bar code seems unlikely to stand a chance once RFID reaches critical mass.

Luckily, it has found many other uses beyond retail, in fields such as certified mail, courier services and airline luggage processing, although customers might come to wish airlines placed smart tags on their suitcases. Two novel areas stand out: airline check-in and e-government.

If you recently checked in for your flight using your home or work computer, rather than at the airport kiosk, you might have noticed that the bar code on your boarding pass looked a bit odd – the black-and-white pattern was more complex than the usual array of vertical bars we all have grown accustomed to. You were, in fact, staring at a two-dimensional bar code.

Two-dimensional bar codes were developed in the late 1980s to store large amounts of information with high security, especially when space is limited. They are also extremely difficult to forge. Continental Airlines even hopes to let customers check in by uploading 2D bar codes on their cell phones, which would decrease paper costs, and is now testing the viability of the approach in a pilot program.

The US government uses bar codes too. The American embassy in London, among others, puts bar codes in the confirmation emails it sends to visa applicants once they have submitted their documentation online. The bar code is scanned when the candidates arrive at the embassy for their interview, allowing the visa officer to quickly access their information. Paper tax forms have bar codes as well. Additional potential applications include driver’s licenses and medical patient records.

Even if bar codes disappear from retailers’ shelves, they will not go the way of the audio cassettes any time soon.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on barcodes and RFID tags. Additional curricular materials on modern manufacturing practices can be found on the Manufacturing Engineering Education or the Industrial Engineering Education community sites.

Find out How Everyday Things are Made with courseware hosted by Stanford’s Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing. This interactive courseware includes images, online tours and videos, as well as quizzes. Cases include airplanes, motorcycles, engines, cars, candy, glass bottles, plastic bottles, plastic caps, food ontainers, candy packaging, bottling drinks and clothing. Check out how “jelly beans” are made.

The People, Products and Strategies courseware was designed to assist engineering and business students in visualizing and understanding the fundamental concepts that govern today’s new product development and manufacturing strategies within successful industry companies – new product development, various functional roles of people and the principles, and practice and strategies that drive today’s businesses. The strategies emphasized include the use of crossfunctional teams, concurrent engineering, design for manufacturing and design for environment, DFM, DFA, green design.

Today in History – September 6, 1819 – Blanchard lathe is patented by Thomas Blanchard of Middlebury, Connecticut. The advantage of this lathe was that it was capable of manufacturing irregular forms, such as gun stocks.

Actually, the lathe is more of a shaper since the cutter was a rotating wheel tool and the action of the lathe is similar to a key cutting machine in use today. In place of the key blank, a stock blank (for example a rough stock of a gun) would be held in the machine.  A friction-wheel following the surface of a sample pattern was used to move a cutting wheel on the same shaft that carved the workpiece to the same contour. The musket stock slowly rotated during machining. The machine was also utilized in commercial production in industry as well to machine a variety of workpieces with these “variable geometries” along their lengths. Examples include axe handles, wagon wheel spokes and similar parts. This invention greatly reduced the cost of manufacturing.

Thomas Blanchard was an inventor of other automated machinery as well, starting with an automated tack making machine which he developed around 1806. Ultimately he and his brother perfected a machine that could produce 500 tacks per minute. He is credited with building the first American automobile, a one ton steam powered machine that he piloted around Springfield.

The Blanchard lathe is considered to be one of the great inventions helping to drive American industrialization. The only surviving Blanchard stock making replicating lathe is on display in the Museum at Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Springfield MA (www.nps.gov/spar).

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on machine tools, manufacturing processes and green manufacturing. Additional curricular materials on modern manufacturing practices can be found on the Manufacturing Engineering Education or the Industrial Engineering Education community sites.

Today in History – June 26, 1974 – First barcode using the universal product code (UPC) was scanned by a cashier at a supermarket checkout counter. A shopper named Clyde Dawson handed a cashier at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio named Sharon Buchanan a 10-pack of chewing gum. The gum’s black and white barcode was scanned with a $4000 laser scanner from PSC, Inc. and rang up at 67 cents. A new era in supermarket shopping was born.

The barcode was originally patented by Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver on October 7, 1952 for “Classifying Apparatus and Method”. Although it was commercially available in 1966, it took work in standardizing to make it successful. George J. Lauer is credited with the invention of the Universal Product Code (UPC) that made barcodes viable (left image above).

If you are interested in seeing Clyde Dawson’s package of Juicy Fruit gum, go to the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History. Today supermarket barcodes are standard and available for a fraction of their original cost.

Thirty-four years after their introduction, barcodes on supermarket items may soon become as antiquated as audio cassettes – they only tell the cashier which type of product is being sold, while Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) allows retailers to track every item individually through the use of smart tags.

Because such tags transmit the information they contain to any RFID reader nearby, employees locate misplaced items more easily and hopefully deter theft. While cost concerns have hindered the adoption of the new technology, just like its predecessor in the 1970s, the humble bar code seems unlikely to stand a chance once RFID reaches critical mass.

Luckily, it has found many other uses beyond retail, in fields such as certified mail, courier services and airline luggage processing, although customers might come to wish airlines placed smart tags on their suitcases. Two novel areas stand out: airline check-in and e-government.

If you recently checked in for your flight using your home or work computer, rather than at the airport kiosk, you might have noticed that the bar code on your boarding pass looked a bit odd – the black-and-white pattern was more complex than the usual array of vertical bars we all have grown accustomed to. You were, in fact, staring at a two-dimensional bar code.

Two-dimensional bar codes were developed in the late 1980s to store large amounts of information with high security, especially when space is limited. They are also extremely difficult to forge. Continental Airlines even hopes to let customers check in by uploading 2D bar codes on their cell phones, which would decrease paper costs, and is now testing the viability of the approach in a pilot program.

The US government uses bar codes too. The American embassy in London, among others, puts bar codes in the confirmation emails it sends to visa applicants once they have submitted their documentation online. The bar code is scanned when the candidates arrive at the embassy for their interview, allowing the visa officer to quickly access their information. Paper tax forms have bar codes as well. Additional potential applications include driver’s licenses and medical patient records.

Even if bar codes disappear from retailers’ shelves, they will not go the way of the audio cassettes any time soon.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on barcodes and RFID tags. Additional curricular materials on modern manufacturing practices can be found on the Manufacturing Engineering Education or the Industrial Engineering Education community sites.