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Nomogram

A nomogram, nomograph, or abac is a graphical calculating device, a two-dimensional diagram designed to allow the approximate graphical computation of a function: it uses a coordinate system other than Cartesian coordinates. Defining alternatively, a nomogram is a two-dimensionally plotted function with n parameter, from which, knowing n-1 parameters, the unknown one can be read, or fixing some parameters, the relationship between the unfixed ones can be studied.

A Smith Chart is a type of nomogram

Like a slide rule, it is a graphical analog computation device; and, like the slide rule, its accuracy is limited by the precision with which physical markings can be drawn, reproduced, viewed, and aligned. Most nomograms are used in applications where an approximate answer is appropriate and useful. Otherwise, the nomogram may be used to check an answer obtained from an exact calculation method.

The slide rule is intended to be a general-purpose device. Nomograms are usually designed to perform a specific calculation, with tables of values effectively built in to the construction of the scales.

via Nomogram – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Caterpillar Club

The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel pin.

Before April 28, 1919, there was no way for a pilot to jump out of a plane and then to deploy a parachute. Parachutes were stored in a canister attached to the aircraft, and if the plane was spinning, the parachute could not deploy. Leslie Irvin developed a parachute that the pilot could deploy at will from a back-pack using a rip-cord. He joined the Army Air Service parachute research team, and in April 1919, he successfully tested his design, though he broke his ankle during the test. Irvin was the first person to make a premeditated free fall jump from an airplane. He went on to form the Irving Airchute Company which later became Irvin Aerospace. An early brochure of the Irvin Parachute Company credits William O’Connor 24 August 1920 at McCook Field near Dayton, Ohio as the first person to be saved by an Irvin parachute, but this feat was unrecognised. On 20 October 1922, Lieutenant Harold R. Harris, chief of the McCook Field Flying Station, jumped from a disabled Loening W-2A monoplane fighter. Shortly after, two reporters from the Dayton Herald, realising that there would be more jumps in future, suggested that a club should be formed. “Caterpillar Club” was suggested because the parachute canopy was made of silk, and because caterpillars have to climb out of their cocoons and fly away. Harris became the first member, and from that time forward any person who jumped from a disabled aircraft with a parachute became a member of the Caterpillar Club. Other famous members include General James Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh and retired astronaut John Glenn.In 1922, Leslie Irvin agreed to give a gold pin to every person whose life was saved by one of his parachutes. By 1945, the number of members with the Irvin pins had grown to over 34,000. In addition to the Irvin Air Chute Company formerly Irvin Aerospace – now a brand of Airborne Systems, other parachute manufacturers have also issued caterpillar pins for successful jumps. Airborne Systems Canada formerly Irvin Aerospace Canada still provides pins to people who made their jump long ago and are just now applying for membership. Another of these is Switlik Parachute Company, which though it no longer makes parachutes, still issues pins.

via Caterpillar Club – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Centennial Light

The Centennial Light is the world’s longest-lasting light bulb. It is at 4550 East Avenue, Livermore, California, and maintained by the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department. The fire department claims that the bulb is at least 109 years old and has been turned off only a handful of times. Due to its longevity, the bulb has been noted by The Guinness Book of World Records, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, and General Electric.

via Centennial Light – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Westinghouse Sign

The Westinghouse Sign was a large, animated, electric sign advertising the Westinghouse Electric company and located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The sign was best known for the huge number of combinations in which its individual elements could be illuminated. The sign was removed in 1998 when the building on which it was mounted was demolished to make way for the construction of PNC Park.

The various corporations which have carried the Westinghouse name have erected countless signs and other promotional devices during the past 140 years, including many in the corporate hometown of Pittsburgh. A cubic Westinghouse sign stood in downtown Pittsburgh for approximately thirty five years and was so familiar that it was allowed to remain in place until 2002, even after the building it marked the Westinghouse Tower was no longer owned or occupied by Westinghouse.

via Westinghouse Sign – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station

The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, commonly referred to as Palo Verde Power Plant, is a nuclear power plant located in Tonopah, Arizona, about 50 miles (80 km) west of central Phoenix, and is currently the largest nuclear generation facility in the United States, averaging over 3.2 gigawatts (GW) of electrical power production in 2003 to serve approximately 4 million people. Arizona Public Service (APS) owns the largest portion (29.1%) of the station and operates the facility. Other owners include Salt River Project (17.5%), El Paso Electric Co. (15.8%), Southern California Edison (15.8%), PNM Resources (10.2%), Southern California Public Power Authority (5.9%), and the Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power (5.7%).

Palo Verde is the only nuclear generating facility in the world that is not located adjacent to a large body of above-ground water. Instead, it evaporates water from the treated sewage of several nearby municipalities to meet its cooling needs. The water consumed by the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station represents about 25% of the annual overdraft of the Arizona Department of Water Resources Phoenix Active Management Area.

via Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Grand Coulee Dam

The Grand Coulee Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. In the United States, it is the largest electric power-producing facility and the largest concrete structure. It is the seventh largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world, as of the year 2008.

The reservoir is called Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake, named after the United States President who presided over the completion of the dam. The foundation was built by the MWAK Company, a joint effort of several contractors united for this purpose. Consolidated Builders Incorporated, including industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, completed the dam. The United States Bureau of Reclamation supervised the contractors and operates the dam. Folk singer Woody Guthrie was commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration to write songs about the Columbia Basin Project; the songs Roll On Columbia and Grand Coulee Dam are part of that series.

The Grand Coulee Dam is almost a mile long at 5223 feet (1586 m). The spillway is 1,650 feet (503 m) wide. At 550 feet (168 m), it is taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza; all the pyramids at Giza could fit within its base. Its hydraulic height of 380 feet (115 m) is more than twice that of Niagara Falls. There is enough concrete to build a four-foot wide, four-inch deep sidewalk twice around the equator.

via Grand Coulee Dam – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Fish Ladder

A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass or fish steps, is a structure on or around artificial barriers such as dams and locks to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration. Most fishways enable fish to pass around the barriers by swimming and leaping up a series of relatively low steps hence the term ladder into the waters on the other side. The velocity of water falling over the steps has to be great enough to attract the fish to the ladder, but it cannot be so great that it washes fish back downstream or exhausts them to the point of inability to continue their journey upriver.

via Fish ladder – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Peshtigo Fire

The October 8, 1871 Peshtigo Fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, is the conflagration that caused the most deaths by fire in United States history. Having occurred on the same day as the more infamous Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fire is mostly forgotten. On the same day as the Peshtigo and Chicago fires, the cities of Holland, and Manistee, Michigan, across Lake Michigan, also burned, and the same fate befell Port Huron at the southern end of Lake Huron.

via Peshtigo Fire – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Two Generals’ Problem

In computing, the Two Generals’ Problem is a thought experiment meant to illustrate the pitfalls and design challenges of attempting to coordinate an action by communicating over an unreliable link. It is related to the more general Byzantine Generals’ Problem (though published long before that later generalization) and appears often in introductory classes about computer networking (particularly with regards to the Transmission Control Protocol), though it can also apply to other types of communication. Some authors also refer to this as the Two Army Problem or the Coordinated Attack Problem.

via Two Generals’ Problem – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Extispicy

Extispicy (from Latin extispicium) is the practice of using anomalies in animal entrails to predict or divine future events. Organs inspected can include the liver, intestines, lungs, or other major organs. The animal used for extispicy must often be ritually pure and slaughtered in a special ceremony.

The practice was first common in ancient Mesopotamian, Hittite and Canaanite temples. Later, soothsayers from Ancient Roman times used the entrails of a bull to determine the advisability of a particular endeavor and Etruscans used patterns seen in the livers of sheep to assess their future. There exists substantial evidence to indicate that this was the main form of divination within classical cultures.

Organ models and extispicy manuals in cuneiform script are widely found in archaeological excavations in the regions, showing the prevalence and significance of extispicy. Commonly, (in antiquity) the majority of the divination was wrought from viewing the intestines and the liver.

Although extispicy would commonly be viewed with skepticism by the modern mind, some 20th century scholars suggested that this technique was also a valuable and legitimate form of, essentially, autopsy, which might indicate internal disease tied to poor environmental factors, information that would be important to nomadic peoples.

via Extispicy – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.