Where Have All the Gears Gone?

Way back in the 1950s I had access to the most modern piece of computing equipment – A Friden calculator. In essence it was an adding machine driven by an electric motor. In graduate school at Kansas I became an expert on the Friden, along with Monroes and Smith-Coronas.

On one occasion I took the case off of the Friden. I saw a mass of gears and levers and wheels all interconnected. My computer today, my MacBook, is too thin for gears and of course it doesn’t need them. It’s a mess of transistors. And I began to wonder – where have all the gears gone?

Remember the old-fashioned wind-up alarm clock? We kids would take them apart. There was another set of gears and levers. You could tinker with them and make the clock’s hands move a lot faster. Your alarm clock today is a printed circuit. No gears needed.

Our balloon-tired bicycles had coaster brakes, another set of gears, and we found it was wise not to mess around with those gears. Other parts of the bicycle were fair game. Today’s bikes with those hard little tires – bet they wouldn’t go far in the sandy streets of South Texas. And their gears are right out there for you to see.

Will transistors replace all our gears? I’ll bet that, if you brought a 1960’s automobile mechanic here to 2019, he’d recognize the gears in your modern car. Sure, there was lots of space under the hood in my 1956 Chevvy, and he might be puzzled by all that stuff crammed in under the modern car’s hood. But he’d recognize the pieces. The starter motor and alternator, the water pump and spark plugs. And the air filter, although it’s not on top of a carburetor exactly.

So here’s my question. Have our automobiles failed to keep pace with our modern society? Cars use electronics, sure, but the drive train is the same. The motor is still connected to the wheels in the same manner as always.

Is our system of “personal transportation” ready for a significant upgrade?

Dac Crossley
August 25, 2019

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” – Albert Einstein.

Comments

[Lesley A. Diehl]

It seems our modern cars almost drive themselves. Some of these interventions are great like windshield wipers that come on automatically with rain and speed up to match the amount of the down pour. Of course, that means more can go wrong, and it often does! But perhaps having a car automatically engage in parallel parking and assisted braking is a help not only for the driver but for those of us trying to dodge bad drivers (in some cases,like those students you mentioned!).

[Paige Cummings]

It’s already scary when I take my car to the shop. From my key fob, they can tell the mileage, and any “alarm messages” that had occurred and what service was needed within the next few weeks or miles. Modern cars are driving the shade tree mechanics out of business.