Contraptions

"Man will always find a difficult means to perform a simple task"

Today's trivia is all about a particular class of contraption or machine which attempts to complete an everyday activity in the most complicated way possible.

Known as Heath Robinson or Rube Goldberg machines after their respective authors, we will attempt to understand what these machines are, and how one might go about making one. Of course avoiding the obvious question of why one might want to do this in the first place.

Rube Goldberg: A simple pencil sharpener Full Size

Both are famous for creating cartoons depicting seemingly improbably machines. In the case of Rube Goldberg we know he authored something like 50,000 comics as a regular feature in a newspaper.

Heath Robinson: A bridge opening mechansim

Clearly the entertainment of these comics was derived both from the reader following or working out the machine, followed by the punch line of the joke being the end result; a simple action performed.

The comics are timely and sometimes political in nature being created around the time of the first world war onwards.

Rube Goldberg: The War Machine Full Size

Heath Robinson: A multi-movement bomb catcher

As a Phrase

Clearly these contraptions and ideas became incredibly popular. Being firmly rooted in public consciousness during the early 20th century.

In British English, to do a "Heath Robinson" is exactly what you might expect. To create some seemingly improbably contraption to solve a problem. The same applies in the US. Both Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson have entries in dictionaries explaining the meaning:

accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply. A kind of Rube Goldberg contraption ... with five hundred moving parts — L. T. Grant; also : characterized by such complex means

if a machine or system is Heath Robinson, it is very complicated in a way that is funny, but not practical or effective

Competitions

Spinning out of this is of course the desire to indeed create machines that are overly complex in the tast they are trying to solve. So much so that there are a number of competitions which enthusiastic machine creators can partake in:

• Rube Goldberg
• NASA Creativity and Innovation Challenge
• Purdue University

The last is a large American university contest which is held each year hosted by Purdue University. The winning machines are those machines that most effectively combine creativity with inefficiency and complexity.

Details of the latest 2012 winner:

This year's machine had an end-of-the-world theme that incorporated music throughout the run, ranging from the "Jaws" theme to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to the "Indiana Jones" theme.

The St. Olaf machine had 191 steps. The team completed one perfect run and one run with one human intervention.

Full Size

Mouse Trap

Interestingly and perhaps unsurprisingly the famous game "Mouse Trap" was inspired by a Rube Goldberg comic.

However even though the manufacturer manufacturer Marvin Glass (and his company, Marvin Glass and Associates) admits he was inspired by Rube, he refused to pay royalty payments. Rube, an old man by this point declined to take legal action and instead licensed the comics to another company to manufacture toys based on the ideas from which he could then collect royalties.

Popular Examples

A rather excellent contraption by Honda Video

OK Go! This Too Shall Pass Video

Great Ball Counting Machine Video

Tcl/TK Demo Detail Download

References

More Images

Recent Article

10 Amazing Machines

Evolution of Medieval Helmets

Today's trivia is all about the evolutionary development of the western medieval helmet.

Helmets have occupied a permanent role in personal defense for any professional soldier.

In this Trivia, we will attempt to examine some of the archetype helmet styles of the medieval era and explore the surrounding factors why armour changed over time.

Evolutionary Diagram

Diagram created by Dean Bashford in his book Helmets and Body Armor in Modern Warfare

This diagram is particularly interesting as it highlights the interconnected nature of the development of helmets.

Spangenhelm (apx 600-1000AD)

Attaching mail to the back of the neck (aventail) afforded increased protection

A German word for an early Medieval helmet design. "Spangen" meaning "braces" and "helm", of course "helmet".

Making this style of helmet is technically quite simple and this was its characterising feature. A helmet made of small shaped strips of metal riveted together. Sometimes cheek flaps were added, and or a nasal to protect the front of the face.

By the 6th century it was the most common helmet design in Europe and in popular use throughout the Middle East. They were used for quite some time afterwards due to the simple nature of their construction.

The Anglian Helmet: 8th Century Anglo Saxon helmet based on same design principles

Nasal Helmet (apx 1000-1200 AD)

The conical shape of the Nasal helmet offers better protection from vertical strikes

The Nasal helmet is characterised by the rather obvious protection for the front of the face, but also being made out of one piece of metal. This reinforced protection and conical shape both combined to provide increased protection which explains why it became a common design.

The development of the smithing technology required to shape a strong helmet out of one piece of steel or iron was a crucial step in the development of helmets. All subsequent helmet designs included this feature.

Helmets of most styles could be worn with a mail coif to provide protection for the neck

Great Helm (apx 1200-1300)

A dramatic change in design from earlier open faced helmets

Popularised by knights and heavy infantry of the Crusades, this helmet represents a significant change in purpose. Unlike earlier helmet designs which were more general purpose, the great helm was built for one specific job. To make sure the wearer was protected from almost anything.

This of course comes at a great compromise in visibility and ventilation.

These would have been hot to wear, hard to hear instructions and heavy for prolonged use. The eye slits reduced situational visibility dramatically to a thin horizontal strip.

Underneath the great helm the wearer would wear both a padded coif and a mail coif to protect the wearer against blunt force impact against the helmet. They may also have worn a smaller helmet which represents a precursor to the bascinet.

Reenactment of crusades style heavy infantry armor

Note: fashion of the time has dictated the flat top which was lost from earlier helmets. This disapears in later great helms in favor of the familiar conical or rounded shape.

Basinet (apx 1300-1400 AD)

Helmets of this style would have seen action in pivotal battles like Agincourt

The next major development in helmet technology was the characteristic movable visor of the bascinet. This gave the wearer options as to whether they wanted more visibility and ventilation, or more protection.

In addition to the movable visor a number of other improvements in protection can be seen over previous designs.

• The eye slits are now further away from the user’s face, trading off visibility for protection from the occasional lucky arrow or sword thrust.
• The shaping of visor is ideal for deflecting strikes and arrows from the front. Arrows would have less surface to deliver their kinetic energy through.
• The skull of the helmet is rounded or conical in shape allowing most blows to glance off.
• The eye slits are raised to deflect strikes away from the eyes.

Later example shows a change in fashion for the visor and use of a gorget to protect the neck rather than a mail coif

Sallet (apx 1400-1500 AD)

Later sallet type helmets include a fixed bevor, the front of neck protection shown here

First developed in Italy and then spreading rapidly to Germany and England, the sallet type helmet is characterised by the low sides and back of neck protection.

This helmet design was created at a time when the professional soldier would have been armed full plate armour, and expected to meet other soldiers in equal armour. Visibility, maneuverability and protection were all equally competing requirements.

Characteristic features are the shape of the back of neck protection and the visor shape. Intended to protect much of the face and worn in conjunction with a fixed or movable bevor to cover the front of neck, allowing for increased ventilation as there was no fixed connection between visor and bevor.

Plate, padding and mail would be combined together to provide high degrees of protection and mobility

Armet (apx 1500-1600 AD)

Following on from the technical developments that lead to movable visors and bevors in the sallet. The armet type builds on this further by increasing the articulation of the helmet. Characterised by fully enclosing the wearer in a contoured shape which articulates at the neck allowing a great deal of movement.

The typical armet consisted of four pieces:

• the skull
• two large hinged cheek-pieces which locked at the front over the chin
• a visor

Once closed around the wearer the plates could be locked in place by locking mechanism like a metal pin or swinging clip.

Example of an armet type helmet opened up

Example of exquisite Millanese armour including armet made for jousting full size

Another jousting armour set, most likely also Millanese

The above armour is an example of the extravagance that could be afforded by the richest. Armour with such complexity that it offers the wearer almost complete protection against the hazards of jousting which must be remember was very much a sport rather than a martial activity.

References

For those that want to go further these are some useful video based resources:

• Mike Loades: Documentary on armour
• Lindy Beige: Great Helm
• Lindy Beige: Bascinet
• Mobility Demonstration

LEGO

Today's trivia is all about LEGO and some of the interesting things people have done with it.

History

Lego History

The LEGO company was not called LEGO to start with. It was founded in the early 1930's as a carpentry business, and later moves into wooden toys, they take on the name LEGO from Leg Godt "Play well" in Danish and establish a motto of "Only the best is good enough".

In 1942 their factory producing wooden toys burned down. However they seemed to bounce back from this setback quickly. The first patent for a LEGO brick we recognize today was issued in 1958, but the company had been building a brick system before that and finally settling on a plastic style brick.

Automatic Binding Brick design around 1950

Scale of Production

LEGO Facts

There is a lot of LEGO in the world. In 2012, 45.7 billion LEGO bricks were produced in a single year at a rate of 5.2 million per hour.

The modern manufacturing process for LEGO operates on huge and almost completely automated scale.

A video detailing the entire manufacturing process

• Large silos store coloured plastic granules in huge quantities.
• The plastic is melted at 232 degrees C and injected into a mold before cooling and storing in a tub.
• Robotic vehicles travel the factory collecting the filled boxes for storage.
• LEGO kits are made up from the stored blocks (by hand? uncertain.)

There are currently around 4,200 different parts or elements in the current LEGO range.

Minifigures

Boba Fett from the Star Wars Cloud City LEGO set is one of rarest and most collectable minifigures ever created.

Minifigures are the little characters in LEGO.

• First developed in 1978 and exactly four blocks high (without a hat) they are made in a similar automatic fashion.
• LEGO designers chose the color yellow to best represent all races and ethnicities.
• An estimated 4 billion have been made – making it the world’s largest population group!

Life Hacks

Google

People understandably find LEGO rather useful, here are some of the things they've created using it:

Repairing walls

Lots of different things

Model Building

People are also rather enthusiastic about building almost anything LEGO:

The world’s tallest LEGO tower at 34.76 meters

A 1:1 Scale model of the LEGO X-Wing model Article

Creating models from science fiction games like Mechwarrior - Full Size

Castles

I don't know what this is, but its quite impressive Link Full Size

Going Further

Even more facts about LEGO

Re-Brick

CONPLAN 8888 Counter-Zombie Dominance

You know you're having a bad day when you're stuck in a camper van.

Download: CONPLAN-8888

Today’s trivia is all about a document produced by the United States Strategic Command and details a plan on how to counter a Zombie outbreak.

This is not an actual plan, but rather the output of training exercises used to train new staff in strategic contingency planning. To make the training easier they chose something popular that was in the public mind as the subject matter. Then presumably for amusement factor they ensured it was unclassified and made available for public redistribution.

Obviously it is based on popular fiction and tries to enumerate the detail around what an actual full scale Zombie outbreak might look like.

The interesting part I thought was that whilst the plan is clearly at times humorous it does gives us a view into actual strategic level contingency planning that an organisation like USSTRATCON might actually be involved in.

Mission Statement

The official seal of the United States Strategic Command

"On order, CDRUSSTRATCOM will execute global military operations to protect humankind from zombies and, if directed, eradicate zombie threats to human safety and aid civil authorities in maintaining law and order and restoring basic services during and after a zombie attack."

Define Enemy Capability

There are a number of assumptions about Zombies that the plan makes:

• They cannot be deterred or reasoned with
• No known cure; every human lost is an enemy gained
• Zombies have human hosts whose bodies will cease to function after 40 days
• Laws of Armed Combat do not apply to Zombies
• The only assumed way to effectively cause casualties to the zombie ranks by tactical force is the concentration of all firepower to the head, specifically the brain

Types of Zombies

Pathogenic Zombies - Created after a life form is infected by a virus or bacteria

Radiation Zombies - Zombie life forms created by exposure to extreme radiation

Evil Magic Zombies - The result of some occult experimentation otherwise known as evil magic

Space Zombies - Zombie life forms originating from space or created by toxic contamination via an extraterrestrial toxin

Weaponized Zombies - A Zombie deliberately created via biomechanical engineering

Symbiant-Induced Zombies - Created by the introduction of a symbiont life form into a human host

Vegetarian Zombies - From the popular game Plants vs Zombies, will attack human food sources rather than humans and thus a high threat

Chicken Zombies - Chicken Zombies pose no threat to humans and actions to counter CZ's are the responsibilities of the US Depts of Justice. An example of this can be searched up in news articles. CZ are ignored for the rest of this article.

Centers of Gravity

These are the areas where the conflict will focus.

Human Population Centres

All Zombie classes will target human population centers or create effects against human population centers that will undermine human safety, security and the delivery of basic services. VZ's will target agriculture resources that humans depend upon.

Lines of Communication

Zombies cannot drive, climb or swim (although zombies can wade into water they cannot float or swim). Zombies will utilize surface roads to reach human population centers and to increase their numbers by attacking fleeing humans.

Waterways may remain viable as long as Zombies cannot attach humans entering and leaving the waterway. LOCs are crucial as a means of humans travelling around and getting supplies to human population centers.

Portable Water Sources

Zombies do not drink water, humans do. Therefore they will target humans attempting to get water from waterways. Contamination of waterways is to be expected potentially further spreading the infection.

Critical Capabilities

These are capabilities that are critical for supporting human life and will be critical in repelling the Zombie invasion.

Medical Infrastructure - Failure to triage and separate out human casualties from those infected will lead to medical facilities becoming centres for further Zombie outbreak. Zombies within medical facilities will deny healthy humans access to medical equipment and supplies.

Law Enforcement Infrastructure - Zombies will elicit call outs from local law enforcement resulting in casualties to law enforcement personnel. Law enforcement will be vital in enforcing law and order and helping with evacuating people from Zombie infested areas. Provide security for key resources such as food, water, transit choke points etc. People fearing Zombies might raid police infrastructure to arm themselves further reducing the ability of law enforcement to keep LOCs open.

Power and Distribution Infrastructure - Required to maintain human existence. Requires significant maintenance and supervision to operate and supports LOCs and other critical capabilities. If humans are unable to maintain and operate this equipment due to Zombie outbreak then robots may need to be used instead.

Critical Requirements

Failure to establish these requirements may undermine all crucial capabilities detailed.

Effective Triage - Identifying Zombies from healthy humans and keeping them separate will be crucial for limiting the rate of infection.

Local/Tribal/State/Federal Emergency Management Integration - Coordination and synchronising plans will be critical for securing human populations.

Effective Infrastructure Security - Energy, water and food will all be required for a population to survive. Undermining law and order will reduce the ability of everyone to resist the infection.

Effective Threat Surveillance and Warning Program - Without the ability to monitor Zombie movements, they could amass and attack a population center without time to mount the appropriate defense to repel.

Conclusion

The final harrowing conclusion of plan (paraphrased):

"A zombie outbreak can affect thousands of humans in the span of minutes."

"Humans must not be allowed to "go back for" family, friends, or other personnel who cannot get away from zombies quickly enough. All humans who fall behind must be left behind."

"Healthy humans can wait out a zombie outbreak if they are prudent-nothing can be done to cure a human if they become a zombie."

"Every human that becomes a zombie increases the enemy's numbers and decreases the chances that healthy humans will survive."

Shinkansen

Today's trivia is all about the Shinkansen (新幹線), the high speed rail network which connects most mainland cities on the main island (Honshu) together and also includes the southern island of Kyushu.

The first high speed train in the series introduced in 1964 was the Tōkaidō Shinkansen model Series 0. It had a top operational speed of 130mph and could make the 300+ mile journey in about three hours. This had a large effect on travel and tourism around the country.

Interestingly the name Shinkansen means "new trunk line" referring to the fact that the Shinkansen trains run on their own dedicated track so as not to deal with the complications of interleaving conventional slow rail traffic and high speed traffic. Dedicated tracks are either elevated or via tunnel and are only used in one direction. This makes them considerably safer than standard speed rail lines.

N500 Series interior

When travelling around Japan by Shinkansen you have a number of options:

• Speed of service: Kodama (all stops), Hikari/Sakura (Express), Nozomi/Mizuho (Super Express)
• Class: 1st Class is the Green carriage complete with complementary wet towel to freshen up.
• Smoking: Some services include a smoking carriage which as air filters to keep it pleasent for the passengers (Japan still has a high smoking rate)

Speed

The development of high speed mass transit systems has been a goal of many countries and the development of the Shinkansen in Japan was no exception. The first series was incredibly successful in cutting travel times.

For example by 1992 the Tōkaidō Shinkansen during peak times moved an average of 23,000 passengers per hour in each direction. Later Shinkansen models would cut times further to the point where it is now quicker to go by train than it is to get a plane from Tokyo to Osaka.

Of the recent developments, the E5 Series has the fastest operational speed of 200mph.

Technology

A number of important pieces of technology help to make the Shinkansen not only fast, but also safe at those speeds:

• ATC: Automatic Train Control is crucial for operation. Track side equipment records when one Shinkansen passes various points and signals this information to the next train in line to control its speed.
• Each carriage in the train (16 carriages) has its own electric motor which improves overall acceleration and reduces weight versus a single large engine block.
• The nose cone design and overall dimensions of the train are designed to reduce weight and cross sectional area. Of particular importance is the nose cone design when entering tunnels. Earlier models would produce a shock wave which exited the tunnel as a loud booming noise making them unpopular with the locals. The latest platypus nose cone shape reduces this greatly.
• The shell of the Shinkansen consists of a carefully welded aluminum design to reduce weight. This reduction in strength is permissible because of the greatly reduced crash risk due to dedicated lines.
• Lightweight bogies and suspension are also possible because of the high quality track which reduces wear on the train.

Maglev

China: Shanghai Transrapid

Despite decades of research into maglev technology there are currently only two commercial maglev transit systems in operation. One is the Chinese Shanghai Transrapid system which has an operational top speed of 268mph over an 18.5 mile track based on German developed technology.

Japan: Linimo

The other maglev system is the Japanese Linimo which operates at low speeds on a 9 mile stretch of track.

Japan: Chūō Shinkansen

Building high speed maglev track and infrastructure is very expensive. Japan is in the process of developing the Chūō Shinkansen which will operate over a track length of 178 miles long making it considerably longer than either current operational maglev sysytem. It will have an impressive top operational speed of 314mph.

There are a number of ways of generating the magnetic levitation. In the Chūō Shinkansen it uses an attraction and repulsion system with super conducting magnets in the side of the track.

Future of Rail Travel

Proposal by Terraspan to combine mass transit and power distribution grid

The development of the Shinkansen has been a history of making the train technology more compact and lighter to gain the speed improvements. With magnetic levitation you remove rail friction from the equation as well. I would suggest the future of mass tranist may then seek to remove air resistance as well.

If a maglev tunnel can be successfully de-pressurised and maintained, this would allow the train to overcome air resistance and opens the potential to travel very quickly indeed. Potential estimates go up as high as 4000mph according to one such proposal by Terraspan.

The downsides are not insignificant however. Aside from the cost of building such infrastructure, the largest concern is around safety. If the tunnel re-pressurises for any number of reasons the train would hit the air like a brick wall. If the interior of the train lost pressure all the passengers would have a really bad day.

The only person knowingly exposed to a hard vacuum was during the Apollo era space suit testing when an air tube came loose on a suit during a vacuum chamber test.

References:

Wikipedia Shinkanen

Wikipedia High Speed Rail

Financial Times

Documentary on Shinkansen

Shinkansen Turns 50

Trains of Japan

From my travels on the various Tokyo metropolitan train services I noted a number of interesting things.

Lots of Trains

The metropolitan Tokyo service is extensive

First of all, there are lots of them. The railways in Tokyo appear to be serviced by many different companies including the off shoots of the JNR (Japanese National Railway) which was privatised in 1987. In many cases there will be multiple train operators servicing the same route or line which leads to competition for customers. e.g. Narita airport is serviced by two high speed services into central Tokyo.

I was also surprised to discover that Tokyo is one of seven cities in Japan which has its own underground services. The others being Fukuoka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai and Yokohama.

It then follows that a lot of people use this large service. Japan is only second to India for the number of passengers who use rail services each year at 7.3 billion passengers per year (from a population of 127 million gives an average 54 journeys per person per year)

Really Punctual

There is a popular conception Japanese railways are among the most punctual in the world. I found this to be the case whilst I was there. Metro services were really regular every few minutes.

This video shows some of the supporting services and training that goes into being a train driver.

The high speed services are also equally on time. The average delay on the Tokaido Shinkansen in 2012 was only 0.6 minutes. Impressive for a service that departs every few minutes from each station. For example 323 high speed Shinkansen services depart Tokyo each day. See this video for detail on how a Shinkansen is cleaned in 7 minutes.

Tokaido Shinkansen (東海道新幹線) connects Japan's three largest metropolitan areas (Tokyo/Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka/Kyoto)

Clean and Polite

The metro trains I traveled on were certainly very clean and spacious. Even looking through historical trains at the train museum I noted that spacious and comfortable were common themes even on the oldest carriages.

They also have a fair amount of public information signs advising people how to behave on the train as you might expect for a busy train.

See here for more Japanese humour

Train Drivers

The train drivers and conductors I noted seemed to talk to themselves and do a lot of pointing (even the driver on the model railway did it too).

This is part of their training on avoiding making mistakes whilst they are operating the vehicle. When performing actions in the train, each is accompanied by describing the action and pointing. This technique has been in use in Japanese railways for over a hundred years and has been found to reduce accidents by 85% according to the Railway Technical Research Institute.

Modern

We got ourselves some pre-paied contactless payment cards called Pasmo which we used whilst we were there. Just like Oyster in London, however I later found that there is also a completely compatible and competing scheme called Suica which you can also use. These payment systems extend further than just rail travel to include shopping in some shops, vending machines and at the airport as well.

Some handrails also had braile on them as well.

Another detail I noted was the bird sounds on the platforms. The platforms in Tokyo that I stood on all played a recorded sound of a bird tweeting. This was placed at both entrances to the platform, and I concluded was a blind hearing aid.

Conclusion

Overall I think Japan is quite pleased with its rail network, and it was certainly a good experience to use it. My son was particularly impressed to find a Japan railway toy in his happy meal.

References

Rail Transport in Japan

Pointing and Calling

Pre-Paid Cards

Bird Sounds