Everyday Machines

Everyday Machines
Author: John Kelly
Publisher:
Total Pages: 46
Release: 1995
Genre: Household appliances
ISBN: 9780600586920

Explains the inner workings of a variety of modern inventions, including the washing machine, personal stereo, video recorder, toaster and hair dryer. Suggested level: primary, intermediate, junior secondary.

Everyday Technology

Everyday Technology
Author: David Arnold
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2013-06-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0226922030

In 1909 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, on his way back to South Africa from London, wrote his now celebrated tract Hind Swaraj, laying out his vision for the future of India and famously rejecting the technological innovations of Western civilization. Despite his protestations, Western technology endured and helped to make India one of the leading economies in our globalized world. Few would question the dominant role that technology plays in modern life, but to fully understand how India first advanced into technological modernity, argues David Arnold, we must consider the technology of the everyday. Everyday Technology is a pioneering account of how small machines and consumer goods that originated in Europe and North America became objects of everyday use in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rather than investigate “big” technologies such as railways and irrigation projects, Arnold examines the assimilation and appropriation of bicycles, rice mills, sewing machines, and typewriters in India, and follows their impact on the ways in which people worked and traveled, the clothes they wore, and the kind of food they ate. But the effects of these machines were not limited to the daily rituals of Indian society, and Arnold demonstrates how such small-scale technologies became integral to new ways of thinking about class, race, and gender, as well as about the politics of colonial rule and Indian nationhood. Arnold’s fascinating book offers new perspectives on the globalization of modern technologies and shows us that to truly understand what modernity became, we need to look at the everyday experiences of people in all walks of life, taking stock of how they repurposed small technologies to reinvent their world and themselves.

How Things Work - Everyday Machines

How Things Work - Everyday Machines
Author: Scott MacNeill
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2013-12-18
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0486492206

More than 20 cutaway illustrations expose the insides of common machines, and short captions identify individual components. Images include an electric guitar, air conditioner, laptop computer, vacuum cleaner, cell phone, and more.

The Everyday Workings of Machines

The Everyday Workings of Machines
Author: Steve Martin
Publisher: Ivy Kids
Total Pages: 51
Release: 2020-10-20
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0711254257

How does a train stay on the tracks? What's going on inside a pogo stick? How do cranes work? And what happens when you flush a toilet? These and many more important questions are answered in this fascinating book. From toasters and telephones to hovercrafts and robots - the inner workings of machines big and small are brought to light using a stunning mix of cross-sections, close-ups and cutaways.

Metallic Modern

Metallic Modern
Author: Nira Wickramasinghe
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782382437

Everyday life in the Crown colony of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was characterized by a direct encounter of people with modernity through the consumption and use of foreign machines – in particular, the Singer sewing machine, but also the gramophone, tramway, bicycle and varieties of industrial equipment. The ‘metallic modern’ of the 19th and early 20th century Ceylon encompassed multiple worlds of belonging and imagination; and enabled diverse conceptions of time to coexist through encounters with Siam, the United States and Japan as well as a new conception of urban space in Colombo. Metallic Modern describes the modern as it was lived and experienced by non-elite groups – tailors, seamstresses, shopkeepers, workers – and suggests that their idea of the modern was nurtured by a changing material world.

How Things Work

How Things Work
Author: Theodore Gray
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
Total Pages: 1197
Release: 2019-10-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0316445452

Million-copy bestselling author of The Elements, Molecules, and Reactions Theodore Gray applies his trademark mix of engaging stories, real-time experiments, and stunning photography to the inner workings of machines, big and small, revealing the extraordinary science, beauty, and rich history of everyday things. Theodore Gray has become a household name among fans, both young and old, of popular science and mechanics. He's an incorrigible tinkerer with a constant curiosity for how things work. Gray's readers love how he always brings the perfect combination of know-how, humor, and daring-do to every project or demonstration, be it scientific or mechanical.In How Things Work he explores the mechanical underpinnings of dozens of types of machines and mechanisms, from the cotton gin to the wristwatch to an industrial loom. Filled with stunning original photographs in Gray's inimitable style, How Things Work is a must-have exploration of stuff--large and small--for any builder, maker or lover of mechanical things.

Schrodinger's Machines

Schrodinger's Machines
Author: Gerard J. Milburn
Publisher: W. H. Freeman
Total Pages: 208
Release: 1997-04-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780716731061

In his foreword to Schrödinger's Machines, Paul Davies writes, "The nineteenth century was known as the machine age, the twentieth century will go down in history as the information age. I believe the twenty-first century will be the quantum age." Perhaps the most successful scientific theory in history, quantum mechanics has already ushered in the information age with inventions like the transistor and the laser. In Schrödinger's Machines, renowned quantum physicist Gerard Milburn explores how our ever-increasing ability to manipulate atomic and subatomic processes is turning purely hypothetical situations and concepts (of a truly weird nature) into concrete, practical devices-- resulting in a complete transformation of our world view. Imagine the creation of machines the size of molecules, detectors sensitive enough to pick up the sound of a pin dropping on the other side of the earth, the fabrication of new and exotic materials, and extraordinarily powerful computers that can process information in many alternative realities simultaneously, creating a whole new type of mathematics. This isn't science fiction, but just some of the breathtaking possibilities offered by quantum technology over the next fifty years. Leaving the common sense of Newtonian machines far behind, Schrödinger's Machines is an advance preview of the strange new world ahead. Clearly presented, and with an acute awareness of recent advances in the field, it's indispensable reading for anyone interested in the future.

Sensing Machines

Sensing Machines
Author: Chris Salter
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2022-04-19
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262046601

How we are tracked, surveilled, tantalized, and seduced by machines ranging from smart watches and Roombas to immersive art installations. Sensing machines are everywhere in our world. As we move through the day, electronic sensors and computers adjust our thermostats, guide our Roombas, count our steps, change the orientation of an image when we rotate our phones. There are more of these electronic devices in the world than there are people—in 2020, thirty to fifty billion of them (versus 7.8 billion people), with more than a trillion expected in the next decade. In Sensing Machines, Chris Salter examines how we are tracked, surveilled, tantalized, and seduced by machines ranging from smart watches and mood trackers to massive immersive art installations. Salter, an artist/scholar who has worked with sensors and computers for more than twenty years, explains that the quantification of bodies, senses, and experience did not begin with the surveillance capitalism practiced by Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google but can be traced back to mathematical and statistical techniques of the nineteenth century. He describes the emergence of the “sensed self,” investigating how sensor technology has been deployed in music and gaming, programmable and immersive art environments, driving, and even eating, with e-tongues and e-noses that can taste and smell for us. Sensing technology turns our experience into data; but Salter’s story isn’t just about what these machines want from us, but what we want from them—new sensations, the thrill of the uncanny, and magic that will transport us from our daily grind.

The Kids' Book of Simple Machines

The Kids' Book of Simple Machines
Author: Kelly Doudna
Publisher: Scarletta Press
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2015
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1938063600

Introduces six simple machines, describing how they work in more complex machinery and how they are used every day.

Build Your Own Chain Reaction Machines

Build Your Own Chain Reaction Machines
Author: Paul Long
Publisher: Quarry Books
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2018-10-02
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 163159527X

With Build Your Own Chain Reaction Machines, you’ll create 13 zany and awesome mechanical contraptions using stuff from around the house. Build Your Own Chain Reaction Machines invites you into the wonderful world of crazy contraptions inspired by the amazing artwork of renowned cartoonist, engineer, and inventor Rube Goldberg, whose wacky, imaginary machines accomplished a simple task by taking a hilariously complicated route. In this entertaining and instructive book, mechanical engineer and educator Paul Long gives step-by-step instructions for making low-tech devices using everyday objects in inspired and ingenious ways. Each of the 13 projects demonstrates how to build the machine's various elements and explains how they work together to make a mind-boggling mechanism that delivers hours of fun and fascination. Machines for Your Room. Be the master of your domain with the Door Knocker, Light Switcher, and Door Opener. Machines for Around the House. Get your chores done (and improve your personal hygiene) with the Plant Waterer, Toothpaste Squeezer, and Soap Dispenser. Machines for Fun and Nonsense.The Flag Raiser, Marble Launcher, Music Maker, and Balloon Popper are guaranteed to both amaze and amuse. Machines for Food. With the Vending Machine, Candy Dispenser, and Cookie Dunker, snacking has never been so fun! You'll also find interesting sidebars on the science behind each gadget, plus tips and tricks for success. Build Your Own Chain Reaction Machines gives you the know-how to create your own incredible chain reactions!