Top all-time · #1369
Douglas Self
Personal blog · douglas-self.comhardwarehistoryscience
Douglas Self's personal blog at douglas-self.com covers hardware, history and science. Since 2010, 54 different Hacker News readers have linked it 79 times, most often “N-Wheeled Cars”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Douglas Self, audio design, Subjectivism, Combat Cutlery, Compressed-Air Amplifiers, ElectroMechanical Amplifiers, optical telegraphs, Auxetophone, heliographs, voicepipes, Monowheels, Diwheels, Schilovski Gyrocar, Gyrocars, Brennan Gyro-Monorail, Steam-Powered Bicycles, Rocket-Powered Bicycles, Unu
Most-linked posts?
- N-Wheeled Cars6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2019-04-30
- The Museum of RetroTechnology5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-08-27
- The Paris Pneumatic Clock Network (2018)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-03-20
- Acoustic Location and Sound Mirrors (2004)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-12-29
- Unusual Internal-Combustion Engines3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-09-08
- Unusual Locomotives3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-12-05
- The Paris Compressed-Air Power Network (2018)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-08-28
- /MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/swisselec/swisselc.htm2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-03-15
- Loco Locomotives2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-06-21
- Thermo-Electric Generators2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-12-25
What Hacker News says?
JFYI: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/pneumess/pneumess.h...
Comment linking /MUSEUM/COMMS/pneumess/pneumess.htm
on “Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots”Submitted N-Wheeled Cars as a story · 160 points
HN discussionI suggest anyone interested in the history of compressed air storage to also check out http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/airloco/airloco.... There's also a few articles on the website about compressed air cars and city-wide infrastructure
Comment linking /MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/airloco/airloco.htm
on “Ditch the Batteries: Off-Grid Compressed Air Energy Storage”Submitted The Paris Compressed-Air Power Network (2018) as a story · 157 points
HN discussionSee also Cox's Clock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox's_timepiece I'm sure Wikipedia used to have a much better write up, and more info on other clocks of a similar type. It's a shame they started on deleting and merging so much of the historic and esoterica - they lost a lot of accuracy and good data in the process. Now the best write up and photo is at http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/oddclocks/oddclocks…
Comment linking /MUSEUM/POWER/oddclocks/oddclocks.htm
on “Beverly Clock”Submitted The Paris Pneumatic Clock Network (2018) as a story · 142 points
HN discussionThere are a lot of weird amplifiers: Old welding transformers are controlled by a magnetic shunt- field lines are directed through a movable shunt instead of the secondary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5684mQJQRU There are magnetic core logic circuits, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7SkE5pERtA You can make very loud record players using compressed air: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/auxetophone/…
Comment linking /MUSEUM/COMMS/trumechamp/trumechamp.htm
on “The Magnetic Amplifier – A Lost Technology of the 1950s”Submitted Unusual Locomotives as a story · 118 points
HN discussionVery true, I remember many years ago when working at Soundcraft, there was a loud bang from next door as a small mixing desk with builtin amp was powered on for the first time[1]. Large electrolytic smoothing caps fitted the wrong way round, the smell is horrendous. [1] By Douglas Self who has an excellent page about subjectivity in HiFi http://douglas-self.com/ampins/pseudo/subjectv.htm
Comment linking /ampins/pseudo/subjectv.htm
on “Dad and the Egg Controller”Submitted Monowheels: Vehicles with Insufficient Wheels as a story · 92 points
HN discussionIt sure has not been from lack of trying new designs: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/unusualICeng/unusua... (Also: Big News! Douglas Self has been updating the Museum of Retro Tech again)
Comment linking /MUSEUM/POWER/unusualICeng/unusualICeng.htm
on “The Man Behind the World's Smallest V-12 Engine [video]”Submitted N-Wheeled Vehicles as a story · 80 points
HN discussionInteresting! My statement was based on what I read in the Museum of Retro Tech: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm Many designs have been tried over the years, but suffer from oil leaks, low compression or high manufacturing costs.
Comment linking /MUSEUM/museum.htm
on “Hand Scraping a Truly Flat Plane (1908) [pdf]”Submitted The Museum of RetroTechnology as a story · 49 points
HN discussionI really enjoy the section of the site on engine designs; some of them are even animated, like this bit: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/unusualICeng/axial-...
Comment linking /MUSEUM/POWER/unusualICeng/axial-ICeng/axial-IC.htm
on “The Paris Compressed-Air Power Network (2018)”Submitted Thermo-Electric Generators as a story · 46 points
HN discussionIt's true the whole site is full of gems! I wonder why Elon hasn't tried to go prop with high speed locos! http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/proprail/proprai...
Comment linking /MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/proprail/proprail.htm
on “The Paris Pneumatic Clock Network (2018)”Submitted Acoustic Location and Sound Mirrors (2004) as a story · 43 points
HN discussionIf you enjoy "unusual" engines from that site - these seem very scary: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/petrol/petrol.htm Imagine a steam engine - in which the working fluid come from boiling gasoline...
Comment linking /MUSEUM/POWER/petrol/petrol.htm
on “The Paris Pneumatic Clock Network (2018)”Submitted Optical Telegraphs: An Early Internet (2018) as a story · 29 points
HN discussionThe whole site for this is great. I really like the multitude of variations they had in early steam/IC engines[0]; it reminds me a lot of the expirementing we have in the software ecosystem today [0a] http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/unusualICeng/unusua... [0b] http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/unusualsteameng/unu...
Comment linking /MUSEUM/POWER/unusualsteameng/unusualsteameng.htm
on “The Paris Pneumatic Clock Network (2018)”Submitted The Paris Compressed-Air Power Network (2018) as a story · 25 points
HN discussionhttp://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/nwheelcar/nwhee... - a classic read 'N Wheeled Vehicles'
Comment linking /MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/nwheelcar/nwheelcar.htm
on “National Park Service Will Cite AWD Drivers for Driving on 4WD-Only Trails”Submitted Paris Pneumatic Clock Network as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThe source article linked from the submission mentions electrically synced clocks with the master in the Observatoire. I don't know why pneumatically synced clocks were preferred. Maybe it was cheaper to integrate the clocks themselves into the system? Patents? < http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/airclock/airclock.h... > > At the Paris Observatoire a high-standard astronomical regulator clock was kept running…
Comment linking /MUSEUM/COMMS/airclock/airclock.htm
on “The Pneumatic Clocks of Paris”Submitted Loco Locomotives as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIf you're referring to the pneumatic network, one of the footnotes mentions a latency of 10 seconds, but the author does the math and says that's probably not accurate, more like 58 seconds at the 20km max distance. http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/airclock/airclock.h...
Comment linking /MUSEUM/COMMS/airclock/airclock.htm
on “The Pneumatic Clocks of Paris”Submitted Axial Internal-Combustion Engines as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe N-wheeled cars page has also been discussed on HN before: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/nwheelcar/nwhee... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19786560
Comment linking /MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/nwheelcar/nwheelcar.htm
on “Unusual Locomotives”Submitted The Museum of Retro Technology as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
