Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
03
$3.99
0 74470 08638 3
P M F e a t u r e s /// M a r c h 2 0 0 9
volume 186 no. 3
68 Basement Replacement
HGTVs Rip & Renew crew pulls
off a total underground overhaul.
By Harry SawyerS
On the cOver
We re-create a com-
mon source of UFO
reportsflares used by
military jets to evade
missiles (see page 58).
Photo illustration by
Oliver Wasow; addi-
tional manipulation by
Anthony Verducci.
98
29
Tech Watch
13 Cosmic Point-and-
Shoot The worlds largest
digital camera monitors the
universe for science and
DIy
defense. Plus: remodeling Home
the space station; creating 85 Shop, Reborn Use
blood on demand. our guide to revamp your
P H O T O G R A P H S B Y J M U C k L E / S T U D I O D ( D U C T TA P E , P L I E R S ) , k Y O k O H A M A D A ( H P C O M P U T E R ) ; I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y B R A D L E Y R . H U G H E S ( S P A R k P L U G )
cluttered work area with
diamond-plate pegboard,
Upgrade rolling tool storage and a
23 Game-Frame sturdy workbench.
Computer HPs ultimate 90 Homeowners
portable gaming PC. Clinic How to squeeze
Plus: We pit duct tape more hot water from your
against other multiuse water heater.
26
tapes; a voltage detector Plus: removing stains
with an adjustable range; from your concrete drive-
a Duracell battery that way; cutting down counter-
does it all. tops; using ridgeboard in a
freestanding garage.
New Cars
31 Zip Drive Nissans Auto
370Z packs tons of torque 95 Saturday Mechanic
and turns heads. Plus: The Get your classic car back on
intelligently designed Toyota the road by rebuilding the
iQ; Pontiacs new muscle brake calipers.
sedan; the a 170 baby benz. 98 Car Clinic The right
way to take a compression
test. Plus: Knowing when
Columns your abS system is working
38 Jay Lenos Garage properly; removing long-life
Jay reminisces about the spark plugs after theyve
days of endurance racer ab seized; determining what
Jenkins, when men raced causes fuel-gauge failure.
not for money, but for love
24
of the sport.
42 Americas To-Do Technology
List PMs editor-in-chief 105 Make Your PC
James b. Meigs outlines Boot Faster Use PMs
five urgent policy changes special regimen of five
16
for the new administration, OS tweaks to boost slow
from clean diesel to NaSa. startup speeds.
108 Digital Clinic Five
ways to play MP3s through
your car stereo. Plus: Why
your iPhone home button
fails; tailgating with your
LISTED ON THE COvER:
LCD TV.
85 Ultimate Workshop
93 /// 32 55-MPG Solution
/// 54 UFO Myths /// Monthly
78 Special Ops Boat Crew HOW TO RE ACH US 6
/// 26 Duct Tape ///
34
LE T TERS 8
68 Basement Upgrade ///
72 Backyard Blacksmiths THIS IS M Y JOB 116
E D I T O R S R E S P O N S E :
We agree that diesel fuel is
overpriced in the U.S. See
Americas To-Do List, page 42.
Signal Boost
Januarys Improving In-Home
Wi-Fi hit on good ways to
boost a wireless routers signal
strength, but what about wire-
less devices like laptops and
game systems? once youve
PM Letters boosted your router signal, you
can do the same for other wire-
less devices. Laptop adapters
Digital Snoops I S S U E
tion will demonstrate a higher may have a power-save feature
Your January story Whos 01/09 appreciation for our rights. that you can disable to maxi-
tracking You, on privacy con- Readers T O M C I C C AT E R I mize wireless performance.
cerns, could have included more responded to aLbuquerque, NM and some adapters even have
on GPs tracking devices. There our technology an external antenna.
privacy report,
should be a federal law restrict- hybrid vs. diesel Diesel Dilemma MIkE kRUMMRE y
ing their use [in autos] without comparison and I always find your auto reviews ada, MI
the registered vehicle owners tips to boost informative. but I must take
wireless range.
written consent. GPs equip- issue with the idea (New Cars,
ment that [tracks] the owners Jan. 09) that more diesel Calling
location is being sold across the autos should be in our future to all
country. George orwell would reduce our dependence on oil inventors!
say, I warned you! through their improved mileage. Have you built a one-of-a-kind
project? PoPular Mechanics is
M ALCOLM JOhNSON I have a diesel pickup purchased accepting entries for our 2009 DIY
seMINoLe, FL in 2002, primarily for its tow- Rallyanything from a handcrafted
treehouse to a personal robot to
ing capabilities, but at that an electric go-kart. (You must have
Your story about the latest time diesel was also the least already built it!) The best reader
digital threats to privacy was expensive fuel. That changed in projects will be featured in the
magazine. Submit yours by April 1,
enlightening. Its too bad so about 2003, and since then it 2009: popularmechanics.com/
many efforts are required to has been the highest priced fuel. DIYRally2009.
fight back. our last Congress
let us down by passing a law
Write to Us Include your full name, address and phone
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news + trends + breakthroughs
Cosmic Point-
and-Shoot
The worl d S l a r geS T d igiTa l
Ca mera i S C ur r en T ly aT wo r k
moni Tori n g T h e u n iv er S e f o r
SCi enCe a n d Sel f d ef en Se.
by Joe PaPPalardo
Flippers
secret power
+ Scientists have
long wondered how
dolphins can swim
as fast as 25 mph,
given the thickness
of their tail
muscles and the
density of water.
you Cant Make an
But researchers Airplane without
in Troy, N.Y., were
shocked to see
the animals power
breaking some wings
when they tracked
the movement
of tiny air bubbles Boeings new 787 Dreamliner is revolutionary because it uses carbon Big Motors For
in the water composite materials in more structural parts than any previous Mini tools
around swimming commercial jetliner. But how tough is this new material? To find out, + Engineers in
dolphins. Each tail company engineers shattered a 50-ft.-long, 55,000-pound structure Switzerland are
flip generates producing a
about 200 pounds
called the wing box, which connects the wings to the fuselage. The test miniature electric
of thrust showed that the box could withstand more than 1.5 times the highest motor that they
triple Michael aerodynamic load the jet could ever experience. After delays, the first say is the first to
Phelpss best. Dreamliners are currently scheduled for delivery in early 2010. achieve a speed of
one million
revolutions per
minute, four times
faster than the
Newsbriefs previous spin
reports from the edge of science master. The
Compiled by Alex Hutchinson matchbox-size,
100-watt motor
integrates mini ball
bearings and
time tweak saves energy e-Mail FroM electrical
Major toM components in a
+ since 2007, daylight saving time has
started three weeks earlier (in March) and + This summer, special titanium
astronauts on shell that can
ended one week later (in November) each the International withstand the
year, in a governmental bid to save Space Station perfect recipe for antimatter extreme centrifu-
energy. The first-year results are now will test a new + Physicists at Lawrence Livermore gal forces created
inand it worked. According to the Interplanetary National Laboratory have developed a by the record-
Internet scheme breaking speed.
PHOtOgrAPH by getty iMAges (DOLPHiN)
Orbital Renovation
Kitchen Exercise
The crews galley Equipment
has to be The Advanced
expanded; new Resistive Exercise
items include Device uses
suitcase-shape vacuum canisters
warmers that and ropes to create
gently close around resistance that Galley Resistive Exerciser Bathroom Water Recycler
as many as 12 mimics weights.
metallic foil bags The ARED provides
holding prepared the equivalent of deteriorate if they laptop connections. Bathroom solidliquid
foods. The sink, 600 pounds of dont work out. Theyre living in The iss received a separator. Urine
based on the space weights that can a closet, Edeen new toilet that gets converted into
shuttles, has its be used for dozens Bedroom says. And its nAsA purchased clean water in a
own hot-water of exercises. iss residents not a walk-in. from Russia. A recycling system.
heater for bags of Astronauts each have individual Astronauts have gentle vacuum pulls Water quality is
stew or cups of muscles and 3 x 3.5 x 6ft just enough space waste into a funnel tested in space and
instant coffee. nerves can quarters with to dress. that leads to a on the ground.
WhAt it tAkEs to livE O2: 2 pounds daily Water tO make Oxygen: 0.26 gal daily Water fOr hygiene and drinking: 0.8 gal daily
in thE iss, pER pERson
todays special operations boats owe their legacy to small gunboats of the past.
In 1967, PM illuminated the experiences of Vietnam Swift boat skippers with a
first-person account from Lt. j.g. jim Stephens. For days at a time, his crew spent
time hours patrolling down the coastline, checking out 30-ft Vietnamese fishing boats and
Machine engaging in firefights with enemies on shore. todays black-op boats (see Smoke on the
j U Ly 1 9 6 7 Water, page 78) do not patrol but instead deliver and extract Special Forces. com-
manders say the crews in Iraq have been involved in the largest riverine gunfights since
Vietnam, and some tactics and weapons are holdovers from that war. Every year,
special ops boat crews host a reunion for their Vietnam-era trailblazers. Allie Haake
Todays solar concentrators turn to track the sun; tomorrows could fit in a window.
Fluid Situation
A pM panel highlights the
c h a l l e n g e s a t h i r s t y n at i o n
m u s t fa c e .
On The Web > For more details about the water panel
and other PM conferences, go to popularmechanics.com.
Liquid
cooling
replaces
noisy fans.
A laptop-like
external
power supply
saves space
and prevents
overheating.
game-Frame Computer
gamers who want turbocharged machines are used to making The side of the
tradeoffspower typically comes at the expense of price and portability. case swings
open for easy
The HP Firebird with VoodooDNA, which starts at $1799, is small access to
enough to tote to LaN parties (its chassis is about a quarter the size of its upgradable
predecessors), but powerful enough for fast-paced fragging (three graphics components.
cards ensure rapid-fire rendering). The secret: a creative mixture of
desktop and high-powered laptop-size components. SETH PORGES
Test
Drive
wish list
in-ear
heaDphone
aDapTors
card-carrying player
MP3 players arent cheap, but if youre
downloading from online music stores,
well, thats when the bills really add up.
The SanDisk Sansa slotRadio Player
($100) comes bundled with a micro SD
card filled with 1000 songs (additional
genre-specific 1000-song cards go for
$40 a pop). Sadly, theres a catch:
The songs are saddled with DRM
software that keeps you from copying
them to your other devices.
MULTIUSE
u P g r a d e
TaPES
P M
NaShua WatER-
pRoofINg tapE
Forms an instant water-
proof bond. $9 for 11 yd
+ Sturdiness
Nashua turned in the
weakest showing: 15
pounds caused the
tape to snap.
Scotch
tRaNSpaRENt + Stickiness
Duct tapE Held the wires for a
Lasts six times longer week without budging.
than other heavy-duty
tapes. $6 for 20 yd + Water resistance
The bond survived the
+ Sturdiness drown test, but for
Broke under 35 pounds some reason this one
of weight. tape was a breeding
ground for slimeit
+ Stickiness became covered with a goRIlla tapE
Scotch multI-uSE Our test bundle of wire vile, furry growth after For the toughest
Duct tapE fell from the drywall on a single night. jobs on planet Earth.
For repairs in and the first night. $9 for 12 yd
around the house. $10
for 60 yd + Water resistance + Sturdiness
Water did little to hurt The tests champ: It
+ Sturdiness an already lackluster took 85 pounds to
We were able to stack grip. It was far too easy break the Gorillas
45 pounds of dumb- to peel the tape off of back. Yet it still tore
bells on a length of tape copper and PVC bundles easily by hand, making
before it broke. in both wet and dry for easy application.
conditions.
+ Stickiness + Stickiness
Held a bundle of four The ape held its wires
12-gauge Romex in place for a week
electrical wires against then showed off by
a wall for a full week. How We Tested Sturdiness: Stacked dumbbells on a tape pinning a 3-pound
sling until it snapped. Stickiness: Stuck a bundle of four dumbbell to the wall
+ Water resistance 12-gauge wires against drywall for a week. Water resistance: over the weekend.
Water slightly loosened Submerged a bundle of tape-wrapped pipes for a week.
the tapes grip on PVC + Water resistance
and copper pipe, but it Bottom Line: Although duct tape proved capable, the clear Overall stickiness was
stuck well where it was winner was Gorilla Tape, which handily won all our tests. not compromised by a
wrapped around itself. week in the drink.
The Yamaha FZR WaveRunner ($12,600) is designed for one thing: extreme
speed. Its the quickest, most powerful personal watercraft on the market (it pulls
0 to 30 in 1.5 seconds, thanks to the industrys only 1812 cc four-stroke engine),
and its the first with telescoping handlebars, allowing riders to stand comfortably
for high-speed bursts, then hunch down for sharp turns.
If size is impor-
tant, we suggest
sticking to 10.8-
and 12-volt
drivers that can
slip into a tool
belt.
PM Test Driven
2 01 0 Lexus RX350/450h
Haptic Hybrid
The multimedia interface system in
the new Lexus RX is intuitive and
cunningly equipped with a computer-
mouse-like haptic feedback device that
2 0 1 0 Toyota iQ
greatly improves user accuracy. You
can now talk to the voice recognition
system in plain language, too. For
example, a phrase like its too hot in
Intelligent Design Toyotas hip microcar
The Toyota iQ is clever. No, scratch has an interior as
here deftly leads to the temperature that. Its got Ivy League intelligence. clean and as straight-
prompt. Even in the predecessor to forward as the
Thats the only way to describe a car
one of the most refined crossovers on exterior. We hear it
the market, there were ongoing
thats so small (9 ft 9.5 in. long), so may arrive here next
inexpensive (around $13,000) and so year as a Scion
struggles against unwanted and that could mean
noisethe new RX is dead quiet. positively packed with innovation. An a customizable
With so little distraction, the melliflu- ultraskinny 4.7-in.-thick fuel tank sits interior too.
ous tones of the 275-hp V6 can be under the floor to save room. And the
enjoyed at full song. Or you can listen tiny climate control unit uses a thinner fan to reduce noise.
to the amazing 330-watt, 15-speaker This allows the dashboard to be asymmetric, which in turn
Mark Levinson systemand have the yields more interior space. Glove box? Who needs it? The
whole New York Philharmonic sitting Euro- and Japan-only iQ has an optional canvas bag that
around you. The RX450h hybrid
pops onto the dash. The 91-hp 1.0-liter three-cylinder is
delivers 295 hp and returns 28 mpg
city and 27 highway. Driving around
tipped forward, away from the driver, to maximize cabin
the peaceful environs of Napa Valley, spaceand it roars mightily as you pull away into Milans
Calif., was more vacation than work notoriously heavy traffic. The cars diminutive size means
day. And, isnt that what driving a the 1973-pound iQ feels quicker than it is. Even the
Lexus is all about? Barry Winfield so-hip-it-hurts fashionistas gave the iQ a double take
through their sunglasses. On the autostrada, the iQ showed
that its stable, refined and comfortable even at 90 mph. But
its the 54.7 mpg thats the real payoff. andreW engliSh
2 0 0 9 Porsche Cayman
TesTeD:
Insight vs. Prius
d
> P H oTo G R a P H S b y J o H n L a m m
avid Abbott Ab Jenkins was one of americas almost from birth, they could pick
least known motorsports heroes. he spent years up something and go, this is off by
setting long-distance speed records on the Bonne- a few thousandths of an inch here.
ville Salt flats, beginning back in 1932. that was ab wanted to be a good role model
decades before the Southern California timing for those kids. So he always drank
association, which runs todays Bonneville Speed milk. he didnt touch liquor, caf-
Week, sanctioned racing there. ab was a motor- feine or drugs. ab Jenkins was a Mor-
sports pioneer. mon, and his car was aptly named
in the early years, Bonneville had a 10-mile cir- the Mormon Meteor.
cular track, so racers could run 12, 24 or even 48 abs Mormon Meteor ties together
hoursstopping only to refuel. there wasnt two great elements of american
much sponsorship in those days. if you got a case automotive history: Bonneville and
of motor oil it was like, hey, i got some free oil! the Duesenberg brothers. abs
Years ago, an average guy could build a land-speed Meteor, a 1935 Duesenberg Special,
car in his garage and go set a record. had a streamlined body and a super-
like other racers of his era, ab raced for the love charged 420-cu-in. straight eight
long Before of the sporthe did it all himself. Not only was he that developed around 400 hp. on
megasponsors,
the driver, but he had to be the engineer, the r&D his third attempt in the Mormon
endurance
guyand he had to build the car too. he knew when Meteor, ab beat British racer John
racing pioneer
aB Jenkins it broke, knew when it was running perfectly, and Cobbs record, averaging 135.58
raced for love he could drive it for 24 hours straight at 160 mph. mph for 24 hours.
of the sport. ab had that great all-american-boy stuff of the of course, ab wanted to go even
1930s. today we have kids who are almost inher- faster, so he got a Curtiss Con-
ently computer whizzes. in abs day, there was a querer aircraft enginea 1570-cu-
generation of boys who were mechanically adept. in. V12 that put out 750 hp. augie
MAN
M AN CCAVE
AVE FEEL
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@eefmXk\Dfkfijgfikj#dXel]XZkli\if]k_\nfic[jijk[`^`kXcX`i&]l\ciXk`f
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A m e r i c a s t o - d o l i s t
> b y j a m e s b . m e i g s
> i l l u s t r at i o n b y i a n k i m
T
he Obama team enters office with perhaps the thorn-
iest agenda of any administration in memory: manag- fas t fi xe s for U. S.
pro b l e m s w i t h
ing two wars, rebuilding tattered infrastructureand
diesel fuel, flood
coping with a world-class economic crisis.
p o l i c y, m i l i tary
However, just like a homeowner moving into a new pro c ure m e n t, t h e
house, the administration needs to do some work gr i d an d n as a.
immediately, while other jobs can be postponed. And
then there are a few tasks so obviousand affordable
that tackling them immediately is a no-brainer. To help
the administration get started, here are five relatively
simple policy changes to implement right away. plan should equalize those tax rates
and stop punishing diesel owners.
S u pp o r t
Clean Diesel Reform flood
What alternative fuel could cut total consumption by the U.S. passenger vehicle Policies
fleet by up to 35 percent and slash CO2 emissions while requiring no techno- Its a double-barreled problem:
logical breakthroughs and few changes in infrastructure? Its not plug-in Some 37 million Americans have
hybrids or biofuels. It certainly isnt hydrogen. The answer is regular old diesel. moved to the nations shorelines
Well, actually, its the ultra-low-sulfur diesel that has made a fresh generation since 1980, just as hurricanes have
of clean, ultraefficient engines possible. In a recent PM test, VWs Jetta TDI die- become more destructive. Unfortu-
sel delivered more than 45 mpg on the highway. Thats better than a Prius. nately, our current policies make
For decades, diesel generally cost a bit less than gasoline. But since 2004, it matters worse. The Stafford Act
has been more expensiveat times, a lot more. Thats hardly an incentive for empowers the president to declare
people to go out and buy diesel cars. Some of the disparity is due to the cost of an emergency and open a floodgate
converting refineries to make the cleaner fuel. But federal excise taxes also hurt; of money to rebuild the roads, sew-
they run 6 cents per gallon higher for diesel than for gasoline. Any new energy ers and bridges of storm-damaged
TRIM FUTURE
C O M B AT
SYSTEMS
When it comes to finding
places to cut waste, the Pen-
tagon is a target-rich envi-
ronment. Heres a good
place to start: the high-tech,
$160 billion Future Combat
Systems program that was a
darling of former defense
secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
FCS incorporates some
great technology, like the
retail priceso the utilities dont landing. We can do better. Manned
P U B L I C I N T E R E S T / / / prot when they pass that power on spaceight is widely supported by the
A M E R I C A S T O - D O L I S T
to other consumers. Thats okay public and is fueled by a basic Ameri-
today, when the amounts of electric- can optimism and drive toward explo-
robots and surveillance drones that ity involved are tiny, but its not sus- ration. But lets make sure we spend
American forces have embraced in tainable. Imagine a day when much our travel budget wisely.
the eld. But many FCS items should of the power in the grid did come President Obama should convene
be cutin particular, the manned from households. Under current a task force to hammer out alterna-
ground vehicles program. Todays rules, utility revenues would drop just tive visions for our future in space.
Abrams tanks and Strykers are get- when the system needed expensive Like all big bureaucracies, NASA is
ting the job done, and the FCSs upgrades to manage good at protecting
advanced mobile artillery is not our a more complex ow its budgets. We need
LIKE ALL BUREAUCRACIES,
troops most urgent need. In fact, the of energy. What a few outsiders to
NASA IS GOOD AT
program fails a simple standard for incentive would utili- come in and break
PROTECTING ITS BUDGETS.
judging any weapons system: Does it ties have to improve some crockery. The
WE NEED OUTSIDERS TO
enhance the intelligence, capability the grid if the work panel must include
COME IN AND BREAK
and safety of our forces? These vehi- only served to drive non-NASA experts:
SOME CROCKERY.
cles dont, and they should go. down prots? space scientists like
In the short term, University of Arizo-
SUPPORT DISTRIBUTED President Barack Obama can help by nas Peter Smith and private-space-
P O W E R G E N E R AT I O N proposing a single national standard ight visionaries like Burt Rutan.
Who says power has to come from for net metering. Then, we need to Here are some items for the panel
power plants? Almost everyone likes set realistic rates for the electricity to consider. First, we should keep
the idea of homes using their own that homes and businesses feed moving forward on the new Ares
solar panels or wind turbines to gen- back into the grida wholesale launch vehicles. With the space shut-
erate electricity. And state net meter- price, in effect. Electric companies tle scheduled for long-overdue retire-
ing rules encourage homeowners to could then evolve into grid managers, ment in 2010, we need the Ares
get involved by crediting their electric not only producing power but also heavy-lift capability. Then, lets stop
bills for the power they supply to the adeptly juggling contributions from adding to the International Space
grid. In the long run, net metering thousands of clean sources. Stationit was a bad investment and
can help reduce our reliance on dirty we should move on. Next, outsource
coal-power plants, and make the grid REBOOT cargo-hauling missions in low Earth
more resistant to blackouts. NASA orbit to private contractors. Finally,
But the rules need work. They vary With taxpayers struggling, its going leave the moon to China, India and
by state, confusing homeowners and to be hard to justify pouring billions private space ventures. While others
discouraging them from investing in into returning to a lump of rock weve literally follow in our footsteps, we
equipment. Also, the plans usually already visited. But right now, NASAs should aim higher, building a long-
compel power companies to buy elec- main goal seems to be replaying the term base on an asteroidand laying
tricity from homeowners at the full greatest hit of the Apollo era, a moon the groundwork for travel to Mars. FC
Cancer
4
Spit
Test
Forget biopsies
a device designed
by researchers
at the University
of California
Los Angeles
detects oral
cancer from a
single drop of
saliva. Proteins
that are associ-
By Melinda Wenner 20 bREaKTHRougHS ated with cancer
cells react with
Diagrams by Sinelab THaT bluR THE lINE dyes on the
bETwEEN bIology aND sensor, emitting
fluorescent light
TEcHNologyTo HElp that can be
RESToRE, ImpRoVE aND detected with a
microscope.
ExTEND ouR lIVES. Engineer
Chih-Ming Ho
notes that the
same principle
could be applied
to make saliva-
based diagnostic
tests for many
diseases.
Decay-
1 Artificial
2
Lymph Nodes
Biological
5
Fighting Pacemaker
Microbes Scientists from Japans RIKEN Institute
Electronic
Bacteria living on
have developed artificial versions of pacemakers save
teeth convert lymph nodes, organs that produce lives, but use
sugar into lactic immune cells for fighting infections. hardware that
acid, which erodes Though they could one day replace eventually wears
enamel and diseased nodes, the artificial ones out. Now,
causes tooth researchers
decay. Florida- may initially be used as customized at several
based company immune boosters. Doctors could fill universities are
ONI BioPharma the nodes with cells specifically developing a
has engineered a geared to treat certain conditions, batteryless
new bacterial alternative:
strain, called
such as cancer or HIV. pacemaker genes
SMaRT, that expressed in
cannot produce stem cells that
3
lactic acidplus, it are injected into
releases an
antibiotic that kills
the natural
Asthma Sensor
asthma accounts for a quarter of all emergency room
damaged regions
of the heart.
Better suited for
physical exertion,
decay-causing
strain. Dentists visits in the u.S., but a sensor developed at the univer- biological
will only need to sity of pittsburgh may finally cause that number to pacemakers have
swab SMaRT, now plummet. Inside the handheld device, a polymer-coated been shown to
in clinical trials, bring slow canine
onto teeth once to carbon nanotube100,000 times thinner than a human hearts back up to
keep them healthy hairanalyzes breath for minute amounts of nitric speed without
for a lifetime. oxide, a gas that lungs produce prior to asthma attacks. complications.
8
that theyre difficult it to a computer. This constant data flow will help doctors
better understand the causes of the disease. Future lenses
to monitor. you may also automatically dispense drugs in response to
and I sense where pressure changes. Speech Restorer
our limbs are For people who have lost the
spatially without ability to talk, a new phonetic
having to look at speech engine from
Illinois-based Ambient
them, whereas Corporation provides an
amputees dont, audible voice. Developed in
says Stanford conjunction with Texas
university graduate Instruments, the Audeo uses
electrodes to detect neuronal
student Karlin bark. signals traveling from the
Skin is sensitive to brain to the vocal cords.
being stretchedit Patients imagine slowly
can detect even sounding out words; then the
small changes in quarter-size device (located in
a neck brace) wirelessly
direction and transmits those impulses to a
intensityso bark computer or cellphone, which
is developing a produces speech.
device that
stretches an
amputees skin
near the
prosthesis in
9
ways that Absorbable
provide Heart Stent
feedback Stents open arteries
about that have become
the limbs narrowed or blocked
position and because of coronary
movement. artery disease. Drug-
eluting stents release
medication that keeps
the artery from narrow-
ing again. The bio-
absorbable version
made by abbott labora-
tories in Illinois goes
one step further: unlike
metal stents, it does its
job and disappears.
after six months the
stent begins to dissolve,
and after two years its
completely gone,
leaving behind a
healthy artery.
10
Muscle Stimulator
In the time it takes for broken
bones to heal, nearby muscles
often atrophy from lack of use.
Israeli company StimuHeal
solves that problem with the
myoSpare, a battery-operated
device that uses electrical
stimulatorssmall enough to
be worn underneath caststo
exercise muscles and keep
them strong during recovery.
11
Nerve
Regenerator
Nerve fibers cant grow along injured
spinal cords because scar tissue gets in
the way. A nanogel developed at
Northwestern University eliminates that
impediment. Injected as a liquid, the
nanogel self-assembles into a scaffold of
nanofibers. Peptides expressed in the
fibers instruct stem cells that would
normally form scar tissue to produce cells
that encourage nerve development. The
scaffold, meanwhile, supports the growth
of new axons up and down the spinal cord.
12
Stabilizing Insoles
When Erez Liebermans grandmother suffered a
dangerous fall, he wanted to ensure it never happened
again. But it wasnt till a few years later at NASA that I
found a way to channel that into something tangible,
says the MIT graduate student. Using technology
developed to monitor the balance of astronauts who
have just returned from space, Liebermans iShoe
analyzes the pressure distribution of the feet. Doctors
can use the insole to diagnose balance problems in
elderly patients before falls occur.
Gastrointestinal
Britain. As
15 patients walk on
Liner a treadmill, they
see moving
Obesity is associated with type II diabetes, which over time wears out the pancreas. images that fool
A gastrointestinal liner developed by Massachusetts-based GI Dynamics may restore their brains into
the obese to a healthy weight by preventing food from contacting the intestinal wall. thinking they are
The Endobarrier is routed endoscopically through the mouthunlike a gastric bypass, walking slower
no surgery is necessaryand lines the first 2 ft of the small intestine, where the most than they are. As
calories are absorbed (nutrients are still absorbed farther down the intestine). a result, patients
16
not only walk
faster and farther,
Nanoscale
but experience
less pain while
17 doing so.
Adhesive 20
Liver Scanner gecko feet are Rocket-
How healthy is your covered with Powered Arm
liver? Until recently,
answering that
nano-size hairs
question often that exploit
intermolecular
required a painful
biopsy. French forces, allowing
company EchoSens the lizards to
has developed a
machine that scans stick firmly to
the organ for damage surfaces. by
in just 5 minutes. replicating this
Studies have shown nanoscale
that damaged livers
become stiffer and
topography, Adding strength to
less elastic, so the mIT scientists prosthetic limbs has
scanner, called the have developed typically required bulky
Fibroscan, measures an adhesive battery packs. Vanderbilt
the organs elasticity that can seal University scientist
using ultrasound. Michael Goldfarb came up
wounds or with an alternative power
patch a hole source: rocket propellant.
caused by a Goldfarbs prosthetic arm
Portable
18
Dialysis
stomach ulcer.
The adhesive is
elastic, water-
can lift 20 poundsthree
to four times more than
current prosthetics
thanks to a pencil-size
More than 15 million adult Americans suffer from diseases of proof and version of the mono-
the kidneys, which often impair the ability of the organs to made of propellant rocket-motor
remove toxins from the blood. Standard dialysis involves three material that system used to maneuver
long sessions at a hospital per week. But an artificial kidney the space shuttle in orbit.
developed by Los Angelesbased Xcorporeal can clean blood
breaks down Hydrogen peroxide
around the clock. The machine is fully automated, battery- as the injury powers the arm for 18
operated, waterproof and, at less than 5 pounds, portable. heals. hours of normal activity.
"It was the most beautIful sunset I'd ever seen," says steve allen,
who has seen 50 years of sunsets in central Texas. Thats what I first thought.
It was Jan. 8, 2008, and the trucking entrepreneur was sitting around a fire out-
side the Selden, Texas, home of Mike Odom, his friend since first grade. Then he
saw the lightsorbs that glowed at first, then began to flash. There was no regular
pattern to the flashing, he says. They lined up horizontally, seven of them, then
changed into an arch. They lined up vertically, and I saw two rectangles of bright
flame.Thats when I knew it was a life-changing experience. He watched the lights
PagE
March 2009
55
POPULarMEchaNIcS.cOM
DIagraMS: dogo
PagE P M I N v E S T I g aT E S : March 2009
56
UfO MyThS POPULarMEchaNIcS.cOM
JAmeS HuSe
Retired (far right)
i saw two red orbs
moving overheadthe
reddest things id ever
seen in the sky. they
came right in front of me
at 2000 ft about half a
mile away. they werent
going that fast; maybe 60
mph. they didnt make
any noise.
mAC mCKinnOn
Publisher/editor
(right)
i saw a very bright
light in the sky that
was very high. it
never moved. it
wasnt a star, wasnt
a plane. i believe that
all people are seeing
is some kind of
military experiment.
paper published Joiners piece Sightings, wrote Foxnews.com. Are TV crew on one side of me and report-
Possible UFO Sightingon Jan. 10. It UFOs Invading Texas? asked Texas ers on the other.
was the first of her numerous articles Monthly. UFOs Put Stephenville in The Stephenville sightings had all the
about the lights. On Jan. 11, Joiner World Spotlight, said the Fort Worth elements of a classic UFO incidentfirst
called Maj. Karl Lewis, public affairs Star-Telegram. CNN showed up, along reports, official denials, independent
officer of the 301st Fighter Wing at the with ABC, the BBC and other TV crews witnesses stepping forward. The Texas
Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort from as far away as Japan. So did Bill dairy town of 17,000 with the statue of a
Worth (formerly Carswell Air Force Base OReilly and Larry King. A longtime UFO cow in the main square had joined
and now used by all the services). Lewis fan, King devoted a segment to Stephen- Roswell, Area 51 and other small places
said the base had nothing flying the ville and interviewed Gaitan and Joiner. as an iconic name in the annals of UFOs.
night of the sightings. Other nearby Jake and Dorothys Caf, near the court-
bases issued similar denials. house square, became a favored jour-
It all added up to the most dramatic nalist hangout. One day I went into on the december nIght I drIve
UFO incident in more than a decade. Jake and Dorothys for coffee, the way I from Dallas to Stephenville, the moon
Texas Town Abuzz Over Dozens of UFO always do, Huse says, and there was a is in congruence with Venus and Jupiter:
an f-16 banks after ejecting a string of flares designed to fool antiaircraft missiles.
The military does not discuss details of flares for fear of betraying decoy strategies.
58
military flareS
59
POPULarMEchaNIcS.cOM UfO MyThS
Stephenville lights that the Colorado- lights; their reporter Joiner had not. She
based group set up an open hearing in left the paper to run a Web site about the
nearby Dublin, Texas, birthplace of sightings, funded by Allen. The Dublin
Dr Pepper and golfer Ben Hogan. On Citizen, however, continued to pursue
Sat., Jan. 19, some 500 people streamed the story. Publisher and editor Mac
into the 1909 brick building that is McKinnon, a former Air Force historian
home to the local Rotary Club. Every- whose office is hung with model war-
where I turned there were TV tripods, planes from his days in the service, saw
says Steve Hudgeons, a Fort Worth con- some curious lights in January. I believe
struction project manager and chief of the military has all sorts of exotic pro-
MUFONs investigations in Texas. pulsion systems and other technologies
Many people in attendance were we dont even know about, he says. He
simply curious. A few wore tinfoil caps. assigned the story to reporter Jon
But more than 200 people came forward Awbrey, who also saw lightsa triangle
to tell their stories, with some sightings with squares at the corners.
going back 30 years. Hutcheons and Awbrey put me in touch with Dublin
other MUFON investigators considered police chief Lannie Lee. In January two
about 20 reports to be substantive and of his men had taped one of the lights
The 1997 phoenix lights were actually relevant to the Jan. 8 incident and prom- using the dashboard video in their
parachute-equipped illumination flares. ised to publish a report. patrol car. He had not made the tape
On Jan. 23, 12 days after denying it public. I didnt want any notoriety to
kinematic decoys are
had planes in the air, the military be attached to the department, the
designed to fly as fast
as the warplane that reversed itself. According to a carefully mild-mannered chief says.
ejects them, at least worded press release issued by Air Force He pulls out a VHS tape and leads
briefly. Some even Reserve Command Public Affairs, Ten me to the back of the station and puts it
come with thrusters, F-16s from the 457th Fighter Squadron in the machine. On the screen, a dot
says Dennis clark, a were performing training operations appears against a black sky and begins
countermeasures
engineer at BaE
from 6 to 8 pm on Jan. 8 in the Brown- to dance. The camera zooms in on a
Systems. These flares wood Military Operations Area [MOA], shimmering, bouncing but otherwise
extinguish quickly, which includes the airspace above featureless circle of light. It goes on
which from the ground Erath County. like that for about an hour, Lee says.
could appear to be Why the flip-flop? It was an internal The reports from January reminded
unearthly acceleration.
communications problem that has now another Dublin resident, machinist
New missiles have
sensors that use color been fixed, says 301st Fighter Wing Ricky Sorrells, of a huge object he says
to distinguish target spokesman Lewis. Inconsistent disclo- he saw in December when he was deer
airplanes, so a new sures by the military have often fueled hunting. I looked at it through the
type of multispectral UFO speculation. The military changed scope on my deer rifle, Sorrells tells me
flare changes hues to its story about Roswell numerous times over burgers at the Dublin Dairy Queen.
defeat them.
after 1947, when Air Force officials first He is a big man who has just come in
claimed to have captured a flying sau- from hunting, dressed in full camou-
cer, then denied it. flage. He describes what he saw as a
Adding to the atmosphere of mis- huge gray object, the color of galva-
trust is the militarys refusal to release nized metal, with no rivets, bolts or
details of operations, including train- seams. It was about 100 ft tall and
ing flights. Lewis declines to give specif- about 300 ft up in the air, he says, com-
ics on hardware or tactics used over paring the height of the object to the
Erath County. During training, he says, grain elevator where he once worked.
we fly like we fight. It was the first of several sightings for
By mid-February the Empire-Tribune Sorrells. He captured one of them on
had lost interest in the Stephenville video. In the Dairy Queen, he unfolded
PagE P M I N v E S T I g aT E S : March 2009
60
UfO MyThS POPULarMEchaNIcS.cOM
o n June 24,
1947, pilot
Kenneth arnold
I would have given
almost anything that
day to have had a
Sagan noted that
depictions of UfOs
in entertainment
objects. Such UfO
iconography is
reinforced by a
claimed he saw movie camera. often have a strong cultural feedback
gleaming aircraft he his vision of influence on how loop: a report offers
his cellphone and handed it to me. I well as an Airborne Warning and Con- positive, nonsubjective way to observe
saw a tiny video of a barely discernable trol System (AWACS) plane were in the UFOs. Studies from the Condon Report,
white shape moving through the sky. area. But so, they claim, was a mysteri- published in 1968 by the University of
ous large object, without the required Colorado, to the Air Forces Blue Book
transponder that identifies and locates project to a 1997 evaluation by the Soci-
after Its dublIn open hearIng, aircraft. The report concludes that a ety for Scientific Exploration, however,
MUFON filed Freedom of Information very large unidentified craft or object have found that radar can be fooled in
Act requests with the military branches was tracked on radar for over an hour. simple ways. Anomalous propagation,
and other governmental agencies. Only Most of the time, the object was either or false echoes, is most often caused by
the Federal Aviation Administration stationary or moving at speeds of less ground clutter, often a result of low-
and the National Weather Service than 60 mph. At 7:32 pm, the object was level temperature inversions that muf-
acknowledged they had relevant infor- tracked accelerating to 532 mph in 30 fle ground radars electronic pulse and
mation and forwarded radar data. seconds and then slowing to 49 mph lead to a circular scatter of returns
In July, the group released its report, only 10 seconds later. based on hits from buildings and trees.
which suggests that several fighters as Radar blips would seem to present a In extreme examples, called ducting,
61
POPULarMEchaNIcS.cOM UfO MyThS
intriguing new process, no matter UfO sightings The UFO Incident). save our planet sighting. Today
details; the how conclusively evolve with the But a darker strain or transport us to camera phones and
entertainment debunked. Just as culture. By the 60s, emerged, when a better one. video cameras are
industry amplifies the ancients were classic saucer tales of gray In recent years, ubiquitous. and yet
those images; and inclined to see gods images had started aliens performing most UfO reports clear, detailed
future sightings and flaming chariots to fade. Instead, experiments on have grown far less images have all but
confirm their in the skies, modern people began human abductees sensational; many disappeared from
existence. hoaxes humans became reporting more flourished. UfO sightings these days the photographic
pie-plate photos, primed to see direct contact with stories sometimes simply describe record. Even the
crop circles, Alien saucers and aliens aliens (who often took on spiritual lights in the sky. clearest recent
Autopsy: (Fact or whenever something resembled the dimensions: aliens arnold regretted images are little
Fiction?) on the fox strange appeared big-eyed creatures were godlike not having a camera more than glowing
networkabet the overhead. seen in the Tv movie creatures coming to at hand during his dots and squiggles.
the temperature inversion can bend the whether it was in the Brownwood MOA. experienced by Peggy Delavergne. On
beam all the way back to the Earths sur- They had a huge amount of data, the night of Nov. 18 she saw lights while
face, so a surprising radar blip turns out McGaha says, and they just pulled a driving her children home to Stephen-
to be a hill or a building. With the intro- few bits of information out of it and ville after a basketball game in Dublin.
duction of more advanced filtering soft- drew a line. At first there were two very bright gold
ware over the past decade, the number In the fall, just when it seemed as lights, she says. Then there were more
of UFOs attributed to false returns has though Stephenville might be forgot- lights, like a string of pearlsnot quite
decreased significantly. ten, the sightings began again. People a circle and not quite egg-shaped. My
Former Air Force pilot, astronomer were no longer hesitant to come husband was in another vehicle, and he
and longtime UFO skeptic James forward. Their descriptions often com- saw them too. He called me on his cell-
McGaha believes that some such form pared the lights to arc welding or burn- phone and asked me, Do you see that?
of radar scatter was responsible for the ing magnesiumlights bright enough I dont know whether it was from some-
returns that MUFON interpreted as a to interrupt a little league football game where else or from the military, but
solid object. The FAA did not describe in Stephenville. The descriptions fol- something is going on out there.
any such object, nor was it clear lowed a pattern similar to the one A high school student named Carli
page
62 Top-Secret aircraft
On further review ...
b-2 spirit
Northrop Grumman
natural nightlightS
the horizon around
dusk or dawn; it
trails only the moon
in luminosity; and
depending on the air
mass in front of the
viewer, the planet
T he skies over
Earth are home
to regular displays of
can be magnified
into a ball or seem
to skip around.
bizarre natural lights World War II pilots
that could be mistaking it for a
mistaken for UfOs. Japanese plane
once shot at it.
venuS: plaSma:
Its responsible for Some 60 miles
the greatest number up, electrons that
of sightingsinclud- shower the
ing one by Jimmy atmosphere interact
carter in 1969. The with neutral atoms
planet usually and release bursts of
appears just above photons. In 2006,
the United
Kingdoms Defence
leonid meteor Intelligence Staff
blast on nov. concluded that the
18, 2001, left resulting aurora
this eerie ring.
generates a number
of the countrys
annual sightings.
meteorS:
camera T he most provocative imagery to emerge from the Stephenville
sightings came from resident David caron, who videotaped
about 25 million
pass through
effects squiggling, multicolored lights on Jan. 19, 2008, that he says must the atmosphere
have been a UfO (below, left). you could see it much better dailysome
through the camera than just with the naked eye, he told the resulting in showy
Stephenville Empire-Tribune. That might have been the problem. midair displays that
video cameras record at about 30 frames per second, says have been mistaken
george reis of Imaging forensics. This recording refreshes twice for UfOs since
per second, so very long exposures are being used. caron was as early as 1965,
likely filming a distant, stationary light. a handheld exposure of a when residents of
bright light results in light streaks from camera movement that Kecksburg, Pa.,
would look like these images, reis says. The color shifts, he adds, were bewildered
may be from color mosaic filtration on the cameras ccD chip. The by a meteor.
history channels UFO Hunters reproduced a similar effect with a lenticular
video camera set to night mode zoomed in on a cluster of colored cloudS:
lights across the lab (below, right). UfOlogists on Internet forums Stratified and
did the same by shooting the star Sirius, which is known for its saucer-shaped, they
luminescence and vivid coloring. tend to form near
mountains. In July
2008, the North
Wales Pioneer ran a
residents strange
imagesof a
lenticular cloud.
p h o t o g r a p h b y s t e p h a n i e D e r o u g e ( j o n a w b r e y ) ; a s s o c i at e D p r e s s ( v e n u s )
March 2009 P M I N v E S T I g aT E S : PagE
65
POPULarMEchaNIcS.cOM UfO MyThS
visit, I get a taste of the 3200-square- chairs staking out runways and bases. until June 2008, the onlyF-35 test
mile Brownwood MOA in action. Heli- Brownwood is used by Navy, Air Force plane, the AA-1, was in Fort Worth, but it
copters and jets fly day and night. One and Army units, Douglass says, includ- was not in the air that night. Its
afternoon, while Im driving to Dublin ing Apache helicopters, B-1s, C-130s and restricted to daytime flight, Kent says,
on Highway 377, a T-38 Talon super- F-16s. There are AWACS from Tinker so that chase planes can monitor it.
sonic jet trainer rips past only a few AFB in Oklahoma City and KR-135 tank-
thousand feet above the road. ers from Altus in southwest Oklahoma.
The MOA is well-known to the lead- The airspace is especially active these stephenvIlle Is only the latest In
ing civilian authority on Texas airspace, days, with the new F-35 tactical fighter a long list of UFO incidents that are
Steve Douglass. The author of Military being assembled at a factory in Fort likely based on military operations,
Monitoring and an expert consulted by Worth and tested in the MOA. Lock- starting with the Battle of Los Angeles.
Aviation Week, Douglass has been track- heed Martin spokesman John Kent con- Whether the recent Texas sightings
ing operations from his base in Amarillo firms that on Jan. 8, 2008, the firstand were flight exercises involving evasion
for a quarter century. He is part of the flares or tests of an existing plane, a new
so-called interceptors network, the plane or a UAV, any military activity in
plane spotters caricatured in the film the area is likely to remain unexplained
Broken Arrow as those guys in lawn for awhile. We now know about the
secret programs behind the UFO sight-
ings of decades ago. But what of pro-
grams that are still secret?
In the past, many projects sponsored
by DARPA, which was behind the origi-
JOn AwbRey nal Stealth and UAV research, have
Reporter
begun as secret black programs before
as far as what i showing up as public white ones. One
saw, it was example: stratospheric sensors devel-
probably mili- oped for high-altitude airships under the
tary. think of ISIS program, which may have existed
the secret for years before it was made public in
2004. (Its funding for 2007 was $24.7
aircraft in the
million.) These sensors could be used
60s; we have on huge wing- or boomerang-shaped
no idea what blimps that can fly at altitudes of more
theyre produc- than 60,000 ft and hover unmanned for
ing now. and months. There have been many sight-
theyre never ings of large, slow-moving triangle-
going to tell us. shaped airships, says Steve Douglass,
starting with a sighting near Antelope
Valley, Calif., in 1990. For many years
airliners and ground observers have
reported boomerang-shaped craft near
Groom Lake.
The tethered aerostat lighter-than-
air craft, which appeals to many agencies
as a so-called poor mans satellite, also
may trigger sightings. The Air Force uses
these surveillance systems along the
U.S.-Mexico border to support antidrug
operations. The departments of Defense
and Homeland Security are evaluating
P M I N v E S T I g aT E S : March 2009
W here is UFO
country? To
find out, PM con-
aerial vehicle
and weapon in
the air force
2 King, Wa: 621
3 cook, IL: 468
4 Maricopa, aZ: (424
could be used by enemies of the
United States.
sulted the center inventory. Military 5 San Diego, ca: 348 Meantime, Stephenville has set-
for UfO Studies, refueling lanes tled uneasily into its newfound noto-
which maintains a crisscross the Less Populated counties: riety as a UFO site. Some locals have
database of sight- nation, and lights 1 Westmoreland, Pa: 396
become skeptical about the motives
ings reported from from air tankers 2 Saguache, cO: 263
3 Santa rosa, fL: 242 of MUFON. Who funds it? asks
1947 to 2005. and warplanes
Illinois-based flying at night in
4 yakima, Wa: 227 Steve Allen. And a certain amount of
cUfOS gathers close formation
5 rockingham, Nh: 183 backbiting has set in among some of
data from UfO could appear as the eyewitnesses. Lee Roy Gaitan wor-
reporting groups triangles of light ries that some locals who have report-
legenD
and public records, from the ground. ed sightings are just not credible
including Project Psychology may Special Use
airspace and cast doubt on his genuine
Blue Book. (If sev- also play a role.
account. Some people stretch a
eral people report Westmoreland Military refueling
the same sighting, county, Pa. (pop. flight Paths story, Huse says. Others resent the
cUfOS registers it 362,326), which way they have been depicted. I made
as a single event.) records more the mistake of saying it was as big as a
for a broad com- sightings than the Wal-Mart, Allen says. People have
parison, we ranked metro houston
been teasing me about it ever since.
both metropolitan area (pop. 3.9
and more sparsely million), includes I didnt call them flying saucers
settled counties. Kecksburg, the or extraterrestrials, Huse says. All
Why did these location of a I said was that it was unidentified fly-
10 top the list? reputed 1965 UfO ing objects, and Im sticking to that.
Perhaps because crash. residents I couldnt identify them. People in
some are close to there may be more
military training likely to report Erath County, Huse says, arent nuts
zones called Spe- strange lights to or hicks. We are just ordinary people
cial Use airspace. a UfO group. who happened to look up. PM
On The Web > What appeared in the sky over Stephenville? Watch the raw footage and judge for yourself at popularmechanics.com.
A creative renovation can turn even the most subpar
subterranean room into a comfortable retreat.
1 2
Its hard to pinpoint the worst part of Danny Tracewski and Courtney
Jansens pre-renovation basement (1) in Brookhaven, Pa. The rickety bar comes
to mind, with its sticky, matte black counter surrounded by mustard-colored brick and sooty
gray grout. Or theres the foam drop ceiling with knobby plastic fluorescent fixtures and, beneath
it, an industrial brown carpet best suited for indoor soccer. The couple wanted a space where
they could work and entertain guests. Instead, says Jansen, Were afraid to go down there.
When HGTVs James Lunday and his Rip & Renew team first looked at the basement, they
saw unrealized potential. The lifelong carpenter and his renovation crew typically tear a place
apart and start from scratch (2), rebuilding with inexpensive materials that they customize to
overcome a rooms limitations. In this case, Lunday explains, We used light and dark to create
depth and give the illusion of a high, wide space. Says Jansen, Now, we spend pretty much all
our time down there. PoPular Mechanics tagged along to see how they pulled it off.
11
70 March 2009 | PoPularMechanics.coM
7
Roy
What We used
Ridgid Peddinghaus
the
Backyard
Mike
Blacksmith
Men have been
heating and
hammering metal
for 10,000 years.
We figured it was
high time we
learned how too.
POPULARMECHANICS.COM
M A R C H 2 0 0 9 73
Classic DIY
of 19th-century blacksmiths and born in Ger- and handed me the welding gun: You take it from here. I slid on a mask
many to shipbuilders whose forges scattered and picked up where hed left off. As I worked, Mike crouched over my
sparks over the shores of the Elbe River and the shoulder and fired off bits of advice. Get more weld metal on the vertical
North Sea. I grew up in rural Connecticut surfaces, he said. Youre getting too much spatter; reduce your travel
among Yankee mechanics who could forge any- speed and your electrode stick-out. When I found it difficult to see through
thing, machine anything, build anything, fix
anythingand Ive been trying to live up to
those old-timers standards all my life. It wasnt
hard to finally decide to take another step, and
teach myself some blacksmithing skills.
Building
the Forge
Maybe its because our smokestack industries
are in decline that a rising number of Americans
feel the need to get their metalworking fix in
home workshops. The Artist-Blacksmiths Asso-
ciation of North America counts a membership
(July 1941)
of 4000 hobbyists and professionals. Some peo-
ple estimate there are more blacksmiths in this
country today than there were during the 1800s. the welding glare and
And you dont have to poke around long to find smoke, he said, Deal
dozens of Web sites offering friendlyeven pas- with it. Look at the
sionateadvice from artisans, along with equip- weld puddle, not the
ment ranging from anvils and tongs to air-driven arc. I learned more
power hammers. about welding in that
First, I needed a forge. I considered buying a half hour than I had
gas-powered model, but the fact was that I in years of fooling
wanted to build my own. So I settled on a design around on my own.
that can be executed in an afternoon using parts After we com-
purchased at a home center, a masonry supply pleted the stand, we
yard and an auto parts store. The forge would riveted sheetmetal
burn coal, rather than gas, to make things sim- into a hood and fash-
pler. And the design had another virtue, at least ioned a chimney from a 5-ft piece of stovepipe. Then, we troweled refractory
as far as I was concerned. It was based on plans cement (the kind used in furnaces and kilns) into the sink. We ran steel and
published in Popular Mechanics in July 1941. PVC pipe from the drain to the output port on a shop vacuum. The same
I enlisted the help of Mike Allen, our senior line would supply air both to the sink (to feed the fire) and, through a Y joint,
auto editor and a crack metalworker. He glanced to another pipe leading into the chimney (to help pull the smoke up and
at the old plans and said, Sure, we can build away). We installed a valve to let us direct the air where we wanted it. We also
this. Within days, Mikes house and the shop cut pressure-treated 4 x 4 lumber to make a block for the anvil, then hoisted
behind it swirled with activity as the UPS guy the anvil onto the block using a tow strap hooked to a ceiling-mounted elec-
delivered in rapid succession a 275-pound anvil, tric winch. Finally, we hammered 1 8 -in.-thick steel flat stock into straps to
tools, materials and four 50-pound boxes of attach the anvil to its block. Believe me, 15 minutes spent pounding cold
blacksmiths coal shipped from Pennsylvania. steel can convince anybody of the need for a forge.
Once the supplies were in, we set to work Now we just had to let the furnace cement cure overnight.
building the forge, beginning with its stand. I
cut steel parts and handed them off to Mike, Firing
who laid them out on the shop floor, clamped the Coal
them together and temporarily tack-welded I arrived at Mikes shop early next morning to find him puttering around, a
them with small globs of steel. cup of coffee in hand and another, recently poured, waiting for me on the
With the stand tacked, he flipped up his mask workbench. Ready for fire? he asked.
blacksmithing
One
water,
tank.
with
firebricks
without
iron
laid
forms
port
air
vacuum)
On The Web
Weve updated PM
forge plans first
published in 1941.
See popular
mechanics.com/
forge.
W h at W e u s e d
Black
Furnace trow-
eled protect
it (
sold
Penn
clean-burning
and
protected cardboard
box. an
astonishing Btu.
Vent
Twenty-gauge metal
and stove-
forges
hood materi-
als available
Classic DIY
Wh at We used
Tongs
Wolf-jaw tongs are a
general-purpose tool, and
the best choice for begin-
ning smiths.
blacksmithdepot.com
basic skills
Bending
metal over
to make a
bend.
right-angle
of
Twisting
Secure a heated bar in
a vise and turn one end
youre
short
the
distor-
W hat We used
Striking Tools
Upsetting
bar
by a 40-ounce ball-peen
coopertools.com projects
your
the
Flattening
Lay the bar the
flatten
bar,
at
an angle.
choosing steel
Low-carbon steel (top)
high-carbon,
(bottom)
need
We carried the forge outside and in a light autumn wind the metal over the anvils edge and picked up our
used a propane torch to ignite crumbled shipping paper 48-ounce blacksmith hammer. A few whacks
and kindling split from the pallet the anvil was shipped were all it took to put a neat bend in the bar.
on. When the fire was bright and hot, we coaxed some After decades spent struggling with hacksaws
coal onto it, and watched anxiously as it gave off a faint, and rivet guns, I cant tell you how gratifying it
yellow-green, sulfurous smoke. was to put a hammer to glowing steel and bend it
We added more fuel. The fire like putty. Mechanical justice was done.
smoldered stubbornly, but when A long day followed as Mike and I practiced
we turned on our high-powered the basics of the blacksmiths age-old craft:
vacuum, the blast of air knocked bending, flattening, twisting, tapering and
our little coal pile out of position. upsettingstriking a bar to thicken and enlarge
We pushed the smoldering pieces its hot end. We used angle iron to form the best
back with a steel bar and tried coal-handling tool Ive seena curved fire pok-
again, without success. er worthy of a shipyards smithing shop. And we
Mike grabbed an air hose and felt sufficiently emboldened to try our hand at
nozzle from his shop compressor forging a demolition chisel from a 3 4-in.-dia bar
and applied a gentle draft. Now of tool steel, a high-
the coal started to glow. We added carbon material far
more fuel, and the smoke nearly We watched tougher than the
disappeared. We turned on the in awe as a stuff found at hard-
shop vacuum again. With that, an yellow-white ware stores. We had
impressive rushing sound came glow took shape to let the steel soak in
up from the forge, and the center in the center of the forge fire three
of the coal mound reddened like a
stoplight. A few moments later, a
the coal, and the times and swing the
hammer for several
bright yellow flame jumped from
steel was lost minutes before it
the fuel, and then a ghostly blue in the glare. began to yield.
glow took shape above it. As it hov- The light was At sundown, we
ered, the blue light looked like a too intense to called it quits and let
living thing. look at without the fuel bed cool into
Once the coal was burning well eye protection. ash. We swept the
on its own, I took a piece of scrap shop floor and put
metal from the shop floor and wiggled the steel away our tools for the night, already planning
into the volcanic fuel bed. A couple of minutes future projects. Teaching ourselves forge con-
later, we slid the metal out to find that it had struction and basic blacksmithing in two days
merely turned a light shade of bluestill not was a good piece of work. But Mike had plans for
enough heat. Mike rotated the valve to make the a serpentine iron rack to store motorcycle hel-
vacuums entire air output rush into the fire, mets, while I wanted another go at shaping my
feeding the flames. (This is where the old black- own tools, designed uniquely for my needs.
smithing term full blast comes from.) We Thats how I imagine the Iron Age was launched
watched in awe as a yellow-white glow took in prehistory, in a forge like the ones archaeolo-
shape in the center of the coal, and the steel was gists have found scattered throughout Africa and
lost in the glare. The light was too intense to the Middle East. Some guy needed a better tool,
look at without shaded eye protection. and figured out a way to make one.
It was dark by the time I dropped into the
Working seat of my car and headed home. As I merged
the Steel onto the highway and into a traffic jam, I saw
A couple of minutes later, I picked up my tongs the taillights of the cars ahead in a new way.
and withdrew the steel. The end was now glow- Just for tonight, they didnt represent a hassle.
ing bright yellow and spitting sparksthe tem- They looked like a gigantic bed of glowing
perature must have been up around 1900 F. I laid coals, waiting for its steel. PM
fa s t- M o v i n g f i E l d s o f f i r E
Special operations gunboat crews prefer to stay out of the fight but are equipped to win it if need be. Each craft can apply an array of
withering fire in any direction. They have a variety of interchangeable mounted weapons to choose from, and carry personal arms in
case crew members fallor must fleefrom the boat.
156
Swimmer degrees
180
Platform degrees
Swim-Ladder
receptacle
Foldable
radar arch
Boat Captains
Seat
152
degrees
180
degrees
156
helo Lift Tie-down degrees helo Lift Tie-down
I L L U S t r at I O N S b y d O g O
a M er i CaS M oST h e av i Ly
Sig Sauer P228
a rM ed v eh i CLe
This reliable 9 mm pistol
is a favorite in special
ops circles. The SOC-R wasnt made to be versatile. Instead, it is a special-
ized tool built to help the SWCCs engage the enemy in tight
surroundingsand prevail. The SWCCs told its builder,
United States Marine, of Gulfport, Miss., that the craft could
have a draft no deeper than 2 ft when fully loaded with arma-
ments, ammunition, crew and passengers. It had to be com-
Special Ops Peculiar pact enough to fit inside a C-130 military aircraft, narrow
Modification M4A1 enough to slide through tight river passages and light enough
a black-ops kit can add
a noise suppressor, day/ to be hoisted by a Chinook helicopter. In Iraq, the helicopters
night scope and laser
spotter to a standard rifle.
h e av y Fi r e o N M u d dy waT er
Weve just simulated a hot extract, with the boat pushed up
against a bank long enough for nonexistent passengers to
scramble onboard. Other SOC-R teams provide covering
fireagain, their targets disintegrate before I even have a
chance to notice them. Chewing up entire swaths of riverfront
property is a prelude to the getawayour minifleet of SOC-Rs
is on the run from the exfiltration site, .50 cals thumping
away. Sometimes on our special op missions, we just run
away and come back and fight another day, says Commodore
Evin Thompson, former head of Naval Special Warfare Group
4, which runs the SWCCs.
With a series of bangs, a wall of smoke suddenly fills the
river behind us. This is another trick the SOC-R crews can
employ as they exit a fightfiring smoke canisters from four
rear-facing launchers. Whats interesting about the riverine
environment is that if you get in trouble, you can either go up
the river or down the river, not left or right, Thompson says.
On the way back, the flotilla pauses for an all-out exhibi-
tionall four boats decimate a broad stretch of riverbank.
Red tracer rounds streak through the dust kicked up by pre-
ceding shots, some of which chop lines along the waters sur-
face. With all boats firing, there are at least 12,000 rounds a
minute coming at that bank.
Miniguns like these are usually found With this part of the exercise over, most of the SWCCs
only on helicopters or armored vehi-
cles. but small special operations head back to their trailer house for a break, but one boat gets
river gunboats need heavy firepower the job of helping us with a photo op. The SOC-R speeds past
to survive close-quarters combat.
a few times as we watch from the river bank, showing off how
quickly it can come to a full stop. The crews last trick is a
high-speed reverse: Everyone on board is cheering as the
nimble craft whips its aft around 180 degrees, throwing one
SWCC off balance. He manages to hold on before hitting the
water, and his crewmates quickly pull him back. When we
sling these gunboats to lift them over dams, making possible make it back to land, Mike is eagerand amusedto see the
an extra element of surprise. footage; he was the one who almost went overboard.
Although the boats twin waterjets and 440-hp Yanmar After ditching me and our photographer, the troop is get-
diesel engines give it a hefty power-to-weight ratio, its speed ting ready to go out again. The sun has already slipped
and tight turn radius are facilitated by the hull design. The behind the tree line, but the crews still face a long session of
slope of the SOC-Rs V-shape belly essentially allows the boat overwhelming-firepower training ahead. Once its dark, they
to skate along the surface, with relatively little drag on the will run maneuvers, firing thousands more live rounds while
hull. There is no hanging rudder or propeller blades to snag wearing night-vision goggles.
on submerged roots and rocks. After nearly 4 hours of daylight operations, the plan is to
The guns, however, are the SOC-Rs central attraction. spend 8 to 12 more hours on the river. This is part of the
Although tanks and light armored vehicles might have a final stretch of training before Mikes group of roughly 50
more powerful cannon, theres arguably more firepower per SWCCs deploys to Iraqby early spring, they may already
square inch here than on any other military vehicle. be there. He wishes me luck as we part, and walks back
The two forward weapon mounts of the boat Im in are fit- toward the boats. PM
This sturdy
bench and peg-
When i first set up my basement bench provided a large surface on and stacks of lumber. The pegboard
workshop nearly 15 years ago, I which to build projects and fix furni- ran out of space for any more hooks,
didnt have much time or money to ture, and the pegboard kept dozens and it strained under the weight of
invest, so I just banged together a of hand tools neatly organized and my ever-growing tool collection. It
2 x 4and-plywood workbench and readily accessible. was clear that my shop needed a
mounted a sheet of perforated peg- Eventually, though, the system facelift. but rather than just tidying
board to the wall. became overloaded. The workbench up the tools and clearing off the
this rudimentary layout served got buried under an impenetrable workbench, I decided to strip the
me well over the years. the work- pile of old tools, half-done projects entire space down to the bare floor
What are my options? not to install insulation over the vent or that produces a broad fan-shaped spray
thermostat. Finally, remove the burner- pattern or use a rental rotary floor scrub-
chamber access cover and, with the light ber and a brush designed for concrete
out, inspect the flame while the heater is and uneven surfaces. No matter what
firing. The flame should be compact and method you use, go easy. Overly aggres-
blue. If its yellow or oddly shaped, the sive cleaning can remove the protective
burner may need to be cleaned. top layer of concrete. This exposes a
Cuttin Down
Counters
Im doin an inexpensive
kitchen x-up and I want
to know how to cut a few
inches o the po-formed
laminate kitchen counter I
bouht at a home center.
Its the kind that has a
curvin backsplash.
ere are a number of ways
to cut down a counter. You
can tip it upside down and
cut throuh the counter
itself and the backsplash
with one pass of a circular
saw. e blade may not pass
entirely throuh the back-
splash, thouh. You can n-
ish the cut usin a crosscut
saw. Reduce the likelihood
of chippin the laminate by
applyin a rip of maskin
tape to it alon the cut line.
Make sure that the tape is
carefully alined with the cut
line that you mark on the
counters back. Obviously,
if the saw blade misses the
tape, then the tape hasnt
done much ood. Also, youll
need to support the scrap
piece as you make the cut
Pliers
THE RIGHT TOOL CAN GET A
GRIP ON ANY PROJECT
S AT U R D AY M e c h A n i c
DeGRee OF DiFFicULTY /// MODeRATe
Most hydraulic
brake calipers have
only one or two
moving parts. Heres
how to make them
move again after
they freeze up.
rebuilding
Calipers
rebui ldi n g a d if f iC u lt- its a beautiful spring day, and a quick warmup and youre off for a
to-fi nd br a k e C al iP e r a perfect time to break the winter loop around town.
mi ght be y o u r o n ly seal on the garage and drive around all of which is fine, until the engine
solution to getting that in your classic Corvette, vintage seems a little reluctant to maintain
Classi C Ca r o u t o n th e
motorcycle or whatever pride and joy speed. as you turn a corner, you catch
roa d a ga in . b y M i k e A l l e n
you happen to have stashed inside. that unmistakable whiff of burning
off with the cover, and the engine sweat socksyouve got a dragging
turns over willingly, thank goodness. brake caliper. sure enough, one of the
brake it down
first loosen the lug nuts, block
the rear wheels and get the car up
Sliding on jackstands. heres your chance
Pin Piston to break all of the caliper bolts loose
Pad Anti- while that caliper is still mounted to
Dust Seal Rattle something solid. Judicious tapping and
Spring
some penetrating oil should help break
Caliper
Housing the bleeder bolt loose. use a flare-nut
wrench on the bleederits less likely
to round off the small, hollow bolt.
odds are, if the rubber flex line
screws directly into the caliper casting,
Patience, Grasshopper.
ive been warning people
recently that leaving
new-style precious-metal
spark plugs in place for
their normal 100K service
life will marry them to the
soft aluminum cylinder
head, resulting in stripped
threads when its time to
replace them. technical
a Low blow
a compression allow some of the carbon
test can be very that has built up between
diagnostic, but
the plugs ground shield
Q
only if done
Im trying to resurrect a properly. and the cylinder head to
classic Datsun sedan dissolve. next, work the
thats been sitting in my the iron liner, but plenty of rust above or plug out with a back-and-
garage for years. hey, it gets below. a pitted, rusty surface doesnt
forth rotation to clear
better mileage than my seal as well as one in good condition,
the carbon. The tsb
pickup. The compression on although some rusty surfaces will
then details an elaborate
all cylinders is only around procedure to remove the
clean up a little if you run the engine parts of the plug that are
110 pounds. Why is it so low? for a while. left behind. options are:
i l l u s t r at i o n b y b r a d l e y r . h u g h e s
I think you need to redo that com- Find a Ford mechanic who
in. of free play before it to its fully extended tegrated bushings freeze
hits the upper stop. Is position. That, in turn, this joint. Same for the
my 2008 Toyota Highlanders roof
there more or less move- will trap brake fluid in the clevis on the pushrod. All rack. The instructions on removing
ment than that? Several master cylinderwhich you need to do now is to the rear caps were very ambiguous.
things can go wrong will prevent the pistons loosen the jam nut and I attempted to remove these end
here: If the pedal pivot in the brake calipers or shorten or lengthen the
gets sticky and doesnt drums from returning, pushrod by turning it caps, but it appeared that I was
allow the pedal itself to and your brakes will drag. until theres enough clear- going to destroy these flimsy plastic
return freely, or if youve Too much play will give ance. A small amount of pieces. Any assistance would be
replaced the master you a low, spongy pedal. clearance at the clevis
cylinder and the amount Fortunately, the pushrod should translate to greatly appreciated.
of pedal free-play is too between the brake pedal about a quarter-inch at I read the instructions too: youre right
small, the master-cylinder and the master cylinder the pedal. M.A. not very helpful. Maybe the instructions
in the box with the rack parts was dif-
Solved Simply
I have a 1993 Chrysler
Fih Avenue with around
120,000 miles on the
ticker. Every time I art
the car and press the
brake to put it into drive
or reverse, the ABS
liht comes on for a few
seconds and I can hear the
ABS pump. Also, the ABS
liht comes on occasion-
ally when I press hard on
the brakes. When that
happens, I ill hear the
pump. e brakes are ne
otherwise.
Every time any car with
ABS is started, the ABS
com puter oes throuh
a power-on self-test: The
first time the brake pedal
is depressed, the hydraulic
pump and solenoid valves
in the ABS control unit cycle
briey. So yours sounds like
its workin as desined.
And if you press the brake
pedal firmly enough, the
ABS syem will kick in and
prevent the wheels from
lockin up. When that hap-
pens, the ABS liht on the
dash comes on and the
pump motor runs briefly.
So this also sounds like its
workin as desined.
Unless these symptoms
have ju cropped up, theres
no problem.
Under Pressure
In your column that
appeared in the O. 19,
2008, edition of e
Boon Globe, you say,
Its impossible to see
if your tires are underinated More important, its low enouh to
without a tire-pressure aue. affect handling and braking, espe-
I dont believe this atement is cially in rainy or snowy conditions.
entirely accurate. I ju purchased Any driver who relies on the TPMS
a 2008 Subaru Tribeca with a to tell him he needs air is oin to
tire-pressure monitorin syem spend a lot of miles drivin on dan-
(TPMS). In cooler temperatures, erously underinated tires. e DOT
the pressure in the tires has one dropped the ball when they set the
down, and the monitorin syem permissible amount of underinfla-
alerted me to this fa (the tire tion. eres ill no subitute for a
was about 5 or 6 pounds below $10 tire aue in your love box.
its required pressure). I admit the
syem doesnt provide aual False Positive
pressure readouts, but its a ood I have a 1994 Jeep Cherokee
safety check. Dont you aree? Sport. e brakes have been
All cars and liht trucks sold in the bled multiple times and I ill et
U.S. since 2007 have a TPMS, as sponiness in the pedal. e front
man dated by the Department of disc brakes work, but the rear
Transportation (DOT). And I predi brakes never seem to et up to
that these syems will have little pressure. When the vehicle is up
ee on how poorly the American on blocks, the front wheels op
drivin public maintains its tire pres- if the brakes are applied, but the
sures. Ju the opposite: consum- rears keep turnin. I have replaced
ers, bein the lazy dolts they are, the rear cylinders and the maer
will assume their tire pressures are cylinder. Whats oin on here?
ne because the TIRE PRESSURE e sponiness is probably air in the
warnin liht on the dash isnt lit. syemif you have ABS, the manual
ere are two types of syems. calls for a conventional bleed, fol-
The bestand more expensive lowed by a bleed with the Chrysler
uses a radio transponder mounted scan tool to cycle the pump and sole-
inside the tire. With this type, you noids in the ABS controller, followed
can usually call up the individual tire by a second conventional bleed.
pressures on a dashboard display. Sound like a lot of work? Ive ot-
e second uses data from the ten ood at workin on brake sys-
ABS/traction-control system. An tems without ever introducin any
underinated tire will have a rollin air into the syemits ill possible
radius smaller than the other three, to successfully ush the syem with
and consequently will rotate faer fresh uid without hookin it up to
than the others. When the differ- the tricorder.
ence in rotation becomes extreme As far as the ineffectiveness of
enouh, the low-pressure alarm the rear brakes: If you have the rear
oes o. ere are several problems suspension at full droop with the
with this. If the outside air temp frame up on stands, the load com-
oes from very hot to very cold, all pensation valve will interpret that as
four tires will lose pressure equally, a lihtly loaded rear suspension and
and the alarm wont sound. reduce the brake pressure to the
eres an even bier issue, as rears to nearly nothin. I bet the situ-
far as Im concerned: Neither type of ation will be dierent if you put the
monitorin syem sets o the warn- ands underneath the axle inead
in indicator until, as youve discov- of the frame rail. Give that a try and
ered, the pressure is 5 or 6 pounds let me know how it works out. FC
too lowthe spec required by law is
25 percent below the recommended
Calling all DIYers!
pressure. Have you built a one-of-a-kind proje in
And thats ju plain too low. Its your home workshop or arae? If so,
low enouh to accelerate tire wear enter it in PMs DIY Rally by April 1.
Winners will be featured in the
and raise rolling resistance to the maazine. Entry form at: popular
point where it aes fuel economy. mechanics.com/DIYRally2009.
New RapidShark Takes a Bite
THE
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Why cant a computer be more but newer operating systems can devices are installed, the startup pro-
like a television? When you push the take longerMicrosoft Vista actually cess gets even longer. and these
power button on a tV, it just turns tends to boot more slowly than its slow boot times can lead to bad
on. Computers, on the other hand, predecessor, Windows XP. (Microsoft behavior. Many users become so
bootas in, they take so long to get claims its next-generation operating frustrated that they leave their com-
started that you want to stick your system, Windows 7, should provide puters on constantly, wasting elec-
boot into them. drastic improvements in boot time.) tricity and delaying valuable os
you would think that the march additionally, boot times increase security updates.
of technological progress would have with a computers age. as you use but take heart: There are steps
reduced boot times over the years, your PC and more programs and you can take to speed things along.
rCaPort
RCA Port
Very Good
Digital Clinic
by Seth Porges StereoWith
Stereo With
line-inPort
Line-In Port
CassetteAdapter
Cassette adapter
WiredFM
Wired Fm
modulator
Modulator
iPod Auto
Control? WirelessFM
Wireless FmTransmitter
transmitter
Poor
Q best
My car doesnt have a built-in iPod dock. Whats the
way to play my MP3s while I drive around?
A Buy a new carjust kidding. While some new vehicles have iPod docks,
owners of dockless vehicles can patch together a method for streaming
their MP3s through the built-in stereo. Effort and expense will vary, and some
setups will sound much better than others.
Option 1: Wireless FM Transmitter well. And while this problem is particu- To use one, simply plug one end
I n Sta l l at Io n : Easy larly pronounced in cities with crowded into the MP3 players headphone jack
S ounD q u a l It y : Poor airwaves, the issue exists nearly every- and the other into the tape deck.
FM transmitters are the most popu- where in the country. Theres another If your automobile has a cassette
lar and convenient way of playing an downside to FM transmitters: Even player, there is no easier way to get
MP3 device through a car stereo. They under ideal conditions, FM radio just interference-free listening.
typically plug into an iPods dock or cant deliver excellent sound quality.
headphone jack to create what is That being said, FM transmitters Option 3: Wired FM Modulator
essentially a low-wattage pirate radio are extremely convenient and, with InS ta l l atIon:Moderate
stationpowerful enough to be picked many models selling for as little as SounD qua l Ity: Good
up by your car radio inches away, but $15, affordable. If you decide to use With wireless FM transmitters, the
not strong enough to interfere with one, choose a model that lets you pick signal has to travel through high-traffic
neighboring car radios. any FM frequency (some restrict you to airwaves on its way to your car
Unfortunately, these transmitters a few stations on the top or bottom of antenna. Wired FM modulators, which
need to compete with real (and far the spectrum). This will increase your usually come as small boxes with a
more powerful) radio stations and are odds of finding an open channel. few cords running out from them,
easily swamped by 6000 watts of clas- intercept the connection between the
sic rock. When this happens, the sound Option 2: Cassette Adapter cars antenna and radio, allowing you
that comes out of the speakers can be In StallatIo n : Easy to inject your iPods signal directly into
a cacophonous mix of static, local So u n D q u alI t y: Good this wired pathway. The result is dra-
radio stations and whatever your iPod Audio cassette adapters take advan- matically improved sound quality
is playing. This problem is exacerbated tage of an increasingly rare feature: a although the final result is still ham-
by FCC regulations, which prohibit FM cars tape player. These adapters are pered by the limitations of FM radio,
transmitters from broadcasting at shaped exactly like a cassette tape. which is far from audiophile-friendly.
greater than 18.75 nanowatts, essen- They are cheap (around $15), common- These modulators are inexpensive
tially ensuring that they wont work place and deliver decent sound quality. (they can be found online for as little as
1. Strong Floor
2 Before higgins can crush
bridge components, he needs a
good foundation. This 5-ft-thick
concrete pad is reinforced with
four layers of steel bars; it can
withstand up to 5000 psi.
2. Load Frame
This structurebuilt of
hot-rolled steel columns and
girdersis anchored to the
strong floor. It holds bridge
parts while researchers
squeeze and stress them.
5
3. Hydraulic Actuators
hydraulic arms each apply up
6 to 500,000 pounds of force
to parts in the load frame; a
4 spreader beam disperses force
across the parts. Were trying
to mimic 50 years of service life
in a short time, higgins says.
4. Sensors
higgins and his crew embed
or attach as many as 200
sensors to bridge pieces. Each
sensor is hard-wired and feeds
data into computers as forces
on the bridge parts increase,
offering valuable information
on how and when bridges fail.
1
5. Cameras
When concrete fractures,
your first reaction is to duck,
higgins says. Were usually
not looking when it goes.
he records tests with digital
still and video cameras,
then examines the footage
Chris Higgins has destroyed more bridges than any flood or frame by frame to find hidden
weaknesses.
earthquake. a structural engineer at oregon State Universitys
Kiewit Center, he casts concrete bridge parts and exposes them to stresses that cause 6. Safety Shields
real-world bridges to fail, such as repeated freeze-and-thaw cycles and the weight and Destroying bridges is danger-
pressure of traffic loads. higgins also examines bridges in the fieldbut he doesnt dam- ous work; to avoid concrete
shrapnel, higgins stands
age them. honest. People ask, are bridges safe? he says. Thats like saying, are people behind a panel of -in.-thick
disease-free? Every one is unique. Every one is different. Michael Milstein polycarbonate safety glass.