A Hydraulic Ram Pump is a mechanical device that uses the water hammer effect, or the pressure spike that results from rapidly closing a valve on flowing water, to pump water uphill. Below you’ll see a video of one in action as well as a video from Practical Engineering, one of my favorite YouTube content […]
In 1966, an English teacher in Georgia decided to create a magazine with their students. Many of the articles were based on interviews with ‘old timers’ and covered skills that were being lost to time like wagon making or making a tub wheel. Some of the articles were collected into a series of books (The […]
Timber framing is a way of building structures with large wooden members. It is very common in historical structures but has largely been replaced by the use of dimensional lumber (e.g. 2x4s). There are, however, groups and companies who still build timber frame structures today. If you are interested, I reccomend you check out the […]
Rebar is a critical component of modern reinforced concrete. Concrete is generally very strong in compression but not in tension so steel reinforcing is required to take the tensile load. The physics of the mechanical bond that transfers load between the concrete and steel is very complex and is very dependent on the pattern of […]
A DEMEC (DEmountable MEChanical) strain gauge is a device for monitoring strain in concrete or masonry structures. They generally have gauge lengths like100mm, 200mm, 500mm, etc. There are small metal discs (or other shapes) with small indents that are epoxied or otherwise attached to the structure. There is a bar which is used to set the […]