Unit 16 measuring instruments

Gauge

Gauge, sometimes also spelled “gage”, means to estimate the size or amount of something. A gauge is also a tool such as a speedometer inside a car to see how fast the car is going. See the additional examples below:

I wasn’t able to gauge how tall he was from the pictures.

The gauge was broken so I didn't know the temperature was so high.

Unit 17 INVENTIONS

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Kevlar is another invention that has saved many people from serious injury and death. Kevlar is a fibrous material with qualities that make it able to reject bullets. Added to clothing, the material protects security officers and soldiers across the world.

The fibers form a protective barrier against gunfire. Bullets lose their shape when they strike Kevlar. Those bullets look like mushrooms, and do not enter the body. Most threats to police and security officers come from handguns. They wear Kevlar vests to protect the upper body. Soldiers wear more extensive clothing protected with Kevlar against heavier ammunition.

BOB DOUGHTY: Kevlar might not have been invented had Stephanie Kwolek been able to seek a career in medicine. From childhood, she wanted to be a doctor. But she lacked the money for a medical education.

Today, thousands of people are glad that Stephanie Kwolek became a research chemist. In that job, she developed the first liquid crystal polymer. The polymer was a chemical product that formed the basis for Kevlar.

BOB DOUGHTY: By the nineteen sixties, DuPont already had produced materials like nylon and Dacron. The company wanted to develop a new fiber. Stephanie Kwolek was part of a DuPont research group that asked to work on its development.

 

Unit 18 TYPES OF ENGINES

By 1800 many industries were using steam engines, designed by James Watt (from where we get the electrical measurement - Watt). Richard Trevithick, a Cornish engineer, refined Watts’ invention and after failing to build a steam powered road vehicle, he designed the first locomotive for an Iron Works in Wales. He called it a 'puffer' because of the noise it made, and on its first journey it traveled at almost 8 km/h an hour! Unfortunately, it was so heavy that it broke the rails - it only made three journeys. But it had shown that steam engines could be used to move trains, and speeds began to increase.

The next 130 years can be described as a Golden Age of Steam. Railways were built all over the world, and the size, speed and comfort of trains continued to increase. By 1870 it was possible to cross America by train, and the building of railways in many other countries allowed people and progress to move quickly across the world.

The fastest steam train in the world was The Mallard. This locomotive traveled up and down the east coast of England between London and York, and in 1938 reached 202 km/h.

Although it is still possible to travel on the Trans-Siberian railway, and take the Orient Express from Paris to Vienna, steam trains such as the Mallard or Flying Scotsman, have not traveled regularly for almost 30 years in many countries. Diesel powered locomotives or trains running on electrified lines now run on most railways. Modern trains are cleaner and much faster than steam engines but many people still miss the puffing sound and the romance of steam.

 

Unit 19 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Eco-friendly light bulb wins design award

Reporter: Now here is a bright idea - a designer, low-energy light bulb. So now, if you want to illuminate your home in an eco-friendly fashion, you have this curvaceous choice. The designers spent a great deal of time worrying about what might turn people on, and what might turn them off. Their quest was to marry practicality, something that actually works, with a sense of style and beauty, to create an object of desire. Something that you not only wanted to own, but hopefully also wanted to keep.

Nicolas Roope: And that's really the role of the designer, I think, is to make objects that people really connect with and really cherish, you know. I think that's one of our roles, and obviously in this case this isn't just about prettifying. This is about, you know, obviously, the underlying problem of getting people to adopt this stuff, because obviously that's in everybody's interests. Reporter: That is if money is not too much of an issue - funky costs. Each one is nearly £20. That's up to twenty times the price of some other low-energy bulbs.

It's too early to judge if this product has a dazzling future, but its creators will be reassured to know that at least one major household goods retailer said its customers did not consider light bulbs dull. In fact, to them, design matters.

Unit 20 MANUFACTURING

Chopsticks for China, Made in America

Some Asian countries use chopsticks to eat food. They’re often made of wood or sometimes plastic. China makes most of the world’s chopsticks. Several hundred Chinese companies make about 63 billion pairs of chopsticks a year. Those companies need more wood.

Areas in China and Japan have run out of wood, but the American State of Georgia has a lot of wood. Georgia’s wood has a nice color. Companies have to use chemicals or bleach to lighten much of the Asian wood. The wood in Georgia is already light.

One small company in the American city of Americus, Georgia, has the solution to the shortage of wood for chopsticks. The company is called Georgia Chopsticks.

They started making chopsticks for export to China. Jae Lee, the president of Georgia Chopsticks, is Korean American. He says that the world market for chopsticks is huge. It costs Jae Lee less than one cent to make a pair of chopsticks.

“Right now, we’re making about two million pairs of chopsticks per day. But we are increasing. End of this month, we’ll have seven machines coming in. So it’ll increase to four million per day. End of this year, we’ll produce ten million per day.”

 

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