Tractors. Part-Two.

Construction, Engineering and Mining.

This is perhaps not the place one would think to find the need for the tractor, but some of the machines we use today came first from these uses. Caterpillar is one of several companies that developed tracked machines for working in heavy soils, this was the same in Soviet Russian Steppes where land was not intersected by ditches as in the west.

Today many giant machines working in all of the titled areas are tractors, limited by speed and used to move loads about in tight spots even underground. These machines do not look like our idea of the farm machines but they are mechanically the same, the Bulldozer is in fact a converted tractor for the road and building construction industry.

The future for the tractor of all types will be there Robotising into unmanned piloted vehicles, from vast area farming to construction, tunnelling and mining. May be the only human contact in the near future will be for repairing and cleaning?

The Automobile, Car. Part-Two.

The Basics.

Up until recently, say the last five years the car was a basic machine made up of many components. But the one thing that all of them had, was they could be repaired or restored by anyone with a bit of mechanical engineering knowledge?

Today the car has changed greatly in that you now need a computer to diagnose a fault, particularly the locking systems and the starter. The car started life as wood and metal and then in the 1950-60's it was the chrome craze. From 1970 to the mid eighties design focused on economical driving, this was because of the Saudi and Gulf price wars.

Today cars are light and plasticated or fibre glassed. They are made for both speed, interesting design concepts and comforts. Many claims have been made in relation to safety, but if you notice car collisions they are usually mangled wrecks. This might be that people drive to fast, than they did say 50 years ago.

Don't worry next week we will going on to another subject.