IOW: A concept clearly projected
Having entered August in Champaign-Urbana, dearest readers, we’re pretty certain you will be out and about this Saturday evening as friends come back for the academic year and weekend events increase exponentially around our fair twin cities. However, the next time C-U Blogfidential happens to be front and center on your browser, scroll down a touch for an “Image of the Week” you will find quite interesting! Bill Hammack, a professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois, has been producing books, radio segments, and instructional videos as “The Engineer Guy,” a guise through which he explains the fascinating world of man-made technology in everyday language. The most recent episode posted on YouTube last month, “The Mechanics of the Film Projector,” uses an engaging approach to detail how this machine throws a clean picture with synchronized sound; you will note upon viewing it below that crisp macro photography is combined with colorful graphics, animated overlays, and Hammack’s folksy narration to illustrate the process. Prior entries that skirt the CUBlog realm include “Kodak: How George Eastman Revolutionized Photography,” “Stores of Tech Failure: Betamax,” and “CCD: The Heart of a Digital Camera” while the truly inquisitive might also investigate “Light Bulb Filament: How to Make Tungsten Ductile” and “How the First Transistor Worked” to better understand the origins of inventions vital to film production and distribution. Content in the videos is derived from Hammack’s books such as Eight Amazing Engineering Stories, published by Articulate Noise Books in 2012, so brush up your knowledge pronto and be ready to impress the smartest people at the party!
~ Jason Pankoke