There is a common misunderstanding about coloured windows that makes the craft seem simpler than it was.
The assumption is that the glass is a canvas — clear material with…
There is a category of change so complete that the previous state becomes difficult to imagine, and street lighting is among the largest.
The state it replaced was real darkness.…
There is a problem in the design of any keyboard instrument that strikes rather than plucks, and solving it took a long time.
The problem is that a string only…
There is a common assumption that different teas come from different plants, in the way that apples and pears come from different trees.
They do not. The overwhelming majority of…
There is a failure mode in any signalling system that is worth more attention than the system itself, and lighthouses have an obvious one.
A light works by being seen.…
There is a category of invention that is hard to recognise as an invention because it seems like a description of how things obviously are.
Alphabetical order is the clearest…