Scroll down to read this post.

 

Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


How Differential Gear works

An evening pause: Though the first 1:50 of this very well done 1930s industrial is somewhat irrelevant and can be skipped, I think it is worth watching anyway. And the rest does a great job of explaining this mysterious piece of automobile equipment.

Hat tip Edward Thelen.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

8 comments

  • mpthompson

    I saw this several years ago in the Internet Archive as part of the Prelinger Collection which is a massive collection of 10,000’s of “ephemeral” (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films spanning much of the 20th century. There are many other similar movies if you care to look for them at:

    https://archive.org/details/prelinger

  • wayne

    Edward– good selection.

    The Jam Handy Organization produced 100’s of these short “industrial” films on topics such as this, and Chevrolet was a big client for over 30 years.

    The http://www.Archive.org folks have an extensive collection, all of which are available on-line, in numerous downloadable & streaming formats, and all are in the public domain & free for use.
    Tangentially– when you visit–check out the Archive’s (growing) collection of public domain Feature Films. Lots-o-obscure material, you can’t find anywhere. (Over 4,200 Titles.)

  • wayne

    mpthompson–
    you beat me to it!

    Highly recommend the Archive!
    You can get totally lost in their various Collections and download hundreds of gigabytes of audio/video.
    (-They also have an extensive collection of digitized 78 rpm records as well.)
    Their collection rivals the Library of Congress in scope, with the complete upside that you can download everything they have, immediately, for free, in numerous formats.

    The Archive is also part of “Project Gutenberg”– they designed inexpensive, specialized scanning-equipment, using off-the-shelf components, and have been busily scanning & digitizing literally millions of books and other “ephemeral” texts.

  • Joe

    Great vid Edward, many people, including some fellow mechanics don’t equate levers to gears or gears as levers and torque multipliers, lots of fun!, this is torque being applied to to different sized levers equally.

  • Alex

    To all: Automatic Transmission, How it works ?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugao6jTyM7k

  • wayne

    Alex-
    Good video!

    Another Jam Handy Gem, that directly address’s Joe’s comment:

    “Spinning Levers”
    Jam Handy & Chevrolet 1936
    https://youtu.be/aFvj6RQOLtM
    (9:39)

  • Steve Earle

    Great video! I now have a much better understanding of how that part works. The MC riding team was a bonus :-)

  • Mitch S.

    Love those old training films.
    They put real effort and production value into them – really tried to engage the students.

    Here’s a favorite.
    It stars Rube Goldberg of the famous contraption cartoons.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGrrMr8Wv7U

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *