Quote:
Originally Posted by M. Mellott
This is a great collection of a different kind of history. Just think that these simple mechanical concepts that our teams of young students take for granted today had to be taught at the college level in our not too distant past.
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Education, especially higher education, is about training the mind to think -- not the particular body of information selected to fill the memory. Curriculum (like lubricant) has to be changed from time to time, else the educational institutions dry out and get stiff, resisting new ideas.
Of course, much of the old knowledge retains value over time. The beautiful intricacies of steam engines, vacuum tube amplifiers, and COBOL routines can still charm those of us who have chosen to specialize in the modern fields that have evolved from those older ones. But it is inevitable that older material get's replaced as engineering curricula evolve.
Even so, some examples exhibit a timeless beauty. Like da Vinci's notebooks, or Franz Reuleaux' mechanisms.
__________________
Richard Wallace
Mentor since 2011 for FRC 3620 Average Joes (St. Joseph, Michigan)
Mentor 2002-10 for FRC 931 Perpetual Chaos (St. Louis, Missouri)
since 2003
I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)