Ever wonder about the origin of common phrases? As the son of a sailor, I have always enjoyed maritime history and nautical fiction, although some ...

One of the reasons I strongly advocate for “promoting from within” is that many recruitments fail. Real life is not Star Trek, your compan...

Seven weeks into the lockdown, we are all looking for “new content.” Even with a full cable “package” there are times when it seems there is nothin...

The last blog posting cautioned against over reliance on reference books for design guidance. A perfectly logical follow-up to that caution is “Whe...

My dear friend Octave’s account of his co-op experience (see Tuesday’s 1-29 post) reinforces my belief that no one should trust an engineer or desi...

Before we leave our study of materials, I want to share a few thoughts on heat treating, lab tests, and hardness testing. When you start working wi...

Our international readers are no doubt chuckling over this silly, American “long addendum” terminology. The “civilized world” has long relied on a ...

There is no “gear expert” merit badge for you to earn. I have posted before about the limited amount of gear education included in the standard eng...

No one becomes a gear expert overnight. You might be abruptly assigned the title by your employer, but it takes some time before you can really ful...