Over the years the Addendum Staff has brought you odd, little known and sometimes useless facts about almost every conceivable topic concerning gears. This month, as part of our never-ending campaign to upgrade the tone of the industry, we are venturing into the world of high fashion. Lose those pocket protectors, gear fans. Welcome to the land of gear haute couture. Appearing now, in select magazines, are ads that rival those of Bulgari, Cartier and Tiffany. These gear "gems" come courtesy of Winzeler Gear, Chicago, IL.

Move over, Michael Jordan. While the Addendum staff is as proud as any other Chicagoans of our unbeata-Bulls, we confess to a soft spot in our hearts for the hometown's other championship basketball team: The Chicago American Gears.

This issue of Addendum is dedicated to gears that have served their country. There have been many, but among the most significant are surely those at work during the Civil War, when their application changed the nature of naval warfare forever. It's time to recall that role, namely, powering the revolving turret of the U.S.S. Monitor, one of the first "ironclad" vessels.

When you need totally useless information about gears, you can turn with confidence to the pages of Addendum, where we scour the globe for the obscure, the unusual and the ridiculous (the latter being or forte.)

Back in the days when our great, great, great, etc., grandaddies were designing gears, one of the most common materials in use was wood. For fairly obvious reasons, we don't see too many wooden gears around anymore. But there are a few.

Interesting gear factoids discovered wasting time on the Net while pretending to be working...The first four-function mechanical calculator was built by the mathematician Gottfried Leibniz in 1694. While not commercially available for nearly 200 years, the design was the basis of many such calculators until well into this century.

In our unceasing attempt to further educate our readers - and find new and creative ways to waste time at work - the Addendum staff has spent many long hours (and many dollars on popcorn) to bring you our latest research on gears in film.

In spite of being the "Second City," Chicago has always cultivated a reputation for bigness. We're known for big talk, big shoulders, big basketball players - and big gears. While not necessarily the biggest in the world (more about that late), some Chicago gears are among the hardest working.

More Gears in Cyberspace Dial in to the web site of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry for an online version of the museum's Gears from the Century of Progress exhibit.

The word gear, in various forms, has been in use since around A.D. 1200, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Last issue we brought you Shakespearean gears. Now we'd like to show you some of the uses Americans have given our favorite word (from the Random House Dictionary of American Slang).