The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is promoting a new book,
which really sounds intriguing. It may interest the hard-core car
nuts.

Here's the promo:

"This book covers one and a quarter century of the automobile,
conceived as a cultural history of technology. Looking back, we can
see this history evolve through five distinctive phases:

Emergence (1880–1917)
Persistence (1917–1940)
Exuberance (1945–1973)
Doom (1973–2000)
Confusion (2001–present)

"The Evolution of Automotive Technology: A Handbook helps readers
understand how these phases impacted society and, in turn, shows us
how car technology was influenced by car users themselves. "

I wasn't aware we were in the phase of automotive Confusion, but at
least we've moved beyond Doom. g

Unfortunately, it's expensive as hell, but maybe somebody owes you a
belated Christmas present. The Table of Contents, which you'll find a
link to here, looks very interesting:

http://tinyurl.com/pr2l78c

--
Ed Huntress

On Thu, 08 Jan 2015 23:42:04 -0500, Ed Huntress wrote:

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is promoting a new book, which
really sounds intriguing. It may interest the hard-core car nuts.

Here's the promo:

"This book covers one and a quarter century of the automobile, conceived
as a cultural history of technology. Looking back, we can see this
history evolve through five distinctive phases:

Emergence (1880–1917)
Persistence (1917–1940)
Exuberance (1945–1973)
Doom (1973–2000)
Confusion (2001–present)

"The Evolution of Automotive Technology: A Handbook helps readers
understand how these phases impacted society and, in turn, shows us how
car technology was influenced by car users themselves. "

I wasn't aware we were in the phase of automotive Confusion, but at
least we've moved beyond Doom. g

Unfortunately, it's expensive as hell, but maybe somebody owes you a
belated Christmas present. The Table of Contents, which you'll find a
link to here, looks very interesting:

I don't think I agree with that time-line at all, unless it's strictly
from the point of view of the designer.

Notably, in the teens and 20's, there were more car brands than you could
shake a stick at, with a huge number of mechanical variations being tried
before the automotive world settled on a front-to-back lineup of
radiator, engine, transmission, driveline, rear axle. Styling wasn't
static, either, with car styling in the early 1900's looking a lot like a
buggy that lost it's horse somewhere, and ending up by the mid 20's with
things that had all the styling elements of cars up to 1949. I think
that counts as "exuberance" a lot more than it counts as "persistence".

Skipping forward, I don't see much confusion in car design today, or at
least in fuel-powered car design. Yes, we've got 'lectrics and hybrids
in the mix, but they're such a small market share that I hardly see them
casting fear and doubt into any but the most susceptible minds.

Don't think I don't have issues with the categories in between -- I just
don't have the energy to pick it apart.

--
www.wescottdesign.com

On Sat, 10 Jan 2015 16:13:05 -0600, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On Thu, 08 Jan 2015 23:42:04 -0500, Ed Huntress wrote:

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is promoting a new book, which
really sounds intriguing. It may interest the hard-core car nuts.

Here's the promo:

"This book covers one and a quarter century of the automobile, conceived
as a cultural history of technology. Looking back, we can see this
history evolve through five distinctive phases:

Emergence (1880?1917)
Persistence (1917?1940)
Exuberance (1945?1973)
Doom (1973?2000)
Confusion (2001?present)

"The Evolution of Automotive Technology: A Handbook helps readers
understand how these phases impacted society and, in turn, shows us how
car technology was influenced by car users themselves. "

I wasn't aware we were in the phase of automotive Confusion, but at
least we've moved beyond Doom. g

Unfortunately, it's expensive as hell, but maybe somebody owes you a
belated Christmas present. The Table of Contents, which you'll find a
link to here, looks very interesting:

I don't think I agree with that time-line at all, unless it's strictly
from the point of view of the designer.

Notably, in the teens and 20's, there were more car brands than you could
shake a stick at, with a huge number of mechanical variations being tried
before the automotive world settled on a front-to-back lineup of
radiator, engine, transmission, driveline, rear axle. Styling wasn't
static, either, with car styling in the early 1900's looking a lot like a
buggy that lost it's horse somewhere, and ending up by the mid 20's with
things that had all the styling elements of cars up to 1949. I think
that counts as "exuberance" a lot more than it counts as "persistence".

Skipping forward, I don't see much confusion in car design today, or at
least in fuel-powered car design. Yes, we've got 'lectrics and hybrids
in the mix, but they're such a small market share that I hardly see them
casting fear and doubt into any but the most susceptible minds.

Don't think I don't have issues with the categories in between -- I just
don't have the energy to pick it apart.

Having neither read the book nor parsed the nouns, I'll pass on making
a judgement.

I found the table of contents much more interesting.

--
Ed Huntress

On 1/8/2015 11:42 PM, Ed Huntress wrote:
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is promoting a new book,
which really sounds intriguing. It may interest the hard-core car
nuts.

Here's the promo:

"This book covers one and a quarter century of the automobile,
conceived as a cultural history of technology. Looking back, we can
see this history evolve through five distinctive phases:

Emergence (1880–1917)
Persistence (1917–1940)
Exuberance (1945–1973)
Doom (1973–2000)
Confusion (2001–present)

"The Evolution of Automotive Technology: A Handbook helps readers
understand how these phases impacted society and, in turn, shows us
how car technology was influenced by car users themselves. "

I wasn't aware we were in the phase of automotive Confusion, but at
least we've moved beyond Doom. g

Unfortunately, it's expensive as hell, but maybe somebody owes you a
belated Christmas present. The Table of Contents, which you'll find a
link to here, looks very interesting:

http://tinyurl.com/pr2l78c


All SAE books are expensive as Hell. They have to recoup their officers
expense accounts someway. It does sound pretty interesting, though.