Journal articles on the topic 'Railroad cars Wheels Testing'

The leading cause of hazardous materials releases in railroad transportation over the 5 years prior to this research was burst frangible disks on tank cars. These burst disks occur as a result of pressure surges in the tank car safety vent during transportation. More than a dozen different surge pressure reduction devices (SPRDs) have been developed to protect the frangible disk from these surges. A statistical analysis of tank cars in service indicated that cars equipped with SPRDs experienced a lower rate of leakage due to burst frangible disks than similar cars without SPRDs. This analysis, however, did not provide sufficient resolution to determine the relative effectiveness of the different SPRD designs. A series of controlled experiments was conducted to determine the surge reduction effectiveness and the flow performance of different SPRDs. These tests showed that there were significant differences in the performance of the various surge pressure reduction devices in both surge reduction and flow rate. The results of these tests will help tank car builders, owners, and operators improve the safety performance of tank cars by installing SPRDs that will reduce non-accident-caused releases of hazardous materials and still function adequately to relieve pressure when necessary. The results also will provide a basis for setting SPRD performance and testing requirements and identify promising design elements for new SPRDs.

The vehicle may be towed without the engine but it is not possible without the wheels. Road wheel is a significant structural member of the vehicular suspension system that supports the static and dynamic loads encountered during vehicle operation. As in the case of an automobile wheel maximum load is applied on the alloy wheel. Proper analysis of the alloy wheel plays a significant role for the safety of the passenger cars. Alloy wheels which are intended for normal use on passenger cars, undergo three tests and have to pass before going into the production: Dynamic Cornering Fatigue Test, Dynamic Radial Fatigue Test and Impact Test. Most of aluminium alloy wheels manufacturing companies have done several testing of their product however information of their method on simulation test is often kept limited. During a part of research a static and fatigue analysis of aluminum alloy wheel A356.0 was carried out using FEA package. The 3-D model was imported from CATIA into ANSYS using the appropriate format. Finite element analysis (FEA) is carried out by simulating the test conditions to analyze stress distribution and fatigue life of the aluminium alloy wheel rim of passenger car. Experimental analyses are carried out by radial fatigue testing machine for evaluation of fatigue life under influence of camber angle. The test indicates that integrating FEA and nominal stress method is a good and efficient method to predict alloy wheels fatigue life. In this paper by observing the results of both static and dynamic analysis the aluminium alloy is suggested as better material.

This paper reports the results of an experiment to evaluate the isometric wheel turning strength of 12 male and 12 female subjects using four different wheel designs. Three of the wheels investigated were new designs developed specifically for this study, while the fourth was a wheel currently used on many railroad car hand brakes. The three new designs considered were a cylindrical tube (4.3 cm in diameter), a cylindrical tube (2.5 cm in diameter) with spheres mounted along the edge, and a circular zig-zag design. Strength data were collected using a mock-up of the ladder and platform arrangement found on most railroad hopper and box cars. The task simulated the final tightening exertion required to secure railroad car hand brakes. Strength capabilities were measured using two methods: 1) a three second average during a six-second trial; 2) the peak reached on a separate trial in which subjects did not sustain an exertion. Results showed that the torque generated by the subjects was highest for the zig-zag design, followed in order by the wheel with the spheres, the cylindrical wheel, and the standard wheel; average torque values were 191 Nm, 147 Nm, 132 Nm, and 95 Nm, respectively. The average strength values (three-second average) for six-second maximum exertions produced lower average torque values (122 Nm) than the ramp to maximum exertion (161 Nm).

The majority of catastrophic wheelset failures are caused by surface opening fatigue cracks in either the wheel tread or wheel inner. Since failures in railway wheelsets can cause disasters, regular inspections to check for defects in wheels and axles are mandatory. Currently, ultrasonic testing, acoustic emissions, and the eddy current testing method are regularly used to check railway wheelsets in service. Yet, in many cases, despite surface and subsurface defects of the railroad wheels developing, the defects are not clearly detected by the conventional non-destructive inspection system. In the present study, a new technique was applied to the detection of surface and subsurface defects in railway wheel material. The results indicate that the technique can detect surface and subsurface defects of railway wheel specimens using the distribution of the alternating current (AC) electromagnetic field. In the wheelset cases presented, surface cracks with depths of 0.5 mm could be detected using this method.

The article describes possibilities of phased array flaw detectors application for testing of railway transport units, such as wheel set axles, all-rolled wheels, solebars of freight cars. The task was to reproduce the standard testing procedures using phased array flaw detectors and demonstrate their advantages in visibility, efficiency, repeatability, results validity. Unfortunately, one of the main advantages of phased array flaw detectors, namely – a possibility to control the focusing depth – are lost while testing of large scale objects. Sector scanning technique with the phased array flaw detectors OmniScan and Isonic 2010 in the minimum configuration was used for the research. In the all cases acoustical images of the following reflectors were obtained within the range of selected angles: saw-cuts in axles, spot-drillings and saw-cuts in wheels, side drilled holes and natural defects in solebars. The Multi Group software (Isonic 2000) at testing of wheel set axles has enabled the testing schemes to be realized with one prism and one phased array instead of several classical piezoelectric transducers. Circumferential testing of all-rolled wheels from internal lateral surface under the roll surface level has allowed transverse cracks and flange embedded defects to be detected. Solebar testing has been more complicated because of a form and irregularity of scanning surface, necessity of its cleaning and a complex profile of back surface. Nevertheless the usage of phased array flaw detectors has made it possible to identify the back surface profile. Application of phased arrays substantially increases testing efficiency and improves visibility of obtained results.

Aluminum wheels are most commonly used wheel type for passenger cars for decades. A356 alloy (including alloying elements of 7% Si and 0.3% Mg) is used and a T6 heat treatment is applied for the wheels. A lot of proofing tests are applied on a wheel in order to ensure its reliability and to guarantee passenger safety. Dynamic cornering fatigue test is the most widely used fatigue performance evaluation method for passenger car wheels. Test is basically applied on the wheel by stretching and bending of the wheel spokes with an oscillating force applied at the far end of a shaft connected to the offset surface of the wheel. This test lasts for 2 to 200 hours depending on the desired number of cycles without a crack or the number of crack initiation cycle (fatigue life). Therefore for a laboratory conducting more than 1500 fatigue tests a year, minimization of test duration without changing applied stress on wheels increases the productivity and improves testing capacity. This study includes the investigations and applications to accelerate the dynamic cornering fatigue test of wheels experimentally. Applied stress levels for regular and accelerated tests were compared by using strain gage recordings experimentally.

Abstract The results of research on determining the parameters and circuit solutions of traction drives of funicular cars are presented in this paper. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that the funiculars, the bodies of which have an articulated joint, possess the greatest advantages. It is effectually to use three-phase AC machines with permanent magnets as traction electric motors. The mechanical part of the drive must contain a speed transformer with a gear rack-wheel type gearing. The wheels of the running gears perform the function of holding the car on the track structure. The traction force is performed in a gearing, the rack of which is placed between the rails of the track structure. The given method for calculating the power of the drive motor made it possible without question to determine its dependence on the angle of inclination of the railroad bed.

Augmented reality technology has been widely developed and implemented in an Android-based smartphone application. This technology can be used for entertainment and education. Unfortunately, the use of education is still rare. This paper proposes an android application to introduce the types of land transportation based on augmented reality technology which is visualized in 3-dimensional (3D) form for education as well as entertainment. There are seven land transportation modes that are presented range from two wheels to four wheels, i.e. cars, ambulances, buses, motorbikes, taxis, trucks, and bicycles. Alpha testing has been carried out and shows the results that the application runs well following the expected function. This application can be delivered to the public, especially for the online learning of children in a pandemic situation. In addition, it helps parents to introduce several land transportation modes. With a 3D view, the introduction of types of land transportation is more interactive and realistic. Keywords: android, application, augmented reality, transportation

This chapter explores experiments conducted by different automotive engineering teams competing in the Automotive X Prize to design a car that can get 100 miles per gallon. The performance goals the X Prize Foundation laid out are so specific that they could have a positive effect on the entire high-efficiency segment of the automotive industry. Unlike a lot of the cars entered in the X Prize, the Tango is a production vehicle, though the runs are small. Tango is one of the heavier cars in the competition. It is also solidly built with a race car-style roll cage protecting the driver. The car, entered by Edison2 of Lynchburg, Va., is quite narrow, however, instead of tucking its wheels inside, the footprint mounted them on posts that extend away from the body, or fuselage. The vehicles had some performance standards to meet, and each one would be taken to Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois to undergo rigorous emissions testing. The biggest effect the Automotive X Prize competition may have is providing a new set of benchmarks for car designers to meet.

Purpose: The aim of the proposed research is to investigate the regularities of the microstructure change, fracture micromechanism and mechanical service characteristics of the high-strength wheel steel with a lowered carbon content under static, impact and cyclic loading depending on the total content of vanadium and nitrogen and also the steel heat treatment modes. Design/methodology/approach: Alloying with vanadium was carried out in the range of 0.09-0.23% and nitrogen in the range of 0.006-0.018%. All steels were heat treated by normalizing and subsequent tempering at different temperatures in the range of 450-650°C. Steels microstructure was investigated by the optical metallography methods on the microscope EPITIP-2 (Carl Zeiss Jena). Scanning electron microscope Zeiss-EVO40XVP was also used for microstructural and microfractography investigations. Static strength (UTS), relative elongation (TEL), impact toughness tests (KCV) and fatigue crack growth resistance characteristics (fatigue threshold ΔKth, cyclic fatigue fracture toughness ΔKfc) were determined on standard specimens. Rolling contact fatigue testing was carried out on the model specimens. Findings: The regularities of the change of microstructure, fracture micromechanism and mechanical characteristics of the high-strength wheel steel with a lowered carbon content under static, impact and cyclic loading depending on the total content of vanadium and nitrogen and also the steel heat treatment modes are studied. Research limitations/implications: The results obtained on laboratory samples should be tested during a real railway wheels investigation. Practical implications: The steel with the optimal parameter [V∙N]∙104 = 22.1% provides high tread surface damaging resistance established on the model wheels. Originality/value: It was established that after normalization at 950°C and tempering at 550°C the increase of ultimate strength UTS and cyclic fracture toughness ΔKfc by 4% and 19%, respectively; impact toughness at room (KCV+20) and low temperature (KCV-40) in 1.5 and 3.3 times, respectively, when parameter [V∙N]∙104 changes from 7.8 to 22.1% and carbon content from 0.63 to 0.57%.

The algorithm is proposed for the automated control of displacement of the load overall center of gravity relative to transversal and/or longitudinal planes of symmetry of the car during railway transportation and decision-making about availability of commercial damages upon results of the car wheel weighting under way by the weighting equipment in cluded in the set of equipment of the systems of the automated commercial visual inspection of trains and cars. The baseline data for calculations includes results of the car wheel weighting and relative error of measurement of the loads with scale set during certification, and the car container weight accepted according to the data of the car in the Automated database of the freight car fleet of JSC “RZD”. Algorithm of the automated control of each type of displacement includes calculation of the actual displacement of the overall load center of gravity in the car, minimax assessment of the calculated value with regard to the error of determination of the parameters values used for calculation, and the conditions of decision-making about availability of commercial fault. Algorithm of static modeling of the bogie wheels loads on the rail is presented, in which the probabilities of excess of the regulatory maximum allowable value by the actual displacement are determined by the Monte Carlo method (loads of eight wheels are randomly broken out with assumption that distribution of their values is normal). Results of static modeling along with the analysis of the data from transportation documents and video image of the car with the freight allow the operator of the train and car visual commercial inspection station to make decision about necessity of the car field inspection for establishing the fact of commercial fault. Examples of calculation according to the proposed algorithm are provided for the case of control of displacement of the load overall center of gravity relative to the transversal plane of the car symmetry, including comparison with calculations without taking into account the errors. Proposed algorithm can be used in the automated train and car commercial inspection system under way during railway transportation as the element of the digital intelligent technology of commercial inspection being developed in the JSC “RZD”.

Abstract Plus-sizing in the tire industry is the growing practice of replacing a vehicle’s original equipment wheel size with a larger diameter wheel and replacing the tire with a lower-aspect-ratio tire of the same diameter. This practice is normally associated with aftermarket sales, and there is a growing trend for vehicle dealerships to fit these larger wheels/tires to new cars. This paper discusses the general practice and its effect on some of the performance characteristics of vehicles. A vehicle taken from the NHTSA New Car Assessment Program’s rollover “Star” rating program is used to illustrate the impact of plus sizing on static stability. Some of the dynamic tire effects that could influence vehicle stability are discussed, and preliminary testing data on the dynamic impact of plus sizing are presented.

Abstract Nowadays, the active safety systems that control the dynamics of passenger cars usually rely on real-time monitoring of vehicle side-slip angle (VSA). The VSA can’t be measured directly on the production vehicles since it requires the employment of high-end and expensive instrumentation. To realiably overcome the VSA estimation problem, different model-based techniques can be adopted. The aim of this work is to compare the performance of different model-based state estimators, evaluating both the estimation accuracy and the computational cost, required by each algorithm. To this purpose Extended Kalman Filters, Unscented Kalman Filters and Particle Filters have been implemented for the vehicle system under analysis. The physical representation of the process is represented by a single-track vehicle model adopting a simplified Pacejka tyre model. The results numerical results are then compared to the experimental data acquired within a specifically designed testing campaign, able to explore the entire vehicle dynamic range. To this aim an electric go-kart has been employed as a vehicle, equipped with steering wheel encoder, wheels angular speed encoder and IMU, while an S-motion has been adopted for the measurement of the experimental VSA quantity.

The present work investigates the dynamic effect of wheel rotation on the aerodynamic characteristics of slick type (ST) wheel of Formula One racing cars using a computational approach. The ST wheel model was compared to experimental results as a validation case. The pressure coefficient over the ST wheel circumference at its middle plane (xy) has been considered as an experimental case from literature and the computed results showed a reasonable agreement. Furthermore, a quantitative evaluation of the numerically-determined wheel drag, local separation and stagnation angles has been also compared to those extracted experimentally from literature. The validation work served by assessing the suitability of using Moving Reference Frame (MRF) method to simulate the effect of wheel rotation, as well as defining the most reliable conditions of testing such as the optimal meshing criteria, the computational domain size, and the adopted turbulence model. According to wheel studies, all computational work was performed at a Reynolds number of 6.8×105 based on the wheel diameter. The wheels aerodynamic drag, lift, and moment coefficients were computed for each wheel model. Further parametric study on the tread design of the tread type (TT) wheel was performed by varying the tread depth, h. Besides, general schematic pictures of the flow behavior around the TT wheel are presented.

The automatic regulator РКЗТ-675 (РТПР-675) and РТПР-675M is installed in the brake lever transmission of the passenger car and used for automatical maintenance of gaps between the surfaces of rolling of wheel pairs and brake pads within the established limits irrespective of the wear of the rolling surfaces of wheels. The design of auto regulators allows you to change the stroke of the piston rod and the brake cylinder and to manually release and tighten the regulator. Scope of auto regulators: freight, passenger cars and electric trains of the main railways. The article is devoted to solving the problem of contradictions in clause 15.5.7 of the current departmental Ukrainian instruction ЦЛ-0013 for repairing brake equipment of the railway carriage of the existing requirement for mandatory compliance with screw unscrewing in size "a" within 300-350 mm when testing automatic regulators on an automatic test stand for strength under load a normalized force of 8t in the longitudinal direction, provided that there are no residual deformations of the automatic regulator screw along its length. The article aims to refute the dependence of the values of the stress state of an automatic regulator when testing its strength on a test bench from a change in its length in the entire possible range of screw unscrewing by size "a" in the allowable range of 0-600 mm. The problem is solved by calculation using two different methods, and the results of the stress state values of the automatic regulator with different lengths of screw unscrewing by size “a” are compared with each other. Based on this, the general conclusion is made that the size “a” (within the range of 0–600 mm) of the automatic regulator screw unscrewing when testing it for strength with the same load force (N = 8t ≈ 80 кН) in the longitudinal direction does not affect the calculated value of the screw tension σ = 113.23 MPa when tested on an automatic bench. The developers of the departmental Ukrainian instruction ЦЛ-0013 are invited to make in clause 15.5.7 corresponding changes regarding the requirement of optional observance of the value of the size "a" within 300-350 mm at the bench test of the automatic regulators for the tensile load under the standardized force of 8t.

Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) is the study and modification of the noise and vibration characteristics of vehicles, particularly cars and trucks. NVH parameters which consist of noise (unwanted sound), vibration (mechanical oscillation) and harshness (severity or discomfort of noise or vibration) need to be evaluated in order to improve comfort and safety levels for vehicle occupants. In this paper, NVH study was conducted on Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) tactical vehicles in order to ensure that the vehicles meet the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Directive 2002/44/EC. The project aim was to identify the preferable solution that can improve the NVH parameters of the vehicles in accordance to the standard and test protocols. A 4x4 Troop Transporter vehicle which carried 8 persons at the rear cabin was used in the NVH testing. The vibration parameters studied are hand arm vibration (HAV), focussing on vibration on the steering wheels of the vehicle, and whole body vibration (WBV), focussing on vibration on the seats. For noise, it was measured at the driver cabin and rear cabin of the vehicles. From the results, the HAV value for driver during idle speed was found to be higher than the others velocity. For WBV, vibration value for passenger 1 in rear cabin was highest compared to the other WBV test points.

When forecasting the technical state of the parts and units of railway rolling stock in operation, an important task is to determine the shape of the discontinuity in ultrasonic non-destructive testing in order to predict its behavior in further operation (this is especially important if the discontinuity in the results of such control is acceptable). Author proposed a solution for the improvement of the two-frequency defectometry method. A mathematical apparatus was developed and a method for determining the coefficient of the discontinuity shape was elaborate on its basis. The method makes it possible to determine the shape of both a point and an extended discontinuity. The software product NDTRT-07.03.01.18 was developed to automate calculations in determining the shape of discontinuity by a two-frequency method. The article gives a description of the experimental studies carried out to evaluate the reliability of the proposed method. This method can be used in determining the shape of the discontinuity in the details of the rolling stock, in which the defect can have a different shape, for example: cast wheel centers; various shaped castings used in the manufacture of rolling stock units (brackets for locomotive bogies, cast sidewalls for cars), as well as in parts manufactured by the method of plastic deformation, including wheel treads, axles, all-rolled wheels, rolled wheel centers, etc. In these details discontinuities are predominantly planar in nature, but voluminous discontinuities are also encountered - non-deformable nonmetallic inclusions, therefore the developed method can be applied to such objects of rolling stock railways.

Installed as the crosstie beam support in railway track systems, the prestressed concrete sleepers (or railroad ties) are designed in order to carry and transfer the wheel loads from the rails to the ground. It is nowadays best known that railway tracks are subject to the impact loading conditions, which are attributable to the train operations with either wheel or rail abnormalities such as flat wheels, dipped rails, etc. These loads are of very high magnitude but short duration, as well as there exists the potential of repeated load experience during the design life of the prestressed concrete sleepers. These have led to two main limit states for the design consideration: ultimate limit states under extreme impact and fatigue limit states under repeated impact loads. Prestressed concrete has played a significant role as to maintain the high endurance of the sleepers under low to moderate repeated impact loads. In spite of the most common use of the prestressed concrete sleepers in railway tracks, their impact responses and behaviours under the repetitions of severe impact loads are not deeply appreciated nor taken into the design consideration. This experimental investigation was aimed at understanding the residual capacity of prestressed concrete sleepers in railway track structures under repeated impact loading, in order to form the state of the art of limit states design concept for prestressed concrete sleepers. A high-capacity drop weight impact testing machine was constructed at the University of Wollongong as to achieve the purpose. Series of repeated impact tests for the in-situ prestressed concrete sleepers were carried out, ranging from low to high impact magnitudes. The impact forces have been correlated against the probabilistic track force distribution obtained from a Queensland heavy haul rail network. The impactdamaged sleepers were re-tested under static conditions in order to evaluate the residual energy toughness in accordance with the Australian Standard. It is found that a concrete sleeper damaged by an impact load could possess significant reserve capacity sufficient for resisting the axle load of about 1.05 to 1.10 times of the design axle loads. The accumulative impact damage and residual energy toughness under different magnitudes of probabilistic impacts are highlighted in this paper. The effects of track environment including soft and hard tracks are also presented as to implement design guidance related to the serviceability or fatigue limit statesdesign.

Background: As high-speed rail and other transportation technologies are moving forward and gaining funding in the United States, the push for MagLev is not receiving the necessary support that would make it a viable alternative in the near future. Major changes in the approach to implementing MagLev could make a better case for it, specifically for carrying freight. One alternative that has been considered in the past is the modification of existing freight railways to support MagLev. For this to be economically feasible and practical, such a solution has to be able to support both conventional freight trains and MagLev freight. Aim: The successful application of Partially Magnetically-Levitated Freight (PMLF) technology achieved by integrating superconducting MagLev technology with current railroad design and operations. Methods: A MagLev freight system that is envisioned to use existing rail routes must be designed to be compatible with the existing railway infrastructure. To accomplish this, every component utilized by the railroads must be examined in detail to determine if and how it could be affected by the proposed PMLF. In addition, components that will need to be modified for PMLF operation must undergo a retrofit design and testing process. The design scope must also include an examination of all existing tasks and activities that are being performed by the railroads such as track maintenance and repair. Any procedures that affect or are affected by the addition of PMLF will need to be modified. Finally, superconducting MagLev technology must be optimized and advanced for application to PMLF. Opinions and Discussions: The dual use of railway lines has substantial cost advantages when compared to building new dedicated MagLev freight corridors. In fact it could make the entire proposition very appealing if proven to be technically feasible. However, there are certain limitations and concerns that would cause policy makers to reject such a proposal unless such obstacles can be shown to be temporary and non-critical. Essential rail installations such as switches are presently difficult to modify in a way that would ensure reliable functionality for both MagLev and conventional freight trains, and grade crossings pose safety risks. It is difficult to envision the tremendous leap forward of merging MagLev with existing freight rail lines when much more basic technologies such as positive train control are not even fully implemented. Consequently, it is a challenge to advance MagLev in the United States where new dedicated freight corridors are considered to be cost-prohibitive and dual use railway lines pose uncertainties that railroad companies simply do not want to solve. However, there is one more solution has not been considered that would allow a MagLev freight train to navigate on existing railway infrastructure without disrupting traditional rail utilization. This solution is a partially magnetically-levitated freight train. Results: After reviewing the fundamental components, systems and operations of the railways in the United States, it will be feasible and practical to introduce magnetic levitation technology to assist in moving freight on existing rail routes. PMLF trains will be able to take advantage of magnetic levitation on sections where the track has been upgraded to allow its use and much higher speed while still being able to travel on unmodified sections with the same speed as traditional trains. Conclusion: Modifying existing freight rail with magnetic “quasi-lift” technology is a much lower cost alternative to building an entirely new MagLev infrastructure. This alternative will provide very important benefits including enhancing safety in the rail industry. In its first phase of implementation, the proposed PMLF system will levitate a significant portion of the weight of the train but still utilize the existing steel rails for traction and guidance. The most evident advantages of this approach include reduced wear on rail and other supporting elements, and a significant reduction in friction and energy use. Locomotives, freight cars and all other components could be made lighter and travel speeds will increase dramatically due to less impact and other effects. Later phases of implementation will focus on magnetic traction and guidance. The acceptance and success of this partially levitated system will eventually lead to fully levitated freight transport technology. Sometimes it is necessary to take smaller steps to achieve the desired future.

Most of railroad freight cars use brake shoes directly applied onto the wheels. This system causes wheel heating, which in turn gives rise to thermal stresses and loss of mechanical strength. An alternate solution is a system of brake disks and pads, which would not heat the wheels, like disk brakes. Because temperature is one major factor affecting braking performance, a study of the viability of replacing shoe brakes by disk brakes must evaluate and compare the heating of wheels and disks. The present work evaluates the heating of disk-pad systems when used for braking freight cars in the same conditions regularly applied to shoe-wheel brakes. In addition, stop distance for both systems are evaluated for regular speeds of freight railroads. Preliminary numerical simulations were done to choose the critical brake condition and to check whether the expected temperatures would exceed the temperature limits, damaging the friction materials and systems. Following that, real scale tests were conducted in critical braking conditions for both types of brake systems. Dynamometer tests were performed in real scale at the Railroad Laboratory of the State University of Campinas, Brazil. Results showed that, as far as system heating is concerned, there is nothing to prevent the replacement of the current system by a disk-pad system. Besides, the stop distance for both systems is also in the recommended range.

What is a machine? As part of his answer to this, historian and philosopher of technology Lewis Mumford cites a classic definition: "a machine is a combination of resistant bodies so arranged that by their means the mechanical forces of nature can be compelled to do work accompanied by certain determinant motions" (Reuleaux [1876], qtd. in Mumford, Technics and Civilisation 9). Mumford's own definition is focussed on machines as part of a technological continuum between human body and automaton: Machines have developed out of a complex of non-organic agents for converting energy, for performing work, for enlarging the mechanical or sensory capacities of the human body, or for reducing to a mensurable order and regularity the processes of life. The automaton is the last step in a process that began with the use of one part or another of the human body as a tool. (9-10) The tool and the machine can be distinguished along this technological continuum, with the tool more dependent on "the skill and motive power of the operator", subject to "manipulation", and potentially more flexible in its uses, whereas the machine lends itself more to "automatic action" of a specialised kind. However, it is difficult to ultimately separate them, since the embodied skill of the tool-user becomes more mechanical and reflexive with practice (Technics and Civilisation 10), while the machine also evolves along increasingly organic lines (367), and there are common examples of hybrid machine-tools like the lathe or drill, which combine "the accuracy of the finest machine ... with the skilled attendance of the workman" (10). A powerfully attractive feature of the computer is that it is an effective hybrid of machine and tool: like a machine it performs many specialised functions at super-human speed and accuracy on command, but like a tool it is flexible and adaptable (through add-on software and plug-in peripherals) to a seemingly endless variety of users and uses. Fascinating Assemblages The automatic machine ... involves the notion of an external source of power, a more or less complicated inter-relation of parts, and a limited kind of activity. From the beginning the machine was a sort of minor organism, designed to perform a single set of functions. (Mumford, Technics and Civilisation 11) The autonomy of the machine is perhaps its most fascinating aspect. That the machine is an assemblage of parts and restricted functions -- a "minor organism" as Mumford puts it -- suggests to us a body. There is something ineluctably erotic about scenes of lubricated pistons moving in and out of cylinders, or greased gear wheels moving around each other, and a masturbatory energy seems to be involved in the machine that repetitively and by itself performs the same limited actions over and over and over. While there are parallels between masculine masturbation and machinic repetition, there are also associations with femininity. As Andreas Huyssen pointed out, the modern machine became associated with a dangerous female sexuality and took the place of the early moderns' untamed Mother Nature as the principal representative of non-human forces with autonomy and agency that could evade human control. But arguably, expressed fears of machinic autonomy are the flip side of a wish for it, arising from masculine reproductive fantasies that have been played out in technoscience by generations of fictional and real-life Frankensteins fanatically seeking to create artificial life in the form of technoscientific brainchildren (who are nevertheless often neglected and left to run wild at birth). At a conscious level, machines express what may be interpreted as anal-sadistic desires for order, regularity and control, but unconsciously there is an element of masochistic pleasure in being passive, in yielding up control to the machine, in letting it set the scene and determine the actions and roles for the humans as well as non-humans (Sofia, "Contested Zones", and "Mythic Machine" 44-8). Machinic Zeal What is the use of conquering nature if we fall a prey to nature in the form of unbridled men? What is the use of equipping mankind with mighty powers to move and build and communicate, if the final result of this secure food supply and this excellent organisation is to enthrone the morbid impulses of a thwarted humanity? (Mumford, Technics and Civilisation 366) With his emphasis on the social context and drives towards technology, Mumford (Technics and Civilisation 364-5) suggests that while some kinds of machines have existed for thousands of years, what we have come to think of as the mechanical age only arose with the widespread adoption of the machine as a way of securing order, regularity and calculability of physical and human resources, coupled with the ideological shift which made the machine into "a goal of desire" and an object of almost obsessive veneration from the mid-18th century to the early 20th century. Now, he said (writing first in the early 1930s) faith in the machine has been somewhat shaken, and it is no longer seen as "the paragon of progress" but as "merely a series of instruments" to be used when useful; yet despite this loss of faith the machine in capitalist contexts continues to be "over-worked, over-enlarged, over-exploited because of the possibility of making money out of it" (Technics and Civilisation 367). Almost seventy years after Mumford was writing, the obsessive zeal for the machine still has not completely disappeared, but has been displaced from giant smoke-puffing steel assemblages, whirling cogs and gearwheels, or the motors driving trains, cars and planes, and onto the silicon, plastic and light of computers (whose machineries of production and assembly are largely hidden off-shore to the bulk of users, thereby producing the illusion of "post-industrial" societies). The computer is now the paragon of progress and has become the "defining technology" of our age (Bolter), its place reinforced by an actively boosterist popular press (e.g. popular computing magazines; regular computer supplements in newspapers). Sociotechnical Not Posthuman Mumford continually makes the point that questions posed by/in technology are never answerable only technologically. It always comes down to human choices, and even when the results of these "are uncontrollable they are not external" to human culture: Choice manifests itself in society in small increments and moment-to-moment decisions as well as in loud dramatic struggles; and he who does not see choice in the development of the machine merely betrays his incapacity to observe cumulative effects until they are bunched together so closely that they seem completely external and impersonal. (Mumford, Technics and Civilisation 6) In a certain way Mumford's perspective anticipates actor-network theory, which looks at artefacts -- including machines -- as parts of sociotechnical networks that involve human decisions, including about the distribution of agency to non-humans. Even in the most automated machine, Mumford argues "there must intervene somewhere, at the beginning and end of the process ... the conscious participation of a human agent" (10). Actor-network studies of the development of scientific and technological artefacts aim in part to critique the sense of the external, impersonal or inevitable in scientific and technical 'progress' by insisting that "things might have been otherwise" (Bijker & Law 3), not just at the beginning and end, but all the way through the process of an artefact's development and use. The artefact is studied as a particular outcome of a set of decisions and performances made in the midst of contingencies affecting human and non-human actors with conflicting goals and contested powers within a dynamic sociotechnical network. Although actor-network theory is very interested in non-human agents, it does not, as do some recent participants in and theorists of cyberculture, celebrate the so-called post-human. There can be no agentic machines without there having been human competencies downloaded into them; there can be no technical order that is not also social and cultural. As Latour argues, the modernist work of purification has tried vainly to impose a separation between the social and technical, denying their mutual inextricability. From this Latourian perspective, the notion of the "post-human" is not, as it appears to be, post modern, but thoroughly modern. It carries through the quintessentially modernist project of denying after the fact the human agency and capacities that have been invested in producing hybrid artefacts which are then proclaimed as extra-human; it denies the cumulative effects of sociotechnical choices and instead represents the machinic imperative as somehow impersonal and external to human affairs. The notion of the posthuman can readily reinforce the pervasive popular cultural myths of technological inevitability and dominance, conveniently for those humans and corporations who actually do profit from decisions they make about developing and marketing machines of increasing autonomy, intelligence and subtlety. Machines and Provision The role of the machine has been overemphasised in histories of technology, according to Mumford. For aside from tools and machines which perform dynamic actions, there are technologies of containment and supply, which he categorizes as utensils (like baskets or pots), apparatus (such as dye vats, brick kilns), utilities (reservoirs, aqueducts, roads, buildings) and the modern power utility (railroad tracks, electric transmission lines). Some of the most effective adaptations of the environment came, not from the invention of machines, but from the equally admirable invention of utensils, apparatus, and utilities. ... But since people's attention is directed most easily to the noisier and more active parts of the environment, the role of the utility and the apparatus has been neglected ... both [tool and utensil] have played an enormous part in the development of the modern environment and at no stage in history can the two means of adaptation be split apart. Every technological complex includes both: not least our modern one. (Technics and Civilisation, 11-2). The development of various utensils and apparatus for storage (urns, granaries) and flow (irrigation, aqueducts) was essential for the emergence of settled agricultural communities in the neolithic period (Mumford, Technics and Human Development 140-1). As I explore in a related article (Sofia, "Container"), Mumford finds a prudish sexism in the relative neglect of technologies evocative of the female organs of storage, nutrition and transformation, compared with the overemphasis on technologies that are extensions of the muscular masculine body (Technics and Human Development, 140). However, the contrast between dynamic, noisy, active and autonomous machines, and passive, quiet, backgrounded containers cannot be sustained. For one the utensil even in its most basic form, has something machinic about it: a container can perform its function autonomously, without needing manipulation like a tool. Further, it is arguable that holding or containing is not simply a property of a shaped space, but a form of action in itself. Moreover in practice there are many hybrids of machine and utensil or utility, for example in domestic technologies like the food processor, a container with a machine-driven blade, or the washing machine, featuring a tub with mechanical agitation and rotary motion. Although Mumford is primarily interested in the machine, he observes that as modern "neotechnics" proceeds to develop ever more sophisticated machinery, so does it evolve more complex technologies of containment, as described in this passage which depicts both machines and utilities as active agents: Behind the façade [of the crisp lines of steel and glass that define the modern built environment] are rows and rows of machines, weaving cotton, transporting coal ... [etc.], machines with steel fingers and lean muscular arms, with perfect reflexes, sometimes even with electric eyes. Alongside them are the new utilities -- the coke oven, the transformer, the dye vats -- chemically cooperating with these mechanical processes, assembling new qualities in chemical compounds and materials. Every effective part in this whole environment represents an effort of the collective mind to widen the province of order and control and provision. (Technics and Civilisation, 356) Another way of getting the over-emphasised machine back into proportion is to look more closely at what it is used for, what purposes it serves. Mumford writes of the machine as part of the effort to produce "order and regularity" into the processes of life (10); to "widen the province of order and control and provision" (356) or to produce a "secure food supply and ... excellent organisation" (366). In other words, the machine is serving the goals typically associated with utensils, utilities and apparatus: smoothing out fluctuations in supply and distributing resources more evenly. Likewise Mumford suggests that in the back of developments of machine and tool is the effort to adapt by extending the body's powers and/or by altering the environment, so that, for example, instead of a physiological adaptation to cold through hair growth or hibernation, "there is an environmental adaptation, such as that made possible by the use of clothes and the erection of shelters" (10). These technologies are not machines, but container technologies, in the province of what philosopher of technology Don Ihde would call "background technics". We can think of the shift in emphasis here in relation to the example of road works. The large machines for bulldozing a path and laying down layers of road surface are very impressive in their size, power and technical capacity. But the road surface could not be laid down without there being technologies (including hybrids of machine and container, like the pick-up truck) for transporting, storing and mixing the materials used. And when it is done, the big machines lumber off elsewhere, and what we have before us is a road, a utility which facilitates orderly communication, transport and the supply of people and materials. In other words, these machines have served the goal of provisioning. The machine can enthral us with its autonomy, its alterity, its thingness, but as Heidegger has claimed, even such a powerful and seemingly stand-alone machine as a plane on a runway ready for take-off is ultimately just a "completely unautonomous" element when considered as part of a global system ordered "to ensure the possibility of transportation" (17). Like other modern machines, its own objectness and machinic resistance is dissolved as it becomes part of the "standing reserve", which can be understood as a macro-technology of provisioning through a matrix of mobilisable human and non-human resources. In the broader project of which this piece is a fragment, I want to investigate more closely the role and relative importance of machines compared to other kinds of equipment, especially for containment, supply or provisioning in contemporary technoculture, on the suspicion that it is apparatus and utilities rather than machines that define our contemporary lifeworld. References Bijker, Wiebe E., and John Law. General Introduction. Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Eds. Bijker and Law. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P, 1992. Bolter, Jay David. "The Computer as a Defining Technology." Computers in the Human Context: Information Technology, Production, and People. Ed. Tom Forester. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989. Heidegger, Martin. "The Question Concerning Technology." The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Trans. William Lovitt. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. Andreas Huyssen. "The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang's Metropolis." New German Critique 24-25 (1982), 221-37. Also in Huyssen. After the Great Divide. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986. Ihde, Don. Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1990. Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Trans. Catherine Porter. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1993. Mumford, Lewis. Technics and Civilisation. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1962 [1934]. ---. Technics and Human Development. New York: Harcourt Brace & World, 1966. Sofia, Zoë. "Container Technologies." Hypatia, Spring 2000 (forthcoming). ---. "Contested Zones: Futurity and Technological Art." Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology 29.1 (1996): 59-66. ---. "The Mythic Machine: Gendered Irrationalities and Computer Culture." Education/Technology/Power: Educational Computing as a Social Practice. Eds. Hank Bromley and Michael W. Apple. Albany NY: SUNY, 1998. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Zoë Sofoulis. "Machinic Musings with Mumford." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.6 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/mumford.php>. Chicago style: Zoë Sofoulis, "Machinic Musings with Mumford," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 6 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/mumford.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Zoë Sofoulis. (1999) Machinic musings with Mumford. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(6). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/mumford.php> ([your date of access]).