(Roughly) Daily

Still, it’s cool to know how things work. In a continuing series of “tear-downs,” Bryan Macomber obliges in the most elegant of ways…

Are you curious why a clicky Pen… clicks? How a Zippo Lighter flips open? Or what lives inside a Pez Dispenser?

I’ve illustrated tear-downs and break-downs of everyday products that you may have taken for granted. Let’s take a look inside and understand how they work. Click around, have fun and maybe learn something new!…

An illustrated celebration of the engineering around us: “Mechanical Pencil.”

* (Paraphrase of) Isaac Newton

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As we muse on the mechanical, we might recall that it was on this date (according to most sources, though a few cite the 12th or the 19th of June) in 1902 that Philadelphia restauranteurs Frank Hardart and Joe Horn opened the first Automat in the U.S. A cavernous, waiterless establishment that was a combination of fast (but fresh) food, vending, and a cafeteria. Customers put nickels into slots beside small glass-doored compartments in the Automats and turned a knob. In the compartment next to the slot, food revolved into place for the customer to receive through the glass door.

Horn & Hardart Automats expanded into a chain reaching Manhattan in 1912. With their uniform recipes and centralized commissary system of supplying their restaurants, the Automats were America’s first major fast-food chain.

For more on how they worked, see “Meet Me at the Automat” and the charming documentary “The Automat.”

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