Field Guide to Rodside Technology (eBook)

AS YOU WALK AROUND your neighborhood you see machines thatwork for you, but you may not know what they do. However, if one of them breaks or has to be replaced, you certainly notice the interruption in service. Your water may be shut off for a few hours. You might lose phone service, electrical power, or the cable signal for your television.When that thing on the utility pole or on the ground breaks, you realize how important it is to you. A Field Guide to Roadside Technology will help you figure out what that thing is and how it works. Some field guides help you identify birds or trees you see. This book identifies devices made by people. A Field Guide to Roadside Technology will help you be a technology detective. You can find out which of your neighbors has cable television. You can figure out what the tangle of wires is on a utility pole, or what a particular antenna is for. You can look at a ship and quickly figure out what type it is and what functions it performs. You can use this book in several ways. Of course, you can start on the first page and read through to the end. However, my intention is that you will keep this book handy as you travel, so that whenever you see some gizmo that you don t recognize, you can look it up to find outwhat it is and what it does. To find out about that odd machine you see, refer first to the Contents. Devices are grouped by type (Bridges or Antennas, for example) or the locations in which they are found. Within each chapter, similar devices or devices that are part of a long system are grouped together. For example, you can follow the path of your home telephone system from a utility pole all the way to your house by reading successive entries. Start with the chapter that best corresponds to where you see an object you want to look up. For example, if you re near an airport, go to chapter 7, In the Air and Near Airports. Or if you re looking at something that s attached to a utility pole, go to chapter 9, On Utility Poles and Towers. Thumb through the pages and look at the pictures and the written descriptions of objects to figure out what it is you re looking at. You may have to look in a couple of chapters to find what you see. Although most of the telephone and cable systems are included in chapter 9, for example, related devices that sit on the ground are included in chapter 4, On the Ground. You can also look in the Index, where you ll find entries grouped by subject. Although this book contains information on many of the most commonly seen or used devices, it would be impossible for any book to cover every single gizmo out there in the world. There are hundreds of devices that play roles in our lives. If you find one that s not in the book but, in your opinion, should be, please let me know. Maybe it ll be it in a future edition. Contact me through my publisher at: Ed Sobey, author of A Field Guide to Roadside Technology c/o Chicago Review Press 814 N. Franklin Street Chicago, IL 60610 While it s certainly important to know what things are, it s far more important to exercise your inquiring mind. Look for more roadside technologyand ask questions. Your questions may encourage others tothink about the technical environment we live in, and maybe they ll ask questions, too. These questions lead to learning and understanding.