Mechanics of Solids

A cantilever beam
was once under load.
The expected behaviour
it clearly showed

The tip deflected
a small magnitude
An equation was derived
the assumptions were crude

Plane sections
remained plane
Hooke's stress
was proportional to strain

The boundary conditions
were well defined
the root didn't shift
The slope was aligned

perpendicular to the wall
At the other end
No shear and
No Moment to bend

The governing equation
had the order as four
It was ordinary
nothing more

The solution found
was real but complex
The load was involved
and also Ixx

It was a cubic function
of distance from root
The results of experiments
the theory did suit

That left everyone
happy for a while
Until FEM developed and brought
it back from exile

They computed and computed,
waited and waited
Results were same
Though the theory was dated

One thing to learn
from this small refrain
A Pen, paper,
and a little brain
are better than computers,
and cause a lot less pain.

Code Name Ginger

Book Review

Code Name Ginger

by Steve Kemper

Harvard Business Press (2003), Hardcover, 336 pages






Did you ever dream about being an inventor? Have an elaborate workshop of your own where you build gadgets and machines that solve the world’s problems. Sounds like Dexter’s Laboratory or the good old days, when Edison made the light bulb or when the Wright brothers built a flying machine in their bicycle shop. In today’s world, we are more likely to hear about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos et al, the entrepreneurs who made it big. But its not the same as inventing a new thing, is it?



The name Dean Kamen may not strike any bells, but he is one person who has lived the inventor’s dream. This book, “Code Name Ginger” by Steve Kemper, has the tagline: “The Story behind Segway and Dean Kamen’s Quest to Invent a New World”. The book is all about the personality of one of the world’s most fascinating people, Dean Kamen. A self made millionaire from all his inventions and patents for wheelchairs, medical equipments to helicopters, he has his own island, private jets (which he flies himself) and even a few helicopters. Here is someone who wears jeans and a jacket all the time, whether he is meeting the President or in a dinner at a luxury restaurant. His pockets are filled with screwdrivers, spanners and tools, creating a nightmare for airport security. Hence he pilots his own jets, one of the very few people in the US who are allowed to fly without a co-pilot. But its not because he has the money, but because he has the skill. A down-to-earth person, who dreams big, and wants to change the world.



The book is an insiders account on the design and development of his most famous creation: the Segway Human Transporter which was kept under wraps as just ‘Ginger’ . It was a machine that was meant to change the world’s transportation system. Launched nearly a decade back, despite its technological advances and unique abilities, the invention can today be called a commercial failure. But that does not make the story any less interesting.



It started off as an idea on which he began working in his free time, and became one of the best kept secret projects in the world. Partly, because of his paranoia (or good sense maybe) that the Asian giants like Honda, might get the idea of making a cheap, efficient personal transportation that would make automobiles in urban areas redundant. A lot of critics have claimed the Segway to be ‘just a scooter’. But the magic of Segway is its engineering. It makes walking useless. Why walk, when you can stand on a Segway, go faster, have complete control by just adjusting your body weight, climb stairs, have a ‘zero’ turning radius! The book traces how the different features were put into the vehicle, starting from a large table with two wheels, on which one of his engineers sat and whizzed around the workshop (and crashed quite a few times).



To the readers with a technical bent of mind, this vehicle incorporates one of the most well known problem in Controls, balancing an inverted pendulum. But it is also much more than that, accelerating forward when the user shifts weight forward, turning, decreasing speed, not letting the user fall off and reading about it makes you realise the enormous complexity involved in our everyday activities. The dream Segway of Dean Kamen also incorporates a fuel cell, so you could be cleaning polluted water while you power your transportation! So you could solve the world’s transportation and drinking water problems at one go. This has tremendous promise for the developing countries where water as well as roads are a huge problem. But till now these prototypes have not been released commercially.



The book is written by a journalist who was given insider’s access by Kamen, who felt that such a great invention ought to be documented well. The whole process of developing a new product is captured extremely well. Reading it, you realise how Venture Capitalists work, how new companies are made, hiring of staff, promotions, work atmospheres, designs and manufacturing techniques are developed. It is not a book for business people or entrepreneurs alone. It is essential to be read by scientists and researchers as well, because it gives you an idea that whatever discovery or invention you make, it needs to be practical and be able to be implemented well. The problems involved in manufacturing are unique and the way they are solved are extremely ingenious. For example, when assembling a part, the workers are supposed to screw in the nuts at different places. Very often the wrong nut is put in the wrong place. The assembly has to be done again. So manufacturers use different right-handed and left-handed screws for different places. So even inadvertently it is not possible to make a mistake. Of course procurement is also another issue. A part of the book tells the immense conflict that went behind choosing the right supplier for the gyroscopic sensors in the machine. Buying a sensor worth a few dollars more could cost the company a million dollars.



Another insight that this book provides you with is the dynamics of the workplace. The personality of Dean Kamen was the driving force of the project. He was the anarchic ruler of all he surveyed. But not without reason. He had a lot of great engineers and designers each with his/her own personality quirk. How they got on with each other, how they fought, settled, worked together and finally came out with a great product is very elegantly documented in this book. At the end of it you realise that in a team with plenty of disputes, the love of an idea unites them and inspiration coupled with hard work surely gets you results.



There are bad moments as well, when bad decisions are made and they are covered up. The author seems to be extremely clearly pointing out what all went wrong with Segway, which does make the book seem a little less objective. The high profile meetings with the great businessmen of today’s world tossing around millions of dollars to develop this machine is an incredible part of the book. And yet, Dean Kamen’s absolute commitment is evident of his faith in the power of invention. The author has done a great job in describing all facets of Kamen’s character and has not held back in pointing out where his idiosyncrasies led to the financial fallout for the machine. But it is not finger pointing but a well balanced view of the person.



The book is a must read for anyone who dreams of changing the world. There is a lot of work written about the beauty and aesthetics of pure sciences but a book such as this really promotes engineering itself to a greater height. How technology drives the world and how engineering drives technology is an extremely important issue for all young engineers and scientists in the world today. Segway might have been a failure, but the story behind it has a lot to teach and could guide a billion successes in the world tommorow.