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Shelby, Carroll Hall

(Encyclopedia)Shelby, Carroll Hall, 1923–2012, automobile racer and designer, b. Leesburg, Tex. After serving as a flight instructor in World War II, he began (1952) a career as a race-car driver. He was Sports I...

gear

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Types of gears gear, toothed wheel, cylinder, or cone that transmits motion from one part of a machine to another; it is one of the oldest means of transmitting motion. When the teeth of two g...

well

(Encyclopedia)well, aperture in the earth's surface through which substances in a natural underground reservoir, such as water, gas, oil, salt, and sulfur, can flow or be pumped to the surface. In the United States...

Honda, Soichiro

(Encyclopedia)Honda, Soichiro, 1906–91, Japanese automobile executive. A mechanic and race car driver, he was a self-taught engineer. Honda founded a motorcycle company in the 1940s and began producing cars in th...

Carnot, Nicolas Léonard Sadi

(Encyclopedia)Carnot, Nicolas Léonard Sadi kärnōˈ [key], 1796–1832, French physicist, a founder of modern thermodynamics; son of Lazare N. M. Carnot. His famous work on the motive power of heat (Réflexions ...

eccentric

(Encyclopedia)eccentric, in mechanics, device for changing rotary to back-and-forth motion. A disk is mounted off center on a shaft. One flat, open, circular end of a rod fits around the edge of the disk; the other...

compressed air

(Encyclopedia)compressed air, air whose volume has been decreased by the application of pressure. Air is compressed by various devices, including the simple hand pump and the reciprocating, rotary, centrifugal, and...

kiln

(Encyclopedia)kiln kĭl, kĭln [key], furnace for firing pottery and enamels, for making brick, charcoal, lime, and cement, for roasting ores, and for drying various substances (e.g., lumber, chemicals). Kilns may ...

Otto, Nikolaus August

(Encyclopedia)Otto, Nikolaus August nēˈkōlous ouˈgo͝ost ôˈtō [key], 1832–91, German engineer. He was coinventor (1867) of an internal-combustion engine, and he devised (1876) the four-stroke Otto cycle, w...

gasoline

(Encyclopedia)gasoline or petrol, light, volatile mixture of hydrocarbons for use in the internal-combustion engine and as an organic solvent, obtained primarily by fractional distillation and “cracking” of pet...