Word: ratchet
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...cutting the elevator's rope cable with a knife. Others, as far back as Archimedes, had built vertical hoists of one kind or another, but Otis was the first to build one with an automatic safety catch to keep it from falling. It was a kind of ratchet, like the gadget that prevents the spring on a mechanical toy from unwinding...
...Ratchet-feeling simply terrible...
...will continue to work until June 1948. In the meantime, however, grass is not growing under the feet of the Laboratory's director and Mathematics professor, Howard H. Aiken. Already in its final stages of construction is Mark II, a tremendous new calculator which generally departs from the mechanical ratchet counters of Mark I and will consequently be much faster...
...Hunters' Teller. Some new German mines have nonmetallic casings to foil the electrical detectors. Some have chemical rather than metallic fuses. One type has a soft plastic case which raises no hum in the electrical locators. To a probing bayonet, it feels like the surrounding earth. The new ratchet mine has a geared fuse wheel which moves around, a notch at a time, when a wheel goes over it. This mine can be set to go off after any number of vehicles (from one to 29) have passed safely...