His inventive brother and partner, John, died of lymphatic cancer in 1921, only 28 years old. Abner himself promoted steam power as a consultant to prospective steam vehicle companies until he died in 1961. But in the late sixties, it appeared that steam might be a viable option to gasoline engines for lower emission cars. No less than William Lear, known best for his Learjet, worked on further advances in steam power components. In a few years, though, engineering minds had come up with better emission controls and more efficient gasoline engines, and steam no longer looked attractive.
Technologies rise and fall.
Once mature, new inventions, often strange and in rough form, appear and begin to capture the spotlight. Today we're convinced that our gasoline cars and our microprocessors are the only logical way to go. But it wasn't that long ago that steam was the sensible form of power, and it may not be that long before microchips look old fashioned. It's fun to be involved in whatever is developing and also fun to look back on what was thought invincible decades ago. This issue has stories about electronic night vision, a dam that broke, how military rations were developed, making paper clips, and Julia Hall, a woman who was perhaps the co-inventor of the modern process for refining aluminum.