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PM CONTENTS

VOLUME 182 NO. 10

64 Cars and Trucks of the Year 90 Backyard Power

PM AUTOMOTIVE EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2006 Fall chores are a lot more fun when you tackle
After racking up big mileage on more than them from the seat of a garden tractor with
100 vehicles, PM presents this year’s win- real muscle. We put five rigs through their
ners in Design, Performance, Safety and paces—hauling wood, grading driveways,
other major categories. Plus: 22 noteworthy towing dethatchers—to help separate the
new contenders that caught our eye. merely strong from the mighty.

80 Fueling the Future

With an oil crisis looming, scientists are

COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY BURCU AVSAR, COVER ILLUSTRATION BY ANTHONY VERDUCCI; HOME DEPOT COVER BY JONATHAN SPRAGUE; PHOTOGRAPH BY LUCIAN READ (THIS PAGE)
urgently searching for new energy sources.
PM evaluates five leading contenders for a Birds of Mercy
share in the post-petroleum world. Every minute matters when Black Hawk
medevac crews airlift the wounded from the
88 Master Class: Guitar Builder battlefield to the ER. An inside look at life-
Deep in the heart of bluegrass country,
saving military medicine dispensed on the fly.
Wayne Henderson crafts some of America’s
best acoustic guitars with fine wood, time-
tested skills and a whole lot of elbow grease.

Spc. Blake Vogt (left) and Spc. Carmen Catalioti service a Black Hawk used by the busiest air ambulance crew in Iraq.

Popular Mechanics (ISSN 0032-4558) is published monthly by Hearst Communications, Inc., a unit of the Hearst Corporation, 959 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, We cannot be responsible for loss of unsolicited queries,
U.S.A. Victor F. Ganzi, President, Chief Executive Officer; George R. Hearst Jr., Chairman; Frank A. Bennack Jr., Vice Chairman; Catherine A. Bostron, Secretary; Ronald J.
manuscripts or photos. For return, they must be accompanied
Doerfler, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Hearst Magazines Division: Cathleen Black, President; Mark F. Miller, Executive Vice President; George J. Green,
Executive Vice President; Raymond J. Petersen, Executive Vice President; John A. Rohan Jr., Vice President and Group Controller. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and by adequate postage. AS A SERVICE TO READERS, Popular
additional mailing offices. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40012499. Send returns to Quebecor World,
P.O. Box 875, Windsor, ON N9A 6P2. CANADA BN NBR 10231 0943 RT. Registered as second-matter at the Post Office at Mexico D.F., Mexico, June 20, 1950, © 2005 by Hearst Mechanics publishes newsworthy products, techniques and
Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Popular Mechanics, P.O. Box 7170, Red Oak, IA 51591. SUBSCRIPTION scientific and technological developments. Due to possible
SERVICE: Popular Mechanics will, upon receipt from its reader of a completely new or renewal subscription order, undertake fulfillment of that order so as to provide the first-
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current mailing label or exact copy to: Popular Mechanics, Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 7024, Red Oak, IA 51591-0024. resulting from information published in this magazine.

4 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

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PM CONTENTS O C TO B E R 2 0 0 5 / VO LU M E 1 8 2 N O. 1 0

T E C H W A T C H
18 Tipping Point
How repair crews righted a
tilted oil-drilling platform float-
ing in Hurricane Dennis’s path.

U P G R A D E
39 Finer Focus
Swap your pocket digicam for a
sub-$1000 digital SLR; plus, 1
cubic inch, packed with MP3s.

C O L U M N S
52 Watch Out, Hollywood
Why backyard Spielbergs
(armed with digital camcorders)
are Hollywood’s greatest fear.
58 The Whale Trackers
No longer just a stadium spec-
tacle, the Fuji blimp moonlights
as a floating whale-study center.

H O M E J O U R N A L
101 The Big Red Shed
Overwhelmed by bikes, mowers
and lawn chairs? Check out our

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BILL DIODATO (PIPES), BURCU AVSAR (MP3), RITA LEISTNER (BLIMP), JAMES WESTMAN (BALL JOINT)
plans for a two-in-one shed.
105 How Your House
Works: Plumbing
An X-ray view of your walls.
Plus: essential tools, common
repairs, emergency know-how.
112 Homeowners Clinic
Updating electrical outlets;
also, when mildew attacks.

C A R C A R E
123 Saturday Mechanic
Hear that clicking? Those are
worn-out ball joints—ignore
them at your peril.
128 Auto Clinic
A part that a mechanic has never
heard of and the dealer says is a
must. We settle the debate.

T E C H N O L O G Y
134 Tech DIY
Your home computer’s equiva-
8 KEEP IN TOUCH 14 TIME MACHINE lent of a fall tuneup.
M O N T H LY
10 EDITOR’S NOTES 119 READER PROJECT
12 LETTERS 148 THIS IS MY JOB 138 Tech Q & A
Creating DIY movie screens
and fixing “stuck” LCD pixels.

6 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

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Keep In Touch
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James B. Meigs
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PM EDITOR'S NOTES
Living the Story
O
On our letters page this month (page 12),
reader Leonard Gaston writes, “I don’t know
how you manage to publish a magazine from
New York and still stay so in tune with what
folks out here in the heartland are really inter-
ested in.” The answer is simple, actually. To
find the stories that matter, you have to go
where the stories are happening. And you
have to get involved.
This month, PM senior editor Jennifer
Bogo accompanies a team of biologists using
a specially equipped Fuji blimp to conduct
vital research into whale behavior (“The
Whale Trackers,” page 58). It turns out that
blimps, which proved so effective as sub hunt-
ers in World War II, are also ideal for observ-
ing elusive marine mammals. “The blimp is
big and slow but also graceful,” says Bogo,
who took the controls herself for a time, “a
lot like the whales we were tracking.” The
scientists hope that with better information
about whales’ feeding and migration pat-
FLIGHT RISKS: PM’s Bogo
terns, they can help protect the creatures from
goes aloft in the Fuji blimp;
Sabbagh properly outfitted shipping, fishing nets and other hazards.
for Iraq’s less friendly skies. “Birds of Mercy,” contributing editor
Leslie Sabbagh’s report on helicopter medevac
crews in Iraq (page 94), traces its origin to another Sabbagh piece from nearly
a year ago. The writer, who covers both medical and military affairs for PM,
wrote the feature article “Courage After Fire” (Dec. 2004) about National
Guardsman Kevin Pannell, who lost both legs to a grenade in Iraq. After the
story appeared, Pannell stayed in touch with Sabbagh and PM. (You can see
occasional updates on his progress at www.popularmechanics.com.) One day he
sent me an e-mail saying that we should do an article on the medical crews who
transport and treat wounded soldiers like him. “They’re the real heros,” he said.
Sabbagh knew the story would involve flying in unarmed Army Black
Hawks in combat conditions. She didn’t hesitate.
“I saw some things that were harrowing,” she
says, “but I saw a lot more that was inspiring. The
determination of these pilots and medical crews
to get to the wounded, no matter what the risks, is
simply beyond words.”
James Meigs
10 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
CONTRIBUTORS
They say warfare is 90 percent bore-
dom, 10 percent terror. Photographer
L U C I A N R E A D , who traveled
to Fallujah for our Feb. 2005 cover
story, felt the truth of this old adage
during his most recent trip to Iraq for
this month’s story “Birds of Mercy”
(page 94). “Things would be quiet for
hours, and then ‘Medevac! Medevac!’
would come over the radio, and
everyone’s running to the helicopter,”
the Austin, Texas, native says. “You
have to be able to switch your mind-
set. Just like that, the world could be
coming down around you.”
Legendary
guitar builder
Wayne
Henderson
rarely meas-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY RITA LEISTNER (JENNIFER BOGO), HELEN SMITH (GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS), ALYSON ALIANO (JAMES MEIGS)
ures anything.
He tried it for
the benefit of
ALLEN ST.
JOHN, writer of this month’s “Guitar
Builder” (page 88), the first install-
ment in our Master Class series. “It
was almost comical, his fingers were
better calipers than calipers, down
to the thousandth of an inch,” says
St. John, whose book, Clapton’s Guitar
(Free Press), is out this month. “It was
as if the wood wanted to be a guitar,
and he needed to give it just the
slightest bit of encouragement.”
The entertain-
ment indus-
try should
listen to this
guy. Four
years ago,
before any-
one had heard of a blog, GLENN
HARLAN REYNOLDS launched
instapundit.com, which now draws
250,000 readers a day. In “Watch Out,
Hollywood” (page 52), the University
of Tennessee law professor argues
that technophobia will ultimately
cost the studios and record com-
panies customers. “It takes away
the most innovative and exciting
audiences, the ones who follow
technology,” he says.
 
















 

 



 

 
 
 

 

 

  


 

  

 

 
  





 
 
 


 





  


 






 

 
 
  

 
 


 

 


 





 
  

  





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PM LETTERS
Lessons From Iraq
As I began this
letter to thank
you for the
article “Les-
sons From Iraq”
(Aug. 2005), I
was struck by the location of your
editorial offices. I don’t know how
you manage to publish a magazine
from New York and still stay so in
tune with what folks out here in the
heartland are really interested in.
We Americans are too often ready
to forget or minimize what these
fighting men are doing for us.
Leonard Gaston
Wilberforce, OH
I was shocked by your repeated use
of the term “insurgents.” There are
no “insurgents” in Iraq. They are
terrorists, pure and simple.
Steve Schott
Eagle, ID
I am proud of our servicemen in Iraq,
not only for their sacrifice to help the
Iraqis and protect our country, but
also for the way they’ve adapted to
very harsh conditions and changed
tactics to accomplish their mission.
Linda Alford
White Springs, FL
I am writing to request you rethink
your recent obsession with mili-
tary hardware reporting. There are
plenty of macho niche market mag-
azines to fulfill this need. The coun-
try doesn’t need another media
mouthpiece and cheerleader for
failed foreign policy. I have always
thought Popular Mechanics was
a magazine about building things,
not destroying them.
Christian Kay
Denver, CO
12 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
How fortunate we are
to have such dedicated
and professional service-
TO ROOT OUT A TENACIOUS INSURGENCY. FORMER MARINES OWEN WEST
AND HIS FATHER BING WEST, WHO WAS A FRONT-LINE WITNESS TO IRAQ’S
men and women. I will be
attending Virginia Military
Institute, and I hope to com-
mand such outstanding
Marines in the future.
A.S. Wise
Richmond, VA
Project: Siding
You warn against painting
a dark color over a light-colored vinyl
siding because dark colors absorb
more heat, causing the siding to buck-
le and the paint to peel off (“When
Bad Things Happen to Good Projects,”
Aug. 2005). You then say it is okay to
repaint a dark color over dark-colored
siding, which seems to defy logic.
Scott Blalock
San Antonio, TX
It’s perfectly logical: Dark siding is
designed to handle the intense heat
from sunlight. Repainting it a similar
dark color won’t change the amount
of energy it absorbs. —Ed.
Tough Enough
The Nokia 3120 you tested is tough
(“Will It Break?” Aug. 2005). The
phone fell out of my van while I was
going 45 mph. When I retrieved it, the
phone was still on and worked fine.
Tim Heckler
Bartlett, IL
Survival Tactics
While reading your article (“Would
You Survive?” Aug. 2005), it hit me
C O R R E C T I O N : In the story “This Is My Job: Camera Operator” (Aug. 2005), the dolly is
identified incorrectly. The dolly pictured is a Chapman Hybrid III.
To have a letter considered for publication, please include your full name and address, even
if you correspond by e-mail. Send e-mails to popularmechanics@hearst.com. We’ll withhold
your identity upon request but will not print an anonymous letter. All letters are subject to
editing for length, style and format.
L E S S O N S F R O M
IT’S A BRUTAL SCHOOLING, BUT AMERICAN FORCES ARE LEARNING HOW
TO COMBINE NEW TECHNOLOGY AND OLD-FASHIONED COMBAT SKILLS
FIERCEST URBAN BATTLE, DETAIL THE KEY CONCEPT: ADAPTABILITY.
T H E I N F A N T R Y M E N loved to move alongside the tank.
It was like going on an evening stroll in a dangerous neighbor-
hood with a Tyrannosaurus rex. In fact, during last November’s
battle to retake Iraq’s insurgent-held city of Fallujah, west of
Baghdad, the M1A1 Abrams was the favored weapon to support
Marines who fought street by street and house by house. If the
infantryman was the left hook, the Abrams was the haymaker.
On the fourth day of the three-week operation, one of
the Marines in India Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine
Regiment, used the “grunt phone” attached to the rear
of an Abrams to ask Master Gunnery Sgt. Ishmael
Castillo to maneuver down a tight alley. With more
than 80 percent of Fallujah’s civilian population evacu-
ated, every concrete house and courtyard had become
a potential pillbox for insurgents firing on the Marines
advancing out in the open. From his tank commander’s
hatch 8 ft. above the ground, Castillo could look over
walls and shout warnings to the grunts on the ground.
When two insurgents lobbed grenades that bounced
off the tank’s armored plates and exploded harmlessly,
Castillo briefly considered buttoning down the hatch, but
decided against it so he could continue to warn his men.
To eliminate insurgent positions at 100 ft., he began to
“pivot steer,” swiveling the Abrams back and forth on its
treads, smashing the alley walls. With the grunts urging
him on, Castillo rumbled down the dirt track, firing his
7.62mm and .50-caliber machine guns into the doors
and windows of houses. When the startled jihadists
began to fire blindly, giving away their hiding places,
Castillo opened up with the tank’s 120mm main gun.
The M1A1 was engineered for battle on the open
plains of Europe, not for the narrow alleyways of an
ancient Middle Eastern city. Some pundits had warned
that American forces would be vulnerable in Iraq’s
teeming urban areas, our lumbering tanks sitting ducks
for insurgents with superior knowledge of the battle-
field. But the M1A1’s 120mm gun, designed to take out
Soviet tanks at a mile or more, proved equally effective
at destroying insurgent positions at 50 ft.
CLEANING HOUSE: MEMBERS OF THE 1ST BRIGADE, 101ST AIRBORNE
D I V I S I O N , S E A RC H FO R I N SU RG E N TS I N N A JA F, SOU T H O F BAG H DA D. POPULAR MECHANICS • AUGUST 2005 51
that you could buy a 40 meter CW
(Morse code) radio that weighs as
much as a transistor AM radio. With a
simple antenna made of magnet wire,
one could contact another radio oper-
ator thousands of miles away. Ham
radio: Don’t leave home without it.
Ron Giuntini
San Francisco, CA
Followup
After “Would You Survive?” appeared,
we were contacted by Barbara Peter-
son, whose husband was one of the
survivors described in our piece. We
hadn’t been able to locate the Peter-
sons before publication, but now Bar-
bara Peterson helped fill in details. She
explained that her husband was scout-
ing locations for a future hunting trip
when his truck became disabled. Terry
Peterson stayed with the truck for nine
days before walking to safety. He lived,
but eventually lost a lower leg and half
of one foot to frostbite. You can read
more about his ordeal in Time Almost
Expired, by Judith E. Honeck, which is
available from Bookman Publishing.




 







 













 


  

 
  

 


  

 








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PM TIMEMACHINE

Before TiVo
We’ve embraced cathode rays, color tubes
and cable—how come there’s still nothing on?
JANUARY

CLEARER THAN
B L AC K A N D W H I T E 1954

Vying for FCC approval,

RCA and CBS duked it
out over whose color TV
technology made more
1980
Beginnings of the Box
DECEMBER

This guy appears to be enjoying his new

37-channel cable box, but despite the
sense (RCA won). Perhaps clear reception and commercial-free
trying to console those on movies, PM remained skeptical. Predict-
a budget, PM pointed out ing we’d someday have 100 channels, PM
said cable’s growth might mean just “more
the flaws of the new $1000 of the same,” pointing out, “How many
sets: “Nobody believes great movies are made in a year?” While
there was no way of foreseeing the news
color will completely ticker, we were excited about Ted Turner’s
replace black and white.” launch of 24-hour “nonrepetitive” news.

1935
A Bad Year for Sweeps
MARCH

Regularly scheduled programming hit the airwaves, albeit

with a few kinks—namely the lack of technical standards and,
well, programming. Camera limitations (they couldn’t see much
beyond 100 ft.) ruled out televising sporting events. But, PM pre-
dicted, there was still money to be made. Sure enough, TV’s first
original drama, “The Love Nest,” debuted the following year. Its
decidedly low-maintenance star (and writer) was paid $5. PM

14 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS








 



 


 

 

 

 

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TECHWATCH
BASE JUMPING EXPLOSIVE A/C NEW ARMY TRUCKS AIRPLANE DRAWING BOARD

18 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

 Tipping Point
“Everybody thought it was on its
way down,” Coast Guard spokesman
Andrew Kendrick says of Thunder
Horse, the world’s biggest semisub-
mersible oil rig. The drilling platform
took a titanic tilt this summer just a
few months before it was scheduled
to open for business. “I don’t know
exactly what would’ve happened if
we hadn’t gotten there and noticed
the problem.” It wasn’t that hard to
spot: The morning after Hurricane
Dennis passed through the Gulf of
Mexico, BP’s $1 billion structure, locat-
ed about 150 miles southeast of New
Orleans, was discovered listing at a
20-degree angle. To right the flood-
ing platform and flush out its hull,
salvage engineers attached hydrau-
lic pumps to the 118-ft. columns hold-
ing up the Horse. A week later, it
was stable and back to normal trim.
But until the exact reason for the
flood is determined, BP has pushed
back Thunder Horse’s drilling date
indefinitely. — Matt Sullivan

THUNDER HORSE OIL RIG

Weight: 59,500 tons
I CS Water depth: 6050 ft.
Location: Gulf of Mexico
T I ST

Oil spilled: 0 gal.

Emergency contractors: 75
STA

Human cost: 1 shin injury to sal-

vage worker. Thunder Horse crew
was evacuated before storm.
COURTESY OF USCG

P H OTO G RA P H BY RO B E RT M . R E E D POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 19

PM TECHWATCH This Month

10/05 Silliest Prize

Honoring scientists who
make people laugh and
think, the 15th First Annual
Ig Nobel Prize ceremony
will be held on the 6th at
Harvard University. Last year,
prizes were awarded to the
Japanese inventor of karaoke
and the father and son team
from Florida who patented
the comb-over.

Loftiest Tourist
American millionaire
Gregory Olsen blasts off
aboard a Russian Soyuz
rocket this month to become

PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREG VON DOERSTEN (BRIDGE DAY), AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTO (GREGORY OLSEN), FORD MOTOR COMPANY PHOTOGRAPHIC (IRONMAN)
the third tourist in space.
Like Dennis Tito and Mark
Shuttleworth before him,
Olsen paid some $20 million
for a 10-day trip to the
International Space Station.

Steepest Leap
More than 400 people will leap from the second longest steel-arch bridge in the world
on Bridge Day (Oct. 15) in Fayetteville, W.Va. The event, held annually since 1980,
is expected to draw 200,000 spectators to the 876-ft.-tall New River Gorge Bridge.
Parachutists are lobbying officials to extend the jump window to at least three days,
but for now BASE jumping outside a narrow, 6-hour window on Bridge Day could
land you a $5000 fine—or even a year in the clink.
Campiest Camp
Will Klingons sing duets
with Jedi knights? We’ll
END OF THE DRAFT find out when fans of both
series visit Space Camp in
On Oct. 15, Ironman World Championship Huntsville, Ala., from the
cyclists must keep a minimum three-bike- 26th to the 31st for the
length distance from each other during the first-ever Sci-Fi Fan Trip.
112-mile cycling portion of the Hawaiian tri- The event features writing
athlon. Researchers from race sponsor Ford workshops, an alien costume
used wind tunnels to prove that three lengths party and, for genuine kicks,
is just enough distance to keep riders from a cockpit simulator and a
drafting each other. Cyclists in most races real centrifuge that lets
cozy up behind a lead rider to benefit from guests feel 6 g’s. Gregory
his windbreak, but the Ironman rides alone. Olsen (above) is not invited.

20 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS BY AARON DALTON

 






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PM TECHWATCH
NEWS BRIEFS
Skin Deep
That little sticker you’ve
almost eaten a thousand
times is about to disappear.
Price look-up (PLU)
stickers on fruits
and veggies in
the supermarket
may soon be
replaced by laser
coding. Precisely
emitted light removes
the pigment surface layer
without penetrating the
skin. Lasers could even
lay down bar codes for
electronic tracking.
Loan Ranger
Repo men may have to
look for different work.
The On Time payment
system, installed under
auto dashboards, alerts
customers when car pay-
ments are due, then prevents
the car from starting if a
payment is late. (A code from
the finance company gets it
started again.) Car dealers
using the system report that
delinquency rates have fallen
from 24 to 7 percent.
Marine Warfare
When lobsters fight, the
loser steers clear of the
winner in the future. But
when Boston
University
marine
biologists
shaved off
certain odor-
sensing
hairs on the
losers, those
lobsters
became
unable to
recognize which bullies had
dealt them a thrashing. The
results shed new light on
how lobsters recognize each
other—and produced brave
but stupid crustaceans
who repeatedly walked
into losing battles.
22 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
Playing With Fire
How a dangerous explosive gas is making its way into auto
air-conditioning systems. B Y P A U L W E I S S L E R
Hydrocarbon
Porsche 928
Tragedy was narrowly averted
at the 2004 Porsche 928 Owners
Club International Convention in
Wichita, Kan. No sooner had Louis
Ott backed his ’87 Porsche 928 S4
off the meet’s dynamometer when
it was rocked by an explosion that
buckled the hood. Ott, an owner of
a Porsche performance engineer-
ing shop, had just enough time to
pull the hood release cable before
he was pulled from the car.
After the fire, analysis of the
car showed that its a/c hose was
too long and had been cut by the
engine’s fan, causing refrigerant
to escape. The biggest problem,
however, was the refrigerant itself,
an inexpensive, hydrocarbon-
based replacement coolant.
For many years the refrigerant
of choice was R12 (marketed by
DuPont as Freon). In response to
environmental concerns, the auto-
motive industry replaced R12 with
R134a in the mid-’90s. However, a
recent shortage
of R134a has led
refrigerants
fueled this to high prices—
and a thriving
blaze.
market for cheap
hydrocarbon
(HC) refrigerants.
These are typi-
cally a blend of
propane or natu-
ral gas and other
flammable gases,
such as butane.
Available at
many car care
shops and on
the Internet, HC
refrigerants are
very effective and
efficient, but also
highly explosive and dangerous.
Advocates of HC refrigerants
insist they are safe, but they are
illegal in 19 states. The Environ-
mental Protection Agency con-
siders HC refrigerants a potential
hazard and has banned them. How-
ever, due to a regulatory quirk,
this ban is limited to a/c systems
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ED SHERER (PROPANE), SOL NEELMAN/WPN (TOMATO)
originally equipped with R12.
According to Jim Taylor of the
Mobile Air Conditioning Society,
no one knows how many cars have
been recharged with HC refriger-
ants. “This is occurring in drive-
ways and low-end garages all over
the country. And hydrocarbons
aren’t always compatible with the
seals and hoses built for R134a,
so there’s no telling what their
long-term effects may be.”
Taylor suggests that car own-
ers who have concerns about
what’s in their a/c system get it
checked out at a reputable repair
shop with a refrigerant analyzer.







 
PM TECHWATCH

NEWS BRIEFS Smart Bridges

New structures detect problems before they occur by
Star Power monitoring themselves. B Y A A R O N D A L T O N
Two white dwarf stars were
discovered by the Chandra BRIDGE SENSORS CENTRAL CONNECTION BOX
X-ray Observatory spinning
around each other at more
than a million miles per
hour. The stars are now
50,000 miles apart and
are expected to merge in
200,000 years. Someday,
scientists hope to detect
strong gravity waves from
the duo. These vibrations in
space-time were predicted
by Einstein but have never
been directly detected.

Paleolithic Genetics
In a Jurassic Park-style CONNECTION BOXES INFORMATION RELAY CENTER
project, German and U.S.
geneticists are Drivers may not pay much atten- fabrication. These sensors shoot
working to tion to the new I-25 highway beams of light through the struc-
rebuild the
bridge at New Mexico’s Dona Ana ture, measuring changes in tem-
Neander-
thal ge- Interchange when it opens this perature and shape that indicate
nome. The month, but scientists from New strain. Over the years, the data
team is Mexico State University (NMSU) collected will show how materials
decoding will be watching it very closely. perform under long-term stress.
thousands of
The Dona Ana bridge will be one of The lead researcher on the
mitochondrial DNA
samples from the three in New Mexico that monitor project, Rola Idriss, says the data
teeth and bones of fossils themselves with integrated fiber- will enable more efficient bridge
from man’s stocky relatives, optic sensors. And it is the first of maintenance, and extend the

ILLUSTRATION BY FLYING-CHILLI.COM, PHOTOGRAPH BY AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTO (SKULL)

who disappeared about
29,000 years ago.
Digital Backtrack
California computer
scientists used network logs
to trace the spread of the
Witty computer worm in
reverse and identify “Patient
Zero.” In 2004, Witty spread
to 12,000 computers within
75 minutes of its launch,
overwriting hard drives
and crashing machines. In
the future, this technique
could be used to help law
enforcement track down
virus writers.
CONTRIBUTORS:
JENNIFER BECK, JAMES
CAVERLY, DAVIN COBURN,
ALEX HUTCHINSON
these bridges to use cellular tech- life of the bridge. “Instead of just
nology to transmit data 10 miles looking at the bridge and visually
to a diagnostic station at NMSU. inspecting it, the bridge itself
The fiberoptic sensors are em- will be able to tell you how much
bedded in the high-performance it is stressed and how well it is
concrete bridge beams during doing under load,” Idriss says.
KEYSTROKE OF GENIUS
Monitors have slimmed down and the
mouse has lost its tail, but the qwerty
keyboard has changed little since the
1880s. Art Lebedev, a Russian design
firm, has created a concept keyboard
that may change the way our fingers do
their tapping. The Optimus turns each
of its keys into an OLED screen that can
change with each new program or user,
creating hot keys or characters from dif-
ferent languages. The designers hope to
have a marketable product by 2006.

24 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

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 TECHWATCH PM

The Strong, Silent Type

The military’s next-generation off-roader gets a test
drive in Iraq. B Y N O A H S H A C H T M A N

POWER ARMOR TRANSFORMER

The RST-V’s diesel/ Bolt-on steel/ceram- With no drivetrain in
electric hybrid en- ic sandwiches pro- the way (motors are
gine can push the tect the RST-V from at the wheels), the
truck to 70 mph, but roadside bombs. pneumatic suspen-
also allows for a cool, Transparent armor sion can fold the
quiet, all-electric on windows will stop RST-V into a compact
“stealth mode.” an AK-47 round. profile for shipping.

It’s a military SUV, so The RST-V was designed to

you’d figure it would be
loud. But when the Marines’
Shadow RST-V (Reconnaissance,
Surveillance and Targeting
Vehicle) starts up, there’s no
roar—just a barely audible whine.
The near silence is one of
the reasons that a pair of the
armored, 8400-pound experi-
mental vehicles should be in
Iraq by January. Temperature
is another. When the diesel/
electric hybrid RST-V flips into
battery-only mode, it generates
almost no heat, so it’s tough
for infrared sensors to spot.
squeeze inside the 5-ft.-wide
bay of the troubled V-22 Osprey
tiltrotor aircraft. That’s why the
RST-V’s suspension draws the
tires 13 in. into the wheel wells.
These days, “our fate isn’t
linked to the Osprey,” RST-V pro-
gram manager Rick Duvall says.
A cargo plane will carry the two
SUVs to Iraq, where the vehicles
will serve as a power source for
military bases, replacing trailer-
mounted generators. The RST-V
also will operate as a command
center that’s fully mobile—and
awfully quiet, too.

SLIPPERY WHEN STIRRED

Shown here are microscopic hurricanes stirred up by MIT
physicists. These storms are formed in a gas of lithium 

 



ions cooled to 50 billionths of a degree above absolute
zero and provide the first direct evidence of a new friction-
less form of matter known as fermionic condensate.


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PM TECHWATCH The Future of Flight?

Runway Models
The oddball designs below were taken directly from four recently filed airplane patents. We showed them to our panel of
experts and asked: Are these things for real, or will aviation companies just patent anything? By Erik Sofge

EXPERT PANEL

Hans Weber, president of Tecop International, Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis
an aviation consulting firm at the Teal Group

HW: This is one of several TRIBODY AIRCRAFT RA: Innovative; possible

concepts I’ve seen for
“transport aircraft of
the future.” The idea is
to find a way to improve
the lift-to-drag ratio of a
large-payload airframe.
The tribody doesn’t look
right to me—I think its drag
could be higher than that
of a conventional plane.
commercial relevance.
Patent: 6,851,650 Looks like it’s designed
Assignee: Boeing with economics in mind. It
A commercial aircraft could be an improvement
that links three essentially on current single oval
separate fuselages to fuselage with wings.
the wings and tail. Most Unlike other wide aircraft
conventional passenger proposals I’ve seen,
planes are nose heavy; this design puts the everyone gets a window
weight farther back and adds passenger capacity. on this plane.

HW: The question is: Can
such a plane be designed
to realistically offer the
economy promised by the
theory? People have spent
money on more outlandish
ideas, such as a German
group that wanted to build
giant zeppelins as cargo
craft. They went bankrupt
a few years ago.
GROUND EFFECT AIRPLANE RA: Just like Howard
Hughes’s Hercules (aka
Patent: the Spruce Goose), this
6,848,650 would be ideal for troop
Assignee: mobility … if the sea lanes
Boeing are closed. When Chinese
A mammoth overseas transport that works by using the submarines take over the
ground effect phenomenon, reducing drag by flying Pacific, we could send
at extremely low altitudes, skating on an air cushion troops in these planes to
beneath its 300-plus-ft. wings. To land, it uses rows of reinforce our embattled
independently steerable landing gears. Australian allies.

HW: For stealth reasons it
is desirable not to have any
control surfaces (rudders,
spoilers) that can be “seen”
by ground radar. This patent
claims to have invented
controls that are located
exclusively on top of the
wing, and should be of real
interest to anybody who
designs tailless planes.
AIRCRAFT WITH FORWARD-OPENING INLAY SPOILERS RA: We might need this
plane in a few years for
Patent: 6,892,982 our interstellar battles
Assignee: Northrop Grumman with the Romulan Birds
A stealth aircraft that is steered of Prey. Actually, it isn’t
through the use of forward- too far off some current
opening spoilers located on unmanned aircraft
top of the plane, negating designs. It could provide
the need for a tail, and creating a highly stealthy and
a smooth and radar-resistant maneuverable strike
undercarriage. platform.

HW: Mitsubishi’s plan calls
for a “core engine” that
would send its exhaust
gas into the “fan engine,”
which doesn’t make any
sense. The patent claims
this would act like an
additional compressor
stage for the fan engine,
increasing power output. I
don’t think that’s possible.
VERTICAL TAKEOFF AND LANDING AIRCRAFT RA: An efficient way of
lifting troops without
Patent: 6,892,980 wasting vertical-only jets
Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy (the engines tilt forward
Industries in this design). Faster
A vertical takeoff and landing than a V-22 Osprey (since
vehicle with four fans (which it uses fans, not props).
are quieter than jets and Not commercially viable,
sturdier than rotors) that can though, unless people
be tilted to provide lift, thrust want to pay $7000 for
or pitch/yaw control. L.A. to Vegas.

34 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

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 UPGRADE
TINY MUSIC MAKER A STAND-UP FLASHLIGHT EASY EGG SANDWICHES TOUGH WORK GEAR
PM

Finer Focus
The “prosumer” digital SLR camera has been
pretty much defined by Canon’s Digital Rebel for
two years, but Nikon’s new $900 6.1-megapixel D50
(pictured) has suddenly made the segment a whole
lot more competitive. Extremely fast and easy to
use, the D50 has the proportions, weight and rubber
handgrip to provide a comfortable, yet substantial,
feel. The D50’s biggest advantage—in addition to
its appeal for Nikon die-hards—is its included
starter lens: a newly designed, lightweight, highly
flexible Nikkor 18-55mm zoom lens, which uses the
company’s top of the line ED glass for consistent
colors and high contrast. – James Ross

S P E E D
• Almost instant 0.2-
second startup time.
Near-zero shutter
lag—if you miss a
shot, it’s your fault.

N E AT E S T T R I C K S
• Can accept any
Nikon lens made
since 1959.
• 3D Color Matrix
Metering II compares
the lighting patterns
in your subject to a
database of 30,000
others in the D50’s
on-board memory to
produce improved
exposures.

QUIBBLE
• LCD control panel has
no backlite. We hate
to squint.

P H O T O G R A P H B Y B U R C U AV S A R POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 39

PM UPGRADE W i s h L i st
Bright Idea
No more holding
the flashlight in your
teeth. Stanley’s new
MaxLife 369 Tripod flash-
light has legs that pop
out to form a stand, and an
articulating head to aim its LED
lamps anywhere in the room. You
also can adjust how long you
want that beam to last: It takes
up to nine AA batteries, which
will supply 200 hours of light.
$35; www.stanleytools.com
Cold Roller
Cranking out your own home-
made ice cream is a great way
to turn a guilty pleasure into an
irksome chore. That’s why we love
the Play and Freeze ice cream
ball. Fill one side with ice and the
other with ingredients, then roll it
around for 15 minutes (we bowled
with it) and out comes a pint of
heaven. $30; www.rei.com
Music in Miniature
We don’t care that the 1-in., rechargeable
mobiBLU Cube is the smallest MP3 player
on Earth. We do, however, care that the
price is right at $100 for 512MB and $130
for 1GB. We also care very deeply for the
AC T UA L S I Z E
42 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
bright, readable screen, the
smartly designed earphones
that hang the Cube around
your neck, and mostly, we
care for the rich, powerful
sound that comes from
this tiny machine. www
.walmart.com
W I L L I T B R E A K ?
This month we beat up on
that most useful of digital
devices, the PDA. Our
palmOne Tungsten E2
($230) was purchased off
the top of the Amazon.com
“top sellers” list.
WE DROPPED IT
We love the Tungsten E2’s
bright screen and Bluetooth
functionality, but that didn’t
stop us from dropping it 4 ft.
onto concrete. The Tungsten
sustained a few surface
scratches, but still worked.
WE STEPPED ON IT
Our 175-pound henchman gave
the Tungsten a hefty stomp,
but the flimsy-looking protec-
tive flip cover did its job. The
screen was undamaged, and
the Tungsten survived.
WE DROWNED IT
Water is a difficult challenge
for electronic devices, but we
believe in tough love, so we
tossed the Tungsten into a
bucket of aqua for 15 seconds.
The screen stayed on until we
fished it out. Oddly, 10 minutes
later, the Tungsten powered
itself on, then flickered on and
off all day. We gave it a week-
end to dry out and a fresh
charge for good measure—
and it worked perfectly!
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BURCU AVSAR
THE RESULT
Not only will the palmOne
Tungsten E2 keep all your
names, numbers and appoint-
ments organized, it won’t give
them up without a fight.
     
    


 
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PM UPGRADE W i s h L i st

Eggs Over Easy

Think of it as a toaster with an advanced degree in egg

sandwiches. The Back to Basics Egg & Muffin Toaster
can toast anything from bread to bagels, and its spe-
cial boiling compartment can poach an egg in 4 min-
utes and heat up precooked ham or bacon. Best of all,
the machine times the whole endeavor so that all the
elements to your breakfast sandwich are done at the
same time. $50; www.backtobasicsproducts.com

Hang Time

It doesn’t take a monumental

feat of engineering to hang up a
bathrobe, but we’re pleased to
see that somebody has injected
some fresh thinking into the
humble wall hook. The Clever
Hook, from Swedish company
Lindén, is actually two hooks in
one. It uses a lever action to grab
and hold whatever you wish to
hang. $10; www.lindenint.se

THE 5 MOST POINTLESS APPLICATIONS OF CARBON FIBER

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BURCU AVSAR (TOASTER, HOOK)

UNDERWOOD RÄZO RA54 BLACKBURN DYNAMIC COMPOSITES TITLEIST 62-IN. FOLDING

DESK ACCESSORIES SHIFT KNOB AIRTOWER 5 CF PUMP TOILET SEAT GOLF UMBRELLA
$1710 $65 $200 $229 $56

For the highly Even race-car With a carbon-fiber We’ll refrain from This tent on a stick
stressed executive, drivers don’t bother barrel and gauge speculating about could double as a
this carbon-fiber with carbon fiber on face, the AirTower the performance hang glider. Tell
desk set can the shift knob. Räzo inflates a tire to advantages of a your caddy to hold
withstand extreme weights its shifters, 100 psi in a speedy carbon-fiber toilet on tight to the strong
stock fluctuations then adds carbon 10 strokes, but so seat. Then again, at a carbon-fiber shaft
and intense fiber for the latest does its aluminum mere 3.5 pounds, its when it catches
scrutiny from board in contradictory counterpart, priced quick-lift time may a gust at Pebble
members. technology. at $99. prove critical. Beach.

44 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

PM UPGRADE A b u s i ve L a b Te st

UPSTART
Arborwear

Hard Workers
B

R
E
LT E C L ASS I C
S A N
D Original Tree
Carhartt Double Climbers
Front Logger $55
Why would we take perfectly good pants, gloves and Dungaree
$43
boots and subject them to harsh treatment using
everything from power tools to firearms? To find out
who’s tougher: the old standbys of the workwear
world, or the new kids on the block. B Y B E N H E W I T T

P A N T S

TOUGHNESS To test the durability of

these trousers, I fitted a belt sander with
50-grit and went straight for the knees.
UPSTART The verdict? Not surprisingly, Carhartt’s
Ironclad 15-ounce, unwashed canvas outlasted
General Utility
Arborwear’s 12-ounce, enzyme-washed
$20
fabric by nearly 5 seconds (12.2 to 7.6).
COMFORT Arborwear’s prewash
process made a lot more sense once
we put the power tools away. Stepping
into the Carhartts felt a bit like dressing
in plywood; the Arborwears delivered
comfort and mobility right off the rack.

B O O T S

W R
E E
E D K
W H A C

S
2

L
2 L
-C E
A L . S H

C L ASS I C
Wells Lamont
White Mule C L ASS I C UPSTART
$5 Justin Original Magnum Precision
Work Boots V-Lite WP CT Side Zip
$139 $100
G L O V E S
TOUGHNESS Both the Justins (steel toe)
TOUGHNESS My weed whacker got the better of both the General and Magnums (composite) survived a run-
Utility and White Mule gloves, shredding the former in a mere 6 over by my Toyota pickup. (I need a bigger
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BURCU AVSAR

seconds and the latter in just over 9. That’s right: The Mules, which truck.) Frustrated, I got out my .22 rifle and
cost a fraction of their competition, proved more hardcore. did some target practice.* Amazingly, the
COMFORT Not even close. The Ironclads, with their supple bullets bounced off. (I need a bigger gun.)
synthetic-leather palms, foam knuckle protection and terry cloth COMFORT The Justins feel like boots—
sweat ’n’ snot wipe, simply mopped the floor with the one-size-fits- heavy and protective. The Magnums, on
all, suede and canvas Mules. They fit so well that I was able to leave the other hand, feel like sneakers—light
them on while retrieving and hammering sixpenny finishing nails. and more breathable. Although I could
The Mules provided ample protection, but left me feeling ham-fisted. do without the silly side zippers.
* Uh … don’t try this at home.

46 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

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PM UPGRADE J a rgo n Wa tc h
tech terms you
need to know now
New innovations are changing the
language of personal computing. Here’s
your guide to the lingo. (Yes, there will
be a quiz.) B Y T I M O T H Y C A P T A I N
1 64-BIT
What it is: Most of the
chips in today’s computers
process 32 bits of data at
a time. Newer chips, like
AMD’s Athlon 64 series
or Intel’s Pentium D, are
designed to double that.
What it means to you: If
your processor takes bigger
bites of bits, then it can per-
form better with video- and
graphics-heavy applications
that place huge amounts
of data in your memory.
Plus, Windows Vista (due
out in 2006) will be based
on a 64-bit architecture.
2 PCI EXPRESS
What it is: Peripheral
Component Interconnect
(PCI) Express is an interface
for high-speed devices such
as gigabit networking cards
and graphics adapters.
What it means to you:
This high-speed socket lets
gamers and video enthusi-
asts plug in faster expan-
sion cards. But beware: PCI
Express components can
only be used with certain
motherboards, so check
your setup before buying.
48 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
6 S ATA
reflects ambient light.
What it means to you:
Transflective screens can
save power and improve
readability in bright rooms
and in the outdoors.
5 WA N
What it is: The term wide
area network can refer to
any connection between
two local area networks
(LANs), but the term is now
being used for wireless,
3 TRANSFLECTIVE high-speed Internet service
What it is: A type of LCD received by laptops with
(liquid-crystal display) cellular radio cards, such as
screen installed on some of the Sony’s VAIO T series.
the latest laptops that aug- What it means to you:
ments the backlighting of Wireless WAN is the first of
a traditional transmissive several technologies that
screen with a mirror that will give computer users a
7 D U A L- C O R E
4 WIRELESS-G
What it is: The most flexible of the Wi-Fi standards, Wireless-G
(aka 802.11g) offers 54Mbps bandwidth as well as 802.11a
and 802.11b compatibility. What it means to you: For now,
Wireless-G is the format of choice for streaming video around
a house. But it will be replaced by Wireless-N (802.11n) in late
2006, a protocol that promises five times the bandwidth.
I L L U S T R A T I O N S B Y F LY I N G - C H I L L I . C O M
taste of high-speed wire-
less Internet anywhere. For
now, it’s an expensive serv-
ice with patchy coverage.
What it is: An easier way
to connect hard drives
(and some CD/DVD drives)
inside your PC. Serial ATA
(Advanced Technology
Attachment) is a seven-wire
replacement for the bulky
80-wire parallel ATA con-
nection in older machines.
What it means to you:
SATA cables are faster and
less bulky, and provide a
direct connection between
each drive and the mother-
board. Pay attention to the
type of connection your
computer supports before
you buy a SATA drive. You
may need an adapter.
What it is: Dual-core chips
are essentially two proces-
sors (cores) on one chip.
This technology is available
from both AMD and Intel,
and it is ideal for multitask-
ing, since the cores can ex-
ecute different applications
concurrently. And, since
there’s not as much strain
on the individual cores, the
chip can run cooler. What
it means to you: Think of a
dual-core chip as a way to
double the workforce inside
your PC. Instead of having
one “employee” processing
Internet downloads, DVD
burning, music streaming
and so on, you can now
have two guys on the job.
 !DVERTISEMENT

GOODS
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 E x t re m e Fre e b i e UPGRADE PM

Four-Wheeler
Sweepstakes WIN THIS ATV!
There are places in the world where ordi- Enter the PM Sweepstakes for a
nary off-road vehicles fear to tread. That’s Kawasaki Brute Force 750 4x4i, from
the terrain Kawasaki’s Brute Force 750 eats Sept. 1 through Oct. 31, 2005.
for breakfast. It’s Kawi’s first 4x4 ATV with a
fully independent rear suspension—provid-
ing articulation and comfort out on the nas-
tiest paths. We recently tore through Mon-
tana trails on this powerhouse and loved it
so much we asked the folks at Kawasaki if
they would give one to one of our readers in
the latest POPULAR MECHANICS Sweepstakes.
From Sept. 1 through Oct. 31, 2005, view the
rules and enter at www.popularmechanics
.com/pmatv for your chance to win this
$7599 dirt demon. The sport ute Brute can
carry up to 264 pounds on its racks and tow
up to 1250 pounds—but it hauls on the trail,
too, with a big-bore 749cc V-twin and CVT
with downhill braking. Good luck!

A lightweight, fast-handling, compact rifle offers a welcome edge when tracking game in difficult terrain.
Sturm, Ruger gives you that edge with the New M77 Mark II Frontier Rifle. We’ve taken our popular Ruger
M77 Mark II Compact bolt action rifle and added a medium-weight, 16 1/2" precision hammer-forged
barrel and a new, fast-handling forward scope mounting barrel rib. Chambered in a range of today’s most
popular cartridges, including the powerful .300 WSM, the New Ruger M77 Mark II Frontier Rifle gives
new meaning to the word “handy.”

New Ruger M77 Mark II Frontier Rifle
M77FRBBZ MKII
.243 Win., 7mm-08 Rem., .300 WSM, .308 Win.
Suggested retail price of $799.00
(rings included, scope not included)
The New Ruger M77 Mark II Frontier Rifle features a black laminated-wood stock,
blued action, and stainless steel one-piece bolt. It includes patented Ruger scope rings to securely mount
an intermediate-eye-relief scope on the barrel rib. It also comes with a Weaver-style scope base adapter, providing
even more options to mount today’s advanced optics.
You’ll be amazed at how fast “eyes-open” target acquisition can be through a front-mounted intermediate-eye-
relief scope, and how easy it is to carry your compact new rifle “at the balance,” an impossibility with conventionally
mounted scopes. Shoulder a New Ruger M77 Mark II Frontier Rifle at your local retailer and see for yourself.

Southport, CT 06890, U.S.A. • www.ruger.com

All Ruger firearms are designed and built with pride by American workers
at Ruger factories in the United States of America.
FREE Instruction Manuals are available online at www.ruger.com
PM TECHNOLOGY G u e st E s say
H
Hollywood is in a panic over
digital entertainment on the Inter-
net. With a host of lawsuits and
regulatory actions—from the Digi-
tal Millennium Copyright Act to the
Grokster case—movie studios are
doing everything they can to shut
down file sharing. They say they’re
fighting piracy. But Hollywood has
more to fear than pirates: you.
I think the entertainment indus-
try is scared to death of amateur con-
tent, and wants to make life difficult
for amateurs and alternative dis-
tribution networks. That’s because
52 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
Watch Out
Hollywood
The entertainment industry’s
real threat isn’t piracy, it’s brother and I run a small
backyard Spielbergs armed with
digital moviemaking gear.
BY GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS
technology poses a threat that the We record in my brother’s basement
studios don’t know how to handle.
Producing a film or a record once of equipment. Another brother has
took rooms of expensive equipment
and armies of technicians. Getting video and posted it on the band’s
the finished product to the public
required billions of dol-
lars in infrastructure—
theaters, stores, radio and
TV stations. Now you can
make a movie or an album
at home, cheaply. I know—
I’ve done both. As for distri-
bution? Just hit Enter.
My wife is a filmmaker.
Her latest film, which cost
about $25,000 to produce,
would have cost close to
$1 million two decades
ago. She shot it with inex-
pensive digital cameras,
edited it with Apple’s Final
Cut Pro, and released it
on the Web, where it has
sold quite well. Her movie
has been screened in thea-
ters, and excerpts have
run on network television.
And it was made with gear
most anyone can afford.
Going further, I pro-
duced a 30-second TV ad
spot (mocking political
candidate ads on MTV’s
“Rock the Vote”) using the
video function of my digi-
tal still camera. I posted
it on my Web site and got
nearly 200,000 downloads
within a few days. Later, I
made a 15-minute docu-
mentary the same way: I
had it shot, edited and on
the Web within a weekend.
I also master music
CDs—on my computer. My
record label, for peanuts,
producing and distribut-
ing music for our bands
and those of our friends.
on a few thousand dollars’ worth
a band, Copper, that shot a music
Web site. It quickly generated tens
P H O T O I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y C J B U R T O N
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of thousands of downloads.
Copper streams its music, pro-
motes its shows and sells its
CDs on its site, too. Sure, the
band would be willing to sign
with a big record company, but
it’s doing far better on its own
than it could have a decade ago.
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We may be bigger media geeks
than most, but there’s nothing
special about my family—we’re
doing the same thing as millions
of other Americans. According
to analyst Chris Chute of IDC,
a market research firm, sales
of camcorders and editing soft-
ware have exploded: 4.7 mil-
lion digital camcorders were
sold in the United States in 2004,
and 11 million units were sold
MEANS OF PRODUCTION
YO U C A N S H O O T
P R O F E S S I O N A L - Q UA L I T Y
VIDEO FOR UNDER
$10,000
CAMERA: Sony’s HandyCam HDR-
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video industry standard, captures
digital video in a filmlike 1080i
hi-def resolution. It’s a prosumer
camera with emphasis on the pro.
EQUIPMENT: Lowel’s DVCore Tung-
ZPVSTFMG
EPXO
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SPBE
sten three-light kit ($950; www
.lowel.com) polishes your video
image. AudioTechnica’s 4073A
directional mic ($550; www
.audiotechnica.com) captures
clean sound free of the camera
noise that internal mics pick up.
COMPUTER: Macintosh Dual 2 GHz
G5 ($3800; www.apple.com).
Double everything to handle
memory-hungry HD video: two
400GB hard drives, 2GB RAM
and dual displays.
SOFTWARE: Final Cut Pro ($1000;
www.apple.com) now takes HD.
54 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
G u e st E s say
worldwide. The latest trend is
toward high-definition cameras.
Sony’s HDR-FX1, which sells for
$3700, is as popular with pros
as it is with amateurs.
For the past hundred years,
the major entertainment compa-
nies have controlled the means of
producing movies and records—
there’s a reason why the short-
hand for their business is “the
studios”—but now everyone can
afford the equipment. That means
the entertainment industry has to
rely on its talent base and, judg-
ing by recent releases, it doesn’t
have a monopoly on talent.
True, it’s not likely that ama-
teur content will compete head-
to-head with studio products.
Multiplex cinemas won’t be
YO U C A N S H O O T
EXCELLENT WEB VIDEO
FOR UNDER
$1000
CAMERA: The Canon ZR 100 video
camera (about $300) is light on
features and effects—editing
software does both better, and
with more control. And if you
drop it in the water shooting the
lost chapter of Jaws, your PA
can afford the replacement.
EQUIPMENT: Sennheiser MKE
300 external mic ($200; www
.sennheiserusa.com). Because
sound is half your movie.
COMPUTER: Any recent Windows
PC ($500 and up) will handle
relatively low-res video suited to
the Web. The Mac Mini ($500;
www.apple.com) has plenty of
power for basic movie editing.
SOFTWARE: Windows Movie
Maker 2 or Apple iMovie (both
free) gives you the control to
assemble your masterpiece.
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 G u e st E s say TECHNOLOGY PM

showing homemade movies its remaining trump card: distribution. short films and by acquiring DVD-on-
anytime soon, although the It’s too late to call back all those digital demand manufacturer CustomFlix.
success of 1999’s Blair Witch camcorders and computers, but it’s not Then there’s AtomFilms.com, ifilm
Project suggests that anything too late to make it harder for people .com and thelonelyisland.com, all of
is possible. But soon, people to share their work. We’ll probably see which distribute films directly, online.
may very well watch home- more lawsuits aimed at shutting down If the folks from Big Entertain-
made movies on their com- file sharing—and it wouldn’t surprise ment are smart, they’ll figure out how
puters—or even make them me if that’s just the first step in an effort to make money off this sort of thing,
themselves—instead of watch- to squeeze independent distribution instead of trying to sabotage it. Are they
ing seemingly endless pre- sites such as AtomFilms.com, even smart? Here’s a hint: Back in the 1970s,
views in a sticky-floored room though they don’t promote piracy. they opposed the introduction of VCRs.
full of strangers munching The problem for Hollywood is that Now, video sales and rentals are one of
overpriced snacks. Likewise, the lawyering may backfire. Under their major revenue streams. Maybe
few independently produced Grokster, sites that are promoted they’ve learned from that mistake. If
albums will go platinum, but purely as ways for people to share their not, they’ll have their work cut out for
for millions of record buyers, own work are safe; it’s sites that are them: Those millions of amateur Spiel-
homemade music may even- promoted as carrying pirated works bergs represent a market that someone
tually consume a big chunk of that are vulnerable. I think this will will serve—and a mass of voters that
their time and money. encourage the growth of truly inde- politicians will notice. The backyard
It’s the death of a thou- pendent Internet distribution. And video revolution has just begun. PM
sand cuts for the entertain- it is happening just as the technol-
ment industry, and it’s show- ogy gets good enough to support the Glenn Harlan Reynolds edits the online blog
instapundit.com. For more on low-cost movie-
ing in slumping big-label big files needed for movies. Amazon making and for links to content, go to
music sales and this year’s dis- .com is getting involved by streaming www.popularmechanics.com/diyfilm.
mal box office returns. What’s
more, the amateurs are in it
as much for fun as for money.
Tech guru Jonathan Peterson
says the problem is that the Big
Media companies still see audi-
ences strictly as consumers.
They don’t realize that many
members of their audience
want to create as well as con-
sume. “The quality of ‘amateur’
content is exploding at the
same time that Big Media com-
panies are going through one
of their all-time lows in music
and television creativity,” he
says. “No wonder we’re spend-
ing more time with our PCs
than we are with our TVs.”
The Supreme Court’s
recent ruling in the Grokster
case makes it easier for copy-
right holders to sue people
who deploy technologies that
can aid infringement. It may
encourage Hollywood to go
after companies that threaten

OCTOBER 2005 57
PM SCIENCE
The Whale Trackers
Whales have a surprising
ally in their struggle for
survival—a 200-ft. blimp.
BY JENNIFER BOGO
F
From my seat in the cockpit, I
scan the flat, gray-green waters of
Cape Cod Bay off the coast of Massa-
chusetts. Nothing but ripples. Then
I glance down at the panel of flight
controls. We’re at an altitude of 500
ft., moving at 35 knots, and, accord-
ing to the directional gyro, drifting
badly off course. I crank the control
yoke as far to the right as I can and
the 200-ft.-long aircraft eventual-
ly, almost imperceptibly, begins to
nose in that direction. My first les-
son as copilot of the Fuji airship is
that 247,000 cu. ft. of helium doesn’t
move anywhere very quickly.
The blimp is roughly the size of a
Boeing 747, but 500 mph slower and,
without ballast, lighter than air. This
58 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
makes it the perfect vehicle for study-
ing another behemoth: whales. Sev-
eral species of this marine mammal
are swimming dangerously close
to extinction, but without knowing
more about their behavior it’s diffi-
cult for scientists to help them recov-
er. It has never been easy to observe
whales. They don’t fit in a lab, and
in the wild they spend only about 3
percent of their time at the surface.
The 38-ft.-long gondola suspend-
ed beneath the airship’s gastight
COLLECTED UNDER MMPA ESA PERMIT #775-1600-5 ADVANCED IMAGING AND VISUALIZATION LABORATORY WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION (WHALE)
Top: The Fuji airship
is an ideal vessel for
carrying camera-
wielding scientists
over Cape Cod Bay.
Left: Using high-
resolution images,
researchers direct-
ed a crew freeing a
humpback whale
from fishing line.
envelope is packed
with cameras, record-
ers, laptops and cables.
I have to step carefully around them
once I relinquish the controls. By
hovering quietly in the blimp, sci-
entists armed with state-of-the-art
equipment are finally able to peer
into whales’ elusive world.
THINKING BIG
“Whale!” shouts Eryn Wezensky,
a marine biology contractor for
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu-
tion. “At 2 o’clock!” I scramble to her
side. Bill Lange, a research specialist
P H O T O G R A P H S B Y R I TA L E I S T N E R
 





























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PM SCIENCE Blimp
at Woods Hole, dives track the health and behavior of whale populations.
under the hoods shielding
three camera monitors.
Cinematographer Alison
Kelly, who is kneeling
in front of a window
while hefting a 50-pound
camera, homes in on the
animal with her lens.
We have been sailing
smoothly above the plank-
ton-rich waters off Prov-
incetown, Mass., because
whales feed here in sum-
mer. Sure enough, a 50-ft.
humpback glides beneath
us, white pectoral flippers
stark against its dark gray
Cphk]\^f
side. The whale breaches
the surface, spurts vapor
from its blowhole, and
then disappears in a flash
of tail fluke and bubbles.
The marine drama lasts only
moments, but the fluke’s unique pat-
tern, which will identify the whale
later, has already been caught on
tape. So has data that will be fed
into a mathematical model to calcu-
late the whale’s length and girth—
information crucial to monitoring
the health of the population. This is
captured by three camera lenses—a
central 25x zoom and two calibrat-
ed outer lenses—mounted on a rig
under the ship. Lange operates them
from inside. A fifth camera, sunk
60 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
A ROOM WITH A VIEW
Data gathered from the blimp allows scientists to
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in the floor of the gondola, records
everything that passes below.
We move from window to win-
dow, trying to guess where the
humpback will surface next. All I
can see is the blimp’s oblong shadow
trailing across the water. “The last
thing we want to do as we’re observ-
ing whales is to change their behav-
ior,” Wezensky tells me, “so we try to
keep the shadow away from them. If
we’re on top of an animal, we won’t
usually drop below 750 ft.”
Sixteen minutes tick by and then
the whale breaches.
“Nine o’clock!” Wezen-
sky shouts. Two whale-
watching boats, which
first alerted us to the
animal’s location, accel-
erate into a frothy,
Research specialist Bill
Lange designs camera
systems for deep-sea
research—a skill he
now applies to the
underside of an airship.
I L L U S T R A T I O N B Y F LY I N G - C H I L L I . C O M
sweeping circle to get a
better view. The blimp
pilots simply use the rud-
ders to gracefully rotate
the craft in midair.
The blimp, Lange says,
behaves a lot like a sub-
marine, which is why he is
the mastermind behind its
$750,000 scientific pay-
load. Lange’s laboratory
at Woods Hole normally
designs imaging systems
for deep-sea research, and
has outfitted submers-
ibles, such as the Alvin;
navy vessels like the Sea
Cliff; and the Mir sub-
mersibles from Russia.
“We realized that all the
engineering we’ve been
doing to make the camera
systems smaller, lighter
and more easily controlled remotely
was very applicable to the airship,”
Lange says. Fuji agreed to donate the
blimp for a few weeks each year and
“all of a sudden we were able to col-
lect images that no one had collect-
ed before and document behaviors
previously undocumented.”
“Each time we go up,” Lange says,
“we see something new. And because
the blimp is so well instrumented, we
can document what we see and bring
it back. There just isn’t room to carry
the marine mammal experts that we
need up in the airship, so we collect
imagery that they can look at when
they have time or need for it.”
RECORDING FAST
The pilots throttle up and soon Prov-
incetown drops below the horizon.
Now it is my turn to shout: “Four-
thirty!” Cruising 30 ft. under the
surface is the sleek, brown-and-
white-mottled body of a 50-ft. fin
whale. Five lenses train on the ani-
mal as it leisurely weaves back and
forth, straining plankton through its
PM SCIENCE Blimp
several hundred plates of baleen.
We can move leisurely, too,
which is where the airship has
a real advantage over other
research vessels. Pilots can angle
the craft into the wind (match-
ing the wind speed with the for-
ward airspeed of the blimp’s two
255-hp 6-cylinder turbocharged
Porsche engines), swivel the pro-
peller vectors to maintain altitude
with upward thrust and hover
unobtrusively for up to 12 hours.
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) surveys whales with
fixed-wing aircraft, but its Twin
Otters must refuel after only
about half that time. And because
the planes have to maintain an
airspeed of 100 knots, pilots must
execute tight banking maneuvers
to keep an animal in sight. That
makes photography difficult,
and can also disturb the whales.
The blimp, by contrast, offers
a stable, slow-moving platform
for cameras that record 30 to
60 frames per second in digi-
tal, high-definition HDCAM
and HDCAM SR format. Each
still is the equivalent of a 35mm
motion picture frame. (George
Lucas used HDCAM SR to shoot
the latest Star Wars movie.)
High-definition images come
in especially handy when trying
to distinguish fishing lines on an
entangled animal. Two years ago,
researchers helped a boat-based
disentanglement crew free a
humpback with trussed flippers.
Because researchers aboard the
blimp can see an animal before it
actually surfaces, they were able
to tell the two-man Zodiac crew
via marine VHF radio not only
which lines to cut, but exactly
where to position the boat.
Populations of many whale
species can’t sustain losses caused
62 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
by ship strikes and entanglements.
Humpback and fin whales are
both endangered, and—accord-
ing to a recent study in the jour-
nal Science—at current mortality
rates the population of 300 north-
ern right whales won’t survive the
century. Gathering information
that might help better manage
them is a race against time.
“We’ve been studying these
animals for more than 30 years
and know so very little about
them,” says Jeff Foster, a marine
biologist with Marine Research
Consultants, who observed
northern right whales from the
blimp last winter in Florida. “Now
we’ve come up with a way to get
answers to the questions we’ve
been asking for so long.”
Scientists aboard the blimp
have begun to document how
whales interact with shipping ves-
sels, recreational boats and fish-
ing gear, for instance. They’re also
observing other marine animals,
such as basking sharks and bot-
tlenose dolphins. “The research
applications are pretty much
limitless,” Foster says. “We’re just
scratching the surface.”
After 6 hours of scanning for
tail flukes and flippers, we turn
the blimp toward the airfield and
slowly glide back. I lean out the
window into the cold cape air and
see one last creature: an osprey
swooping underneath the ship,
fishing for dinner. In a few days,
the Fuji blimp will sail on to New
York, where it will cast its giant
shadow on Yankees games and
the beach at Coney Island.
Eventually, it will keep on
going, and in Florida may once
again catch up with the whales.
The marine giants will be calving
in the warm coastal waters, and
scientists hope to hover above
them in the airship to watch. PM
 b y P M ’ s A u t o E d i t o r s

2 0 0 6

T R U C K S
+
o f
Welcome to PM’s inaugural Automotive Excellence awards t h e
After driving hundreds of thousands of miles in well over 100
different new cars, trucks and SUVs, we’ve developed some likes,
some dislikes and—let’s face it—some pretty serious crushes. Here
are the cars we’re truly passionate about, one in each of eight
year
categories. Plus: the year’s top tech breakthroughs and our thumbnail
reviews of the rest of 2006’s most notable new models.

p h o t o g r a p h s b y M a t t h e w W e l c h

C A T E G O R Y  Why the Pontiac

Fun to Drive Solstice wins the Fun
to Drive category:
Pontiac Since the demise of the
Solstice iconic Firebird (Bandit,
where are you now?),
Pontiac hasn’t really hit
the fun spot. Face it, the
highly touted GTO was
a bust. But this modern
interpretation of the
classic roadster is a grin-
making machine. There’s
just enough engine power
to force you through all
the short-throw gears,
and handling and braking
are, well, superb.
Pontiac was once the
adrenaline division of
General Motors. But there
have been precious few
endorphins popping these
past few years. Solstice
brings excitement back
to the self-proclaimed
excitement brand with

POPULAR MECHANICS 65
 such innovations as Why the Honda
a huge, hydroformed Ridgeline wins
clamshell hood, chassis- the Functionality
stiffening hydroformed category: Leave it to
frame and heavy-duty those clever rascals
mechanicals lifted at Honda to make
wholesale from the common pickup
Cadillac CTS parts bin. truck beliefs obsolete.
Plus, the Solstice has Despite what many
styling that guarantees truck traditionalists
it will be noticed. may think, the
The Solstice is a true, Ridgeline is a real
traditional, two-seat pickup. It can haul the
roadster. It comes but requisite half a ton of
one way: with a manual stuff—and the five
roof and a 177-hp guys needed to load
2.4-liter four-cylinder and unload it. With its
engine. There is a choice unibody construction
of a five-speed manual and fully independent
or optional five-speed suspension, it rides
automatic transmission. so smoothly that the
All that and change back stuff and the guys are
awards

from your $20,000 bill. none the worse for

Base price: $19,995. wear at the end of the
day. More than that,
CARS

the Ridgeline also has

excellence

C A T E G O R Y  Why the H3 wins the Off-Road category: The H3 is a unique, innovative and
Off-Road normal-size SUV that delivers the inimitable Hummer truly useful touches
style and capability to the masses. Since the H3 is more like a lockable tailgate
PM Hummer nimble than its bigger brethren, it’s actually better that both drops and
H3 than them on tight 4wd trails. The H3 packs thousands swings open, and a
of dollars’ worth of hardcore 4wd equipment into storage bin beneath
N E W
automotive

an affordable package. The base model has serious the cargo bed floor
skidplates, class-leading recovery hooks and 32-in. tires. The Adventure package that’s deep and wide.
brings a locking rear diff and 33-in. tires. There are two 4wd systems: One has a The cargo bed itself is
2.64:1 Low range; the other a 4.03:1. There’s only one engine, though: a 220-hp five- made of durable steel-
cylinder. We sure do wish it had another 50 hp; the engine sometimes feels challenged reinforced composite.
by the H3’s 4700 pounds. The H3 has 29.5 cu. ft. of cargo capacity, a 4500-pound tow There’s only one
rating and a choice of five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission. On the powertrain: a 255-
street, the H3 rides and handles better than most GM SUVs. Base price: $29,500. hp V6, five-speed
automatic and awd.
Any quibbles? Okay,
it’s not a powerhouse.
And the Ridgeline’s
looks are a matter of …
taste. But how many
other pickups out there
offer a nav system with
voice commands? Like
others on the market,
the crew cab Ridgeline
has a 5-ft.-long cargo
box, a 1549-pound
payload and a 5000-
pound tow rating.
Base price: $28,215.

66 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

C A T E G O R Y 
Functionality

H o n d a R i d ge l i n e

67
 awards

C A T E G O R Y 
Design
CARS

Mercedes-Benz CLS 500/55

excellence

PM
Why the CLS wins the
C A T E G O R Y  Design category: Did
N E W

Safety you look at it? To us, it’s

automotive

a rolling metal sculpture

Hyundai Sonata of a racing greyhound
or a thoroughbred. The
Why the Sonata wins the Safety category: Since Hyundai first started long wheelbase mimics
selling cars in the States, it has been finding ways to take it to the expensive legs stretched out front
brands. First it was price. Then it was warranty. Now it is safety. Yes, you read and rear, the nose low,
right. This is a genuinely affordable, five-passenger, front-drive family car straining for the finish
for everyman that comes equipped from the factory with safety equipment line. The CLS is essentially
that used to be the private reserve of cars costing twice as much. While it’s a four-passenger sedan
available with a choice of engines and transmissions, and several trim levels, built off the more staid
there’s one critical common denominator: All have antilock brakes, stability E-Class’s chassis. It just
and traction control, and six airbags. Standard. Across the board. The happens to have a very
cavernous passenger cabin is merely icing on the cake. Base price: $18,495. special wrapper. There
are two models: the
CLS 500 with a 302-hp
V8 and seven-speed
automatic, and the CLS
55 AMG with a 469-hp
V8 and five-speed auto-
matic. And, okay, the
high belt line means small
side windows. And that
sweeping roof profile
results in less headroom.
Honestly, who cares? We
don’t. This car screams
forward motion and will
always rate a parking
valet’s favored spot.
68 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS Base price: $65,675.
 C A T E G O R Y 
Energy Efficiency

To y o t a H i g h l a n d e r H y b r i d
Why the Highlander
Hybrid wins the Energy
Efficiency category:
Here’s a vehicle that’s
capable of raising the
C A T E G O R Y 
bar for environmental
Luxury
responsibility and fuel
economy in a class not
exactly known for either Infiniti
quality. We’re talking M35/M45
about a seven-passenger,
awd crossover SUV that Why the M35/M45 wins the Luxury category: Brand-new five-passenger luxury
is rated to get 31 mpg sedans are as commonplace as painted faces at a World Cup final. So what’s the big
in city driving and 27 deal? It’s in the details. And Infiniti’s M duo out-details even the most sophisticated
mpg on the highway. German luxemobiles. Both the M35 and the more powerful, better-equipped M45
Front-drive models come with, or can be optioned with, seemingly every luxury amenity and convenience
do even better: 33 known to man or machine. Plus, the cars have a build quality that’s good enough to
city/28 highway. That’s embarrass some well-known, old-school European luxury makers. But the M goes
econobox territory, folks. further by delivering its luxury with some real driving élan for those who want it.
But the Highlander In M35 form, with its 280-hp V6 engine, the car has a very capable performance

automotive
Hybrid has the ability envelope. Pony up for the M45 with its sweet V8, and you’ve got yourself a serious
to carry several people road burner. Both have five-speed automatics with such niceties as manual shift and
and tow 3500 pounds. automated rev matching on downshifts. Though these are rear-drive cars, the M35

N E W
No econobox dare tread offers awd. Then there’s the M’s futuristic-yet-retro styling that cuts a swath through
on that ground. the gray sea of luxury sedans. M35 base price: $41,250; M45 base price: $47,560.
The Highlander

excellence
has a 3.3-liter 206-hp
V6 engine mated C A T E G O R Y  PM
with Toyota’s Hybrid Performance
Synergy Drive. With

CARS
its unprecedented, Chevrolet Corvette ZO6
simple mechanical/

awards
electrical integration, Why the Corvette wins the Performance category: Here’s steam-catapult
Synergy Drive sets the acceleration and race-car handling for less than half the price of a red car with an
current standard for Italian name and similar performance. And it’s right there at your local Chevy dealer.
gas/electric vehicles. God bless America. The new ZO6 even undercuts the Dodge Viper by almost 20
This is essentially the grand. The Corvette ZO6 has a sophisticated and brutally strong 7.0-liter pushrod
same system used in V8 engine that develops 505 hp, which makes this the least expensive ticket into the
the green-car poster exclusive 500-hp club. With its six-speed manual, superbly balanced, lightweight
child, Prius. To make chassis—all-aluminum frame and carbon-fiber fenders—and rear drive, this Corvette
the Highlander Hybrid is the match of any superexotic sports car on any road at any time. But despite
a real crossover SUV, its track-blistering potential, the ZO6 provides the everyday practicality that is
Toyota engineers gave unmatched by its competitors, save for the Porsche 911 Turbo. It can carry two
it all-wheel drive with a with 22 cu. ft. of their essentials in the trunk. Base price: $65,800.
dedicated electric motor
that provides power to
the rear wheels. This is
a neat, clean solution
that doesn’t have the
weight or complexity of
mechanical awd setups.
All of this without any
outward signs, except
the badge on the back.
Base price for the
front-drive: $33,595;
the awd: $34,995.

POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 71

 tech
M A R C H E S
Evolution, not revolution, marks 2006 automotive tech-
nology—including more refined engines, transmission
innovations, stiffer frames and sleeker bodies.
Engines
As some engineers continue their
quest for the holy grail of endless
energy, others prove there’s
still lots of life in the internal-
combustion engine.
At GM, the pushrod engine
reaches new levels. The 3.9-liter
V6, as used in the Impala, has
variable valve timing and is due to
get cylinder disabling to improve
economy. All this with a single
CARS
camshaft in the block and two
valves per cylinder. Then there’s
the naturally aspirated 7.0-liter
LS7 V8 in the ZO6 Corvette with
PM
505 hp and 470 lb.-ft. of torque.
Toyota, which focuses on
N E W
overhead camshaft designs, has
introduced an engine with two
fuel-injection systems. The 3.5-
liter V6 in the Lexus IS 350 has
conventional intake-port injection
as well as advanced direct
injection (DI). The DI helps both
economy and emissions. The port
injection adds fuel during low-
load conditions to enhance air-fuel
mixing without the complications
of manifold flaps or power-limiting
intake-port butterflies.
Chrysler Group, Hyundai and
Mitsubishi have all collaborated on
a four-cylinder engine design. All
versions have variable valve timing
and a 360-degree bellhousing, but
differ in some details. As used in
the still-to-come Dodge Caliber,
the 170-hp 2.4-liter has an intake
manifold with equal-length paths
to each port and flap valves that
control airflow and create air
“tumble” into the combustion
chambers for better fuel mixing.
72 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
O N
Essentially two manual boxes in one
case, the DSG uses two clutches for
automatic, six-speed shifting.
Transmissions
Rather than join the Continuously
Variable Transmission (CVT)
club, Volkswagen uses a small,
inexpensive, six-speed dual-clutch
transmission (DSG) in the Audi
A3. Its inner workings are visible
in the photo (above). Actually,
it’s like two manual transmissions
in a single housing. In effect, it’s
an automatic with better fuel
efficiency than a torque converter
automatic, CVT or a regular
manual.
How it works, essentially, is
by directing engine power into a
damper housing with two multidisc
clutch packs in it, each attached
to a separate transmission input
shaft. The clutch packs and shafts
are in line: A solid shaft goes
through a hollow shaft. The solid
shaft extends past the hollow
one so each input shaft can cover
different gears (odd numbers and
Reverse on one, even numbers on
the other). The gears on each shaft
mesh with gears on one of the two
output shafts. An electronically
controlled hydraulic valve body
executes shifts by engaging the
appropriate gear on one of the
output shafts. Reverse is on its
own shaft, as with a manual
transmission. Each shift occurs
while the powertrain is still running
in the previous gear. Engaging the
appropriate clutch pack smoothly
completes the shift.
Body Building
All vehicles are only as good as they
are built, so makers put as much
effort into manufacturing as they
do into design and engineering.
To make the sculpted sheetmetal
panels for the Solstice, GM uses
a process called “sheetmetal
hydroforming” with one die instead
of two. A rectangular frame presses
the perimeter of a metal panel
against the rim of a water-filled
tank. A die presses the panel
against the water and shapes it
to the desired form. This means
complex curves in a single panel
with minimal surface blemishes.
At Mazda, to ensure the
necessary rigidity for a rattlefree,
crisp-handling MX-5, engineers
used structural plates to tie the
A-pillars and dash, and behind the
seats at both B-pillars. Cross-car
plates are integrated into a fore-
aft structural framing plate on
the transmission tunnel. There’s
an underbody X-brace across the
transmission tunnel, and a front
Y-brace connects the frame rails.
—Paul Weissler
Sheetmetal hydroforming
process stamps body panels
with only a single male die.
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 new car
NOW, IN A
D odge Charger
Fo r ge t a l l t h a t
business about
old names on new
DEALERSHIP NEAR YOU cars and two doors
versus four. The Charger is very
Our award winners aren’t the only noteworthy models cool and we really like it. Between
this year. Here’s a roundup of the best of the rest. its macho good looks and avail-
Note that all prices are for base versions, including able Hemi power, the new Char-
ger is one desirable car. Beneath
destination charges, and are correct as we go to press. its skin is essentially the same rear-
But, as the ads say, “prices are subject to change.” drive chassis as the Chrysler 300
and Dodge Magnum, so what can
be bad? Well, the Charger’s interi-
or, actually. It’s just too bland for a
Audi A3 Chevrolet HHR car that generates so much visceral
The people at Audi It really doesn’t excitement. Base price: $22,995.
designed the little A3 matter that this
sport wagon to feel seems to be a PT Ford Explorer
and drive the way Cruiser clone. The The revamped nose
more expensive Audis do. Unlike HHR is a likable little wagon. It’s o n Fo rd ’ s b e s t -
with those upscale models, howev- pleasant around town. It’s solid and selling SUV hints
er, look under the hood and you’ll quakefree over the roughest roads. at major changes
find only a 2.0-liter turbocharged Since the HHR tips the scales at over beneath the skin. A new 4.6-liter
Four. Keep looking and you’ll spot 4000 pounds, a base engine with V8 ups power by 53 hp, and, along
either a six-speed manual or Audi’s only 143 hp doesn’t offer a whole lot with a six-speed automatic, brings
CARS

innovative dual-clutch DSG manu-
matic transmission. In all, the A3
is a willing, confidence-inspiring
partner on the twistiest roads.
Base price: $25,460.
PM
Bentley Flying Spur
Now t h a t B r i t -
N E W
of go. The optional 172-hp engine is
adequate. More than adequate is
the interior’s utility, just like the …
oh, let’s not mention the PT Cruiser
again. Base price: $15,990.
Chevrolet Impala and
needed oomph. The Explorer’s
frame is much stouter than before.
This stiffer platform allowed Ford
engineers to revise front and rear
suspensions for better ride and han-
dling and also create a third row of
seats that stows flat in the floor.
Also, towing capacity is higher, at

Monte Carlo
ish luxur y auto- C h e v y ’ s I mp a l a 7300 pounds. Base price: $27,175.
mobiles are actu- and its sibling,
ally German, the the Monte Carlo Ford Fusion
cars are better. Case in point: VW’s coupe, get new A s t h e Ta u r u s
ownership of Bentley gives us the engines—including a V8 and a slides slowly into
carved-from-an-anvil Flying Spur. very trick 3.9-liter V6. All are still fleet-service oblivi-
This behemoth goes from 0 to 60 mated to a four-speed automatic. To on, Ford has an all-
mph in 4.9 seconds while practi- go along with some more modern new sedan to claw for some of the
cally drowning its occupants in sheetmetal on the outside, the interi- pie currently owned by the Toyota
opulence. Base price: $165,000. ors sport better materials and clean- Camry and Honda Accord. Named
er shapes. Base price: $21,990. the Fusion, the front-driver is nearly
identical to its competitors in terms
of interior and exterior size. Ford
hopes that features like a six-speed
automatic and a very quiet passen-
ger cabin will help draw custom-
ers. Power is from either an anemic
160-hp 2.3-liter Four or a more
competitive 221-hp 3.0-liter V6.
While we’re sold on the Fusion’s
over-the-road manners, we’re not
quite sure about its looks, which
are disjointed to our eyes. Maybe
the coming Mercury Milan and Lin-
C a d i ll a c DTS coln Zephyr versions will be more
The last Cadillac passenger car with a name finally gets with the three-letter appealing. Base price: $17,795.
naming program as the DeVille is rechristened the DTS. Accompanying the new
name is a whole new front—fenders to headlights. At the rear, quarter panels,
decklid, fascia and LED taillights are new, too. The instrument panel is rede-
signed and lowered. Door panels are cast in soft urethane. Base price: $41,990.

74 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

 Hyundai Accent
Small and inexpen-
sive doesn’t have
to equal cramped
and cheesy. Take
the new Accent: It rides on a wheel-
base that’s 2 in. longer than its
predecessor for more legroom. It’s
2 in. longer overall, 1 in. wider
and 3 in. taller than before. Besides
more room and a bigger trunk,
that means a more comfortable
ride. The 1.6-liter 110-hp generates
fine-enough performance for a
car that weighs just 2400 pounds.
Pricing not yet announced.
H y u n d a i A ze ra
Hyundai insists on
playing with the
big boys and that
means a car with
drool power. Enter the Azera. This
XG 350 replacement comes to the
CARS
show with more power than Ford’s
large car, the Five Hundred sedan
(not hard), and more room inside
than a current Mercedes-Benz S-
Class (not easy). Pricing not yet
announced.
Land Rover
Range Rover Sport
Even though the
Range Rover Sport
shares all the per-
tinent bits of the
Land Rover LR3’s chassis and drive-
train, it’s a completely different
vehicle. Bodywork is lower. Ride
height is lower. Tire profiles are low-
er. The Sport’s forte is burning the
tarmac as a high-speed, all-weath-
er tourer. But here’s the cool part:
Since it’s a Land Rover, it retains
its composure off-road, thanks
to a suspension with seven dif-
ferent profiles. Base price: $56,750.
Lexus IS 250/350
The Lexus IS 300
was a good sport
sedan; it just was
not a ver y good
Lexus. Enter the all-new IS with the
refinement and poshness expect-
ed of any car named Lexus. Bigger
and roomier than the IS 300, the
new IS uses a version of the rear-
drive GS sedan’s chassis. Choose
from two engines, a 204-hp 2.5-liter
V6 (IS 250) and a 306-hp 3.5-liter
V6 (IS 350). The IS 250 comes with
a six-speed manual or six-speed
automatic; awd is available. We’d
opt for the IS 350. The V6 comes
only with a six-speed automatic
and shoots the sedan to 60 mph in
about 5.6 seconds. The IS 350, with
its battery of stability-enhancing
systems, makes the most ham-fisted
drivers heroes on twisty mountain
roads. Price: $30,000, est.

YOU’RE PROBABLY NOT on a first-name

PM
basis with Malcolm Bricklin, but you are in
daily contact with his work. Bricklin brought us
Subaru. (He also gave us Yugo.) Now the mav-
N E W

erick importer intends to bring cars from China

to his Visionary Vehicles showrooms by 2007.
Bricklin plans to sell Chinese-built cars for 30 to
40 percent less than similarly equipped models.
Whether Bricklin will be successful in his
venture remains to be seen. What is certain,
however, is that there will be Chinese cars on
our roads—soon. Jim Hall, vice president of
Industry Analysis for AutoPacific, an industry
consultant, says, “The first Chinese car will be
here in late 2006 or early 2007.” Hall sees a
Chery’s facilities are modern and efficient.
number of possible kinds of vehicles. “They’ll
be high-volume types: a midsize sedan, a cross-
over SUV or a small, low-price sedan. Perhaps
THE
china
all three.” As for price, Hall joins the chorus. “They’ll be much cheaper than
North American cars. And appreciably cheaper than Korean models.”
The Chinese auto industry is both young and well funded. The factories—
like the Chery Automobile plant seen here—have the newest types of tooling
SYNDROME and machinery. Computer-guided and precise, the presses and assemblers are
Get ready for the next the equal of any in the world. This quality, combined with the fact that the aver-
age Chinese auto worker takes home less than $3 an hour, makes for a potent
wave of imports.
threat to the established makers. Chinese manufacturers are not shy about
picking up look-alike designs that nearly mimic today’s best sellers. Chery,
Bricklin’s partner, has copied some cars so closely that GM is taking it to court,
claiming that Chery’s QQ model infringes on one of its designs. —Jim Dunne

76 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

 L e x u s G S 3 0 0 /4 3 0 M a zd a M X- 5
Tell t he Bavar i- Mazda’s little roadster that was Miata is now simply the MX-5. And despite
ans to move it on appearances, it is all new—nothing is shared with the previous generation.
over. Lexus has What is unchanged is the fun quotient. The engine has grown to 2.0 liters,
unleashed a seri- the roadholding and brakes are superb and the pedals are easy to heel-and-
ously sexy and fun-to-drive luxu- toe in proper racing fashion. Bonuses: It’s wider for more room inside and
ry sedan, the GS. Bigger than its the convertible top is easier to one-hand up and down. Base price: $20,995.
predecessor, the new GS sits on a
revised suspension. Better, the GS
300 gets a new 245-hp 3.0-liter
V6 backed by a six-speed auto-
matic and optional awd. The GS
430 makes do with a 300-hp V8
and rear drive. The GS 300 has a
taut ride and crisp response wor-
thy of any German sedan. The 430
has reflexes sharper than any Navy
jet jockey’s. Base price: $43,550.

Lexus RX 400h
At its heart, the
hybrid RX 400h
has essentially the
same V6 as t he
RX 330. However, in the 400h, the
V6 is supplemented by three elec-
CARS

tric motors. One starts the engine,
serves as a generator to recharge
the battery pack and adds power
as needed. A second produces 167
hp and drives the front wheels.
PM
The motor at the rear axle provides
power for the rear wheels. Result?
The awd RX 400h steps right out
N E W
the M-Class, it’s a refined, awd S a a b 9 -7 X
crossover cruiser, not a boulder- Here’s yet anoth-
bashing bruiser. Three rows of er version of the
leather bucket seats mean seating Chevy TrailBlazer.
for six. Base price: $48,775. But this one has
Saab touches, like the ignition
Mitsubishi Eclipse switch mounted between the front
seats. Despite the trappings, we

and passes with ease. And we aver-
aged better than 30 mpg in mixed
driving. Base price: $49,060.
Mercedes-Benz M-Class
The redone M-
Class has sprout-
ed a badly needed
4 in. of wheelbase.
Choose either the V6-powered
ML350 or the better-equipped V8
ML500. Regardless, when waddling
through cratered tracks, wading
down a mountain stream or clam-
bering up a steep bank, the M shows
its mettle. Base price: $40,525.
Mercedes-Benz R-Class
Star t wit h t he
basics of what’s
under the M-Class
and cap it wit h
a svelte body inspired by the CLS
and you get the essence of the
new Mercedes-Benz R350 and
R500. Though the R-Class shares
its Alabama assembly line with
This is a reason-
ably good imper-
sonation of a true
sports car. It cor-
ners flat, and, with the optional
V6, accelerates briskly. But the new
Eclipse lacks that telepathic con-
nection with the driver that sepa-
rates a good sporty coupe, which it
is, from something exceptional, like
Mitsubishi’s own Evo. Both the GS
and GT models have a fresh, mod-
ern interior. Base price: $19,994.
P o r s c h e C a r r e r a 4 /4 S
It ’s getting to
the point where
Porsche may have
more variations on
its Carrera than Starbucks does on
latte. The newest are the awd Carre-
ra 4 and 4S Coupes. Surprise: With
all the wheels getting some power
to the ground, the cars’ roadhold-
ing is even more competent than
your standard, rear-drive Carreras’.
Well, duh. Base price: $77,895.
knew we were driving a truck-based
SUV. Base price: $40,000, est.
Subaru Forester
With a scoshe
more power under
its hood and a
little more room
beneat h its c hassis, Subar u’s
Forester is refreshed and refined.
This is still a spunky and slightly
funky little SUV. It’s affordable, too.
Base price: $22,390.
S u b a r u B 9 Tr i b e c a
This variation on
the Legacy theme
pegs the refine-
ment needle. The
totality of the vehicle is such that it
could wear a prestigious hood orna-
ment. The B9 Tribeca carries five
or seven passengers and soaks up
bumps silently, yet it still provides
a confident feel during spirited
driving. Base price: $31,320.

FOR MORE ON NEW CARS, VISIT

www.popularmechanics.com/carguide
78 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

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FUELING
FUTURE
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y F LY I N G - C H I L L I . C O M
Imagine driving your car for
months without refilling your gas tank, power-
ing your home with the energy of ocean waves,
or running a laptop computer on electricity
generated by your jacket. For anyone facing a
gas pump that reads $2.50 for a gallon of regu-
lar, or looking ahead to the prospect of record
heating oil costs this winter, such visions of
energy utopia might seem far off. But today’s
worrisome energy situation contains a silver
lining. Rising prices, increased awareness and
new government policies are driving energy
innovation to new levels.
Some of these breakthroughs will take
years to reach their full potential. Others are
virtually ready to roll. Will we ever reach a
state of infinite energy? In a strict sense, no.
There is certainly a finite amount of oil in the
Earth. And even the hydrogen that powers
the sun will start to run low in, oh, about 5
80 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
THE
BY KRISTIN ROTH
billion years. Barring a sudden leap in fusion
reactor technology (see page 83), there won’t
be one new source of energy that solves our
problems in a blinding flash. Instead, progress
in meeting humanity’s energy needs will come
from a combination of cutting-edge technolo-
gies. Solar, wind, wave and other alternative
energy sources will play a part. So will improved
efficiencies as modern technology learns to do
more with less.
The five bold ideas outlined here will help
ease the pressure on fossil fuels. Each is relative-
ly near implementation, and will pave the way
for further breakthroughs in production and
efficiency. It won’t happen overnight, but the
pace of change is accelerating as scientists,
industry and consumers focus on the problem—
and its solutions. Because, in the end, while the
sources of energy might be finite, the human
capacity for innovation is not.
WITH THE OUTLOOK FOR OIL UNCERTAIN, IT’S TIME FOR NEW IDEAS.
HERE ARE FIVE EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES–FROM BUOYS
THAT HARNESS THE POWER OF WAVES TO BACTERIA THAT EXTRACT ELECTRICITY FROM
WASTEWATER. TOGETHER THEY CAN KEEP THE WORLD HUMMING.
 WIND
Payoff: “In a region that’s borderline
as to whether or not it’s worth it to install a
turbine”—that is, places where average wind
speeds are less than 11 mph or so—“this con-
troller could make all the difference,” Knight
says. A study he conducted at the Edmon-

ENERGY ton International Airport indicates that

his team’s system could increase a small
turbine’s energy production by 50 percent

CONTROLLER over a three-month period. That means a

6-ft.-dia. turbine could produce 24 kilowatt-

PREVIOUS SPREAD: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY DIMITRIS LADOPOULOS, PHOTOGRAPH BY DALE WILSON/MASTERFILE (FUEL GAUGE)
hours (kwh) a day. The standard U.S. house-
Don’t live in the Windy City? You don’t hold uses 35 kwh a day.
have to. A small turbine could still pro- What It Would Take: The convert-
er and controller, which contain fewer elec-
vide half your home’s electricity, thanks
tronic components than comparable devic-
to a simple twist on a standard device. es on large-scale wind farms, are designed
How It Works: In a small-scale wind to be an inexpensive retrofit for stand-alone
turbine, the wind rotates the turbine, which turbines. Add an inverter to change the bat-
spins the generator, which produces AC tery’s DC voltage back to AC, and homeown-
voltage. But because the wind speed is vari- ers could sell surplus electricity to the grid.
able, the voltage is also variable and may be Not So Fast: Even a small-scale
too low to be stored in batteries or fed into turbine requires a reasonably clear site so
the grid. Andy Knight, associate professor at that wind can hit it from any direction.
the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at the University of Alberta,
leads a team that has come up with a system
that enables turbines to harvest voltage in
relatively calm conditions.
With the Knight team technology, the AC A low-wind-
speed con-
current produced by the generator is convert- verter saves
ed to DC in the rectifier so it can be stored voltage that
3 ft.
in what is generally a 12-volt battery. Since would
otherwise
a battery cannot recharge on voltage that is go to waste
lower than its output, the team’s unique con- by matching
troller monitors the frequency of the AC from power from a
generator to
the generator. If the voltage is too low to be that accepted
rectified and sent through the system for stor- by a battery.
age, the controller directs a switch in the
converter to stop the flow of electric-
ity and pool it until the total volt-
DC-to-DC
age is 12 volts. The switch in the Permanent AC to DC voltage
converter opens and closes about magnet rectifier converter
generator Battery
a thousand times per second.
By adjusting the ratio of open to Wind
closed time, the device precisely
controls the voltage.
y

tim itch
nc

ing

Time Frame: Manufactur-

ue

Sw
eq

ers could incorporate the controller

Fr

now by tweaking existing designs for

Approximately
small-scale turbines. 20 ft. to ground

Controller

82 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

 NEXT-GENERATION
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID MUIR/MASTERFILE (PLUG), AFP GETTY IMAGES (FUSION)

vehicles into the power grid. (Today’s hybrids

rely solely on electricity generated during

HYBRID
With this vehicle, you can commute to
work all week without using a single
drop of gas—and still drive hundreds
of miles for that well-earned vacation.
How It Works: “The vehicle is based
on the same platform as a conventional car,
but the powertrains are designed differ-
ently,” says Andrew Frank, professor at the
Department of Mechanical and Aeronau-
tical Engineering at the University of Cal-
ifornia, Davis. He advocates augmenting
today’s gas/electric hybrid technology with
adapters that allow car owners to plug their
braking to charge the vehicle’s batteries.)
That extra power boost allows the car to use
far less fuel. Frank’s design combines a sim-
ple two-cylinder gasoline engine with electric
power in a stripped-down, ultralight car. Sim-
ply plugging the vehicle into a 110-volt outlet
recharges the batteries in just a few hours.
Time Frame: Several prototypes
already exist, built by a team at UC Davis. It
will be at least a year before plug-in hybrids
are available to the public, however, in the
form of adapters for conventional hybrids.
“To build an entire car and get it on the
market takes a little longer,” Frank says,
“about two to three years.” Rather than
wait, some drivers are already converting
their current hybrids—though it costs them

“It’s like a water balloon,” says Bob

What’s Taking So Long?
Fusion
When cold fusion didn’t pan out,
people quickly dismissed dreams of
unlimited energy. But research on
“hot” fusion—the kind that fuels
the sun—has kept right on going.
To make a fusion reaction, a gas
must be heated and squeezed until
the nuclei fuse, releasing excess
energy. The minimum temperature
for a self-sustaining reaction—60
million degrees—was achieved in
1978. Confining the hot ions in the
resulting plasma is much trickier.
Hirschfeld of Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in California.
“You have to squeeze it evenly, or bits
will pop out.” Livermore scientists
are pursuing “inertial confinement,”
which uses laser beams to compress
a target to the point of fusion. The
lab’s National Ignition Facility, now
80 percent complete, will use 192
lasers to trigger the reaction. Full-
scale tests are expected in 2009.
A second approach uses mag-
netic fields to confine the plasma.
This forces ions to spin around in a
doughnut-shaped trap, such as the
chamber of the Joint European Torus
in England (left). In June, some 30
countries agreed to collaborate on
the world’s largest magnetic-based
reactor, in France. It is expected to
be operational in 2016. Both facilities
are gargantuan undertakings, but
more advances will be necessary to
move beyond the proof-of-principle
stage. Unlike cold fusion, though,
the basic physics are well under-
stood. As Carl Sagan once said, all
we have to do to know that fusion
works is look up at the stars.
—Alex Hutchinson

POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 83


their warranties and manufacturers strongly
discourage the practice.
Payoff: The annual mileage put on
American cars is about 12,000 miles, but
the daily average comes out to just over 30
miles, typically accumulated going to and
from work. A plug-in hybrid could handle the
vast majority of those miles in its all-electric
mode. Frank envisions a vehicle that would
only rely on its gasoline engine for longer
trips and speeds over 60 mph.
The sticker price on a plug-in would be
20 to 30 percent higher than a comparable
conventional car. But, assuming continued
escalations in gas prices, the investment
would be recouped at the pumps. Histori-
cally, when gas prices have skyrocketed, the
cost of electricity has remained stable. Mon-
ey would also be saved with lower mainte-
nance. “The cars we designed contain only
about 15 to 20 percent of the 700 mechanical
parts of a conventional car,” Frank says.
Frank sees the vehicle as a steppingstone
to even greater fuel efficiency, perhaps in a
plug-in fuel-cell hybrid that runs on electric-
ity, liquid fuel and hydrogen. The UC Davis
team is already building such a prototype
with high-performance metal-hydride batter-
ies. The ultimate fuel source: hydrogen, but
researchers are still figuring out how to pro-
duce, store and distribute the common gas.
What It Would Take: Plug-in
hybrids don’t require a change in transpor-
tation infrastructure—simply an impetus for
manufacturers to put them on the market.
Electricity isn’t free, of course. And tap-
ping into the grid to charge batteries will
still consume fossil fuels. But cars typically
would be plugged in at night, during off-
peak hours when excess power is available.
Not So Fast: Critics argue that the
extra batteries will be too heavy and expen-
sive, and that the wear and tear of charging
them will make plug-ins costly to maintain.
Frank counters that the extra weight of the
batteries will be offset by the reduced weight
of the gas engine, and that new nickel-metal-
hydride or lithium-ion batteries will not only
reduce the cost, but survive the lifetime of
the vehicle—estimated to be up to 20 years
or 200,000 miles.
84 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
WAVE
ENERGY
BUOY
The ocean holds more than
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN SYTNYK/MASTERFILE (WAVE)
enough power to light entire
cities. Scientists just needed to
figure out a way to harness it.
How It Works: The permanent mag-
net linear generator buoy consists of a series
of powerful magnets on a 12-ft.-long shaft
that is tethered to the seafloor 100 ft. below. A
copper coil that surrounds the shaft is housed
in a “floater,” or fiberglass buoy that
moves up and down with the
waves. The motion of the coil
slices through the shaft’s mag-
netic field and induces an elec-
tric current. The 100-kilowatt
generator buoy was designed
by Annette von Jouanne and
Alan Wallace, professors at the
School of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science at Oregon State University.
Unlike earlier designs involving hydraulic or
pneumatic pumps, this direct-drive buoy can
produce efficiencies of up to 90 percent.
Time Frame: Buoys could be tied into
the grid and power homes and businesses in
less than five years.
Payoff: Wave energy offers significant
advantages over renewables such as wind,
von Jouanne says. Waves are more predict-
able and have an energy density up to 50 times
greater than wind. Unregulated AC voltage
from a network of buoys could be tied to one
junction box, converted to DC and stepped up
to around 12,000 volts, and then sent to shore
and converted back into AC at a utility substa-
tion. Von Jouanne estimates that about 500
buoys could power downtown Portland, Ore.
Though the prototype is 15 ft. in diameter,
the same principle could be applied to small-
 er systems. Integrated into an anchor system
for watercraft, for example, it could generate
energy to power a boat’s electronics.
What It Would Take: Next sum-
mer, a prototype will be ocean tested to
see how the buoy stands up to side-loading
from waves, corrosion and storms. “When
we first started talking about this almost
10 years ago, people said we were crazy,”
von Jouanne says. “But technologies have
advanced. Now it is very doable.”
Not So Fast: There’s a big differ-
ence between one buoy and 500. Permits
from such agencies as the Oregon Depart-
A direct-drive
ment of Fish and Wildlife and the Federal
buoy uses
Energy Regulatory Commission would be
wave motion to
required to install coastal buoy farms. While
push a copper
coil through von Jouanne considers the Oregon coast a
a magnetic “sweet spot for wave-energy extraction,”
field, inducing she acknowledges that the buoys could affect
an electric marine life, including whale migrations,
current. and the livelihoods of local fishermen.

A network of 500 buoys

could provide enough
electricity to power
downtown Portland, Ore.

100 ft.

Buoy is a 12-ft.
fiberglass cylinder.
100 ft.

Waves cause
the coil to move
up and down
over the fixed Electric coil is fixed
magnetic shaft, to the floating buoy.
generating
electricity.

Each buoy The magnetic shaft

could produce is anchored to the
100 kilowatts seafloor.
of power.

The electricity is
fed to shore via
a grid on the
seabed.
 MICROBIAL
says—enough to power 750 Christmas
lights. Water from food-processing plants
contains biodegradable sugars and could

FUEL CELL
Bacteria’s hearty appetite for waste
creates more than just clean water.
yield more; pure glucose produces up to
1500 milliwatts per square meter. Once
the technology is fully developed, treat-
ment plants could feasibly provide all their
own power. That’s no small chunk of elec-
tricity: Water and wastewater treatment

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL WILLIAMS/GETTY (NUCLEAR PLANT), STONE (BACTERIA)

Other byproducts may power treatment
plants—and one day fuel your car.
How It Works: Bacteria naturally
present in wastewater break down organic
matter in an oxidation process that releas-
es electrons. Bruce Logan, professor of envi-
ronmental engineering at Penn State Uni-
versity, came up with the idea to insert a
fuel cell with carbon anodes in oxygen-
free sludge. The bacteria adhere to the
anodes, which harvest the electrons to
produce a current that flows through a
wire to a cathode.
Time Frame: The fuel cells could be
used in treatment plants within five years.
Payoff: “With human wastewater,
we can get up to about 500 milliwatts per
square meter of anode surface,” Logan
consumes 5 percent of U.S. energy.
It’s even conceivable that hydrogen-
powered vehicles may one day pull up to
wastewater treatment plants to refuel. By
giving the bacteria a tiny boost of electric-
ity at the anode and removing oxygen at
the cathode, the fuel cells also could gener-
ate hydrogen. Most hydrogen is now pro-
duced using fossil fuels—an expensive
process, and one that’s environmentally
counterproductive.
What It Would Take: “We essen-
tially just need to go into treatment plants,
yank out the existing reactors and put in
our own,” Logan says.
Not So Fast: The fuel cell is designed
to generate electricity. It’s still unclear as to
whether it can meet the standards of various
municipalities for cleaning wastewater.

Whatever Happened? facility is estimated to be more plants–unless the intrinsic

Nuclear
As of 2004, nuclear energy
supplied one-fifth of U.S.
electricity. But the nation’s
103 nuclear power plants—
including Davis-Besse in Ohio
(left)—are now, on average,
more than two decades old.
No new nuclear plants have
been ordered since 1973–six
years before the accident at
Three Mile Island. Once tout-
ed as the power of the future,
nuclear energy has been
stalled by safety concerns
and the problem of long-term
radioactive waste. But there
are other obstacles. The
capital cost of a new nuclear
than $2 billion, with the return
on investment stretched over
several decades. The pos-
sibility of delays due to court
challenges makes the finances
even more precarious.
Some engineers claim that
plants today would cost 25
percent less than comparable
facilities did in the 1970s. “But
they can’t demonstrate that
until they actually build one,”
points out Ernest Moniz, an
MIT physics professor who
served as undersecretary of
the Department of Energy
from 1997 to 2001. And elec-
tricity produced by existing
plants still costs more than
that from fossil-fuel-burning
cost of emissions is factored
in with a carbon tax.
Two emerging technologies
could help break the gridlock.
“Pebble bed” modular reac-
tors use high-temperature gas
as a coolant, and can operate
on a much smaller scale than
conventional nuclear plants,
potentially reducing prohibi-
tive startup costs. “Fast reac-
tors” could recycle nearly all
their long-lived radioactive
waste as fuel, leaving only
short-lived waste. But a lot
more research is needed to
make these models work,
Moniz says: “If they do pan out,
it will be 50 years before they
make a major impact.” — A.H.

86 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

ORGANIC
rials sometimes in short supply—organic
solar cells are composed mainly of carbon,
hydrogen and oxygen molecules. A team led
by Bernard Kippelen, a professor at the Cen-

SOLAR
ter for Organic Photonics and Electronics at
the Georgia Institute of Technology, paired
a crystalline organic film called pentacene
with C60, a type of carbon-cage molecule
known as a “buckyball.” In a 1-sq.-cm cell

CELLS
these materials generate 3 milliwatts.
Time Frame: Within two or three
years, organic solar cells could be applied to
systems with low energy requirements, such
Finally, a solar cell you can accessorize. as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.
Based on organic molecules, these cells The ability to power laptops or cellphones
is five to 10 years away.
are so light and thin that you could power
Payoff: Organic materials are com-
an iPod with the sleeve of a windbreaker. patible with plastic substrates. “Potential-
How It Works: When light strikes both ly, you could print them in a roll-to-roll
Organic solar
organic solar cells and conventional silicon cells turn
process, the way we print newspapers,”
ones, photons are absorbed by a semiconduc- sunlight into Kippelen says. And, because they are
tor material. The photons’ energy causes pre- electricity to light and flexible—the film is only
power small
viously stable electrons to become excited and personal
50 nanometers thick—they could
move to the edge of the cell, where they come devices. be placed on such surfaces as
in contact with a metal, usu- the wall of a tent or clothing,
ally copper. This conduc- powering small, personal
tor draws the current electronic devices such as
to where it is needed, cellphones or iPods.
say, a rechargeable What It Would
battery or a motor. Take: Silicon cell tech-
While silicon cells nology is well under-
are based on inor- stood but the science
ganic elements, such of manipulating
as copper alloy, galli- organic cells is just
um and silicon—mate- getting started.
Not So Fast:
Silicon solar cells
achieve efficiencies
of about 15 percent.
Currently, organic
Sunlight Front solar cells reach effi-
contact ciencies of 3 to 5 per-
cent. But if plastic-
backed organic cells
can be mass-produced
by the yard, all sorts of
surfaces could then be con-
verted into solar collectors.
Imagine awnings, car bodies,
rooftops—all quietly harvesting
Back
Pentacene the power of the sun. PM

contact C60

POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 87

sound box
Legendary guitar builder
Wayne Henderson shows off
one of his creations, modeled
on a prewar Martin model
000-45.

• BUILD TIME: Two weeks

• WAITING LIST: Up to 10 years
• NOTABLE OWNERS: Eric
Clapton, Doc Watson, Gillian
Welch, Peter Rowan
• WHEN HE STARTED
MAKING GUITARS: Age 14
• MOST SEASONED WOOD:
400-year-old Appalachian
spruce, in some guitar tops
• HIGHEST RESALE PRICE:
$100,000
 Guitar Builder by A l l e n St. J o h n

Steel String “YOU JUST GET A PILE OF GOOD WOOD, and you get yourself a sharp
whittling knife,” Wayne Henderson explains, “and then you carve away anything that
Theory doesn’t look like a guitar.” The man who arguably is America’s greatest guitar builder
in the is joking, sort of—but a knife does remain the favorite tool in his workshop in Rugby,

Heart of Va., population: 7. (“We have to take turns being the mayor, the preacher and the town
drunk.”) The one-man shop is a few steps from his house, and about a mile from the
Bluegrass place where he was born. Henderson’s guitars closely mirror the prized models built
Country by the C.F. Martin & Co. in the 1930s. Product testing is done by Henderson himself, a
world-class bluegrass player who’s spent all his 58 years in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
He turns out about 20 instruments a year—and there’s a decade-long waiting list, even
for clients like Eric Clapton (whose guitar is being built in the photos below) and music
• legend Doc Watson (a neighbor who often stops by to jam). As Henderson guitar own-
Portrait by er Gabby Bumgarner puts it, “I’ve had three heart attacks, open-heart surgery, cancer
Eric Ogden and diabetes. And that’s nothing compared to waiting for a Henderson guitar.”

tools: sharp blades

While he turns to conventional shop equipment—a
table saw, band saw and especially a belt sander—
for rough shaping, Henderson uses a vintage Boker
Tree-Brand penknife for the final shaping. When meas-
urements are done by feel, calipers reveal that his
guesses often are accurate to a thousandth of an inch.

materials: rare tonewood

Henderson’s finest guitars combine locally grown
Appalachian spruce on top with straight-grained
Brazilian rosewood for the back and sides. Rosewood
trees are no longer cut; the planks must be unearthed
in woodworkers’ forgotten stashes or reclaimed.
The rosewood counters from a yacht once owned by
Truman Capote were used by Henderson for years.

methods: detail work

“My guitars are known for being clean on the inside,”
Henderson says. He fills tiny gaps with paper-thin
INSET PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALLEN ST. JOHN

slivers of mahogany and smooths braces with 800-

grit sandpaper. Such details won’t be seen by anyone
except some future repairman. Then again, fixing old
Martins is how Henderson learned the art. “I think
it makes the guitars sound better,” he says of his
penchant for perfection. “The notes have a smoother
trip out of the guitar.”

Allen St. John’s book, Clapton’s Guitar: Watching Wayne

Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument, will be published in
October by Free Press.

POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 89

 CK
BA YARD

POWER Basic lawn tractors are fine if you’re just cutting the lawn.
But for fall’s big jobs, you need some real muscle. PM tested five
can-do tractors on the toughest acres we could find.
By Roy Berendsohn

Photographs by
Jonathan Sprague

TRACTOR: Massey TRACTOR: Husqvarna TRACTOR: Craftsman TRACTOR: Toro TRACTOR: Kubota
Ferguson Prestige YTH1848XP 917.276380 GT420 GR2100
ENGINE/TRANS: 23 hp/ ENGINE/TRANS: 18 hp/ ENGINE/TRANS: 26 hp/ ENGINE/TRANS: 17 hp/ ENGINE/TRANS: 21 hp
hydrostatic hydrostatic hydrostatic hydrostatic diesel/hydrostatic
DECK: 54 in. DECK: 48 in. DECK: 54 in. DECK: 48 in. DECK: 54 in.
WEIGHT: 858 lb. WEIGHT: 560 lb. WEIGHT: 720 lb. WEIGHT: 852 lb. WEIGHT: 969 lb.
WHEELBASE: 53 in. WHEELBASE: 46.5 in. WHEELBASE: 48 in. WHEELBASE: 49.5 in. WHEELBASE: 50.4 in.
UNCUT CIRCLE DIA.: 44 in. UNCUT CIRCLE DIA.: 46 in. UNCUT CIRCLE DIA.: 55 in. UNCUT CIRCLE DIA.: 41 in. UNCUT CIRCLE DIA.: 34 in.
PRICE: $6700 PRICE: $2300 PRICE: $2600 PRICE: $5620 PRICE: $8200
REVERSE MOW: Yes REVERSE MOW: Yes REVERSE MOW: Yes REVERSE MOW: Yes REVERSE MOW: Yes
Things cool off in the fall, and
that’s when the fun starts, at least
as far as yardwork is concerned.
It’s just satisfying to get behind
the wheel of a tractor and grade a
driveway, renovate a lawn or haul
firewood to its stack. You can use
any basic lawn machine for small
jobs, like towing a dethatcher, but
hard work calls for beefy equip-
ment. In the outdoor power

Garden tractors, like

Kubota’s GR2100,
do double duty: grass-
cutting all summer,
then property man-
agement in the fall.

POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 91


To give our tractors a total workout we tested them with several
attachments, including the Agri-Fab box grader, above.
business, these machines are known as garden tractors.
Heavier, more powerful (and, yes, more expensive) than
their lawn tractor cousins, these products are built to
take abuse. And we’re happy to dish it out. To put garden
tractors to the test, we assembled five machines and four
common attachments and put them to work on a farm in
upstate New York. The tractors ranged from one of the
least expensive we could find (technically a high-end lawn
tractor) to one of the most expensive. Our objective was
not so much to test these tractors head-to-head, but to find
out how much machine you need for different jobs.
It seems obvious that the more property you main-
tain, the bigger and tougher the tractor you need. But we
learned that even if you have a small property, and it’s all
grass, you’re better off buying a larger machine for the
power and durability it provides. In that regard, a garden
tractor is miles ahead of a lawn tractor. “It can easily pro-
cess several acres of grass,” says Greg Weekes, marketing
manager for John Deere riding lawn equipment.
We did a lot more than cut grass in this test. We
hauled firewood, dethatched and aerated a lawn, and
graded a driveway. And one other thing—we had a blast.
92 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
HUSQVARNA
This heavy-duty lawn tractor marks the bound-
ary where lawn and garden tractors meet. We
were pleasantly surprised by its capable design,
partly due to an 18-hp Kawasaki engine, certain-
ly one of the best powerplants we know of in this
price range ($2300). It provided enough muscle
for some uphill grading, but eventually the tractor
lost traction and spun its wheels (wheel weights
are available). Another torture test: We took
it up and down a trail using the wagon heaped
with firewood and concrete blocks. The tractor
handled the load with plenty of power, though
it sounded as if we were straining the hydrostat-
ic transmission.The Husqvarna pulls all but the
heaviest implements without complaint.
NEEDS WORK: The rear hitch plate isn’t visible
when the driver is seated, making implement
hookup more difficult than with other machines.
OUR TAKE: The Husqvarna is a good buy, and
a simple and effective mower well suited for
lawns up to 2 acres.
CRAFTSMAN
The Craftsman is top dog in the power-to-price
category. At $2600, it has the most power of any-
thing in its class because it’s equipped with a 26-hp
V-twin Kohler Pro engine. Craftsman rates its
tractor to use some truly heavy attachments.
Although we didn’t test them, the company offers a
200-pound-capacity front-end loader scoop and a
massive disc harrow. The Craftsman’s hefty engine
helped it pull our attachments without a hint of
strain, and it easily mowed through tall grass.
NEEDS WORK: We didn’t test decibels, but all that
engine made the Craftsman louder than the other
machines. A better muffler might help, although it
also would cost the engine some power.
OUR TAKE: A powerful and inexpensive garden
tractor minus the creature comforts of other trac-
tors, such as power steering. A smooth cutter.
TORO
When you step up to the Toro GT420, things get
interesting. The machine is not inexpensive, at
$5620, but we think it’s worth the money. The
testers immediately noticed its vibration-free oper-
ation when cutting and pulling an attachment.
Despite its small 17-hp engine, the GT420 has plen-
ty of power—though it would be underpowered for
long sessions with a grader. A twin-position foot
pedal gives you precise ground speed in forward
and reverse, a distinct benefit when matching
speed to the work you are doing. The Toro was the
only tractor equipped with a tilt steering wheel—
a handy feature that allows multiple operators to
choose an angle that’s right for them.
NEEDS WORK: Only one small complaint: The
awkwardly positioned deck height lever requires
the operator to lean well forward to reach it.
OUR TAKE: If your emphasis is on solid grass-
cutting performance year after year, this ruggedly
built tractor may be your machine.
MASSEY FERGUSON
Just climbing into the seat of the Massey Ferguson
is fun. Its dark red color and its 23-hp engine give
it a farm-tractor quality. Then there’s the grand old
name, dating to 1847. Okay, the tractor is expen-
sive at $6700 but, boy, did this thing pull a box
grader—up a hill, no less, and over a rut. Several
passes later, the rut was history. Other things
that make the Massey fun are its hydraulic deck
lift, a fender-mounted cruise control and power
steering. It’s got so much power and traction, we
never needed the differential lock that makes the
rear wheels drive in unison, though you might
need it mowing uphill on grass wet with dew.
NEEDS WORK: We’re nitpicking, but in a tight
turn it leaves a larger swath of uncut grass than
the Toro and the Kubota.
OUR TAKE: Power to spare and a quality of cut
that makes a lawn look velvety after you’re done,
like it’s been mowed by a giant electric shaver.
KUBOTA
Sure, the Kubota is expensive at $8200, but it’s
a lot of tractor. It’s powered by a three-cylinder,
liquid-cooled 21-hp diesel that provides gobs of
low-speed torque. Yet it’s extremely fuel-efficient,
which is surprising given that it powers a tractor
weighing 969 pounds. Its weight is due, in part,
to its hefty 3⁄16-in.-thick steel frame (3⁄32 to 1⁄8 in.
is more typical in this category). Dave Conero,
our Kubota contact in the tiny New York town of
Pine Bush, estimates the tractor’s diesel uses
about 30 percent less fuel than a comparable gas
engine. This tractor’s deck, hydrostatic trans-
mission and power steering are all shaft driven,
making the tractor precisely controlled while
mowing or towing an attachment.
NEEDS WORK: Really, the Kubota is perfect. Our
advice to its manufacturer is to leave it alone.
OUR TAKE: All that money buys you a comfort-
able and powerful tractor with class-leading
performance and decades-long durability.
Getting Hitched
Attachments are a cost-effective way to turn a
tractor into a property-management tool.
Name a yard-care job and tractor or a riding mower can
there is a tow-behind attach- pull it, and the same goes
ment to do it. Attachments for the 48-in. aerator next to
rake, dethatch, plow, grade, it ($250). The grader on the
aerate, carry, mow, and spread opposite page rides on a two-
granular or liquid lawn materi- wheel trailer that allows it to
als. We tested attachments by be easily moved over drive-
Agri-Fab (www.agri-fab.com). ways or a lawn. The trailer’s
The company’s products come 12-volt winch, powered by the
in a range of sizes, capaci- tractor’s battery, raises and
ties and prices. The 17-cu.-ft. lowers the blade. A two-button
dump trailer shown on the switch controls the winch’s
opening spread costs about Wind/Unwind feature. The
$250. Filled to its 1500-pound grader and trailer as a com-
capacity, it’s best pulled by a bined kit costs about $990.
garden tractor. On the other It’s probably less expensive
end of the spectrum is the to buy this equipment, rather
48-in. spring tine dethatcher than rent it or pay someone to
(below left, about $150). A grade, aerate or dethatch.
Dethatchers (left) and aerators have a weight tray on top for stacking
concrete blocks; adding weight increases soil penetration.
Know Your Tractors
Entry-level lawn tractor: to 42-in. decks, larger engines
$900 to $1300, 14- to 15-hp may power up to a 54-in. deck.
engines, gear transmission, For cutting up to 2 acres, pull-
38- to 42-in. decks. Deck size ing attachments or driving a
and durability limit these to snowthrower attachment.
cutting 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 acre.
Garden tractor: $4000 to
Midprice lawn tractor: $1300 $11,000, 19- to 27-hp engines
to $2000, 17 to 22 hp, gear or including diesel and liquid-
belt-driven automatic trans- cooled types, decks up to 70 in.
mission, some hydrostatic Electric power takeoff engages
transmissions, manual deck deck instead of lever; hydrau-
engagement lever, 38- to 42-in. lic deck lifts are common, as is
decks with 42 predominating. power steering. Large hydro-
For cutting 3⁄4 to 1 acre. static transmissions have bear-
ings (instead of bushings) and
Lawn tractor/entry-level metal helical gears instead of
garden tractor: $2000 to powdered metal gears with
$4000, 19- to 27-hp engines. straight teeth. For mowing sev-
PM Smaller engine sizes limited eral acres and ground engaging.
POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 93
L O C A T I O N : CAMP TAJI (NORTH OF BAGHDAD) A I R F R A M E : U H - 6 0 A B L AC K H AWK MISSION: M E D E V A C

Reminders of home in plain sight, Chief Warrant Officer Gerald McGowan (foreground) and Capt. Jason
Yellman launch a medevac from Camp Taji, north of Baghdad. The Black Hawk pilots are members of the
Army’s 50th Medical Company, 101st Airborne Division, a rapid-response air ambulance unit.
 WHEN THE CALL
COMES IN, UNARMED
A R M Y B L A C K H AW K S
R AC E T O R E T R I E V E
THE WOUNDED.
L ANDING IN IRAQ’S
U R BA N BAT T L E
Z O N E S , F LY I NG W H E N
OT H E R A I RC R A F T A R E
GROUNDED, THESE
H E L I C O P T E R M E D E VA C
CREWS PERFORM
O N E O F T H E WA R ’ S
TOUGHEST MISSIONS:
S AV I N G L I V E S .

HE VOICE IS FLAT and uninflect-

ed but its effect is electric: “Medevac,
medevac, medevac.”
It takes only one “medevac” crackling over the walkie-
talkies to spur the air ambulance company into action.
Medic Spc. April Krueger and crew chief Sgt. Trevor Twite
bolt from the Ready Room. Chief Warrant Officer Gerald
McGowan, command pilot, runs from the office next to
Flight Planning as pilot Capt. Jason Yellman jumps up from
his desk. The soldiers head to Flight Ops, a room crammed
with receivers, handsets, tactical maps and gun racks.
There, Staff Sgt. Stephen D. Scott, the noncommissioned
officer in charge of operations, reports that a road patrol
about 5 miles to the north has been hit by a rocket-propelled
grenade (RPG). Scott relays the ground unit’s request: “One
urgent litter, U.S. soldier with head wounds.”
McGowan stays just long enough to hear the grid coordi-

POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 95

 nates and then hurries to the adjoining Flight Planning room
to plot the location of the pickup zone (PZ) on huge wall
maps of the Baghdad area. Back in Flight Ops, Scott radios
the 3rd Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, to request
gunship support from the AH-64 Apache helicopters that are
also based here at Camp Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad.
I grab my helmet and vest and exit the air ambulance
crew’s one-story headquarters, which is flanked by row upon
row of helicopters. Yellman already has the UH-60A Black
Hawk spooled up on the flight line. McGowan joins him in
the cockpit. Back in the cabin, Krueger buckles into the left
seat and double-checks the oxygen mask and tank; Twite
settles into his seat on the right side of the aircraft and slides
a magazine into his M-4. I sit between Krueger and Twite in
the center seat, facing aft, the litter carousel for casualties
2 ft. in front of me. Then the rotor spins and we’re airborne.
It has been 4 minutes since the medevac call came in.
OR 15 YEARS I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT medical
science and the military, but this is the first time I’ve
been in a war zone to see military medicine in action.
I flew to Taji in early June on a monthlong embed
with the Army’s 50th Medical Company (101st Air-
borne Division, Air Assault), a unit that was formed
during World War II and goes by its Vietnam-era call sign,
Eagle Dustoff. For 10 days after my arrival, the insurgents
were uncharacteristically quiet; now, all that’s changed.
Once we’re in the air McGowan calls Flight Ops for
an update on gunship support: negative. Medevac Black
Hawks are the only aircraft that fly single ship in combat;
all other aircraft fly in pairs or larger formations. General-
ly, Black Hawk crews rely on the extra eyes and firepower
of Apache escorts. But in poor weather—low ceiling, lim-
ited visibility—the Apaches are not allowed to fly. More
helicopters operating in those kinds of marginal conditions
mean more risk for crashes. In fact, there is no gunship sup-
port for nearly a third of the Black Hawk flights—many of
them, like today’s, into hot landing zones.
Minutes later we’re circling a pair of tanks and four
Humvees lined up along a narrow, unpaved country road;
one of the Humvees is damaged and listing. Rotor down-
wash kicks up a thick cloud of dirt and dust as Yellman sets
down in a deeply rutted field of tall grass about 150 ft. from
the road. Soldiers are scattered everywhere, pulling secu-
rity from the turrets of the tanks and Humvees and from
behind dusty bushes and scrubby trees.
As I start to unbuckle my four-point harness, Twite
shakes his head. Reluctantly, I sit back down. It’s not safe
for me to leave the helicopter. The risks in hot “roadsides”—
“I’ve seen medevac crews get right

Packing an
M-4, pilot
Capt. Heath
Holt of the
50th Medical
Company,
based at Camp
Taji, sprints to
his Black Hawk
for a medevac.
The company’s
workload:
up to 10
missions
CRED

a day.

96 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

 Spc. April
Krueger, a
medic, escorts
an Iraqi
guardsman
wounded by a
car bomb back
to her crew’s
Black Hawk
for a medevac
to the Army’s
Combat Sup-
port Hospital
in Baghdad’s
International
Zone. Below:
Sgt. Trevor
Twite tends a
U.S. soldier
wounded
when an IED
was detonat-
ed under his
Humvee.

down in the battle,” one Apache pilot says. “I salute them.”

medevacs not on secured military installations—are high.

The Geneva Conventions do not allow medevac helicopters
to employ assault weapons systems, so the defensive capa-
bility of an air ambulance crew is limited to the M-4s and
Berettas carried by crew members, along with the forces
on the ground and gunship support, when it’s available.
Enemy attack is assumed to be imminent, and Black Hawks
that land in these locations become high-value targets.
So I stay put. Twite handles security while Krueger picks
her way through the grass to the damaged Humvee. The
wounded soldier is already on a litter, unconscious; four
platoon mates carry him to the Black Hawk with Krueger
guiding them. It only takes a moment to load the casualty,
and then we’re off.
The ground medics in Iraq do a superb job of stabiliz-
ing casualties, and this platoon’s medic is no exception. He
has bandaged the soldier’s head wound from RPG shrapnel
and placed a neck collar to protect against spinal injury. The
man appears to be in his mid-20s, nearly 6 ft. tall, with a
muscular build. He barely stirs throughout the flight.
Eagle Dustoff usually flies the wounded to the Com-
bat Support Hospital (CSH)—formerly Saddam’s private
facility—in Baghdad’s International Zone. Head trauma
casualties, however, mean a trip to the larger Air Force
hospital in Balad, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. Below
us sweep miles of barren land interspersed with lush
royal palm nurseries, dusty villages, and farms with
small strips and squares of crops. Krueger monitors her
patient’s vital signs and writes the data on his bare chest
with a felt-tip marker. As we approach Balad, McGowan
calls the airfield. The controller gives him altimeter and
wind readings, and tells him to land at pilot’s risk.
As soon as the Black Hawk touches down on the helipad
at Balad, medics run out with a litter and rush the soldier
into the long, low tent that serves as the emergency depart-
ment. We pass troops with minor ailments as we hurry back
into the treatment area. Here, Krueger transfers care to the
hospital staff, telling a nurse what she knows of the casu-
alty’s condition and wounds. Eight others—doctors, nurs-
es, technicians—swarm over their new patient, who has
regained consciousness. They cut off clothes, start IV lines
and ask him if he can move his toes. He moves one foot and

POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 97

mumbles his name. The
temptation is to linger, to
see him respond a little
more, but there’s no time
for that. The Black Hawk is
waiting on the pad, ready to
return to Camp Taji in time
for the next medevac.
The 50th Medical Com-
pany, based in Fort Camp-
bell, Ky., is a close-knit
group of 102 soldiers with
one of the most dangerous
missions in aviation. Like
all air ambulances in the
Iraqi operation, the mede-
vac Black Hawks launch in
weather that would ground
any other helicopter, fly As soon as the Black Hawk touches down, hospital medics
solo to the PZ, and land
on the violent streets of Baghdad, in the middle of road-
side firefights—anywhere there are casualties. It’s no won-
der that the Apache drivers who fly gunship support talk
about the Black Hawk medevac pilots with respect
verging on awe. “They are some of the true heroes here,”
says Apache pilot Chief Warrant Officer Jerry Frye, 3rd
Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. “I’ve seen them
go into areas with troops still in contact with the enemy
and get right down in the battle. I salute them.”
“The assault community in Vietnam swore there was a
special school that taught medevac pilots how to fly,” says
Maj. Bill Howard, the air company’s commanding officer,
“but there wasn’t. You learn [on the job] to fly single ship
between light poles and land in brownouts.”
With Baghdad as part of its beat, the 50th is the busi-
est air ambulance crew in Iraq. By the time I arrived, the
unit had flown 1900 missions, including 400 roadsides,
since its deployment in December 2004. Howard has never
stopped a launch; he lets his pilots make the final call. “If
they have to abort due to weather,” he says, “I support them.
If they make a call to a hot PZ where bullets are flying but
the ground unit is adamant that this pickup could mean a
life, I stand behind them.”
The cohesive teamwork extends to the 32 men who
work on maintaining the unit’s 12 Black Hawks—not an
easy assignment. Each flying hour requires 10 hours of
maintenance, and upkeep is especially tough with these
birds, which are the original model of Black Hawk. All
the airframes have more than 4000 hours on them, and
the engines are old and underpowered for the armored
ships. It’s easy to see why pilots swear by their mechanics.
“They’re a bunch of smartasses,” Capt. Scott Brown says,
“but I wouldn’t trade them for any other soldiers.”
98 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
EDEVAC, MEDEVAC,
MEDEVAC.” This time
an IED (improvised
explosive device) has
slammed a ground
patrol, call sign Iron
Hawk, in central Baghdad. The radio call comes in: “One
urgent litter, U.S. soldier with abdominal wounds.”
With the crew hitting the 4-minute mark again, the Black
Hawk lifts off in 35-mph gusts that rock the aircraft. Com-
mand pilot Brown and pilot Warrant Officer Craig Parker are
in the cockpit; medic Sgt. Jamilah Posey and crew chief Spc.
Billy Myers flank me. The mood is intense; voices are tight and
clipped. Thirty seconds later, we’re out of Taji airspace; Brown
calls Baghdad Radio, the military unit that coordinates air-
space over the city, to give them our landing site. Then he calls
Flight Ops about gunship support: Again, it’s negative.
Soon we’re circling the mess that is the PZ—tumbledown
mud-brick homes and decrepit low-rise apartment buildings
bordering an open area covered with trash and crisscrossed
with telephone poles and powerlines. Humvees and other
vehicles clutter the landing zone, and it’s hard to tell where
the casualties are located. Brown has better sightlines than
Parker so he takes the controls and makes a steep descend-
ing left turn while Myers calls out powerlines to the pilots.
“Clear,” he says once we’ve dodged the flight hazards.
Brown sets the Black Hawk down about 200 ft. from
a damaged Humvee. At our 9 o’clock position dozens of
locals mill about; Myers jumps out of the helicopter with
his M-4 and pulls security by the side of the aircraft. The
swelling crowds are about 300 ft. away—too far for rocks
or hand-thrown grenades, but well within range for RPGs.
Posey disconnects her communication line and runs to
 RECOVERY CENTERS BALAD AIR BASE
Air Force Theater Hospi-
The Army’s 50th Med- tal; primary head trauma intact left arm. The unit’s
ical Company flies treatment center with soldiers take him to the air-
most trauma patients a wide range of special-
to the Combat
craft while Posey goes to
ists; preps patients for
Support Hospital airlift out of theater. the other casualty. She sig-
in Baghdad’s Inter- CAMP TAJI nals Myers for a stretcher.
national Zone. Sta- 50th Medical Company He breaks security, grabs a
bilized patients are (101st Airborne Division, litter and runs to her.
transferred to the Air Air Assault); 12 UH-60A
Force hospital in Balad Black Hawk medevac
The other wounded sol-
before airlift to Land- helicopters cover dier, who has lost both
stuhl, Germany, and central Iraq. arms, has two IVs in his
then to the States. INTERNATIONAL ZONE legs. A couple of men in
The Army’s Combat his unit open the litter, put
Support Hospital; main
military trauma center him on it and then place
for Baghdad and the the IV bags under his thighs
surrounding area; to keep the fluid flowing
stabilizes patients for
once he’s in the aircraft.
transfer to Balad.
I can hear the first man
screaming over the sound of
rush out. It’s been just 18 minutes since the call came in to Eagle Dustoff. the rotors when he’s still 6
ft. from the aircraft. As litter
Spc. Sean bearers pass Parker’s door,
Goodlavage the pilot looks away. The
rinses off after
transporting downwash from the main
Iraqi soldiers rotor sprays blood through
wounded by
a car bomb the open right door.
to the Army’s “My arm!” the wound-
Combat Sup- ed man yells as the sol-
port Hospital
(CSH) in Bagh- diers shove the litter onto
dad. Above the litter pan. He grimaces,
left: ER per-
sonnel from eyes squeezed shut, teeth
the CSH turn clenched when the litter
their backs slides off its track. I kneel
to dust and
debris kicked on the floor and try to lift
up by a Black the front of the litter back
Hawk bring-
ing in a new
on the track, but I’m not
patient. strong enough. Myers runs
to the left door, opens it
all the way and climbs in.
He lifts the litter, and the
soldiers all help push and
the casualty while Brown turns the controls back over to pull the triple amputee inside the aircraft. Myers helps load
Parker. Brown unholsters his Beretta, chambers a round and the second casualty. By the time he closes the doors, Posey
places the pistol on his lap, his hand resting on the weapon is already at work, monitoring vital signs.
as he scans the crowds, keeping close watch on the heads The Black Hawk has been on the ground for only a few
that pop up in windows and on roofs. minutes when Parker takes off to the north in a steep climb
It turns out the initial assessment was wrong. There are to avoid the powerlines.
two casualties, not one, and both have grievous wounds. One “Clear wires,” Myers says.
soldier lies on a litter near the bumper of the Humvee; the Parker starts a steep right turn for the brief flight south-
ground medic has stabilized him. The big man—he’s more west to the CSH in the International Zone. The staff of
than 6 ft. tall and about 230 pounds, with a linebacker’s this state-of-the-art trauma center has treated the majority
broad, muscular shoulders—is alert. Both legs are partial- of Americans wounded in the region since 2003, including
ly amputated, attached only by skin and tendons. His right Sgt. Kevin Pannell, who was profiled in the article “Courage
arm is completely amputated at midbicep. There’s an IV in his After Fire” (Dec. 2004). (Continued on page 139)

M A P B Y I N T E R N AT I O N A L M A P P I N G POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 99

 



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HOMEJOURNAL PLUMBING SYSTEM REPLACING OLD OUTLETS COOL PRODUCTS LADDER SAFETY
PM

The Big
Red Shed
Take care of all your outdoor storage needs with this
two-for-one backyard building. B Y J O S E P H T R U I N I

Here’s a handsome Colonial-style
storage shed that’s one of the most
versatile, well-designed backyard
buildings we’ve seen. In fact, it’s
really two sheds in one: a 10 x 12-ft.
toolshed for general storage and an
8 x 10-ft. open-bay extension that’s
ideal for keeping firewood stacked
and dry. The extension is also great
for storing large items that might not
easily fit into the main shed, such as
lawnmowers, bicycles, patio furni-
ture, wheelbarrows and stepladders.
We built our combination shed
on a 4-in.-thick concrete slab, which
makes an extremely durable and
weatherproof floor. You could also
construct a wood-frame floor using
pressure-treated 2 x 6 lumber and
a plywood deck, and support the
assembly on solid concrete blocks or
pressure-treated 6 x 6 skids. If you go
with the slab, it’s a good idea to hire
an excavator and mason to have the
job done right. Place anchor bolts in
the concrete for securing the walls,
taking care to avoid vertical frame
locations and wall openings.
We sheathed the structure with
1 x 6 tongue-and-groove cedar sid-
ing, which is naturally resistant to
rot and insects. The roofs are covered
with slate-gray, architectural-style
asphalt shingles. Perforated-alumi-
num soffit vents installed along the
eaves and continuous ridge vents at
the peaks help exhaust hot air that
can build up under the roofs during
warm summer weather.

P H OTO G RA P H S BY M I C H A E L CO G L I A N T RY POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 101

PM HOMEJOURNAL
CARCARE Sto ra ge S h e d
The main shed has three tilt-in
barn-sash windows and a door that’s
made from the same tongue-and-
groove 1 x 6 cedar used for the sid-
ing. You’re not likely to find barn-sash
windows at a home center, but they
can be special-ordered at most lum-
beryards and farm-supply outlets.
You can buy detailed plans for the
combination shed for $29.95 from
Better Barns (888-266-1960; www
.betterbarns.com). Request plans
No. 2023. The company also offers
the traditional-style strap hinges
and door latch we used.
START AT THE TOP
Before building the walls, make use
of the open floor space as a platform
for building the roof trusses. Each
truss consists of two 2 x 4 rafters and
a 2 x 4 chord that also acts as a ceil-
ing joist. At the corners are plywood
gussets secured with construction
adhesive and roofing nails.
Note that the gable trusses have
collar ties (short horizontal mem-
bers) so there’s extra wood to which
you can nail the siding. When you
build the gable trusses, add flat 2 x
4 pieces, or shoes, to their bottom
102 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
chords so the gables can be set slight-
ly proud of the walls below them.
Both roofs have a 10-in. pitch—the
slope rises 10 in. for each horizontal
foot. This creates 50-degree angles
at the rafter and chord ends. To cut
these with a circular saw, use a tem-
plate of the angle to mark each piece.
If you’re using a power miterbox, the
angle graduations are complemen-
tary—you’ll get a 90-degree cut when
the tool is set at 0 degrees. So, set the
tool at 40 degrees
to end up with a
50-degree angle.
Traditional hardware, barn-sash
windows and solid cedar give this
shed the look of timeworn elegance.
FRAME THE WALLS
Unlike a typical wall with vertical
studs, the walls in this structure
have long horizontal 2 x 4s that pro-
vide nailing support for the vertical
siding. In place of the vertical studs
are short 2 x 4s called blocking.
Start by building the front and
rear walls of the main shed. If you’re
building on a slab, use pressure-
treated lumber for the bottom plates.
Frame the front wall to accommo-
date the door and windows. The
rear wall has no openings, leaving
plenty of wall space for hanging
tools and installing shelves.
With the wall frames flat on the
floor, check that they’re square by
measuring the diagonals. We added
diagonal metal wall bracing to the
main shed’s walls to increase frame
stiffness. Attach the tongue-and-
groove cedar siding to the horizontal
2 x 4s with 21⁄2-in. ring-shank siding
nails. If you’re on
a slab, bore holes
in the bottom wall
plates correspond-
ing to each anchor
bolt. Tilt up the
walls, set them
over the bolts, and
secure the walls
with washers and
nuts. Plumb the
walls and temporarily brace them
with 2 x 4s fastened to stakes driv-
en into the ground. Frame the two
gable-end walls, raise them between
the front and rear walls, and nail
the corners together. Then, add
the cedar siding. Build the exten-
sion in the same way, but use a full-
length double 2 x 6 header to span
the wide opening.
TRUSSES AND TRIM
Nail the gable trusses to the main
shed first. Place the remaining truss-
es over the vertical blocking, secure
them with screws, and install the
plywood deck and shingles.
At the extension, set a gable truss
in place against the main shed wall
and trace the rafter line on the sid-
ing. Cut a 2-in.-wide slot along this
line. With the trusses and decking
in place, shingle the roof while add-
ing step flashing installed through
the 2-in. slot and under the siding.
Complete the job by building the
door out of cedar, and nailing on the
window trim and corner boards.












 







 









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104 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y E U G E N E T H O M P S O N


The Plumbing System
By Merle Henkenius
Now you can talk to your plumber.
Plumbing has been around since
early Roman times, but there’s a good
chance that the average man on the
via didn’t worry about how it worked.
That was for the pros. Fast-forward
several centuries to the aisles of your
local home center. The pros are still
P H O T O G R A P H B Y B I L L D I O D AT O
HOMEJOURNAL PM
PA R T 1 o f a n e w P M s e r i e s
G AT E F O L D P O S T E R
around, but so is the guy next door, pok- FLIP
ing through 1⁄2-in. copper elbows and OPEN
HERE
tees—and he sells real estate. The fact
is, plumbing is complicated business—
unless you know how it works. The
good news is learning is very simple.
Just start by looking inside your walls.
POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 105










 PLUMBING
PART 1

KITC H EN SI N

Sinks come in stai

less steel, solid-su
face resins, ename
on cast iron and p
celain on steel. To
The fixtures and appliances in your plumbing system get a lot of
day, the emphasis
attention because they’re the parts you use every day. The real stars, on complementin
though, are the pipes that connect them. The illustration shows the countertop. W
typical components and how they’re configured to form the three polished granite a
basic plumbing systems: water supply, waste removal and venting. other natural-ston
counters in vogue
Also included are simple repairs, maintenance tips, and a look at speckled solid-su
the gear you’ll need to keep the water flowing in your home. face resins are the
most popular. The
undermount sinks
SUPPLY SYSTEMS KITCHEN
DRAIN REVENT epoxied in place.
Early plumbers picked up their title from the name of the material they worked
with most: plumbum—Latin for lead. Unfortunately,
they didn’t know it was toxic. These days, supply piping
comes in several flavors—all more agreeable to healthy
living. While installations before about 1950 typically
had 1⁄2- and 3⁄4-in. supply lines of galvanized iron, now
they’re rigid copper, plastic, or a combination of copper
and plastic. DIY’ers prefer CPVC plastic, fitted with
solvent-weld joints, while pros use PEX plastic. PEX comes in memory-free
coils and is easy to install, but requires about $400 in special tools.
Water enters from a public water main or private well at pressures between
40 and 80 psi. Once inside the house, the service line branches to the water
KITCHEN
heater. Beyond the heater, hot- and cold-water trunk lines run side by side, DRAIN
branching to serve fixtures along the way. Where water softeners are used,
dedicated hard-water lines provide drinking water and serve outdoor faucets.
SHUTOFF
WASTE PIPES VALVES
DISHWASHER
While supply systems bring water under pressure, waste removal usually relies WASTE LINE
on gravity. This gives waste lines a distinctive look. HOT AND COLD
They’re typically larger and their fittings are shaped to SUPPLY RISERS

encourage the best possible flow. Pipes are generally

sized to match the fixtures they serve. Sinks and tubs
need 1 1⁄2-in. lines, showers and laundry stands need
2-in. lines, and toilets need 3-in. lines. Typically, the
waste lines all converge in a central vertical drain called
the stack. Older drain lines are made of cast iron, galvanized steel or copper,
while modern installations are made with PVC plastic and solvent-weld fittings.

VENTING SYSTEMS
Sewer gas is composed of up to 90 percent methane and can cause headaches
and respiratory illness, so it’s important to make sure
it doesn’t migrate back through fixture drains and into
the house. To achieve this, each fixture has a water dam
WATER WELLS: Private wells can
held in a U-shaped pipe called a trap. Toilets have a
depth of the aquifer. Aquifers are const
built-in trap that serves the same purpose. cleansed by the rock sediment it percol
Trap
But traps alone aren’t enough. Flowing water pulls wells deliver soft, less pure water, while
air behind it, and high-volume flows can create enough Most wells are between 30 and 400 ft.
to 15 gal. per minute, but dryer parts of
suction to pull water from nearby traps, breaking the seals. This is what a
less. Shallower wells are usually fitted w
vent system is designed to prevent. There are two vent types: stack vents and suction. Deeper wells use submersible p
revents. Fixtures near a larger vertical stack can draw air from it, but if a fixture well. Both use a pressure tank at the su
is too far away, or the piping steps up, revents are needed. Revents typically replacing a pressure tank, choose one w
join the stack above the highest fixture.

107 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y K I T C H E N S I N K S T U D I O S

NK FAUCET DI SHWASHE R BAT H BAS I N TO I L E T

in- Homeowners 20 years
ur- ago let the plumber
el pick the faucets and
por- he almost always
- picked chrome. Nick-
s is el-chromium was a
ng dozen times tougher
With than polished brass.
and Then came physi-
ne cal vapor deposition,
, (PVD), a vacuum-
r- chamber technology
e that sputters sub-
ese atomic metal parti-
s are cles onto charged fau-
cet parts. Add argon
gas and you get a ce-
ramic coating tougher
than chrome that can
look like any finish
you can imagine. And
with today’s lifetime-
warranted modern
ceramic cartridges,
there’s no going back.
If you’re washing
your dishes after
they come out of
the dishwasher, it
might be time to
upgrade. Look for a
steel cabinet, a good
sound-deadening
package, built-in
water heater, food
grinder and, if pos-
sible, a sensor that
reads the amount of
soil in the discharge.
MAINTENANCE:
Seals and O-rings at
the bottom of your
dishwasher must stay
wet to work. If you’ll
be away for a few
weeks, pour a small
amount of mineral
oil in the bottom of
the machine. The
oil will float on the
water, preventing
Traditional basins are
available in acrylic,
enamel on cast iron,
porcelain on vitreous
china and porcelain
on steel. Countertops
with integral basins
come in solid-surface
resins, cultured
marble and cultured
onyx. Pedestal lavs
are typically made
of vitreous china. As
for faucets, most
are deck mounted,
but wall mounts
have come back into
vogue. Reliable, easy-
to-replace nylon
cartridge mechanisms
are typical.
Toilets are made
almost exclusively of
vitreous china. There
are two types: gravity
flow and pressure
assist, which uses a
burst of air to help
clear the bowl.
MAINTENANCE: When
the holes under the
bowl rim clog with
mineral deposits,
flushing is affected. To
fix, pour vinegar in the
overflow tube in the
center of the tank and
let it stand for a half-
hour. Then use 12-ga.
electrical wire to ream
out the holes.
HOT AND COLD
SUPPLY RISERS

evaporation, and the

water will keep the
seals from drying out.

HOT-WATER
SUPPLY LINE

DISHWASHER
SUPPLY LINE

RU RA L A LT E R N AT I V ES
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MERLE HENKENIUS

be shallow or deep, depending on the
tantly recharged by surface water that’s
lates through. As a general rule, shallow
e deep wells deliver purer, harder water.
deep. Residential wells should deliver 10
the country often make do with 3 gal. or
with jet pumps that draw water through
pumps suspended near the bottom of the
urface to even out the flow to faucets. When
with an air-inflatable rubber bladder.
SEPTIC SYSTEMS: In rural areas, each home requires its own sewage treat-
ment—typically a buried tank and a gravel-lined leach field. Solids are broken
down in the tank by anaerobic bacteria present in human waste. This bacterial
action is so vigorous it produces heat and actually churns the water. The resulting
liquid effluent—heavy with urea and organic nitrogen—flows into the leach field
where microbes in the soil convert it into inorganic plant food. These microbes
exist only near the surface, so shallow leach fields, about 2 to 3 ft. deep, are best.
Septic tanks are sized according to the number of bedrooms, while leach fields
are sized according to soil percolation rates. A well-designed system can last a
generation or two, but only if you have the tank pumped every five years.

BAT H /S H OW E R
Plastic-coated
porcelain on steel,
with its low cost and
improved durability,
has largely supplanted
cast iron and steel for
tubs. Acrylic, on the
other hand, offers the
most colors. Stand-
alone showers are
often custom-built
around a drain pan.
Full showers come as
one-piece units or in
pieces for retrofitting.
MAINTENANCE:
Clean out loose caulk
and replace it with
new caulk that’s
made for tub and tile
use. These contain a
fungicide that helps
prevent mildew.
TOILET SUPPLY
RISER
WASHING MACHINE
SUPPLY LINES
STACK
MACHINE HOSES
WASHING MACHINE
DRAIN VENT
WASTE LEAVES HERE
ESS E N T I A L TO O L S
WASHING MACHINE WAT E R H E AT E R
Washing machines The typical water
A pro carries a truck-
are connected with heater has an load of tools to get him
rubber hoses— insulated tank that through the day, but
the best are steel stores hot water so it’s homeowners need just
reinforced. The drain ready for use. Tankless a few. Some plumbing
hose loops above water heaters don’t tools are specialized,
the drum to prevent store water, but heat it but others can be used
the fill cycle from as it’s drawn. They’re on all kinds of projects.
pumping water down more efficient, but
the drain. Water- may not keep up with 1. Allen Wrench Set
hammer arresters at heavy demand. You’ll need these
the supply lines help MAINTENANCE: for faucet
reduce the shock Temperature-and- handles.
of rapidly shutting pressure relief valves 2. Basin
automatic valves. keep your water Wrench
MAINTENANCE: heater from exploding This tool
Few things make a if the thermostat reaches up
bigger mess than malfunctions. Test the under and
a ruptured washer T&P valve once a year behind a
sink to grip
water-supply hose. by operating its lever.
faucet nuts.
Inspect the hoses for If water doesn’t come
3. Closet
deterioration, and out of the valve pipe,
Auger
replace them every the valve must be
The best
five years if they’re not replaced immediately.
tool for
steel reinforced. Every six months, stubborn
drain a few buckets toilet
from the tap at the clogs.
bottom of the water 4. Drain Auger
heater to remove A small auger that
sediment. This works well on drains.
improves heater 5. Combination
efficiency and helps Screwdriver
reduce corrosion. One driver that
handles all screws.
6. Deep-Cup Plunger
Required since most
drains clog eventually.
WATER HEATER
SUPPLY LINE This kind works on
VALVES toilets, too.
7. Hacksaw
Miniature hacksaws
reach into tight
places to
T&P
VALVE cut
pipes and
bolts.
8. Handle
Puller
WASHING
For remov-
WATER ing faucet
METER handles.
9. Water
Pump
Pliers
Slip-joint
WATER
ENTERS pliers that
TAP HERE
work on everything
WASHING MACHINE from faucets to
DRAIN HOSE
P traps.
 C O M M O N R E PA I R S EMERGENCIES

PROBLEM: Dripping Faucet WATER PIPE LEAK: A pipe

leak that doesn’t involve a fitting
SOLUTION: Replace the Seals is usually an easy fix with a pipe
Repair kits are available for most modern faucets. The unit shown has a repair clamp. The clamp shown
rotating ball and renewable spring-loaded seals. To replace the seals, shut has a rubber sleeve and a two-
piece clamp. Just wrap the pipe
the water supply and remove the handle with the wrench that came with
and bolt the halves together.
the kit. Rotate the cap
to free the ball (far left),
and remove the old seals
and springs. Slide the
new parts on an Allen
wrench and ease them
into place (left). Then
reassemble the faucet.

PROBLEM: Gurgling Sink

SOLUTION: Install a New Trap
The cause is usually an S trap because this design
can’t be properly vented. You can convert it to a
P trap with an automatic vent device. Check your CLOGGED TOILET: When a
local codes first. Disassemble the old trap down toilet clogs, quickly remove the
to the floor. Use two 45-degree fittings to extend a tank lid and press the flapper
new drain line to the back of the cabinet and install valve onto its
a tee about 18 in. off the floor. Connect the sink to New seat. Most
the branch of the tee with a P trap, and add an Old clogs can be
cleared with
8-in. pipe stub to the top of the tee. Glue a female
a plunger,
threaded adapter to the top of this pipe and thread but make it
the automatic vent into it. one with a
deep cup.
If that fails,
PROBLEM: Running Toilet use a closet
auger. Cable
SOLUTION: Replace the Flapper Valve through the
If your toilet comes on by itself, runs for a bit, then shuts off, the problem is trap three
times, aim-
the flapper. To fix it, first shut off the water to the toilet and flush. Lift the
ing left, right
old flapper from its hooks. Check the valve rim for deposits and smooth it and center.
with a scouring pad
(far left). If the rim
feels slimy, clean it with T&P VALVE LEAK: A
alcohol. Slip a new temperature-and-pressure relief
flapper in place (left) valve is a water heater’s only
and connect the chain safety valve. If you see it leaking,
to the flush lever so shut off the water and drain a
it’s slightly loose. little out of the tank. Install a new
valve, coating the threads lightly
with pipe dope. If the new valve
leaks, replace the water heater
PROBLEM: Basement Odor immediately.
SOLUTION: Seal the Floor Drain Trap
Floor drains are installed
for emergencies, but when
the trap dries out, gas
can escape. The best fix
is to add a quart of water
once a week. Otherwise,
a tennis ball over the
hole will seal the trap,
yet float if water collects.
Commercial versions
are available.

Look for PART 2 of HOW YOUR HOUSE WORKS, The Electrical System, in December.




 





 
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PM HOMEJOURNAL

HOMEOWNERSCLINIC
Q BY N O R M A N B E C K E R , P. E .

+A
Dealing With
METAL-SHEATHED CABLE
OR METAL CONDUIT Old Outlets
OLD TWO-PRONG
OUTLET Q Can a two-prong outlet
be replaced with a three-
prong outlet? If so, what addi-
tional work is necessary beyond
installing the outlet itself?
TOM DRAGAS
East Meadow, NY

A Yes, you can replace a two-

prong outlet with a three-
GROUNDING TEST prong outlet so long as you abide
by local building codes and fol-
GROUNDING
PATH low rigid test and replacement
procedures. A lot of subtleties are
NO GROUNDING
PATH involved, however.
Modern outlets have two slots
and a hole for a grounding pin. The
grounding-pin hole is connected to
a grounding screw on the outlet’s
body. A dedicated grounding wire
leads from this screw to the ground-
ing bus on the house’s service panel,
which in turn is connected to a
ground rod driven into the earth.
Old houses have outlets with two
slots and in most of these homes lit-
tle or no provision has been made for
a dedicated grounding path. Some
old houses, however, have metal-
sheathed cable or, in rare instances,
cloth-covered wires in a metal con-
duit. The metal sheathing or the con-
duit forms a grounding path. Your
replacement procedure depends on
whether the house has some form
of metal-clad cable or cloth-covered
cable. Call your electrician if your
house is very old and you find a
knob and tube system in which bare
GFCI STANDARD copper wires are stretched between
OUTLET OUTLET
porcelain insulators.
The first step is to test the outlet for
a grounding path by using a simple
neon voltage tester, which is nothing

112 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS I L L U S T R A T I O N B Y F LY I N G - C H I L L I . C O M

more than a tiny neon light bulb
connected to two insulated pieces
of wire. Stick one test lead into the
outlet’s hot (narrow) slot and press
the other test lead against the screw
holding the outlet’s cover plate.
If the tester lights, a ground-
ing path exists. If the tester doesn’t
light, a grounding path is not pres-
ent, is broken, or its resistance is
high because of rusty connections or
a layer of paint on the cover screw.
If the tester doesn’t light, you
have three options:
1. Replace the two-prong out-
let with a three-prong ground fault
circuit interrupter (GFCI). This
is a somewhat controversial mat-
ter. Though the National Electrical
Code (NEC) permits it, some code-
enforcement officials feel that a
GFCI is not an adequate substitute
for a dedicated grounding path. The
NEC does require the GFCI to be
labeled with a sticker that reads “No
Equipment Ground.” This sticker
is provided with most good-quality
GFCI outlets (check the box before
you buy; some inexpensive GFCI
outlets don’t have it), but it’s your
responsibility to apply it.
2. Replace the two-prong outlet
with a three-prong outlet attached
to a separate, dedicated ground-
ing wire that you or an electrician
installs. This wire must reach back to
the service panel’s grounding bus.
3. Replace the old wiring and the
outlet with a modern three-prong

E D I T O R ’ S C H O I C E AWA R D S
A few of our favorite new gadgets
PRODUCT NEWS
B R I G G S & S T R AT T O N
R E A D Y S T A R T $15*
Small engines can be
hard to start on a cool
morning. We like Ready-
Start because it adjusts
the engine’s choke plate
based on engine temper-
ature. Also, it eliminates
the need for a separate
choke or primer bulb.
It’s found on mowers
from $300 to $400 with Briggs & Stratton Quantum
engines. www.briggsandstratton.com
*Added to the mower’s cost; not available as an aftermarket device.

F L A M E S AV E R
P R O PA N E
T H E C R A W L E R $799 T A N K $35
Of all the products introduced at the recent National This 20-pound propane
Hardware Show, The Crawler probably received the tank has a fitting that
most attention as it slowly powered a rolling scaf- cuts fuel flow to alert
fold around the show floor. It received a PM Editor’s you that 1 hour of fuel is
Choice Award not just because it was an attention left in reserve. To acti-
grabber but because it’s simply ingenious. Weighing vate the tank’s reserve,
90 pounds, the scaffold-moving device uses a cord- push a sliding switch
less drill (owner-supplied) as its power source. It to the On position and
provides as much as 1500 ft. of movement on one relight the grill. www
battery charge. www.crawlerproducts.com .flamesaver.com

T U R N E R D E A D B O L T $45
The Turner deadbolt doesn’t require a key to lock.
When you leave home, rotate the device’s outer collar.
This throws the deadbolt, securely locking the door as
if you had turned the mechanism with a key. Unlock it
with a key when you return. www.turnerlock.com

POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 113

 PM HOMEJOURNAL H o m e ow n e rs C l i n i c

outlet and a modern three-wire 1. Install the new outlet with

cable, with its grounding wire
connected to the service panel’s
grounding bus.
If the tester lights, replace the
old outlet with a grounded three-
prong outlet. Once again, you
have three options, listed near-
by. All of them will provide ade-
quate grounding, though local
building regulations may require
one or another. Regardless of
your grounding method, be sure
to make a firm, clean, metal-to-
metal connection.
a grounding clip that attaches to
the side of the metal outlet box.
Attach a piece of bare copper
wire to the clip. Attach the wire’s
other end to the grounding screw
on the outlet. Any grounding
wire should be the same size as
the other conductors in the box.
2. Install an automatic-ground-
ing outlet in the box that elimi-
nates the need for other ground-
ing attachments.
3. If the box has predrilled
holes for an 8-32 grounding

GOOD IDEA

Any time is a good time to think about improving your home’s

fire safety, but Fire Prevention Week (Oct. 9-15) is especially apt.
Two manufacturers, Kidde and First Alert, have introduced wire-
less smoke alarms. Each works as a system, so the warning from
one alarm spreads to every other alarm in the system.

KIDDE
The Kidde Wireless System
uses a combination of an alarm
and a SmokeSounder voice
module. The alarm is powered
by three AA batteries and the
voice module plugs into a wall
outlet (but uses a 9-volt battery backup). When activated, the
voice module states in an authoritative-sounding tone, “Danger.
Fire. Wake up. Follow the escape plan!” The alarm/voice module
kit costs about $50 (www.kiddewireless.com). The Kidde Wireless
System is also available in a 120-volt hard-wired version that
extends an existing hard-wired system.

Gorilla Glue is the versatile,
interior/exterior adhesive
ideal for most household
fixes and building projects:
furniture repair, crafts,
woodworking, and general
repairs around the house.
Bonds wood, stone,
metal, ceramic & more!
Incredibly strong and
100% waterproof.
FIRST ALERT
The First Alert OneLink smoke and carbon
monoxide (CO) alarm requires that you pro-
gram it for the room it’s installed in. The first
activated alarm signals other OneLink alarms,
activating them. That way, for example, the
alarms identify where smoke is first detected by
announcing, “Warning. Evacuate. Smoke in kitchen” (or whatever
area is appropriate). A 120-volt version of the OneLink extends
a hard-wired alarm system to portions of the house that are
not wired for alarms. A OneLink smoke and CO alarm costs $90
(www.firstalert.com). —Roy Berendsohn

REQUEST YOUR FREE

INFORMATION KIT!
www.gorillaglue.com
1-800-966-3458 114 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
screw, drive a grounding screw
into the box, wrap a grounding
wire clockwise around the screw
shaft and tighten the screw. Then,
wrap the wire’s other end clockwise
around the outlet’s grounding screw
and tighten it.
Can you install a GFCI in a
grounded metal box? Yes. If you
do, install a grounding wire from
its grounding screw to the box and
omit the label mentioned earlier.
Finally, some municipalities
require that an electrician make
modifications to a house’s electrical
system while others allow a home-
owner to make minor changes.
Your town may require you to get
a building permit before you pro-
ceed. Check with your local code-
enforcement office before begin-
ning work. And, always cut power


to the portion of the electrical sys-
tem you work on.
Attic Mildew
Q Recently, I went into the
attic of the house that I
bought eight months ago, just to
do a visual inspection. I found
that some of the trusses have
black stuff on them. I used my
pocketknife to poke into the
wood, which is still hard and
sturdy. I think the roof had a few
leaks before the previous owner
had a new roof put on. Is the
black stuff wood decay fungus
or not? Should I be worried?
STEVEN T.
North Carolina
From the photo that you sub-
A mitted it looks like there are
old water stains on the wood fram-
ing along with patches of mildew.
Since there is a new roof, water
leakage shouldn’t be a problem.
Mildew fungus will not cause
wood framing to rot. However, the
fungus does indicate an excessive
buildup of moisture vapor, which
left unchecked can result in con-
densation that drips onto the ceiling
below, damaging it. Excessive attic
moisture can also cause a plywood
roof deck to delaminate.
The condition is generally the
result of inadequate ventilation.
While doing home inspections
I have seen attic gable vents delib-
erately blocked by a homeowner to
reduce heat loss. This can create the
problems mentioned above.
Also, be sure soffit vents are not
blocked by insulation. If they are,
you can purchase baffles at a home







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PM HOMEJOURNAL H o m e ow n e rs C l i n i c

N OW YO U K N OW

step right up
Nationwide, there were about 164,000 emergency room visits related
to falls from ladders last year, according to Consumer Product Safety
Commission statistics. That’s about 449 injuries a day—in a year’s time, that
90˚
adds up to the population of a fair-size city, such as Huntsville, Ala. That’s a
shame, because it’s not that hard to use a ladder safely. If you’re climbing a
ladder this fall to clean your gutters, take note of these simple safety tips:

LOOK UP. Be sure there are no LOOK AROUND. Check the ladder
powerlines overhead when you from the side. It should tilt at about
lift an extension ladder. a 75-degree angle, or 1 ft. of setback
for every 4 ft. of height measured

LOOK DOWN. Be sure an extension
ladder’s feet rest on a stable, level
surface. If they don’t, install blocks
4 and wedges under the feet so the
ladder has a firm footing. Secure
the ladder’s feet and prevent them
1 from kicking out by driving stakes
75˚
into the ground behind them.
ILLUSTRATION BY FLYING-CHILLI.COM
to the point where the ladder rests
against the house. Check this using
the “fireman’s setup.” Stand with
the toes of your work shoes against
the ladder base. Your arm should
be level when your palm rests on
the top of the ladder rung directly
in front of you. —R.B.

With add a bathroom*

Before where YOU want!
After Easy basement installation
without breaking the floor.
For full details call 1•800•363•5874

Saniflo macerating pumping unit.

*or a kitchen or laundry room. www.saniflo.com

center which, when placed
between the rafters or joists,
will keep insulation from
blocking the airways.
In addition, attic moisture
problems are compounded if
the exhaust from a clothes dry-
er or bathroom fan vents into
the attic. These should be vent-
ed outside; correct the prob-
lem immediately if you find it.

Rust Stains
on Carpet
Q Our house is built on
a monolithic slab with
carpet over it. The carpet
has rusty-looking spots on it
and it’s puckering, which, I
assume, indicates moisture.
Can this be caused by rusty
rebar in the concrete? What
preparation is needed prior
to installing new carpet?
JACKIE
Memphis, TN
Rusty groundwater can
A rise to the slab’s surface,
especially if the rebar is close
to the top surface and the slab
is cracked. Also, it’s possible
the carpet was installed before
the concrete slab was ade-
quately cured. This can cause
excessive amounts of moisture
vapor to pass through to the
surface, staining the carpet in
the process and causing the
puckering that you describe.
Prior to installing a new car-
pet, all cracks in the slab should
be sealed. To minimize mois-
ture buildup under the carpet,
cover the area with a vapor bar-
rier such as sheets of polyethyl-
ene. Overlap the edges of the
sheets and tape the joints. You
should also install a rubber
carpet underlay to provide an
additional barrier and to pro-
vide a cushioned surface.
PM HOMEJOURNAL H o m e ow n e rs C l i n i c

Check your phone book for con- open again. There is a trade associa- because homeowner jobs are
tractors in your area that specialize in tion of contractors specializing in con- usually so small, you might find a
concrete crack repair. Simply pumping crete repair, the International Concrete member to work on your house.
caulk or sealant into the slab’s cracks Repair Institute (ICRI). You can visit
won’t work. Although a do-it-yourself the organization’s Web site (www.icri Customized
repair such as this will provide a tempo- .org) to see if it has an ICRI member Drywall Compound
rary solution, over time the cracks will in your area. Although it’s a long shot,
Q Isome
am about to install
drywall in a bath-
room and shower area that
has a moisture problem. I’ve
heard that adding Lysol to the
drywall joint compound helps
prevent mold and mildew.
ET200™ Is this true? If so, how much
Lysol should be added to

DRIVES 4 SIZES ready-mix drywall compound?

SALVATORE PONTECORVO
Fort Wayne, IN

OF NAILS WITH A According to the techni-

cal support department

NO EFFORT at the U.S. Gypsum Co., Lysol

shouldn’t be added to drywall
DRIVES
DIFFERENT SIZE
4 compound because it can reduce
the compound’s adhesion once
BRAD NAILS UP TO dry. The best way to prevent

11/4”LONG
mold and mildew from form-
ing on bathroom walls and ceil-
ings is to ensure that the room is
䡲 Comfortable
Ergonomic adequately ventilated with a
Styling with bathroom exhaust fan that dis-
Cushioned charges to the outside.
Non-Slip
Grip. It’s also important to choose
proper building materials for
damp environments because
they have greater resistance to
moisture and mildew. Although
there isn’t mildew-resistant
drywall compound (it comes
䡲 Trigger and from the factory with a tiny
䡲 New Heavy Duty
Surface Nail Driving amount of mildewcide to reduce
Safety Locks. Power with
Built-in 10’ Cord.
mold formation in the bucket),
there are mildew-resistant dry-
䡲 Non-Marring
Bumper.
wall panels, fiberglass-reinforced
panels and cement board. PM

DO YOU HAVE A HOME-

MAINTENANCE OR REPAIR PROBLEM?
Just ask Norman about it. Send your
questions to Homeowners Clinic,
Available at home centers, lumber yards Popular Mechanics, 810 Seventh Ave.,
and hardware stores, wherever fine tools are sold. New York, NY 10019 or pmhomeclinic@hearst
.com. While letters cannot be answered
Arrow Fastener Co., Inc., 271 Mayhill Street, Saddle Brook, New Jersey 07663 individually, problems of general interest
Canada: Jardel Distributors, Inc., 6505 Metropolitan Blvd. East, Montreal, Quebec H1P 1X9
United Kingdom: Arrow Fastener (U.K.) Ltd., Unit 5, ZK Park, 23 Commerce Way, Croydon CR0 4ZS, Surrey will be discussed in the column.
www.arrowfastener.com Rev.705
 READER PROJECT
Skip Fabry
Klawock, AK
PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM M AC CANNELL
Alaskan Camper
I designed this 25-ft.-long camper,
the Miassis Dragon, around a
Grumman Olson delivery box. It
is attached to an International DT
466 flatbed truck, but can easily
be removed using jacks so we can
haul freight and logs. It sleeps two.
First, I installed a 3-ft.-wide door,
cut the windows and paralleled
the studs with 1 x 3 yellow cedar.
To make it comfortable, I wired the
camper for AC and DC, and ran
plumbing for the toilet, washer,
dryer, an on-demand water heater
and other appliances. We put up
oak paneling to hide everything.
The compost toilet, which vents
through the ceiling, mixes the
waste with mulch and dries it
out, leaving no odor. The Toyo oil
heater, made for small boats, is
very efficient.
One of the best features is the
4 x 5-ft. cedar deck we designed
that slides out from underneath
the truck bed and has steps
attached. It can hold up to 800
pounds. The project took about
363 hours and cost less than a new
1-ton pickup with an expensive
camper. Our first trip ran 16,000
miles and took 2 1⁄2 months.
FOR YOUR PROJECT TO BE CONSIDERED,
please send clear, color photos and a brief
description to: Reader Project, Popular
Mechanics, 810 Seventh Ave., 6th Floor,
New York, NY 10019, or e-mail your project
to popularmechanics@hearst.com. Any
letters and pictures submitted become
the property of Popular Mechanics. Unfor-
tunately, we cannot return submissions.
(Please turn to page XX)
 !DVERTISEMENT

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 CARCARE
FUEL INJECTION SUSPENSION ELECTRICAL COOLING SYSTEMS AND MORE FOR SATURDAY MECHANICS
PM

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY

DIFFICULT

SATURDAY
MECHANIC
BY MIKE ALLEN

Ball Joint
Replacement
It started as a clicking noise as
you backed out of the drive. Just a STUD
mild tap through the steering wheel.
Sometimes it’s not even there. But as
the mileage builds over the next few
weeks, the click gets bigger. Then it
starts to morph into a thump as you
go over potholes. A thump that turns
into a shimmy. You jack up the front
end and shake the wheels side to
side—no problem. You shake them
up and down. Big problem. There’s
a half-inch of slop on one wheel,
though the other is tight. The diag-
nosis: You’ve got a bad ball joint.

NOTHING IS FOREVER
Front suspension parts eventual-
ly wear out, but this sudden onset
RIVET
of slop in your ball joint probably BALL
means a lubrication failure. But JOINT
wait! you say. My ball joints are
sealed—there’s no grease fitting to
pump fresh lubricant into. They’re
Lubed For Life, like it says right here
in the owner’s manual.
Exactly.
You’ve just discovered the true
life span of a permanently lubed
suspension joint. The lubrication fi-
nally dries out, water intrudes inside
>

Drill out the old rivets. We used a chunk of wood

the boot covering the moving parts, to keep the control arm out of the way.

P H OTO G RA P H S BY JA M ES W EST M A N POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005 123

PM CARCARE S a t u rd ay M e c h a n i c
and rust and abrasive road dirt
turn a ball joint or tie rod end into
a loosey-goosey accident waiting
to happen. Do not delay in repair-
ing a failing ball joint or tie rod end.
When it fails, the wheel involved
will try to part company with your
vehicle, and not quite succeed in
doing so. This will precipitate two
unfortunate events: loss of control
at some speed, and considerable
damage to the rest of the vehicle.
MAYBE, MAYBE NOT
If your vehicle has a strut-type
suspension, or any other type of
suspension system that doesn’t
involve the need to compress the
springs and unload the control
arms, you can easily replace the
worn-out part using simple hand
tools. If your vehicle uses upper
and lower control arms, you’ll need
a spring compressor. You can rent
one, but in this case we suggest you
shop this procedure out to a profes-
sional mechanic. The energy stored
in the spring is more than adequate
to put a hurtin’ on you. If the spring
>
Loosen the sway bar mount so you can
lower the control arm far enough.
SWAY BAR STEERING UPRIGHT
124 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
BRAKE CALIPER
>
You’ll need to remove the
caliper and disc from the strut to
access the ball joint.
>
Don’t hang the caliper
from the flexible rubber hose;
use a piece of wire or stout twine
to suspend it while it’s loose.
compressor slips, parts will fly out
of the wheel well at ballistic veloci-
ties—probably right at an important
part of your body, like your face.
Some vehicles, particularly high-
end cars, use a sophisti-
cated rear-end suspen-
sion setup that may use
ball-type joints, and the
principles we’re talking
about here may apply. As
always, consult the shop
manual for specifics.
One suggestion: If one
joint has failed, the other
is probably not far be-
hind. As long as you have
the tools out and your
hands dirty, you may as
well do both sides.
We recommend pur-
chasing aftermarket pre-
mium-quality ball joints.
Odds are they will outlast
the OEM parts because
they almost always have
a grease fitting installed.
WIRE
BRAKE CALIPER
GETTING STARTED
Park on a flat piece of concrete. Block
both rear wheels in both directions.
Loosen the lug nuts a half-turn or
so. Jack up the vehicle and support
it on safety stands—an old stump
or some cement blocks won’t cut it.
Remove the wheel. I like to toss the
removed wheel under the frame of
the vehicle near where I’m working.
If something goes really wrong, at
least there’s something thicker than
my head between the car and the
ground. Your head may vary.
You’ll need to lift the entire front
end of the car and unload both sides
of the suspension, for reasons that
will become obvious later. Don’t
attempt to lift up only one corner.
You’ll probably need to remove
the brake disc and caliper to get to
the fastener between the ball joint
and the bottom of the strut or up-
right—but maybe not. If so, remove
the caliper’s attachment, and hang it
from something with a thick wire to
keep from damaging the brake line.


 

 



  

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PM CARCARE S a t u rd ay M e c h a n i c
DISASSEMBLY
Now you can remove the pinch
bolt in the bottom of the strut.
This clamps around the ball
joint’s stud. In a perfect world,
you could simply press down
on the lower control arm and
the stud would drop free of the
strut. Well, our world isn’t per-
fect, so that’s not going to hap-
pen. These two pieces have
been mated and bathed in
muddy, salty water for years—
they’re attached. Smack the
area with a ball-peen hammer
a couple of times to loosen up
the attraction. Now you should
be able to tap the control arm
smartly with a bigger hammer
to get the stud to move.
But wait! There’s a sway
bar thicker than your thumb
up against the bottom of
the control arm, preventing
any significant movement of
the arm downward. You have two
choices: either raising the strut—
which means fighting a spring stout
enough to hold up one corner of
your car—or dealing with the sway
bar. On our example vehicle we
got enough clearance by removing
the bolts on the bar’s clamp on one
>
Index the new joint’s stud so
the pinch bolt can be inserted.
FLAT
BOLT
NEW BALL JOINT
126 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS
BALL JOINT
>
Remove the pinch bolt. This allows you to
separate the joint from the bottom of the strut.
side of the vehicle. You may need to
loosen the clamp on the other side.
We didn’t, but we did use a big pry
bar to get the last inch of suspension
travel we needed.
And this is why we told you to
lift the whole front of the car—the
other side of the suspension needs
to be at full droop to allow enough
clearance on this side.
DROOPY
Now you should be able to depress
the control arm far enough for the
stud to clear the strut.
How is your ball joint attached
to the control arm? It might be bolt-
ed on, in which case all you need to
do is remove the bolts and drop in
the new part. Some—usually older-
style—ball joints are pressed into
the lower control arm with a hydrau-
lic press. There are ways to press the
old ones out and new ones in, but
they involve specialized tools. If you
don’t want to rent or borrow these,
you may have to remove
the lower control arm and
have the new joints pressed
in at a machine shop.
Our example minivan
uses a fairly common
method of ball joint attach-
ment—rivets. Relax. We’re
going to bolt the part back
together when we’re done,
so you won’t need an air
hammer to set any new riv-
ets. Start by center-punch-
ing a healthy starter mark
in the center of each rivet.
To avoid drilling off-cen-
ter, you’re going to drill a
3
⁄16-in. hole most of the
way through all of the riv-
ets. Then follow up with a
1
⁄2-in. bit, which will cen-
ter on the smaller hole.
Drill down just until the
bit touches the surface of
the control arm. Now the
ball joint will fall loose with a gentle
tap. There should have been new
hardware in the box with the new
part—do not substitute anything
else, as these are critical fasteners.
TOGETHER AGAIN
Eyeball the stud. There will be a
flat on one side. Index this so the
pinch bolt can slide past. Slide the
boot over the stud and slide the
stud back up into the strut. If you
eyeball the pinch bolt’s bore from
the side, you’ll see when you’re in
far enough. Reinstall the pinch bolt.
Screw the grease fitting into its pre-
tapped hole in the joint, and pump
grease into it until the boot gets
turgid and a little grease leaks out.
Now you can reinstall the sway
bar mounting and the brakes. And
start on the other side. Remember to
take a close look at the tie rod ends.
Unlike most suspension work, there
should be no need for a front-end
alignment when you’re done. PM
 




 









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PM CARCARE

AUTOCLINIC
Q BY MIKE ALLEN

+A

Volume
Control

HELMHOLTZ
RESONATOR

THROTTLE AIR FILTER

Q Ifihad a very small electrical

re in the engine compart-
ment of my SUV. The only real
damage to anything—other than
some wires—was this “thing” (I
don’t know what else to call it)
that attaches to my air cleaner.
My mechanic doesn’t know what
it’s for. There were no other parts
or anything inside it, and the car
seems to run okay without it. The
dealership wants nearly a hun-
dred bucks for a new one, and
the parts manager there says I
absolutely must have this thing
installed or I risk engine damage.
CANCELLATION
What to do? He can’t get one for
almost a month, by the way. And
I need my car.
SHARRIE TIMKINS
Encino, CA
A That empty piece of plastic is
called a Helmholtz resonator.
Really. And it’s just empty. Actually
not: It’s full of air. It’s attached to
LOW PRESSURE
HIGH PRESSURE
the ducting between your air clean-
er and the intake manifold. And
although it looks like it can’t have
any real purpose, it does. It’s there to
reduce the noise your engine intake
duct makes. Huh? It has an interi-
or volume with a very specific reso-
nant frequency, like an organ pipe.
Pressure pulses traveling back and

128 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS I L L U S T R A T I O N S B Y M I C H A E L L L E W E L LY N

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forth in the duct have a resonant then bounces off the far end of the ing will cancel out at least part of
frequency as well. A pressure pulse resonator, and returns back to the the negative pulse at that point. The

whipping past the entrance to the
resonator (at the speed of sound)
partially enters its cavity. The pulse
TOOLKIT
duct a very short time later. By now
the pressure pulse has traveled a
half-wavelength farther along the
duct. The pressure pulse re-enter-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES WESTMAN (TOOL IN USE, LEFT), BURCU AVSAR (TOOL, RIGHT)
net result is reduced noise, at least
at or near the resonant frequency of
the resonator. Many car manufac-
turers use this technique to reduce

Back It Cross-threaded spark plug threads: A The mandrel of the

Back-Tap expands the
mechanic’s worst nightmare. They invariably
on Out happen on the night before a vacation or when
tool after the tap has
been inserted, keeping
you’re working on a friend’s car and he’s waiting to pick up the tap straight.
the kids from school or has some other can’t-miss-it obligation.
That’s just when you need to do something calmly, to avoid
stripping the threads out completely. I wish I’d had a set of
Back-Taps 30 years ago. Normally, you would attempt to thread
a tap into the damaged threads to clean them up—which is not
easy. The Back-Tap’s threads collapse to allow you to insert it
into the plug hole past the damaged area, where it expands and
engages undamaged threads. Then as you spin it back out, it
pulls the shavings along with it instead of leaving them inside
THREADS
the engine. There’s a size for O2 sensor threads as well. Back-
Taps cost $49.95 per thread size. www.starproducts.com MANDREL

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intake-tract noise. Some vehicles
have several of these devices in
different places along the duct.
Why do you care? This device
should have no effect whatsoever
on the performance of your engine,
regardless of what your parts man-
ager claims. However, the duct is
supposed to be pulling clean air
from the air cleaner into your
engine. Obviously, the damaged
resonator would allow unfiltered
air into the works, which would be
a Bad Thing. Patch the resonator
if there’s anything left, or remove
it and cover the hole. How? Duct
tape won’t last very long at all in
the heat underhood. I’d try a piece
of sheet aluminum and some high-
temperature RTV silicone. Be sure
to use low-volatility silicone rated
for engine-gasket use. It should say
SERVICE TIPS
Help From Vehicle Makers Tech Bulletins
Is your 1996-2005 Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge minivan hard
to move after being parked in below-freezing weather? Technical
Service Bulletin (TSB) 05-003-05 says it’s from water entering the rear
brakes and freezing the brake shoes to the drums. There are revised
parts to keep water out.
Consistently finding water in the fuel filter of your diesel Ford
F-350, -450 or -550? Snow or ice may be accumulating on top of the tank
and entering through the mushroom cap on the vent port as the snow or
ice melts. TSB 05-11-7 details installing a vent line kit to replace the cap.
“safe for O2 sensors” on the label. town on short trips at 55 or less, it
Check the rest of the duct for leaks never uses any oil, even if I go 3000
as well, seeing as how you already miles between changes. But if I take
know there’s damage from the fire. it out of town on a 3000-mile trip, it
will use a whole quart. The service
Boiling It Down center says everything is okay.
Q Iyear
have a Ford Crown Vic,
2000. If I drive it around
CHARLES COTA
Harpers Ferry, IA
PM CARCARE Au to C l i n i c
A Let’s assume the diagnosis by
your local technician is correct:
There is no real oil leak, the rings
and valve seals are all good, and
your engine isn’t burning oil. Also,
the positive crankcase ventilation
(PCV) system is working correctly.
Here’s my educated guess: Your
short-trip driving cycle means the
engine rarely gets a chance to warm
up fully. By fully, I mean a good
15 miles, or even longer in cold-
er weather. And it can get plenty
cold in Iowa. Water from moisture
condensing inside the engine, raw
fuel from cold starts and partially
burned hydrocarbons will dilute the
engine oil, increasing the volume.
This dilution offsets the normal
rate of oil consumption, so you’ll
see little difference in the oil level
on the dipstick between changes.
!MERICAS342/.'%346IAGRA !LTERNATIVE
/NLYTHTHE#OSTOF6IAGRA§
Then you take your trip. The
engine comes up to normal oper-
ating temp, and the fuel and water
boil off and work their way out of
the crankcase through the PCV sys-
tem, which is exactly what is sup-
posed to happen. Within a few
hours, the oil volume sinks as
the volatiles leave, and your dip-
stick says “ADD”—even though
the consumption of oil past the
rings and valve stem seals remains
unchanged. Actually, this is a
common complaint I hear about
vehicles with this type of driving
pattern. I would check the thermo-
stat to be sure the engine is warm-
ing up promptly. Mechanics and car
owners who are used to the 180-
degree thermostats of an earlier
era have a habit of replacing today’s
customary 195-degree thermostats
)FYOUVEEVERWONDEREDIFYOURSEXUALPERFORMANCE
with the older type in the mistak-
en belief it’s better to make the car
run cooler. Today’s cars and trucks
are engineered to run plenty hot
for better fuel economy.
In the winter, it might be a good
idea to cover two-thirds of the radia-
tor with cardboard to help it warm
up sooner.
Lightning Does
Strike Twice
Q Ivan.
have a 1995 Chevy Lumina
The fuse for the mirrors,
locks and interior lights blew out
today. I replaced the fuse and then
smoke started coming from the
dash on the driver’s side. I had
to take the fuse out to stop the
smoke. Can you help me?
HUBERT SPENCER
Via E-Mail
§
COULDBEIMPROVEDBYASTRONGERERECTIONYOUARE
NOTALONE)NFACTALACKOFSEXUALPOTENCYCONCERNS
MOSTMEN3ILDENAFLEXTHEEFFECTIVERELIABLE
ALTERNATIVETO6IAGRA§HASBEENPROVENEFFECTIVEIN
IMPROVINGSEXUALPERFORMANCE3ILDENAFLEXALSO
HELPSYOUMAINTAINSTRONGERFULLERFIRMERERECTIONS
ASWELLASINCREASEDLIBIDO
sWORKSINMINUTESnLASTSTOHOURS
sGUARANTEED
sNONEGATIVESIDEEFFECTS
sNOPRESCRIPTIONNEEDED
sONLYTHTHECOSTOF6IAGRACOMPAREDTOTHE
MGTABLET
sSAFEFORTYPE))DIABETICSANDHYPERTENTION
SUFFERERS

3/-%2%342)#4)/.3-!9!00,9Ú-EZA"IOTECH)NC!LLRIGHTSRESERVED3),$%.!&,%8
ISATRADEMARKOF-EZA"IOTECH)NC6)!'2!§ISAREGISTEREDTRADEMARKOF0FIZER)NC
 A You had a short somewhere
in the wiring that services
these devices. Simple enough—
a wire carrying 12 volts from the
fuse to the devices controlled by
the fuse touched some ground-
ed metal somewhere along its
path. The short had essentially
zero resistance, far less than the
resistance of the devices on that
leg of the harness, even if they
were all turned on at the same
time. The current surge was suf-
ficient to blow the fuse. That’s
supposed to happen, of course.
You replaced the fuse with
one that was of higher amperage
than the one that blew—I know
this because the correct-amper-
age fuse would have blown
again. That smoke was caused
by the insulation on the wires
getting too hot between the fuse
and the short. Now you prob-
ably have many more shorts in
addition to the original, caused
by the wires touching each other
when the insulation melted.
Where was your original short?
No way to tell. Well, maybe. The
insulation damage will stop at
the short because current wasn’t
flowing beyond that point. A
mechanic with good electrical
diagnostic skills will need to sort
this out. This will not be cheap,
and you may well have damaged
wiring in other circuits. PM


LET US KNOW

GOT A HIGH-MILEAGE CAR?

We’re looking for readers who have managed
to maintain their vehicles so well that they
don’t ever seem to wear out. Forever is a





 
 

long time, but if your favorite ride has rolled 0
!)
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the odometer over a couple of times, please
share it with us. Just use the addresses below. !")
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DO YOU HAVE A CAR PROBLEM?
'#
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Just ask Mike about it. Send your questions #&!&
(''
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to Auto Clinic, Popular Mechanics, 810
Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019 or to #
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OCTOBER 2005 133 
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PM TECHNOLOGY

Home
Computer
Tuneup
Your PC occasionally
needs a little TLC to keep
it running right.

Y
BY TIMOTHY CAPTAIN CLEAN OUT
DUST

You take your car in for an oil

change every 3000 miles, have its
tires rotated and get the engine
tuned up from time to time. Yet ADD FAN FILTER
while we all make sure to maintain
our vehicles, most of us don’t both-
er to perform similar tasks on our
personal computers, even though
we may spend more time in front of
our PCs than we do in our cars.
No, you don’t have to take your
PC into a professional for regular
DEFRAGMENT CHECK FOR UPDATE
service. All you need to do is per- HARD DISK VIRUSES SOFTWARE
form a few routine maintenance
tasks to keep it running in top form.

H A R DWA R E M A I N T E N A N C E

Get the dust out.

While dust on the
outside of your PC’s
case might look
ugly, it’s the dust
that gets inside, blocking airflow
through the case, that’s the real
problem. To clean out the interior of
your PC, make sure the power is off,
then remove the side or top panel
(depending on your model) and use
a can of compressed air to blow any
dust bunnies out of the case.
You should pay particular atten-
tion to the fins in the processor’s
heat sink (the cooling device mount-
ed to the CPU). If too much dust gets
trapped in there, your processor will
overheat, reducing its performance,
stability and overall life span.
You can determine if your CPU’s
heat sink is becoming choked with
dust by checking the temperature
of the processor with a free util-
ity like Hardware sensors monitor
(www.hmonitor.com), Intel Active
Monitor (www.intel.com/design/
motherbd/active.htm) or SpeedFan
(www.almico.com/speedfan.php).
While you have the case open,
also check the memory sockets, as
well as the expansion slots where the
graphics accelerator and other cards
are plugged in. Dust can work its
way into those electrical connections
and cause the components to fail.
Add or replace
filters on your
case fans.
Most cases are
equipped with both
intake and exhaust fans to keep the
case’s interior cool. By drawing air
into the front of the case, though,
an intake fan will also pull in dust.
Unfortunately, very few PCs have
filters on the intake fan to keep
dust out, but you can make a filter
of your own using—of all things—
pantyhose. Just stretch a swath of
pantyhose over your front intake
fan, secure it with a few drops of
Krazy Glue and then cut it to fit.

134 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y H E A D C A S E D E S I G N

 








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PM TECHNOLOGY H o m e C o m p u te r Tu n e u p

Check the filter once a month
and replace it when it becomes full
of dust. You can tell when a filter
is becoming clogged by monitor-
ing your motherboard for overheat-
ing using the temperature utilities
mentioned above.
S O F T WA R E M A I N T E N A N C E
Run Windows’
built-in hard-
drive mainte-
nance tools.
Windows includes
three very handy utilities for tuning
up your hard drive, all of which you
can access by opening My Comput-
er, right clicking on the C: drive, and
selecting Properties from the pop-up
menu. We recommend you run each
of these tools at least once a month.
The first of these utilities is Disk
Cleanup, which removes unneeded
temporary files that consume doz-
ens or even hundreds of mega-
bytes of storage. The second tool is
Windows XP’s Disk Check, which is
accessible from the Tools tab under
Error-checking. This utility scans
your hard drive for disk errors and
corrupt files and automatically
repairs any problems it finds.
The third utility is the Disk
Defragmenter, available from the
Tools tab under Defragmentation.
Since Windows automatically places
new files in the space that previous-
ly deleted files had occupied on your
drive, large files are spread out in
pieces across your drive. Disk Defrag-
menter repositions your files on the
drive so that they’re stored contigu-
ously, improving performance.
Run antivirus
and antispy-
ware sweeps.
Viruses and worms
can cause devastat-
ing data loss, and spyware can give
hackers access to the data on your
PC. You need good antivirus, anti-
spyware and firewall utilities for
monitoring, diagnosis and repairs.
Free antivirus utilities, such as
Grisoft AVG (free.grisoft.com) and
Alwil avast (www.avast.com), keep
threats like viruses and worms
away, while antispyware tools, like
Microsoft’s AntiSpyware (www
.microsoft.com/downloads), Lava-
soft’s Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa
.com) and PepiMK’s Spybot (safer-
networking.org), will fend off spy-
ware. Every once in a while, though,
these utilities will allow something
to slip through. That’s why it’s crucial
for you to run an antivirus and anti-
spyware sweep at least once a week.
We advise that you double- or even
triple-up on both your antivirus and
antispyware protection in order to
catch as many threats as possible.
Also be sure to have a strong
software firewall, like Zone Labs’
ZoneAlarm (www.zonelabs.com),
installed on your PC. This software
acts as a barrier to prevent malicious
data from getting into your system.
Update your
software.
Your security tools
can’t detect new
threats if you don’t
update them. Many of these utili-
ties, such as Alwil avast, automati-
cally update daily, but others, like
Spybot, require manual updates that
you should perform at least weekly.
Likewise, your system should be
kept as current as possible. Select
Automatic Updates in the Control
Panel of Windows XP and make sure
that your PC is set to download criti-
cal operating system updates daily.
If you’re having problems with
any component—such as a video
card—sometimes the manufacturer
will have remedied the problem with
a new device driver. Check your PC
vendor’s Web site for updated driv-
ers. Alternately, you can look for
the latest driver on the component
manufacturer’s Web site. Check the
driver version number on the site
against the version installed on your
PC by looking in the Device Manag-
er (find it in the System menu under
the Windows XP Control Panel).
Occasionally, you should also
check for new versions of your moth-
erboard’s BIOS, or Basic Input/Out-
put System, which is the part of your
PC that tells all your hardware how to
function. Your BIOS version is listed
on the screen that appears just after
you turn on your PC. If you don’t see
this screen during boot-up, tap the
tab key after you turn it on. PM

LAPTOPS Rechargeable laptop batteries have come a long way, Condition your
NEED but even the most advanced lithium-ion batteries will battery the
first time you
LOVE, TOO: lose capacity over time. The best way to ensure the
charge it and
Battery maximum life span of a battery is to condition it. Users it will stay
Conditioning should fully charge a new battery, discharge it com- stronger
pletely and recharge it to 100 percent again. After that, longer.
you don’t need to deplete the battery before charging it
again, but you should always make sure to charge the
laptop to 100 percent before unplugging it.

136 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS

PM TECHNOLOGY

BY JOEL JOHNSON TECHCLINIC

Q
+A
companies make their living selling
prefab screens. (Da-Lite, Stewart and
Carada are trusted names.) These
screens come in a variety of sizes and
finishes, and are mounted in chassis
that range from the simple spring-
loaded roll-up models you remember
from grade-school filmstrips to fully
motorized retractable screens nor-
mally installed by professionals.
Prices vary depending on not
only the size of the screen and the
housing, but the materials used.
Some screens come with a low-gain
gray finish, which diffuses light
so that the image looks good from
more vantage points and also brings
out the colors of your video. Others
use microsize glass beads to maxi-
mize reflectivity and brightness.
For a DIY solution, check out Goo
Systems, a company that makes a
reflective slop called Screen Goo
that the user paints right on the
wall. A kit, including both a reflec-
tive basecoat and a diffusive topcoat,
is available for around $200. If that’s
out of your budget, consider a coat
of light gray house paint—serious-
ly. The AV Science Forum (www.avs
forum.com) is filled with nerds con-
cocting home-brew screen recipes.
Lastly, don’t forget the value of a
solid black border. Our brains like

DIY Movie Screens

contrast, and a black paint or felt
border will help what light you can
see really pop.

Q Iscreen.
am projecting video onto a wall because I can’t afford a proper
Is there a way to make this look better than it does now? Stuck Pixels
I can barely see it during the day.
Q My LCD screen has some

A Daylight washout is the most common affliction of front-projection aficio- “stuck” pixels. Can I fix them?
nados. Your first move should be to purchase a set of thick curtains: No
screen can fully overcome the ambient light that fills a room on even an over- A First you should determine
whether your “stuck” pixels are
cast day. That said, a proper screen helps. Standard drywall works better than really stuck or are actually “dead.” In
one might think—especially if it’s been wetsanded to reduce the light-scatter- an LCD screen, each pixel is essen-
ing pits and seams—but it will never replace the right equipment. A number of tially a transistor that flips itself to

138 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y L O C O G R A F I X


show red, green or blue, or—
by turning all three colors on or
off—white or black. (Is that a
gross simplification? Sure.)
A stuck pixel occurs when a
transistor is locked in an “on”
position—it isn’t responding,
although it has power. A dead
pixel is always black, because the
transistor has no power. Here’s
why you care: You can’t fix a
dead pixel. Oh sure, if you had a
steady hand and a scanning elec-
tron microscope you might have
a chance, but we’re guessing you
don’t. You can try returning the
screen, but most manufactur-
ers require a set amount of dead
pixels (usually five or more)
before they will accept a claim.
Stuck pixels, on the other
hand, are still functioning—
which means you have some
hope of fixing them. It sounds
unlikely, but many people have
had good luck simply rubbing
the pixel with their finger.
Cover your finger in some-
thing soft, such as a lens-cleaning
cloth, to keep from harming the
surface. Then, rub gently around
the stuck pixel for a few seconds,
pressing firmly but gently. If after
20 seconds you see no effect,
stop—that pixel isn’t going any-
where. We’re not quite sure why
this works (theories range from
“dust on the pixel” to “realigning
the substrate”; they all sound a
bit Star Trek to us), but it defi-
nitely does—sometimes.
Failing that, programs exist
that flash a series of colors in the
hope that the rapid changes will
shock the stuck pixel out of its
torpidity. We’ve never had much
luck with these, however. PM
SEND US YOUR TECH QUESTIONS!
E-mail them to pmtechclinic@hearst.com.
Or, send snail mail to Tech Q&A, Popular Mechanics,
810 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019.
While we can’t provide individual replies, we will
try to address your problem in our pages.
B I R D S O F M E R C Y (Continued from page 99)
Parker flies as fast as possi-
ble—about 135 knots (155 mph)—
given the 120-degree temperature,
the underpowered engines and
the poor visibility. Posey has inject-
ed both casualties with 20 milli-
grams of morphine. The double
amputee in the upper litter turns
to me. “Can I go to bed now?”
“Yes,” I say over the rotor’s roar.
He smiles and closes his eyes, his
face peaceful. I hold the remain-
ing forearm and hand of the tri-
ple amputee in the bottom litter so
Posey can read his pulse and blood
oxygen levels.
We fly over ramshackle houses,
and streets choked with battered
cars. Then we pass through the
heart of Baghdad, past bombed
palaces with turquoise domes
that offer the only color for miles.
On the former parade grounds of
Saddam’s Republican Guard, the
arms of a massive statue reach up
from the ground, holding sabers
that cross to form an arch.
The helicopter banks to the CSH
pad, coming in low over the houses.
A little girl runs out of a crumbling,
two-story dwelling and into a court-
yard, laughing and waving both
arms over her head at us.
As soon as the Black Hawk sets
down, medics rush out. Once inside
the emergency department, Posey
transfers care of her patients to
the CSH medical staff. It has been
18 minutes since the call came in.
During the silent flight back
north to the airfield, Brown radios
Flight Ops to request a pressure
washer to clean the inside of the
helicopter; his voice is grim.
Back at base, the crew meets
before dinner for a debriefing.
Brown goes over the flight and
pickup details. “We’ve seen a lot
of trauma,” he says, “but this was
the worst.” Parker, who is usually
quick with a comic retort, is down-
cast. He admits he was too shaken
to fly back to Taji; he became tear-
POPULAR MECHANICS • OCTOBER 2005
ful when he saw the triple amputee
being carried into the CSH.
When Brown asks Posey how
she thinks the casualties will fare,
the strong, composed woman says
what we’re all thinking: The triple
amputee may not make it.
The next morning, during anoth-
er mission to the CSH, Posey checks
on the status of the two men and
discovers that the double amputee
is alive. The triple amputee, how-
ever, died during surgery, leaving
behind a wife and four children.
After months of medevacs it is
understandable that the crews long
to return home. But even though
they desperately miss their fami-
lies, they retain a powerful com-
mitment to their mission. “I try not
to look back too much as patients
are being loaded,” Parker says lat-
er. The former barber from Bel Air,
Md., goes on: “Sometimes the eye
contact is a flash into a hell that I’m
not sure I’m able to comprehend
fully. It goes home with me. But
I love the medevac mission, and
I’m glad to go into harm’s way to
retrieve our wounded soldiers.”
Krueger, a native of Lino Lakes,
Minn., became a medic because she
loves helicopters. But it’s become
more than that. “I’m the link between
someone being hurt in the field and
getting to the hospital,” she says.
“I have the best job in the world,
because I’m helping people.”
One evening while walking back
from dinner, McGowan expresses
frustration that he can’t take on even
more medevacs, citing the free rein
of Vietnam helicopter pilots. “They
went in no matter what was going
on,” says McGowan, a self-described
Air Force brat who was born in Ger-
many. “We’re more restricted, but
I won’t let the guys on the ground
deteriorate just because there’s a
chance we’ll get shot at. We make
a difference. I still have an e-mail
from a soldier I medevaced, thank-
ing our crew for saving his life.” PM
139
PM THIS IS MY JOB I n te r v i ewe d by Tra cy S a e l i n ge r / P h oto g ra p h by B re n t H u m p h reys

Modern safes are remarkably good at keeping peo-

ple out, sometimes defying even their rightful own-
ers—but none yet has stood up to a determined assault
by Dave LaBarge. Deftly decoding combinations and
occasionally drilling locks, the Watervliet, N.Y., safe-
cracker has opened vaults and safes for the police,
military and private citizens. No, sandpaper on the
Safecracker fingertips doesn’t work—and explosives haven’t been
used much since the late 1800s. “You don’t just walk

[ Dave LaBarge
Years On Job: 24 ] up to a safe and ding, ding, ding, it’s open,” he says.
“You have to be patient.” His most challenging case?
This 60-ton bank vault, which took 6 hours to crack.

AMPLIFIER BORESCOPE DRILL PRESS

AND HEADSET When a combo AND DRILL
A three-wheel lock can’t be cracked, A magnetic or
Office Space has 1 million possi- LaBarge drills vacuum press
ble combinations. in and peers keeps LaBarge’s
“Safes are usually bolted to the Along with a light around with this heavy-duty drill
floor from the inside, so you touch, amplifiers lighted fiberoptic firmly in place. “If
can’t move them—you work help LaBarge dis- scope; its prism you’re off by 1⁄8 in.
where you are. That’s usually cern the minute tip rotates 180 and it’s a 2-ft.-
mechanical dis- degrees. “I can thick door,” he
under some basement stairs, in crepancies that view anywhere says, “you’re going
a forgotten corner of the attic give away the in the safe at any to be off by a lot
or under a restaurant sink.” winning numbers. angle,” he says. more at the end.”

148 OCTOBER 2005 • POPULAR MECHANICS