Heathkit EC-1

--- John Lawson <jpl15(a)panix.com> wrote: Nope... 4-speed manual. There was this thing called an "auto-stick", but that was a servo-operated clutch (and an ordinary manual transmission) that engaged when you began to move the stick. You still shifted, but you didn't clutch. Anyway... I didn't mean to spawn a car thread here - I just wanted to speak up because of the comments that suggest that we all drive power-everything cars. My 1976 MicroBus does have an analog-component fuel-injection computer, but I think we've hashed those out here before (and it has manual steering and a 4-speed manual transmission, too, plus a vacuum-assisted non-power hydraulic brake system). I do agree that _a_ power steering rig on _many_ cars is an example of a fluidic amplifier. Presumably, one could argue the same for the master cylinder/slave cylinder on hydraulic brakes. There's even a logic element - a safety mechanism that's been standard in cars sold in the U.S. for decades - a slug in the master cylinder that sits between the front fluid loop and the back fluid loop that *normally* just sits there. In cases where you lose pressure in one loop, it is forced to the low-pressure side and operates the brakes in fail-over mode. I'm not sure whether to call it a comparator or a flip-flop. Maybe it's a comparator that drives a flip-flop when the pressures aren't equal. In any case, in a VW, there's a red light on the dash that lights up when the slug moves. It works. Trust me on that. :-) -ethan P.S. - re-reading the top of this, in case my use of the term "auto" was read as short for "automatic transmission", it wasn't meant as such. I was recycling the term from the previous poster and using it as an abbreviation of "automobile" (unless you are a fan of "Futurama", then it's "automacar" ;-) The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com