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Design  Architecture and other plans
T. Buckingham Thomas physics Oberlin WOBC Richwood Tom Thomas Chyron Infinit Pittsburgh
Since high school, for my own amusement I've drawn pencil sketches of plans, playing with the challenge of working out the geometry. Here are some examples, plus related articles.  To search for specific items that might be listed elsewhere, use this utility:

 

Main Line

The Pennsylvania Canal paralleled Pennsylvania rivers nearly two centuries ago.

Homes of the 1870s

Plain Italianate Victorian houses abound near my old Ohio home.

The Scharf

Local inventor drives newfangled car to Columbus looking for investors, finds none, gives up.  I get one of his stock certificates.

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1960

The Very Wide Screen

The Thomas family visits a Cinerama movie theater.

Construction Toys

I build models of buildings with bricks, logs, girders, etc.

Stadiums

Playing fields for football, track, etc., plus a downhill racer.

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1970

Broadcast Stuff

Fitting a TV studio into a low-ceilinged room.

Theatres

Auditoriums that will never be built.

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1980

Dwellings

More ideas, including spirals, mirror effects, and movable walls and floors that quickly convert bedrooms into extra living space.

Streets

Street plans for imaginary cities.

All News All the Time

If WOBC were all-news, how would I organize it?

The PC-8 Computer

Using BASIC to make a tiny computer useful for baseball and boxing telecasts.

The MENKY

The 1988 design for a one-handed computer keyboard.

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1990

Powers of 10 Museum

An imagined visit to a museum of models on widely different scales, from atoms to galaxies.

Colorblind Glasses

Could tinted lenses help colorblind people?  And what about the dogs?

2000

How I Watch Television, 2004

On my high-definition set, I can choose to display the picture from any of three smaller monitors.

Preferred Parking

Why must we dash across a busy "street" between mall stores and their parking spaces?

Telemeetings

A proposal for a standard studio layout for teleconferences.

How I Switch TV

Hooking up two simple audio/video switches to make a multipurpose routing switcher.

Silent Hybrids and Latent Reporters

How to fix cars and correspondents that don't sound off when we expect them to.

Decisions

Don't flip a coin; use this spreadsheet to perform quantitative analysis of the alternatives.

So Obvious

Why can't we use computers to shift gears and print out prescriptions?

Folded Planes

The architecture of a church in my neighborhood reminds me of Frank Lloyd Wright.

 


Calendar cube puzzle

Coffeemakers in hotel rooms are now more efficient

Computers should be more like cars, not vice versa

Currency need not be kept rightside-up

Daylight saving time: government mandates necessary

Dishes last forever

Electric car clip-clops along

Falling hillsides near the 80th meridian

Hotel suites could become mini-theatres

Internet replaces clerks, home libraries

Opening glass jars can be a struggle

Postage stamps that are good forever; trapezoidal envelopes

Spreadsheet tracks timing of TV program segments

Weekly appointment books should have eight days