re: #507 zombie

Karl Benz may have invented the automobile…

but Erasmus Darwin — yes, Charles Darwin’s gradfather — invented steering.

Yes, you read that right — Erasmus Darwin invented the steering concept used in cars to this day. Except this was over a century before Karl Benz, and the Darwin steering designs were originally used in horse-drawn carriages.

Before Erasmus Darwin’s insight, carriages would fairly frequently tip over, because each front wheel was always designed to turn in same-sized circles as each other. It was E. Darwin who realized they needed to pivot around the same point of rotation — i.e. have two different-sized arcs — not go in two circles of identical size but different foci.

Even with cars, everything comes back to Darwinism.

re: #509 zombie

Charles Darwin’s gradfather = Charles Darwin’s grandfather

Don’t forget Charles Darwin’s other famous grandfather - Josiah Wedgwood of Wedgwood Pottery!