Ralph on a Jet Plane

Hey, it's time for the new puzzler... And since last week's puzzler was so lengthy I'll try to balance things out and make this one short and sweet.

I know our fans don't have a ton of time for this stuff. So, short and sweet it is.

Here it is.

One of the guys that worked in our shop, Ralph, had to take a little trip on a plane on time years ago. A flight. Probably to avoid prosecution, but that is a detail for another puzzler entirely!

Anyway, Ralph had to leave late on a Friday night at the end of the workday. He was taking a flight to New York to visit a relative and I guess he forgot to bring his change of clothes. So he changed into a crisp new mechanics uniform. Crisp, clean new mechanics uniform like a lot of guys wear in the shop.

So anyway, he goes to the airport with his work attire on and he buys his ticket, because this was so long ago that you could buy your ticket at the airport... So he has his ticket and he walks to security and goes through the metal detector that they have there. And the metal detector alarm sounds. So the guard goes, "Excuse me, sir, would you kindly empty the contents of your pockets?"

So, Ralph empties his pockets. Puts all his stuff in the little tray. Wallet, keys... everything. And he tries to walk through again. And again, the alarm goes off. So they asked him to remove any jewelry he had or his belt and try to walk through again. He does that and then walks through a third time. And the alarm goes off, for the third time.

So finally, the guard looks at him and says, "What do you do for a living?"

And Ralph says, "I'm a mechanic, I fix cars."

And the guard says, "Oh, okay. That answers it."

So, what is happening here? And here is a hint, it wasn't just auto repair mechanics that were having this issue. And remember, this was a long time ago, so this issue never happens now. But back when Ralph worked with us at the shop, this was something that happened.

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

DC / AC

Time for the new puzzler. This one is a long one, so grab your coffee and pay attention if you're going to play along.

Okay, no cheating on this one. No googling the answer or anything like that. Honest answers only.

So, here it is.

Every school kid knows that in the 1800s sometime, Thomas Edison invented the first practical usable electric light bulb. There were other light bulbs that worked for like 15 seconds or so at that time, but Edison invented the first practical, long-lasting light bulb. And he immediately thought he was going to light up the world. And of course, if you have light bulbs, you need generators to make enough electricity to light up the light bulbs, otherwise, they don't work too good. So Edison had a healthy interest in the generator business.

So, Edison does a little demonstration. He lights up part of New York City to show how wonderful electric lights are. He does this by supplying DC electricity. DC stands for direct current. This is the type of electricity that comes out of flashlight batteries and out of your car battery. But there was an obvious problem with DC and that was, it doesn't transmit very well. If you try to make the stuff travel through wires over long distances, there's a big voltage drop. And the problem is, if you don't want a voltage drop, you'd need huge wires. And wires this big are dangerous. So the only other option was the put a generator in everyone's backyard. And that isn't a great option either.

Well, along comes the concept of AC, or alternating current. AC seems to be a pretty good alternative because they can jack the voltage up with transformers to 30 or 40,000 volts and pump it through skinny little wires. And then when it gets to its destination, they reduce the voltage on the line and then pump 120 volts in your house. And then AC doesn't have these transmission problems like DC would have. This way, you don't need a generator in everyone's backyard.

And obviously, Edison is opposed to this. In spite of the obvious superiority of the AC current, he is against it. Edison does all these public demonstrations about why AC is so dangerous. And because of this, AC does not catch on. Edison is winning this battle.

His biggest opponent in this battle is George Westinghouse. So Edison is the proponent of DC. And Westinghouse is fighting for AC. And Westinghouse is losing the battle even though AC is clearly better.

Then, something happens in 1888 that allows Westinghouse to win the battle. An invention came on the scene in 1888 that helped Westinghouse win. And without this invention, we might all be running on DC today.

So, the year 1888 is your hint. Something very important to this battle was invented in 1888. So if you're going to cheat and google this, use the year... lol.