bearing in mind

(ok this entry is half a year late. Wanted to write about it when we were learning ball bearings last semester)

This year marks 100th anniversary for SKF, a Swedish manufacturer of bearings. In 1907, Swede engineer Sven Wingquist invented the first self-aligning ball bearing. With that he founded Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF).

Ball bearings come in all sizes, they can be as small as your thumb or as tall as a human. If you read SKF's catalogue you will just go dizzy. Bearings are almost everywhere, from your computer's ventilation fans to ferris wheel and turbine in power station. You can even find a bearing on moon when the Apollo 11 crew left behind a camera there in 1969.

And if you are not aware of it, ball bearing reduces friction, increases machine efficiency, and in the process saves energy and the environment!