R.I.P. Phil Bolger

[Musebrarian]

Hi all,

Steve's list included an academic who wrote about his boatbuilding
experience. This morning I saw notice that Phil Bolger had passed
away at 81.

From the NYT Obit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/us/01bolger.html?_r=2

"Mr. Bolger, something of a cult figure in the world of recreational
boating, was a bit of a mad scientist, an experimenter who did not
mind trying things and failing and then acknowledging his failures.
Though he thought a boat could be perfect, he never thought a boat
needed to be perfect to be useful or fun."

I thought this was an interesting and relevant comment for this
group. Recently there seems to have been a resurgence of this kind of
"maker" activity. Does anyone know of any good histories that trace
this phenomena? I can think of several earlier movements that share
the maker spirit and would be interested in seeing someone connect the
dots.

Richard Urban
rju...@illinois.edu

[Devon Elliott]

Two books you might find interesting related to your question:

Kristen Haring, _Ham Radio's Technical Culture_ (MIT Press, 2006)
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10967

Kathleen Franz, _Tinkering: Consumers Reinvent the Early Automobile_
(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005)
http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14136.html

Devon

[Steve]

Both of these are quite good - another for the list, a history of
automobile repair: _Auto Mechanics: Technology and Expertise in
Twentieth-Century America_ by Kevin L. Borg

ANd speaking of cars, there's great material on car repair in _Grapes
of Wrath_ - always wanted to assign that as a class paper.

On Jun 3, 2:16 pm, Devon Elliott <devonelli...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Two books you might find interesting related to your question:
>

> Kristen Haring, _Ham Radio's Technical Culture_ (MIT Press, 2006)http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10967