The Death of a Machine

This piece is a modification to a post I wrote earlier this year. 

An Examination of a Dead Machine

This is the spindle of a bottom bracket bearing assembly off an old bicycle.

It's composed of a cone on either end; two mirrored, connected worlds. One cone is smooth, clean, and the bearings can roll on it without fretting. The other is pitted, fractured, and dismal.

This was caused by friction.

To find the cause of this friction, first question the origin of the spindle. Though all manufacturers use the same raw materials, the finished products differ in quality according to how much each company believes the public will value the final work. But this spindle comes from a reputable brand with a legacy of prideful workmanship. Their contribution is to send the bottom bracket off polished, balanced, and lubed. The factory is their focus; how the bearings get along outside is someone else’s concern.

The bearing assembly may have been poorly adjusted, either pressing the bearings too tightly against the cone, forcing them to roll under pressure, or leaving them too loose so they don’t roll how they’re supposed to. But then the connected world at the other end, which shares the pressure or slack, would have been ruined too.

No, I think the problem has to do with contamination, misuse, and negligence.

Bearings live in grease: it is their air, water, and food. To be happy and contained, the atmosphere must be kept to a standard. Grease can be contaminated from the inside, when long periods of rest allow it to separate into its base parts; grease can be contaminated from the outside, when rogue elements sneak past the bearing seals to cause trouble. Even when you disregard contaminants, spinning bearings broom grease out of their path and splashing liquids wash it away. This is wear, and wear is normal.

The bearings on the other side, perfectly happy as said before, were not subjected to the same contaminants, did not lose their grease, and had no reason to fret. However, they’re connected to the same spindle, so their fates are linked.

Even when bearings run out of good grease, they never quit suddenly. First they grumble, then they grind. Their movements can be felt through the other, connecting components. They eventually make their protestations audible to outsiders.

Here the supervisor, the thinker, the one whose job it is to sense a problem and correct it, must check in on the bearings to make sure they’re not suffering. Ideally, someone in charge will clean and re-inject grease routinely, before the bearings begin to feel spent, and if that someone can’t do it personally then that someone must hire someone who can.

For reasons whose giving provides more satisfaction than advantage, the one charged to look after these bearings failed, and thus so did the assembly.