But if he uses the word in a passage about the history of horse-racing, he can be pretty sure that he and his readers will have the same thing in mind.”Cow.” It is already apparent that we are not talking racetracks or symbols of wealth. The information transferred must elicit certain associations in the receiver.Take the word “horse”, for example. When an author writes “horse” he draws on a huge amount of personal experience. He’s seen horses, he’s read about horses, he’s watched horses on television; he knows that people variously associate horses with beauty and sensuality, betting wins, and manure. From his memory he can summon up a vast amount of information related to horses.Out of context, he can’t expect that what is in his mind when he writes “horse” will have much to do with what you think when you read the word. Place the bread in the dish and soak until the oil is all absorbed Mix together the sliced tomatoes and feta cheese Add a pinch or two of oregano Spread the tomato and feta over the bread.

And it is not enough just to refer to information in the sender’s head if that information does not somehow lead to the correct associations in the receiver’s.The idea of transmitting information is to cause a state of mind to arise in the receiver’s head that is related to the state of mind of the sender, by way of the exformation referred to within the information transmitted. Mysteriously, the Amphicar was travelling at night without lights and there were reports at the time that it was being used for smuggling drugs. The first was in 1963 and four years later one crossed from Dover to Calais in a force six gale on its way to the Berlin Motor Show.It was also during the 1960s that an Amphicar was run down by an oil tanker in the Straits of Gibraltar. From 1961 onwards it was fitted with a 1,147cc Triumph Herald engine, mounted behind the rear driving wheels, and was marketed as the Amphicar.

The model shown at the 1962 New York Motor Show had a top speed of about 7 knots on water and 70mph on land, but the wildly optimistic production target of 20,000 was never realised and only 3,750 were built. About 3,500 of them went to North America and the remaining few were sold in Europe.Although the Amphicar went out of production in 1963, several more were assembled afterwards from a large stock of spare parts stored at the German factory. When the company eventually went bankrupt in 1967, after more than pounds 2m had been spent on research, each employee was given an Amphicar in place of severance pay, which is why there are still more than 100 of them in the Berlin area. Four Amphicars are still used regularly in Britain and several hundred more are with enthusiasts in America and Canada, where there is a successful Amphicar owners’ club.Although they are usually restricted to rivers, canals and lakes, two Amphicars have made successful crossings of the English Channel. Campbell’s invention is probably most remarkable for the fact that he actually got the police to test it.As well as his astonishing helicopter, Leonardo da Vinci also left sketches for several amphib- ious vehicles. Although a good idea in theory, problems arose when the cars were parked on hills and those on either side moved off.

Although the Turicum could solve some parking problems, it attracted few buyers and Fischer’s inventive genius was channelled in other directions.An attempt by Villor P Williams to solve the American parking problem in 1927 was no more successful. His Parkmobile attachment slid beneath the car and lifted it onto four jacking legs on castors, so the driver could push the vehicle sideways between two parked cars and pull it out into the road again when he was ready to move off. He was encouraged in this by the German government, which was interested in the military advantages of floating cars in the event of the Rhine ’s bridges being bombed.After the war Trippel’s Eurocar, powered by an Austin A35 engine and aimed at the American dollar market, was launched at the 1959 Geneva Motor Show but the car was underpowered. Cars took to the water seriously in l926, when Peugeot produced a breathtakingly elegant motorboat car, built on a standard car chassis and powered by a 1.6 litre engine. Six years later, Hans Trippel, a German inventor, started to test his amphibious Trippelwagens on the Rhine. A large metal hand on a long telescopic arm was fitted below the front bumper and when it was near enough to the criminal’s getaway vehicle, the driver released a lever and the metal hand shot out, grabbing the bumper of the car in front and hanging on to it until both cars ground to a halt.