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by Nicholas Allan

Why there are no engineering heroes

Every so often, the engineering community embarks on a spot of navel-gazing, questioning why there are no engineering heroes known by the wider public. Commentators bemoan that James Dyson seems to be the only person wheeled out on a regular occasion. They ask where the Brunels of the 21st century are.

For those who are searching for today’s engineering heroes, I have some bad news: they aren’t any and there can’t be any.

Not because of political or societal reasons. Not because the engineering industry doesn’t promote them. The problem is more intrinsic; today’s engineering is so complex, no one person can ever take credit for anything more complex than a clothes peg.

James Dyson, like Steve Jobs was at Apple, is one of the rare individuals who have become synonymous with their company and the products that they develop.

From the drinks can to the smartphone, from the door handle to the jet fighter, nearly everything that we design and build today is developed by an army of specialists. We have rightly taken full advantage of being able to rely on others to allow each person to be a specialist and for each person to concentrate making his or her aspect to best of their abilities. No single person could possibly have all the knowledge to create something even as humble as drinks can from scratch.

We should not be ashamed that we do not have engineers who are household names for their achievements at work, for the products they have produced. No doubt, some may become famous as media personalities but almost never for their products. We should be proud that the engineer is the ultimate team player and that the team is always more famous than the individuals.

The engineering hero is dead; long live the engineering team!

by Mayowa Adebiyi

GWR – God’s Wonderful Railway

This post was birthed out a a trip from Bristol (Parkway) to Reading that had me trying out my new Alpha A290 DSLR Camera, on a First Great Western Railway train. This line was known as GWR in its early years and is the brainchild of our oft discussed Engineer – I.K Brunel.

Two museums, housing the legacy of I.K.B and GWR (a.k.a Great Way Round) are STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway & Didcot Railway Centre.

Steam

This grade 2 listed building can be seen just before the train pulls into Swindon Station, and promises to give visitors the railway worker experience – including the foundry heat and grime.

Tickets cost – £6.40 (Adult), £4.25 (Senior citizens & Students), £3.10 – £9.90 (School Trips).

There is a 20% discount available with a Train Ticket purchased on the day.

Didcot Railway Center

Houses a unique collection of GWR’s for budding trainspotters and offers a chance to fulfill any early childhood steam train driving ambitions for £260. Normal ticket prices range from £5 -£10 pp.

Also of interest is Work experience offered to Schools and colleges.

by Mayowa Adebiyi

Tour of SS Great Britain: Part two

Hanging on the wall of our beloved ship, a titanic of its time, in the engine room is a peculiar set of tools; not because they are obscure, archaic or ancient. We do not have to turn them on their sides, at an angle or make an archaeological analysis of these tools to find their purpose(s). These are tools we are so familiar with, you will not even be mistaken to call them modern, yet here they were hanging on the walls of a 1800s ship, 168 years old and still relevant.


Some have tried to re-invent these tools (Including Homer Simpson), but since you do not know about this, we can conclude that they failed. You do not re-invent the wheel and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, these designs have stood the test of time and they are not about to change anytime soon.

Please comment on any other designs that have remained the same through the ages.

by Mayowa Adebiyi

Tour of SS Great Britain: Part one

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19th February 2011, Bristol

Chilly wind attacking every inch of my face and still, we continued towards the body of water that seems to be causing it. A great big boat, surely it was impossible to miss it. We did find one, except it wasn’t SS GREAT BRITAIN, this was MATTHEW, all wooden and nothing like the pictures and it had the wrong name. Wrong ship, so me and the colleague I was with decided to head back for the car park. On our way I noticed the BLOODHOUND poster on a building opposite a big gate, peering into what was beyond the gate, we saw IT glittering in all it’s painstakingly restored glory.

If we found her awe-inspiring on the 19th of February 2011, time warp and imagine the faces of those who saw her for the first time on the 19th of July 1843.


by Mayowa Adebiyi

SS Great Britain, Bloodhound SSC & STEM

This is the blog post that never happened, an account of an evening on SS Great Britain. In attendance was James Painter & Dan Johns of Bloodhound SSC at a relaunch event for sogeclair aerospace which I alluded to in my earlier post – Ideas ditched in the valley of death. In fact the pictures in that post were all taken at the event.

I recorded a video of 3 experienced Engineers I work with (1 was born in the 1940s !) having a conversion with the 2 bloodhound engineers I mentioned in the first line of this post. I cannot post this video and this is my ‘the dog ate my homework story‘

There is some noise in the background of the video from the extractor fans on site (Bloodhound technical center) which makes the video virtually inaudible. I gave the video to my sound engineer housemate (Can he call himself that ?) to fix, who promised that he could solve my problem easily. Unfortunately, he broke up days later with his girlfriend who also lived in the flat, he moved out with his computer and since I’ve only known him for a while I cannot get the fixed video back.

Though it has been uploaded on Vimeo somewhere, I will not provide you with a link, to distance myself from such a horrible sounding video. All this just goes to show how much we here at developingengineers are still learning, but aim to get better, so please stick with us, the best is yet to come.

Now, instead of posting everything from the event on the 19th of February 2011, I’ve decided to extend it to a series of posts with pictures I took on the night, since they tell a better story than I ever can. Also unashamably milking it for all it’s worth !

by Mayowa Adebiyi

Ideas ditched in the Valley of Death

I’d like to make an early statement of intent on the purpose of this post, the title of which was initially something like:

Brunel, atmospheric caper, Composites, Valley of death ,Tallow, Tribology, Nuclear crisis and in the end convention wins the day !

… but I decided not to.

The underlying issue I do aim to deal with is that of Energy sources, since the Japanese disaster has now caused us all to again rethink, what type do we, or can we rely on to deliver efficiency and that can also leave a lower carbon footprint without having us all screaming Armageddon everytime something goes wrong with it.

Brunel’s atmospheric caper

Those that sit around me Monday – Friday, 9 a.m – 5 p.m who still own a Texas Instrument T1-53 calculator, know of Brunel’s failure at re-inventing the Railway with his Atmospheric version which eventually failed because rats like animal fat or Tallow as it is called, which was required to keep the leather (Yes, leather was used) on the pipes (train tracks) supple. It lasted about a year because the vermin responsible for the black plague chewed through it.

I first heard of this from the man in the picture to your right, who spoke at a relaunch event for sogeclair aerospace (Formerly Clairis Technologies) whom I work for.

He is from the National Composite Center (NCC) here in bristol though unfortunately I do not remember his name or position (Please comment If you do)

Composites

He commented that if Brunel had designed his atmospheric railway around now, when the National Composite Center is just opening, his rat problem would have been solved, not by pesticides or a really good pest control company but by the wide array of composite materials now available or which are in development. Composites are now of such importance to engineers, not only in the Aerospace Industry where they are increasingly looked to, to solve several design dilemmas (Airbus A350 XWB is made of 53% composite materials).

Our Guy also used the phrase ‘Valley of death’ to describe the eventually forgotten position most ideas end up being in, whilst attempting to make the leap from concept to actual working product, from blue sky research to money making realities.

 

Valley of Death

Many end up here simply because, the application for their ideas, however brilliant, cannot be found. In the case of Brunel, it had to compete with convention, which it failed at in terms of cost. People were delighted to, for the first time, go on a train journey without being covered in soot from the traditional locomotive train engine. Cost wise, the atmospheric train simply did not match up, atmospheric traction cost 3s (shillings) 1d (pence – Latin, denarius) per mile, compared to 1s 4d for conventional steam Engines.

Energy

This is our final stop on the joyride through terms and names that seem unrelated to the aim I stated in the first sentence. Brunel failed because he couldn’t compete with his rival, convention. Also, his timing was off, he was about a century too early ! though this should not encourage anyone to now pick up the idea as we now have Magnetically Levitated Trains (MagLev).

Many Alternatives are aiming to topple fossil fuels, the convention, they have to match the cost and fast, which so far they haven’t done.

 

I will not say that there is still a big question mark on global warming in a bid to be at my most controversial, many have done this and I do not wish to surpass them or reiterate their opinions or facts depending on whether you’re a member of Greenpeace or Jeremy clarkson’s fan club, but it is too soon and I am yet to see concrete evidence presented for the case for global warming. However big you consider the question mark to be, there is one.

Who knows, this Japanese Nuclear disaster, putting a a BIG QUESTION MARK ON NUCLEAR ENERGY as a viable rival to convention might just be the right timing for other sources to step up or follow suit.

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor riches to the intelligent, nor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.

All I can do is sit back and watch intently how this tussle for dominance plays out, maybe in the end, convention will again win.