Expressing it in Numbers
A Personal Memoir – Part 2
Bill Trowbridge
...when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it.
Lord Kelvin, 1895
In loving memory and gratitude to my dear wife Rita (1929-2007) and with love to my daughter and son Dinah and Simon
Published by D’Arcy Publications
The author acknowledges the many contributions made by his late wife Rita, daughter Dinah and son Simon in the writing and preparation of these memoirs. He is also greatly indebted to his very close colleague and friend of over 50 years, Jim Diserens, for his encouragement and for the corrections, editing and detailed suggestions he has made. Also, to my colleague at Vector Fields for over twenty years, John Whitney, who has read the text and corrected some of factual errors embedded in the author‘s memory. Any errors that remain, after all the help and advice received, are the author‘s sole responsibility.
Copyright © 2008 by C.W. Trowbridge [email protected]
ISBN 978-0-9518248-1-8 Printed by Wessex Design Associates Ltd.
December 2008 On Line Version PDF December 2009
Contents Contents ...... ii Table of Plates ...... iv 1. Harwell ...... 1 Training School ...... 1 Accelerator Tubes ...... 6 East Hagbourne and Didcot ...... 11 The Polytechnic in Regent Street and Family Life in Didcot ...... 17 Ion Source Development and Life in Didcot ...... 34 2. Rutherford Laboratory ...... 52 High Field Bubble Chamber ...... 52 Family Matters 1965-1966 ...... 56 Growth in applications computing 1967-1970 ...... 59 Family matters 1967-1970 ...... 75 Notes culled from a Diary for 1971 ...... 81 Integral Equations and Interactive Graphics 1970-72 ...... 98 Moulsford & Camping 1971-1976 ...... 103 Computing Applications Group 1972-1976 ...... 115 Compumag at St Catherine‘s College ...... 122 3. Computational Electromagnetics ...... 126 The Wider Community 1976-1984 ...... 126 Compumag Grenoble...... 136 Promoting the Rutherford Software...... 138 Compumag Crosses the Atlantic ...... 148 At Compumag in Chicago and afterwards at RAL ...... 153 At Compumag Genoa ...... 162 ISC visits the Rockies and New Projects at Home ...... 170 Family Life 1976-1984 ...... 177 Round the World to China 1984 ...... 190 4. Vector Fields Ltd ...... 226 Overview of the early years - In the end is our beginning ...... 226 1984 — A fateful year ...... 226 Towards forming Vector Fields ...... 228 VF Product Background ...... 231 A Recap on early exploitation ...... 232 The Formation of Vector Fields Ltd ...... 232 Professional & Family Life 1984 to 1987 ...... 234 1984 ...... 234 1985 ...... 236 At the Compumag Conference in Fort Collins ...... 237
1986 ...... 244 1987 ...... 251 Austrian Holiday and Compumag Graz ...... 259 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988 to 1993 ...... 264 1988 ...... 264 China Revisited - BISEF88 A Prospect for the Future? ...... 268 Formation of Vector Fields Inc ...... 287 1989 to 1990 ...... 288 1990 ...... 293 A Journey to the United States and Canada ...... 304 The Rest of the year 1990 ...... 340 Excerpts from my Diary 1991 ...... 344 1992 Queen’s Award Year ...... 383 A Winter Journey to Finland ...... 396 1993 ...... 407 5. International Compumag Society (1994-1997) ...... 419 The Creation of a Society 1994 ...... 419 Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 ...... 422 Envoi ...... 436 Appendix I ...... 441 The King Roberts‘ Version of the Creation of GFUN ...... 441 Appendix 2 ...... 443 Vector Fields Statistics ...... 443 Appendix 3 ...... 444 ICS Newsletter First Issue ...... 444 Index ...... 445
Table of Plates Plate 1: AERE Main Gate c. 1956 ...... 2 Plate 2: Harwell 5MV Van de Graaf Generator complete column ...... 8 Plate 3: Boot Cottage, East Hagbourne ...... 11 Plate 4: AERE Site c. 1970 ...... 13 Plate 5: No. 72 Abbott Rd Didcot ...... 14 Plate 6: The Polytechnic Regent St London ...... 18 Plate 7: Rita and Bill at Penzance, 1959 ...... 23 Plate 8: Sennen Cove ...... 24 Plate 9: The Tandem Generator ...... 25 Plate 10: Schematic diagram of Van de Graaff Machines...... 26 Plate 11: Proud Parents ...... 27 Plate 12: Simon with his Dad and new car (1962) ...... 31 Plate 13: Experiments on Negative Ion Formation [ 42] ...... 35 Plate 14: Oxford Electrostatic Generator (Artists Impression)...... 38 Plate 15: Visiting the building site...... 46 Plate 16: Vertical Electrostatic Generator Terminal ...... 47 Plate 17: North End Moulsford (1966) ...... 49 Plate 18: Douglas Allen (R) with Ted Pyrah (L) ...... 51 Plate 19: Artist‘s impression of proposed High Field Chamber ...... 52 Plate 20: Dinah & Simon in the garden at North End overlooking the cricket field ...... 56 Plate 21: Summit Party on Snowdon ...... 57 Plate 22: The TRIM Program in ‗Interactive‘ Mode ...... 61 Plate 23: Zermat March 1968 ...... 63 Plate 24: West Berlin 1970 ...... 65 Plate 25: The High Field Bubble Chamber Group relaxing after visiting Brookhaven National Lab...... 67 Plate 26: Delegates at the Bubble Chamber Conference, ANL, 1970 ...... 69 Plate 27: (a) 200GeV accelerator under construction. (b) Boulder Colorado ...... 70 Plate 28: (a) Central City (Old Mining Railway) (b) Williams Towers Hall of Residence ...... 71 Plate 29: Estes Park & Author at Bear Lake...... 72 Plate 30: Family on Holiday (a) Charmouth 1967, (b) Shell Island ...... 75 Plate 31: Kerry August 1968 ...... 77 Plate 32: Rita in front of the wall tribute at Inch ...... 78 Plate 33: Matterhorn, Dinah and Monte Rosa, 1970...... 79 Plate 34: Bert Creed with his daughter and grandchildren at Moulsford, 1971 ...... 85 Plate 35: Simon & Dinah in Cwm Glas ...... 87 Plate 36: On the Snowdon Horseshoe ...... 88 Plate 37: CAG Walk from Stonehenge to Avebury ...... 91 Plate 38: GFUN in action ...... 100 Plate 39: Camping in the Jura and Riviera, July 1972 ...... 103 Plate 40: Ordesa National Park ...... 108 Plate 41: Camping in the Wye Valley, 1975 ...... 110 Plate 42: Mick at Moulsford, 1975 ...... 113 Plate 43: Zinal 1975 ...... 114 Plate 44: Wye Valley Group Walk Start ...... 118 Plate 45: Engineering Board visit to RL Oct 1975 ...... 121 Plate 46: Compumag Oxford Announcement ...... 122 Plate 47: Peter Silvester gives the first invited lecture ...... 124 Plate 48: CAG at the Crown & Horns (1976) ...... 125 Plate 49: J C Sabonnadiere with Bill Trowbridge & Peter Silvester ...... 127 Plate 50: Chari, Zoltan Cendes & Peter Lawrenson ...... 127 Plate 51: Comparison of Differential & Integral Method ...... 129 Plate 52: From the House Journal Quest, Vol 10, No. 2, 1977 ...... 134 Plate 53: ISC & LOC Grenoble, April 1978 ...... 137 Plate 54: Olek Zienkiewicz on the beach near Monterey, 1979 ...... 140 Plate 55: Larry & Donna Turner (1979) ...... 141 Plate 56: The Silvester‘s Retreat...... 142 Plate 57: Empire State Building ...... 143
Plate 58: CAG Computing Room ...... 145 Plate 59: The Expanded Computing Applications Group ...... 150 Plate 60: Bloomsday 1981 ...... 151 Plate 61: Opening Compumag Chicago, Gail Pewitt & Larry Turner ...... 153 Plate 62: The Whitney Symposium, 1981 ...... 154 Plate 63: Compumag Genoa: Sandro Viviani with Bill Trowbridge after the ISC meeting in Genoa ...... 156 Plate 64: Close Friends at Cosenors House Abingdon ...... 158 Plate 65: Some of the delegates on the Trail Ridge Rd...... 160 Plate 66: Compumag moves to Italy ...... 162 Plate 67: Relaxing on the Miramare Terrace ...... 163 Plate 68: The author demonstrating the PERQ machine at the conference exhibition ...... 164 Plate 69: Dr Rikabi Inventing the 'Ligurian' ...... 165 Plate 70: Chari at Lymington 1983 ...... 166 Plate 71: Bill Lord, Chairman Compumag Fort Collins ...... 170 Plate 72: The Prize Winning Poster ...... 171 Plate 73: The Fastest Pumpkin Carver in the West ...... 172 Plate 74: SIG-EM at Cosenors House Abingdon ...... 173 Plate 75: EEC Semiconductor Modelling Project Meeting ...... 174 Plate 76: Chalet in Wales, 1976...... 177 Plate 77: Dinah in her room at College ...... 179 Plate 78: Wedding Anniversary Gathering 1979 ...... 180 Plate 79: Rita and Bill at St Jean de Luz, 1980...... 181 Plate 80: Simon in the Basque Country and a modern monument to Roland ...... 183 Plate 81: Dad at 80 and David and Peter at Misselfore...... 184 Plate 82: Four Views of Wester Ross 1981/82...... 185 Plate 83: Dinah Graduates ...... 186 Plate 84: My Dad Aged 82; his last photograph ...... 188 Plate 85: At Pt Claire to see Dave Lowther‘s Yacht (R to L Dave, Irene, Bill & Rita)...... 191 Plate 86: Near Waikiki Beech ...... 197 Plate 87: Reception Committee: ...... 202 Plate 88: Being briefed by Prof. Tang ...... 203 Plate 89: First Lecture ...... 205 Plate 90: Mr Fan-Yu, Rita‘s personal guide ...... 208 Plate 91: Some visitors to our apartment ...... 212 Plate 92: Course Photograph ...... 214 Plate 93: With Fan Min Wu arriving at Beijing Station ...... 219 Plate 94: The Great wall ...... 223 Plate 95: Simon‘s Graduation ...... 234 Plate 96: Compumag Colorado in Session ...... 237 Plate 97: Moving from Moulsford to Frilford ...... 239 Plate 98: Compumag Committee on Walkabout Tour of Graz...... 242 Plate 99: Three members of the APPEAL project in Genoa 1985 ...... 243 Plate 100: Small beginnings — The Home of VF at Osney Mead ...... 244 Plate 101: ICP Award Ceremony ...... 246 Plate 102: Tang Qui at D‘Arcy‘s Field ...... 248 Plate 103: Japan 1986 ...... 249 Plate 104: Appeal Team on the steps of the Parthenon...... 251 Plate 105: VF Stand at Intermag Tokyo ...... 254 Plate 106: User Course at Sunshine City ...... 255 Plate 107: Olek Zienkiewicz Opens the New VF Office at Kidlington ...... 256 Plate 108: The Traditional ‗This Is Your Life Card‘ ...... 258 Plate 109: Bill beside the Danube and Rita overlooking Salzburg ...... 259 Plate 110: At Compumag Graz (a) Bill & Rita at the Wine-Strasse, (b) Poster, ...... 260 Plate 111: Scenes from Semriach ...... 262 Plate 112: The Staff at DIE Genoa 1988 ...... 265 Plate 113: Rita retires from Cholsey School ...... 266 Plate 114: Family Reunion at Brenda‘s House ...... 268 Plate 115: Our Hosts at Hebie Institute of Technology, Tianjin ...... 269 Plate 116: Xian City Wall ...... 279 Plate 117: Maoling Tomb-'three delightful girls ...‘ ...... 280
Plate 118: One we could photograph ...... 282 Plate 119: The Official Photograph showing the actual Army ...... 283 Plate 120: Compumag Tokyo Poster ...... 290 Plate 121: After 3DMAG in Okayama visiting the new bridge connecting Honshu to Shikoku ...... 291 Plate 122: Lakes & Skye July 1989 ...... 292 Plate 123: ...view of the city skyline...... 305 Plate 124 : Bear Lake and Longs Peak ...... 310 Plate 125: ...this is the kingdom of the trucker ...... 313 Plate 126: Temple Square-Salt Lake City...... 317 Plate 127: Monument Valley ...... 319 Plate 128: ...purchasing some more jewellery ...... 321 Plate 129: At our stand...... 323 Plate 130...Maroon lake, a superb morning,...... 325 Plate 131: ...Josh and Bob were very friendly ...... 331 Plate 132: Dinah at the Morton Arboretum ...... 334 Plate 133...they had a splendid day at Niagara...... 337 Plate 134: ISC Meeting in Rome March 1991 ...... 355 Plate 135: Cwm Idwal looking East, May 1991 ...... 363 Plate 136: Compumag Sorrento Poster ...... 368 Plate 137: VF Stand at Compumag Sorrento ...... 371 Plate 138: ISEF Conference, Southampton 1991 ...... 378 Plate 139 : Lauri defends his Thesis ...... 398 Plate 140: Presentation of the Queens Award ...... 401 Plate 141: The VF Staff with Sir Ashley Ponsonby ...... 402 Plate 142: PC-OPERA at Kings College ...... 403 Plate 143: IEE Achievement Award 199, 22 November 1992 ...... 406 Plate 144: At the Palace with the Family, 16 March 1993 ...... 409 Plate 145: Scout Reunion on 18 April 1993 ...... 411 Plate 146: Compumag Miami Poster ...... 413 Plate 147: a. Qutb Minar Complex near Delhi, b. The Iron PillarTest ...... 414 Plate 148: The Taj Mahal & Fatepur Sikri ...... 417 Plate 149: Founding Board of ICS ...... 421 Plate 150: 40th Wedding Anniversary Celebration at D‘Arcy‘s Field ...... 423 Plate 151: Dinah & Ted Deeley at the party ...... 424 Plate 152: Mystic Seaport ...... 426 Plate 153: Compumag Berlin Poster ...... 431 Plate 154: Arnulf Kost (standing second from the left) and his team ...... 432 Plate 155: With Lewis and Mary Gregory in their back garden ...... 432 Plate 156: Weimar and Eisenach, September 1995 ...... 433 Plate 157: The Rector guides Rita to sign the register ...... 437 Plate 158: Receiving the Honorary Doctorate from Prof Richter ...... 438 Plate 159: Celebratory Dinner ...... 439 Harwell 1
1. Harwell Training School My education as a scientist had already begun while I was still in the Merchant Navy. My study intensified after my marriage to Rita in 1954 when I signed up for a correspondence course with the Seafarers Education Service and they arranged tutors in mathematics and physics for me. By late 1956 I had sat and passed the necessary examinations to allow me to proceed to a degree course unfortunately we had no money and so I needed to get a job. As has been related in Volume 1 of these memoirs1 I managed to obtain a lowly post at the Atomic Energy research laboratory at Harwell with a strong indication that I would be allowed to take advantage of a day release scheme to study for a degree part time. I left Frome very early on Monday 21st February 1957 to travel to Didcot to start my new life in science at Harwell. The journey involved both train and bus; in those days a convenient bus service between Newbury and Oxford deposited one outside the main gate and as I sat upstairs in front seat, my imagination bordering on fantasy, I saw myself becoming a famous atomic physicist. The prospect of working in a laboratory where deep secrets were kept from ordinary mortals excited me as much as the challenge of joining that selected band of British researchers currently led by Sir John Cockcroft the founder and director of the establishment, even if in the lowest capacity. Sir John was world famous, he had before the war in Cambridge2 designed and built together with his equally famous collaborator E T S Walton, a particle accelerator to 'split' the atom thus initiating ‗big science'. Arriving at Harwell once again I found myself as the 'lowest form of animal life'. Just under 10 years previously when I joined the SS Cerinthus as a new cadet in the Houlder Line I was certainly regarded as a lowly creature and this time the Harwell Personnel officer told me at my induction interview that a mere Scientific Assistant was just a ‗training‘ grade which, at my age (26 years), left me with a lot of catching up to do. This did not depress me unduly as I fully intended to try and close the gap between me and my more 'senior' colleagues as fast
1 ‗So Long to Learn‘, Bill (CW) Trowbridge, D‘Arcy‘s Publications, Revised 2008 2 In 1932 the first artificial splitting of the atom by accelerating protons and bombarding on to Lithium target 2 Training School as I could but first I needed to bide my time and play myself in and, furthermore acquire a higher education at the same time. This was a tall order but my motivation was strong.
Plate 1: AERE Main Gate c. 1956
Although in those days the laboratory was still very security minded the more sensitive weapons applications had moved to Aldermaston and the laboratory's role had changed to concentrate on peaceful applications of Atomic Energy as well as fundamental research in Atomic and Nuclear Physics. On my arrival at the main gate (Plate 1), then situated on the busy A 34 long before the bypass was constructed, I found myself in the security 'guard house' waiting in line as the many visitors were given temporary passes. The room had a long counter behind which stood several security policemen who issued passes after much filling in of forms. As a new employee I was directed to the personnel section in the administrative building where I was given a security booklet and invited to sign the official secrets act. I was told a permanent pass would be issued to me in a day or so. I was then informed that arrangements had been made for me to be billeted in Didcot at the house of a Harwell employee who would meet me at 5 o'clock. In the meantime, as had been agreed at my interview, I would be attending the 'Training School'. Someone then escorted me to Hangar 7 to meet Mr Robins who directed the courses on basic laboratory technology. Thus began a new and strange experience. Harwell 3
Mr Robins turned out to be an ex army man whom had served his time with the Royal Engineers and we had an immediate rapport. He was interested in my sea career and we enjoyed swapping reminiscences about our travels at odd moments over the next few weeks. I think he regarded me as a special case as most of the trainees were youngsters fresh from school and had been recruited in the main to join the laboratory‘s 'at this time' ever growing band of technicians. I lost no time in telling Robbie that my aspirations were aimed much higher though, at this stage, I had no clear idea how I was going to achieve my goal except that I must, at all costs, learn as much as I could. I was apparently earmarked to join Dr W D Allen's Electrostatic Generator group but I soon discovered that Robbie knew only very little of what this involved but that in the meantime I should learn some basic laboratory skills. This it appeared mostly involved joining copper pipes together by brazing, filing metal, and wiring electrical components by soldering. I was introduced to two members of his staff, one a little older than me but the other much younger. The older man, his name I have quite forgotten and I will call him Colin, had been in the RAF and specialised in electronics and told me they would guide me through the stages of building a simple rectifier circuit as a sort of final project of the course but first I would be shown by the other chap, who answered to the name of Mick, how to file a small billet of duralumin into a prism. The only thing I can remember about Colin was that he lived in an AERE owned house in Wantage and he paved his garden with concrete to avoid grass cutting. I was issued with a white coat and a film badge, which was collected each week to be processed by the radiation protection department, but I hardly got started on the filing job when a man in his late forties appeared who introduced himself as Charlie and said he'd come to collect me as it was time to go home. Charlie Carter had a spare room in his house in Didcot and had joined the scheme to provide new staff with temporary lodging until they could find something more permanent. We walked to the bus stop and here I had my first impression of the size of the lab's work force as over 70 buses, mostly double-deckers, conveyed the staff in all directions to the surrounding towns and villages, some as far away as Swindon, Reading and Witney. The out-muster, as this daily event was called, and the procession of vehicles jammed up the A 34 for a good half hour every evening as some 7000 people were taken home. Many more came from homes very nearby and added to the confusion with cars and bicycles. Charlie turned out to be one of the army of clerical workers on site but was a man of few words whose main hobby was his work with the St Johns Ambulance Brigade. He was friendly and helpfully told me some of the practical details of the lab but said he knew little about the 4 Training School scientific work. About half an hour later I found myself being introduced to his wife Barbara at their house in Five Acres Rd. I had no enthusiasm for living in 'digs' as they used to call it and though the Carters were nice people I couldn't wait to get settled with Rita in a place of our own. As soon as I could escape I went out to the telephone and told Rita how miserable I felt in a strange house with people I appeared to have little in common with, as always she reassured me and we discussed plans for the weekend as I would be coming home to her. She had already been studying the teaching job market in the Didcot area and would come up to see for herself in a week or so. My time in the Training School passed by quickly; a routine was a quickly established, getting up at seven am to catch the bus at eight in time to be busy filing and brazing by 8.30. On Friday I would catch the train to Newbury, in these pre ' Beeching3 ' days the old branch lines still flourished, stopping at several down land villages on the way. At Newbury a faster train soon had me back in Frome for the weekend. This was also a time of meeting and making new friends. One such was Nick Allen who had recently completed his National Service with the RAF and had now returned to Harwell to resume his career as a lab technician. Nick was very helpful to me by ‗showing me the ropes‘ during his few weeks at the training school to refresh his own skills. He was also destined for the Electrostatic generator Group and later we were to cooperate together in an experiment, which led to my first publication. Dr Allen turned up one day and welcomed me and said I would be transferred as soon as Mr Robins said I was ready. I was so used to the service life that I automatically said, ‗Yes Sir‘ in response to his questions but I could see this irritated him and he soon said, ‗You‘re not on a ship now Bill; my name is Douglas Allen and people usually call me Doug‘. I did get the chance to remind him about our deal at the interview that I could enrol for a day-release degree course and although he admitted this he did, at first, attempt to talk me out of it. We walked up and down the ‗Deck‘, the floor of huge hangar that housed the experimental facilities of General Physics Division, discussing my motives and he pointed out the difficulties of trying to do too much at once, setting up house in a new area and maybe wanting to start a family, as well as coming to grips in a new work environment etc. I must have demonstrated my determination as he agreed that I should give it a try but he said that he would have to review the situation depending how I got on both with the study and in the new job. He explained that I would be joining a section whose job was to build and test the high voltage accelerator vacuum tubes for the new electrostatic accelerator that his
3 Richard Beeching, Chairman of British Railways (1960-65), his report ‗The Reshaping of British Railways (1963)‘ changed the railways forever. Harwell 5 group were to design and build. Shortly after this I was deemed sufficiently ‗trained‘ to take up my duties with Doug Allen‘s group. The final test was to assemble and solder connections for a small power supply unit, which I did tolerably well, and to complete the filing of the duralumin prism, in which I failed miserably.
6 Accelerator Tubes
Accelerator Tubes Doug introduced me to Jack Partridge, the leader of the accelerator tube section, whose little lab and office was in the adjacent Hangar 8 (Plate 4). Like its neighbour this vast space contained many experiments and was a hive of activity of which our section formed but a small part. Jack, a short and quite plump man, welcomed me warmly and my first impression was of a lively and enthusiastic man, maybe just a few years older than myself, who having been given a job to do was determined to do things his way. It turned out that his grade was that of an EO (Experimental Officer) and he had only recently been transferred to Harwell coming ‗down south‘ from Cumbria where he had been working at the notorious Atomic Plant at Windscale. He was evidently man of much experience in laboratory technology and was selected for the new job because of his skill in designing experiments. Though I soon realised that Doug Allen was a man having a formidable reputation Jack was not in the least bit in awe of him as I was. I recognised Jack as a ‗Geordie‘, in fact he came from Sunderland and in voice spoke similar to my old Shipmate David Walton4 whom I worked with on my first ship SS Cerinthus in 1948 so once again I was beginning a new career closely associated with a Geordie. Jack introduced me to the other member of our small team and this was Gordon Baker a tall friendly man who had only recently ended his National Service with the RAF but who had spent a period at the lab before being called up. Gordon was a SA (Scientific Assistant), the same grade as me though he had considerable advantage owing to his experience. However, from the beginning both Jack and Gordon treated me extremely well showing no sense of superiority. I soon discovered that Gordon had no higher technical qualifications and had drifted into lab work from school and seemed to have no ambition in this direction; whereas Jack had a general degree in science and had been planning for some years to achieve an honours degree in physics but the conflict between family, career had continually got in the way. This situation may have prompted Doug Allen‘s attempt to persuade me against following a higher education for the best of reasons. These two lost no time in telling me that I was expected to construct and test a ‗high vacuum system‘, the components were piled up on the floor and indeed all over Jack‘s desk. I knew that creating a high vacuum space was the necessary environment in experiments involving atomic particles but had no idea how this was achieved in practice but Jack had planned the system, ordered the components and soon had me working. It was explained to me that the two pumps were involved, first a mechanical fore, or ‗backing‘ pump which reduces the pressure from
4 See ‗So Long To Learn‘, Volume 1 of these memoirs, page 126 Harwell 7 atmospheric (760 mm. of Hg - Mercury5) down to the order of a few microns (10-3 mm. Hg)6 and secondly a diffusion pump which operates at pressures below that obtained by the fore pump and further reduces the pressure to a ‗High Vacuum‘ (< 10-6 mm. Hg). The useful concept of ‗mean free path‘, which characterises the behaviour of gases at low pressures, was explained to me and is entirely different from that at normal pressures. At low pressure the distances separating the molecules of the gas on average are far greater making the possibility of collisions between molecules rarer. The mean free path is defined as the average distance a molecule travels at the prevailing pressure before it collides with another. For example at a pressure of 1 micron it is of the order of 5 cm. My job was to connect these components together by sections of copper tubing, which had to be ‗brazed‘ together by use of standard preformed brass connectors — a ‗plumbing‘ operation in fact, for which my time in the training school had well prepared me. I learnt the arcane techniques to be used with ‗flanges‘ milled to a very high standard of flatness and smoothness, O-Ring grooves in these flanges machined to close tolerances, the selection of the rubber O-rings themselves with special greases to effect seals between the larger components and the use of the two gauges, the Pirani gauge7 for measuring the fore pressure and the Ion gauge8 for measuring the high vacuum. The watchword in all this was the vapour pressure associated with these components that would limit the degree of vacuum achievable and therefore only materials with low ‗out-gassing‘ properties could be used, and, of course, a high standard of cleanliness had to be employed in the assembly. After fixing the major ‗leaks‘ we soon had the system up and running but the multistage oil diffusion pump refused to bring the pressure below 10-4 mm. Jack had me add liquid nitrogen ‗traps‘ into the high vacuum end of the system which was the standard technique to ‗freeze‘ out residual gasses produced by out-gassing from the components but to no avail. Doug Allen came round and gave the system
5 Atmospheric Pressure, as in the common barometer, supports a column of mercury 760 mm. high 6 Exponential notation for large and small numbers is used throughout, i.e. 10-3 = 1/1000 and 106 = 1000,000. 7 The Pirani gauge in the micron rage is based on the dependence of gas conductivity on pressure. This conductivity determines the temperature of a heated filament and thus its electrical receptivity, which can be measured. 8 The Ion gauge is similar to a ‗triode valve‘ the swarm of electrons emitted by the the heated cathode are accelerated toward the anode and during their passage and by collisions with the residual gas positive ions are formed and collected by the grid. The grid current varies with the pressure and pressures as low as 10-10 can be recorded. 8 Accelerator Tubes the once over, also to no avail though he did put me through the hoop to see if I understood the scientific principles of the gauges. He was baffled and later brought the Harwell vacuum expert to see our installation but his only comment was that perhaps I‘d left my sandwiches inside. In the end Jack decided that Ion Gauge calibration was at fault and so after checking the electronics, redoubling our efforts in ensuring a ‗clean‘ system, also the passage of time we eventually achieved the goal of a pressure below 10-6.
Plate 2: Harwell 5MV Van de Graaf Generator complete column9
9 This ‗early‘ machine was situated in Hangar 8 and had been operational for many years. Harwell 9
It soon became clear to me that this system was to be used to test sections of accelerator tubes for a type of particle accelerator known as a Van de Graaff machine10, see Plate 2 on page 8. The principle of the machine depends on the possibility of spraying electric charge on to a moving belt and subsequently to remove the charge from the belt at some point further along in its travel, rather like getting on an ‗escalator‘ on one floor and getting off at a higher one. In Van de Graaff‘s generator the ground ‗floor‘ is the ‗earth‘ and the top a smooth surfaced conducting terminal (sphere) supported by an insulating column. At the ground level an electric motor drives a belt made from insulating material that connects with a pulley inside the top terminal. A set of points arranged like a metallic comb of needles spray charge from a low voltage generator at the bottom, which is in turn collected by a similar set of needles at the top connected to the terminal. In this manner charge could be conveyed continually to the top terminal increasing its voltage. If the whole machine is constructed within a large vessel containing insulating gasses at high pressure very high voltages can be generated (~ 10MVolts), see Plate 10 (a), page 26. Clearly the voltage obtained depends on rate that charge is brought up less the rate at which charge leaks away. Leakage arises in many ways, the insulation properties of the belt itself, the quality of the surface of the terminal, and indeed breakdown to neighbouring objects. The application of this type of generator to nuclear research requires the construction of a vacuum tube for accelerating particles which has proved to be a severe limitation on the voltages achievable as additional ‗charge leaking‘ possibilities are introduced. In 1957 tube design was still an open question and according to Doug Allen it was the Achilles heal of any electrostatic accelerator. In the simplest situation these vacuum tubes are used to transport charged particles (positive ions say) from an ion source situated within the field free region inside the high voltage terminal to ground accelerated by the electric field associated with the difference in Voltage between ground and the terminal. Unfortunately there is the strong the possibility of secondary particles, e.g. electrons, produced by collision with the residual gas molecules that will load the tube by several parasitic processes including X-Ray production that in turn produces ionisation in the pressure vessel gas and thus leads to severe leakage. Doug was keen to test several new ideas he had evolved to limit these effects and so Jack‘s section had been set up to build and test a series of accelerator tubes. A standard tube consisted of a stack of highly polished aluminium
10 Electrostatic Generator named after Robert Van de Graaff who demonstrated the first practical device at Princeton, USA in 1931. 10 Accelerator Tubes electrodes with a central hole, shaped rather like a medium sized (20 cm.) shallow dish plate stamped from thin sheets (1 mm.), separated by insulators made from good quality ‗oven ware‘. A completed tube which, depending upon the terminal voltage could be as much as 12 feet in length had to be constructed by first assembling shorter manageable sections. The electrodes and insulators in each short section were bonded together by using a thermal setting adhesive which required a high standard of flatness on the electrode flanges and upper and lower and upper surfaces of the insulators. This required that the glass mouldings obtained from a well known ‗table ware‘ firm in the Midlands had to be subsequently ground to a very high quality of flatness by a scientific optical company in Somerset. So it was not long before I found myself travelling to our suppliers to inspect the consignments of electrodes and insulators and reject all items that did not satisfy Jack‘s specification. In those far off days, a kind of golden age, when everyone voiced enthusiasm for atomic power and the technical revolution was in full swing and pure science, which needed more expensive equipment as each new discovery was made, seemed to have adequate budgets. By 1957 the Harwell laboratory had grown into a huge organisation and, it seemed to me, to have unlimited resources. The size and sheer richness of content of the stores I found astonishing where even lowly people like myself had signing powers for modest (necessary of course but sometimes wasteful) items. Also, the laboratory kept on standby a large car-pool, each with smartly uniformed lady drivers which any group (with section head or group leader authority) could book for their staff business trips — it was easily argued that many firms were beyond public transport. Harwell 11
East Hagbourne and Didcot
Plate 3: Boot Cottage, East Hagbourne11
Running in parallel with my first steps with the Electrostatic Generator Group was our new life in Didcot. Rita had secured a teaching job at the primary school in East Hagbourne a village on the edge of the Berkshire downs, just one mile south of Didcot. This was a great boon to us as we would be together again and both earning. We found temporary accommodation on the edge of Hagbourne, near the end of the footpath from Didcot, which pleasantly crossed open farmland, at Boot Cottage, thatched and fairly basic, but charming in the spring (24 April) of 195712. Our landlady was the formidable Miss Booth, the local probation officer no less. We had a double room upstairs, a sitting room downstairs and shared the kitchen but since Miss Booth was away a lot we were relatively private. Rita started her new post at the beginning of the summer term and I used the AERE bus each day. Rita seemed happy with her new teaching post and soon made friends with the other staff members. Our stay actually in Hagbourne was to be a short one as I had our name down for AERE house in Didcot with a vacancy promised in
11 Photograph taken in 2001 but appearance much the same as in 1957 apart from new road in the front and TV aerials etc. 12 The area has now been built on 12 East Hagbourne & Didcot
June. In the meantime we were content in our little cottage; especially weekends spent lazing in the garden. The spring weather that year was delightful and it also happened to be the year of the Elgar (1857 – 1934) centenary with many performances of works rarely heard these days to be broadcast on the radio. These works included the two fine oratorios, The Apostles and The Kingdom, which I had never heard. It seems strange today when recordings and performance of nearly all Elgar‘s major works are frequent and his reputation as a great composer seems almost secure. I think the revival began in 1957 following the usual period of comparative neglect bestowed on great artists following their deaths. There were other forces at work in Elgar‘s case generated by the easy identification of his music with ‗imperialism‘, which led to him being condemned by association. Ever since I had first listened to the first symphony on my little portable radio at sea in 1952 (Vol. 1 page 227) I knew that this composer would always have central position in my heart. The Elgar sound world reveals so many aspects of life that one can identify with, for example, the feeling of aspiration tinged by melancholy, the feeling of intoxication experienced in hill country with congenial companions followed by the numbing sadness when coming back down to earth. In response to my inquiries as to entry qualifications for a degree course it appeared that I needed an O-level in Chemistry to go with the Maths and Physics A-Levels already obtained. This was annoying but there was just time to sit this in June which could still mean I could begin the degree course in the autumn. I applied for permission to take a very short course in Chemistry at the Abingdon Institute of Further Education in Mayott‘s Road; at that time the AERE technical training officer was Mac Snowden, a distinguished scientist and gentleman who was very sympathetic to my cause and with I am sure, prompting from Doug Allen, he agreed that if I was successful in obtaining the entry qualifications I could start the degree course in September. I was so confident that following Jack Partridge‘s13 recommendation I applied to The Polytechnic in Regent Street, London and was offered a place to start a projected four year course, one full day plus one evening a week, to read for a London University external honours degree in Physics. But first things first as I needed the Chemistry; so recalling that I had always done moderately well in Chemistry at Brockenhurst Grammar School I joined a small group of other late developers from AERE in bussing to Abingdon every Wednesday in confident mood. In the group coincidentally was a young woman, Susan, who was also an ex
13 Jack has attempted a Honours Course in Physics there himself but sadly had to withdraw owing to family commitments. Harwell 13
Brockenhurst pupil14 and so we swapped reminisces and it was fun to learn that the admirable ‗Aggie‘15 was as formidable as ever. The lady teaching the chemistry class (a Mrs Hall) turned out to be very competent and we got on from the start. Most of the required syllabus could be learnt easily almost by rote that was sufficient for my purpose of obtaining a pass in the exam coming up in a matter of a few weeks. The practical side was enjoyable bringing back memories of my early attempts in playing with chemicals and studying simple reactions in my father‘s garage. In the event I obtained 59% in the exam, a good enough performance and this was backed up by a friendly testimonial from Mrs Hall that helped me with my bosses at AERE16.
Plate 4: AERE Site c. 197017
14 I think her name then was Susan Allum. 15 Miss Agnes Graham, see volume 1, page 69 16 ―This man has the makings of an Honours degree student. He should be given every opportunity…‖, also the Institute‘s Superintendent, Mr G C Stewart wrote, ― ...he is a most capable student and deserving of every opportunity …‖ 17 Hangars 7 (left) & 8 (right) in the foreground with the main gate off the A34 on the right and the Tandem Accelerator building can be seen on the left. 14 East Hagbourne & Didcot
Plate 5: No. 72 Abbott Rd Didcot18
We moved to Didcot to occupy our new home in Abbott Rd on 24 June. This semi-detached house, owned by Didcot council but allocated by AERE, was quite well appointed with three bedrooms, one of which was quite tiny, and a bathroom upstairs with a sitting room, dining room and kitchen below. At the rear we had a fair size garden that threatened me with gardening and such like. We were delighted to have a place we could call our ‗own‘ but with no furniture apart from a bed, which we had bought from a local shop when we first moved into Boot Cottage. We also had the radiogram that we also bought before moving to Didcot so we had our priorities sorted — bed & music. To justify this purchase we both stopped smoking and we kept this up for nearly a year. Rita set about making the place liveable in and though we were on a very limited budget we obtained credit on the essentials, a studio couch, some basic bedroom furniture and some rugs. My old landlord Charlie Carter told us about some second-hand dining room furniture going cheap which though ugly served our purpose. The house was in quite a good state but needed redecorating which occupied us nicely over the next few weeks. The summer rolled by with the work on the house and garden taking up most of our spare time. We established a weekly routine of shopping on
18 Not a contemporary photograph though the house has changed little apart from the higher hedge. No. 72 is the left hand house of the pair. Harwell 15
Saturday morning in Didcot; withdrawing the princely sum of £5 from the bank enough to last us the week that included the rent of £2 and groceries etc though in those balmy days most items could be delivered. Didcot apart from its role as a railway junction was then an army town with a substantial military depot. However as the military base declined it was becoming a dormitory town to meet the needs of the expanding scientific establishments in the area. Also, though one of the branch lines was soon to be axed by the short-sighted plans of Mr Beeching, other new projects would soon occupy the military site like the huge power station, then under construction, which would change the skyline in the Thames valley for ever. Didcot itself with its single long main street with shops on one side remains. During the summer Dad and Brenda came to see us and were pleased to see us settled at last and for our part we were delighted that they seemed to be happy and that Dad was in good health. We also had Rita‘s sister Eva and brother Bernard to stay with us for a few days. This presented us with a slight problem as we had no spare beds and as we could not yet afford to buy anymore furniture they kindly bought two beds in the town and left them with us for future use, though we eventually paid them back. Bernard had hired a car for the trip and we had several nice days touring the Cotswolds an area that was completely unknown to us. So that Rita could get to Hagbourne each day she bought a bicycle in Oxford. Later on I also acquired a motor assisted bicycle, one of those machines with a two-stroke engine directly driving the rear wheel. This meant I became independent of the bus and could easily get about the area. My work at the lab continued apace; we were now building accelerator tubes to be tested in the Van de Graaf machine at Aldermaston and I was now looking forward to starting my degree course. About this time I sustained a minor accident which was a salutary lesson in concentration. One day I left Hangar 8 to walk across to the library and I met Susan, the girl who had been on the Chemistry course with me, and whilst we were chatting about this and that a van came round the corner and as I was actually standing in the road facing Susan, who was on the pavement, I must have stepped back a little and suffered a glancing blow to my left shoulder which knocked me down. The van immediately took me to the site medical centre where upon a macho doctor aggressively manipulated my shoulder and pronounced that there was no serious damage. He kept me there lying on the bed for the rest of the day and must have informed Doug Allen as within a few minutes Doug appeared and after showing me sympathy he told me a story of a bicycle accident he had sustained whilst working on Radar in Dorset during WW2. Apparently he had been knocked down by a vehicle and 16 East Hagbourne & Didcot had cut his upper lip badly leaving a scar which explained why he grew a moustache. Harwell 17
The Polytechnic in Regent Street and Family Life in Didcot
Time had now come to begin my studies in London. I had had an interview with John Yarwood the head of Physics and Mathematics at the Poly just before the start of the academic year and he accepted me for the Special physics degree course just beginning (17th September). Most of the students he said were like me from industry on day release schemes. John Yarwood, a rather tall spare man in his late fifties with a fine head and somewhat severe expression, had had a successful career himself in industry specialising in High Vacuum technology19. It was with a feeling of much trepidation tempered with excitement that I travelled by train from Didcot to Paddington to begin the first of over a hundred very long days at the Poly in Regent Street — up at six AM, a walk to the station to catch the train at seven then to join the rush hour crowds on the tube to Oxford Street, a full day and early evening at study then back home at ten tired out. Later I found that I needed an extra evening to take in all the lectures which meant two journeys each week for the next four years. I subsequently realised that the Poly was an organisation with an exceptional history in the development of vocational and higher education; indeed it was the very first institution of its type in Britain and served as a prototype for Polytechnics in the English speaking world. It opened in 1838 at 309 Regent Street in London (the site of its present buildings) under the inspiring leadership of Sir George Cayley20. The original purpose was to foster the application of science to industry by research, demonstrations and training. Early visitors included Prince Albert and a royal charter was granted on 23 August 1839. The institution continued to flourish after Cayley‘s death in 1857 until it was acquired in 1881 following a fire and financial difficulties by another remarkable inspiring figure, Quintin Hogg21. Quintin Hogg's vision in The Polytechnic was to educate "mind, body and spirit". He expanded the established role in science to encompass arts and humanities into a full
19 His book, ―High Vacuum Technique‖, Chapman & Hall, 1943, was the standard work on the subject. 20 Sir George Cayley, landowner and gentleman scientist, was a public figure well known for his personal inventions and scientific publications — he established for the first time the principles of heavier-than-air flight 21 Quintin Hogg (1845-1903) had been working amongst the poor and working people of London for almost 20 years and running his Young Men's Christian Institute in Covent Garden since 1871.Hogg's Polytechnic was a resounding success because it appealed to so many sections of the community.
18 The Polytechnic and Family Life in Didcot social mission. As a result, the Regent Street Poly developed an international reputation and became a model for applied education across London. By 1949 the Poly had 11,000 students in evening classes and 2,500 attending day classes and was known as the working man‘s university22.
Plate 6: The Polytechnic Regent St London
As I entered the building in September 1957 I found myself in a kind of ‗Tower of Babel‘ with hundreds of men and women moving in an apparently never ending stream struggling their way up and down the central staircase to access the various departments. Mathematics and Physics occupied the rarefied atmosphere of top floor but before getting there one passed through an entire encyclopaedia of other subjects. My memory of this first day is vague except for meeting the man who was to be our main guide and mentor over the next three years; this was John Fewkes who began by advising us to purchase his new book on
22 The Polytechnic was formally rededicated as the University of Westminster in Westminster Abbey on 1 December 1992 Harwell 19
Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics written jointly with the head of department John Yarwood. Dr Fewkes made a strong impression on me from the start as he had an engaging personality peppered with wit and sympathy; he was indeed very sympathetic to us ‗part timers‘ understanding the competing problems of juggling, family work and study. I do remember him saying, at one point during his detailed survey of the syllabus, that there would not be time to cover everything but if we were very keen we could attend his ‗religious‘ lectures on ‗Thermodynamics‘ on Sunday mornings— with much attendant laughter. Two of my companions also made a strong impression, both men from the Royal Military Establishment in Woolwich and like me anxious to improve their chances in the promotion stakes by obtaining good degrees. I got to know these two pretty well in the years ahead. One of them, Laurie Leake, was a chemist, good natured and recently married, who needed to develop his knowledge of physics. The other, Jim Hawkins already a physics graduate with an ordinary degree but wanting to improve his knowledge. Jim was a more dominant personality but also very friendly with a fairly detailed knowledge of London, he lived at that time in a flat, south of the river near Lewisham. What delighted me at the time was that apart from their sensible approach to study, they knew the best places to go for a quiet drink and chat at the middle and end of the day. They seem to know all the local haunts and indeed both within the Poly and nearby. They took me to the Cock Tavern, just a block away, for a liquid lunch; this pub was one of many tied houses to the Younger Brewery, of Scotch Ale fame, and in those days very numerous in London. Jim had a map of their locations and an ambition to visit them all. The pattern of our ‗day release‘ was set, lectures in the morning, experimental work in the lab in the afternoon and then more lectures in the evening interspersed with visits to the Cock Tavern, perhaps a game of snooker in the fine billiards room on the first floor and much talk about our aspirations. I ended my first day at the Poly, feeling very tired, stimulated and just a little intoxicated. Thus my life yet again was entering a new phase and over the next three years I had to balance my job at Harwell, my life with Rita in Didcot with this new and exciting academic career. I knew I was starting a degree course very late but I had one advantage, I was well focussed and very single minded. That I was able to get away with this is due to two reasons: first the understanding and love of Rita and secondly owing to the relatively routine nature of my job as accelerator tube-builder at Harwell with the sensitive understanding shown by Jack Partridge and Doug Allen. Indeed Doug kept his promise to enter me for promotion to the grade of assistant experimental officer and I was successfully interviewed in April 1958 which meant I was no longer at the bottom of 20 The Polytechnic and Family Life in Didcot the ladder. The lectures given by Dr Fewkes were inspirational particularly in atomic physics which I could relate to my work at Harwell, the lecture room was on the top floor of the building and was quite old fashioned in its furnishing with rows of hard narrow wooden benches with sloping desk tops − Dickensian discomfort. One morning whilst Dr Fewkes was in full flood the double doors at the front flew open and in walked HRH Prince Philip on a visit to the Poly23 accompanied by John Yarwood and other officials; we all stood up of course and listened respectfully as the Prince said a few words of encouragement. My studies progressed well and I was beginning to soak up knowledge on Physics in a more systematic way than before with many gaps in my sketchy knowledge being filled; however it soon became apparent to me that it was the use of mathematics, particularly techniques of solving physical problems numerically that interested me most. This interest probably stemmed from the thrill of computing a ship‘s position that I always experienced as a young navigator in my previous life. The careful measurements of angles of the sun above the horizon at precise times and the extraction of the appropriate astronomical data from the nautical almanac followed by the application of basic spherical trigonometry to compute the ships position was kind of template procedure for many of the problems I was now studying. I will always remember my first encounter with an electromagnetic field problem in the lab at the Poly; this was a set experiment to determine the field distribution for a cylindrical electrostatic lens, the kind of device that was used to focus charged particles in accelerators. The experiment used the electrolytic tank method in which a scale model of the electrodes, made from copper, were immersed in a weakly conducting liquid. The ‗model‘ electrodes were attached to a low voltage source and the voltage in the fluid at any position in the space between could be measured by a using nickel probe, insulated except at its point, attached to an instrument known as a potentiometer. The voltage produced by the electric currents in the fluid is equivalent to the electrostatic voltage in free space in the actual device. So I learnt that the equations governing the two physical phenomena, i.e. the electric field in free space as in the electron lens on the one hand and the electric field in the conducting fluid on the other, were indeed the same and that I was directly experiencing one of the most powerful paradigms used in Science, that of analogy and incidentally an ‗analog‘ method to compute the electric field. Later I was to become heavily involved in devising methods for field computation and in some sense I had encountered what was to be the major professional preoccupation of my life.
23 13 February, 1958 Harwell 21
After a distance in time of over 45 years the events of my study time have tended to merge into a blurred cycle of bi-weekly journeys from Didcot to Paddington, tube to Oxford Circus, lectures and experimental work followed by more lectures in the evening. Though the second trip, in the week, was just the evening only. On one awful occasion I fell asleep on the train and missed getting out at Didcot and ended up in Banbury; there was no way to let Rita know as we did not have a phone at home. I eventually got back to Didcot at 4.00AM. All this was quite stressful but I was determined to keep it up but on several occasions my two friends from Woolwich, Jim and Laurie, would bunk off early; we became members of a an afternoon drinking club in Soho; in those days the pubs closed at three pm until six so this was a good way to fill the gap. I remember we gave false names honouring our heroes, James Clerk Maxwell, JJ Thomson and Lord Kelvin, a little harmless fun but we found the evening lectures harder to take on those occasions. I found my companions were also keen on music and we would debate our prejudices and enthusiasm vehemently. Jim was a Beethoven man and Laurie preferred Mozart but I was impressed when Laurie told me he was rehearsing Elgar‘s ‗Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands‘ with his local choral society. I was keen opera buff and managed to persuade them to accompany me to Covent Garden for a matinee performance of Wagner‘s Parsifal24 unfortunately the combination of the hard gallery seats and the overwhelming length of Act 1 demanded that we left for refreshment in the first interval. Whilst on the subject of music I vividly recall seeing the newspaper stands in Regent St the previous year announcing the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams at the end of August 1958. I have always enjoyed VW‘s music but he has never replaced Elgar in my affections though he could come very close sometimes, the fifth symphony being my favourite. It seemed to us that the last of great figures of the English Musical renaissance had now gone but thankfully we still had William Walton (aged 56) who was now the pre-eminent English composer and of course Benjamin Britten (aged 45) in his prime and becoming a major international opera composer. Whilst the exposure to computational physics was developing at the Poly and also the routine work at Harwell on accelerator tube construction my private life was changing. Rita was now well established in Hagbourne but she felt that the time was also pressing if we were to start a family whilst still relatively young. We still had no motor transport so were totally dependent on the train for visits to relatives; we often went to stay with Rita‘s family on the farm in Dorset and we were fortunate that the branch line from Didcot to Newbury was still running.
24 ROH Covent Garden, Parsifal conducted by Rudolf Kempe, 16 June 1959 22 The Polytechnic and Family Life in Didcot
We made friends locally, especially with Frank and Mary Allen who lived nearby. Frank and I enjoyed a Sunday pre-lunch drink in the local pub for many years25.We had a surprise visit from Bill Seybold on the 15 March, 1958; Bill had been my best man and we had heard that he had married a girl called Sylvia, a nurse whom he met whilst on the doomed ship Empire Windrush in a lifeboat26. In June my first trials in examinations for the degree began as before taking Part 1 in Physics next year I had to pass an exam in Mathematics, known as ancillary mathematics27, I found studying for this very interesting and I sat this in June and was pleased to see my name on the pass list in August. However, we also had to study and pass exams in scientific French and German translation, now this could be done in any year before the finals but since we had had some lectures in German at the Poly recently I decided to sit it in June also. The use of dictionaries was permitted but on the day of this exam as Laurie and I were having lunch in the Cock Tavern I realised that I had forgotten to bring my German dictionary. Laurie for some reason did not need to sit the language exams and, good friend that he was, immediately went off to obtain one whilst I proceeded to the hall for the exam in time to register. Somehow he managed to get one and smuggle it in to me just before the exam was due to start. He told me later on that he and Jim had a good laugh as they could observe me through a window from the outside staring at the exam paper hard for a very long time before, and with apparent reluctance, I picked up my pen to start writing only almost immediately stop and stare at the paper again. Needless to say I failed. Also we exchanged visits with my two colleagues Jack Partridge and Gordon Baker. Jack‘s wife Pat was very friendly; they lived in an old cottage in Upton with a large wild garden with their two boys. Pat had a reputation as a fine cook and we enjoyed visiting them. Gordon married in 1959 to Ruth, a local girl in Wantage; we attended the wedding which was quite big affair as both their families were members of long established Wantage families. Their honeymoon was to be spent in Penzance and by a coincidence Rita and I decided to have a proper holiday for the first time since our marriage and had settled on Penzance. Marjorie Payne, Rita‘s old friend and bridesmaid, recommended a BB that was both reasonably priced and convenient. In the event the convenience was somewhat exaggerated as the house was a good distance away from the town. We decided however to do the journey in some style, to make up for the somewhat Spartan accommodation we
25 He was an Engineer at Harwell who eventually got transferred to Winthrith Heath Atomic Energy Establishment in Dorset. 26 See ‗So Long To Learn‘, Volume 1 of these memoirs, pages, 261, 273, 277 27 Ancillary in the sense of the mathematics needed for a proper study of Physics Harwell 23 were booked in to in Penzance, by travelling first class from Paddington on the Cornish Riviera Express. This was possibly our last long train journey before British Rail was changed for ever, with superb restaurant service and comfortable seating in stylish accommodation. We were even able to purchase a book about the journey entitled, ‗Through the Window‘ which described the route in fine detail and in those days not changed much since the book was first written in the hey day of steam28. I remember well rattling over Brunel‘s fine bridge, The Royal Albert Bridge, which crosses the Tamar at Saltash.
All of the sights of the hill and the plain Fly as thick as driving rain: And ever again, in the wink of an eye, Painted stations whistle by.
From a railway carriage − Robert Louis Stevenson
Plate 7: Rita and Bill at Penzance, 1959
On arrival at Penzance we found that we had to struggle up quite a steep hill to reach our destination but worse was to follow in the shape of the other guests an elderly Scots couple with whom we had to share our meals for two weeks; I must confess I am not good with strangers and in this case we had nothing in common, not even the language, as the man‘s accent was strong and hard to understand − he was also quite a loud
28 Through the Window: Paddington to Penzance, Great Western Railway, 1924 24 The Polytechnic and Family Life in Didcot speaker. Rita as usual sorted me out and we made the best of a bad job. The house was quite small with rooms to match and I cannot remember our landlady very much and her husband not at all, though Rita said she made the best scrambled eggs she ever had, they were a very discrete pair. Nevertheless we enjoyed the area immensely; in those days much less crowded than now and we used the local buses to travel everywhere including Lands End, Sennen-Cove, Mousehole, Minack Theatre, St Ives etc.
Plate 8: Sennen Cove
We were both impressed with the open air theatre at Minack with its breathtaking views and would have loved to have seen a play performed there but, apparently, no performances were going on at that time29. We did some quite strenuous walks as well crossing the moors to the North coast visiting some old tin mines on the way. Rita announced that she was pregnant but this did not stop her from enjoying the marvellous coastal beaches with occasional dips in the sea. At Sennen-Cove we watched an artist painting, see Plate 8, and would have loved to have bought the painting but alas we could not afford £5-5-0. We met up with Gordon and Ruth Baker for lunch one day which was very pleasant as they were in good spirits.
29 We came back in 2002 to see a performance of Cyrano de Begerac but we had to leave early owing to the antics of the an ill mannered ‗holiday‘ audience; much taken with booze and loutish behaviour Harwell 25
Plate 9: The Tandem Generator30
Throughout this year the Tandem generator project was becoming a reality. The new building was up and the tower was now a prominent landmark on the Harwell site. The prototype accelerator tubes for the new machine had been tested in the Van de Graaff machine at Aldermaston and Jack, Gordon and I went there to carry out the installation. All seemed well but Doug reported that when he asked the people there how X-Ray emission was affecting the glass insulators he was told by an outspoken technician that the glass had turned brown, ―brown as a beach bum‘s bottom at NTP‖31. At the end of the year Doug Allen decided I should be transferred to the ion source section of Doug‘s group to assist Dr Ralph Dawton who was responsible for developing the ion source needed to create the charged particles to be injected into the Tandem Accelerator. So it was goodbye to Gordon Baker32 who had been a good companion and work colleague for me in my first two year at Harwell but though I would no longer be working with Jack Partridge we kept in touch as colleagues. It was also goodbye to Tube building but not
30 It was a prominent landmark on the A34 until 2005; when it was pulled down to make way for new facilities. 31 A sanitized version of the remark; NTP is Normal Temperature and Pressure 32 Gordon left the lab shortly after to take up a career in banking tin which was a success for him as he eventually became a branch manager. 26 The Polytechnic and Family Life in Didcot to Tube design as I would become more involved in this in the years to come. I moved to building 477, see plate 9, here I met Jim Diserens who had recently joined the group as an EO33, Jim was to become a firm friend and colleague for many years, Doug had recruited him to work on the design of the stripper canal, see Plate 10 (b).
Plate 10: Schematic diagram of Van de Graaff Machines
The idea of the Tandem Accelerator is to extend the single-ended machine to be double ended in the sense that the high voltage terminal is now at the centre of the voltage graded column rather than at one end (Plate 10(b)), both ends are at ‗earth‘ (zero volts) the charged conveyor belt charges up the central terminal to a high voltage, 6 Million Volts say, which is used to accelerate negatively charged ions (e.g. Hydrogen
33 The government grades for scientist were in two main strands, Experimental Officers and Scientific Officers; AEO, EO, SEO, CEO ( Assistant Experimental Officer, Experimental Officer, Senior 7 Chief) on the one hand, and SO, SSO, PSO, SPSO (Scientific Officer, Senior, Principal, Senior Principal etc) on the other. Harwell 27 minus) to an energy of 6MeV (Six Million Electron Volts). Now if the particle can be converted to a positive charge then the electrostatic forces will accelerate the particle back to ground to the other end and thus its energy will be doubled, i.e. 12 MeV. The charge exchange can be achieved by stripping off two electrons from the hydrogen minus ion to become a positively charged proton by the use of a carbon foil or a gas cell placed at the centre of the terminal. The machine became operational in 1959 and by that time I had moved to building 477 where Doug was building up his team for a new accelerator project to be built for the Nuclear Physics faculty at Oxford University. In the mean time family matters were progressing.
Plate 11: Proud Parents
The year 1960 was a momentous year for us as our daughter Dinah Mary was born in Oxford in March. Rita had left her teaching job at the end of 1959 and was well prepared. In the meantime I still continued travelling up to the Poly each week and began to prepare myself for the Part 1 examination in June. One musical memory at this time was our visits to the HMV shop in Oxford Street during the lunch break. In those days the shop still retained something of its former glory as a show case for recorded music from the golden age of the gramophone. The spacious ground floor area had listening rooms where you could lounge in padded arm chairs and hear a disk complete. On one occasion I noticed a 28 The Polytechnic and Family Life in Didcot recording of the Elgar Violin Sonata34, this was an exciting discovery as I not at that time ever heard the piece. I was enchanted by the sound world it conjured up, different from Elgar‘s usual style but recognisably him nevertheless; I had read about his late chamber music composed toward the end of WW1 with its evocation of the Sussex woodlands and deep nostalgia and it gave me a real glow to hear it for the first time. Even my classicist friends Laurie and Jim said they liked it; Jim was particularly taken with the slow movement. Rita and I listened to this music a lot at home and it has remained in my mind‘s ear ever since associated with the coming birth of our first child. The later stages of the pregnancy had been a little tedious for Rita as the baby was a week late. In the event she was sent in some two or three days before the birth to the Maternity Hospital wing of the Radcliffe Infirmary and there was some discussion about inducing the baby. I had accompanied Rita in the ambulance from Didcot and after leaving her in safe hands I reluctantly returned home. Nothing happened until Wednesday 30 March when I came in to visit in the afternoon. I was told that the birth was imminent so I repaired to the Randolph Hotel35 to await news and after a good dinner I forced myself to sleep. I was actually feeling very anxious, somewhat worried about the future as my career had not yet crystallised; I was halfway through my degree course and working at the same time and I was unsure about how things would turn out, and of course our income had dropped to half as Rita had to leave her job some three months before. The next morning I returned to Radcliffe to be greeted with the splendid news of the successful birth and to see my dear wife with our new baby daughter. Dinah was born at 6am weighing 5lb 8½ oz on Thursday 31 March. I called my father and Rita‘s father & mother to tell them the news of the arrival of their first grandchild and they were delighted. Rita told me that she was being transferred to the local maternity convalescent home in Wallingford for a week just to make sure that all was well. I remember taking a taxi to Wallingford to collect them and as one of the nurses handed Dinah to me she said, ‗ you make sure you look after them now..‘, On arrival at No 72 Abbott Rd Rita noticed that the daffodils bulbs she had planted were now all out in full flower. We were home for Easter. Our lives had changed and I felt the imperative to succeed more strongly than ever. Living across the road were the Turners, Maureen and Fred whose second daughter, Pauline, arrived at the same time and also a few doors away the Perkins family, Jack & Jackie who also had a young
34 Played by Max Rostal & Colin Horsely, 10 Inch LP TM49 1957 35 Oxford‘s top hotel- a needless expense considering our circumstances which must have been a perverse ‗hang-over‘ from my carefree sea-going days! Harwell 29 boy, Nicholas. So ideas and experiences could be exchanged and mutual help provided when needed. The Christening took place in Mosterton at the church where we were married on the 5th of June. Our original intention had been to have the baptism in Didcot but the local Vicar refused as we were not church members; not very welcoming and perhaps a misjudgement on his part as his attitude did not encourage us to join. Rita wrote to the vicar who had married us and he readily agreed to carry out the service. In many ways this was a better solution as it meant Rita‘s mother would not have to travel up to us as the onset of crippling rheumatism was beginning to make physical movement very difficult for her. Our journey to Dorset on the train was a new experience as we had to bundle Dinah into a carry- cot as well as our luggage with several changes of train on route. My father, Brenda, Peter and David came so together with Eva, now living at home, and Bernard we had a family reunion to welcome the new addition to the family. Rita chose the name Dinah36 to fulfil a childhood dream and her second name, Mary, after Rita‘s mother to fulfil a family tradition. On returning home I was immediately required to sit the exams for Part 1 of the degree course. The examinations were held in a large hall somewhere along Tottenham Court Rd. on June 9 & 10th. I only remember one of the questions and that was to derive Maxwell‘s equations and prove some elementary consequences; I already felt then that these equations would occupy me for years to come. The results for Part 1 were posted up some weeks later and I was delighted to see my name among the successful candidates. We invited Laurie to visit us for the week end and they came on August 5th. Laurie‘s wife‘s name was Georgie, whom I remember as being rather pretty with very dark hair; they had a young daughter called Mandy and I recollect the care Laurie devoted to her and the pleasure she showed on being read bedtime stories. Their mode of transport was frightening though, a motor bike and side-car which looked lethal to us. Laurie often spoke of doing the ‗ton‘ but not with the side car attached we hoped. Their visit coincided with the delivery of our first refrigerator; it was a very hot summer and we felt that a fridge was now essential equipment for the home with the ever growing availability of frozen food products; besides it kept the beer cool and Laurie and I had a very deep scientific discussion on how long it would take to make ice. 13 October is a date I prefer not to recall too often; Doug Allen had put me up for promotion to Experimental Officer and the Panel
36 Contrary to what became family hearsay Dinah was not named after my own Aunt Dinah Sherrell my mother‘s youngest sister, despite the fact that her grandmother was also named Dinah? 30 The Polytechnic and Family Life in Didcot interviewed me on that day at the London HQ of Atomic Energy Authority in King Charles II St. The members of the panel had been communicated to me via Doug from L B Mullett the head of Accelerator Division and in his note he had listed the panel members with helpful comments about them. His overall impression was that they were a reasonable bunch and pleasant ‗fellows‘. It‘s all a matter of perspective I suppose so what was reasonable and pleasant to Les Mullett in the event appeared to me to somewhat hostile and unsympathetic. The chairman only allowed me a little time to explain my work, as was mandatory on these occasions, but then I was asked a series of ‗smart‘ questions and it appeared to me that these were aimed at undermining my confidence. I was far too inexperienced to deal with such questions adequately and for the most part they are blotted from my memory, two I do remember though and the first of these went something like this;
Now why is it that mirror images are transposed from to Left to Right and not from Top to Bottom?
My answer with the aid of a crude sketch quickly showed by the laws of reflection why this was so and I added that physiological positions of our eyes in relation to downward gravity explains the Top- Bottom paradox, mumbling something that if you laid down on your side then indeed top to bottom inversion would result. My explanation didn‘t seem to satisfy them. The other question I remember was:
You are in an empty room apart from a pipe running horizontally across the room from one wall to the wall opposite; if a fluid is flowing in the pipe then how would you determine the direction of flow?; you have no instruments.
This one floored me and what I should have said, as I thought later was:
I should remove my trousers and wrap them round the pipe, set light to them and see which end got warmer.
Nearly everybody smoked in those days and it could be assumed that matches were to hand! At the painful end of the interview I was asked if I had any questions for the panel; I replied by asking them the answer to the mirror problem but received no answer. Needless to say I Harwell 31 failed. Doug had more faith though and re submitted my bid for promotion the following year at which time I was successful37.
Plate 12: Simon with his Dad and new car (1962)
The following January (1961) we felt we had scraped up enough money to buy a car and I asked Jack Partridge to help; we went to the nearby Garage at Rowstock a mile or so from the lab where an Austin A35 (Registered 1958) was up for sale. Jack, who had considerable experience in these matters pronounced the vehicle ‗fit‘ after a very thorough examination. He then negotiated a good and fair price, £300, and the deal was done. I had no experience with cars and could not even drive as most of my youth was spent on ships so without Jack I should have been all at sea again! We took the car back home to Didcot and Rita, who had had car of her own in her youth, was immediately persuaded by Jack to take us all out for a short drive. She needed a little reassurance from Jack as she had not sat behind the wheel for seven years but he said it was like riding a bike, you don‘t forget and so it proved. Next it was my turn, I had just got a provisional license so I was legal with a qualified driver in attendance., and I gingerly backed the car on to road after being told by Jack, ‗…put it in reverse and release the break
37 30th November 1961 32 The Polytechnic and Family Life in Didcot lad‘, and to my surprise we moved gently back without me depressing the accelerator pedal. My first lesson; it now seems strange to have reached the age of 31 and never have driven a car, as it was; it took me two attempts at the driving test before I finally passed on the third. I celebrated being able to drive on my own by motoring to Totton, the place where I was born on the edge of the New Forest. My very old friend Brian Greenhalgh was now living nearby in Bartley with his wife Rolande. Since qualifying as a teacher he had taken a teaching post in Southampton and had married also, to a French girl also a teacher in the Southampton area. They had bought a little cottage overlooking the village green, in those days an idyllic place. I arrived unannounced but they seemed pleased to see me and gave me lunch; a succulent omelette served under a large beech tree in the garden. It was good to renew our friendship after nearly five years and we promised to meet again soon. It was in January, 1961, that the whole of Accelerator Division was transferred to the newly formed Rutherford Laboratory under the auspices of NIRNS38. Jack, for reasons I never understood at the time decided not to transfer and opted to stay with the Atomic Energy Authority. He later left and formed his own company designing and manufacturing electronic instruments. Both Jack and his wife Pat had been very kind to us and helped us to find our feet in a new environment. In November I was successfully interviewed for promotion to the Experimental Officer Grade at a salary of £1165 pa and was beginning to feel established in my new career. Another event in 1962 (16th June) was the occasion of the Rutherford Laboratory visitors day and we had invited four old friends from our past, Gerald & Eileen Holloway and Tony & Marcelle Haslett. I had been at school with Gerald and Tony and we had kept in touch, in fact it was Gerald and Eileen who had first introduced me to Rita in 195239. During the course of the visit to the lab Eileen spotted a friend from her old home town, Crewkerne who was now involved in the design and construction of the Nimrod particle accelerator, the principal attraction for visitors as the UK‘s number one machine for research. Our son was born on December 20 at the Radcliffe Maternity Hospital. This time I had to look after Dinah so I needed to remain at home and could not visit Rita so often. I only remember one incident of stress and that occurred in the telephone box outside the Didcot Post Office where I had gone with Dinah to call the Radcliffe to get a progress
38 National Institute for Research into Nuclear Science, originally set up in 1957 and receiving a Royal Charter on 23 June 1958. The main object was to provide large scale resources for common use by universities. Rutherford High Energy Laboratory was the first laboratory of the National Institute and was transferred from AERE Harwell in 1959. 39 See Volume 1 Harwell 33 report. Dinah got frightened in the small confines of the booth; I had to put her on the floor whilst I made the call and she started to scream which was rather embarrassing and attracted some attention from passers by. However we extricated ourselves and returned home; I also remember how kind were our neighbours opposite, Maureen & Fred, who invited us in for a meal. Fortunately, the next day, Eva arrived to take over looking after Dinah so I was able to go to Oxford to visit Rita and also go back to work. In those days we had no telephone and so I could keep a closer watch on things from the lab and it was on Wednesday 20 December that I called and was told that our son was born and both mother and baby were doing well. We decided to name him Simon Albert, the second name after his grandfather, Albert Barnard Creed. Now we had a car we could travel with some ease and take our family to see their grandparents. Then in May 1962, Rita‘s sister married William Bruce Boucher, a farmer in Little Windsor, Dorset, a small hamlet near Mosterton. Unfortunately I could not spare more than one day away as my finals were nearly upon me and we decided that Simon was too young to travel both there and back in the one day so we left him with Jackie Perkins our neighbour two doors away. Dinah at two years of age was well able to cope and she did this in fine style presenting her Aunt with a horseshoe after the ceremony in Broad Windsor Church. Then in September we all went to stay with Eva & Bill at Manor Farm Little Windsor as we had arranged for Simon to be christened in Mosterton church40 so that Rita‘s mother could be there; her Rheumatoid Arthritis had been getting steadily worse and she was now chair bound and too disabled to make the journey to Didcot. We invited my very old friend Brian Greenhalgh to be a Godfather, for the other one we asked Bernard who reluctantly agreed, because going to church was not something he did very often but I knew he was very pleased to act. My father and Brenda came so it was an enjoyable family occasion. At that time, to help look after Rita‘s mother since Eva had now left, a Spanish girl was living-in as a sort of helper, this was an odd choice as the poor girl could not speak English, I asked Brian to talk to her as he spoke Spanish stemming from his days in Argentina, but though she was not very happy there was nothing obvious that Brian could do to help and we realised this arrangement could not last much longer. The day ended with Dad having a problem with his car and unfortunately it had to be taken to a garage; he and Brenda decided to hire a car as they needed to get back to their business the next day. I agreed with Bill Boucher‘s help, to drive Dad‘s car back to Boscombe in
40 The most likely date is Sunday 23 September, 1962 34 The Polytechnic and Family Life in Didcot a day or so after it had been fixed. Bill followed me in his car to bring me back; all this appears pretty mundane today but for a recently qualified driver in a strange car it was not without anxiety. I heard later from Brian that Dad had given him a lift back to Bartley.
Ion Source Development and Life in Didcot In the meantime I was finding my feet with my new colleagues in Ion ‗Sorcery‘, as we named this discipline of plasma physics. Ralph Dawton, the leader of the ion-source group, was another prominent member of the new generation of scientists concerned with atomic physics that blossomed in the years immediately after WW2. In fact both Doug Allen and Ralph had spent time in North America and were pioneers in accelerator physics. Ralph was born in St Albans in 1911 and had been on the staff of the famous Davy-Faraday Laboratory at the Royal Institution where, before the war, he carried out important research on improvements in the integrating photometer for X-ray crystal analysis. It was said that he began his scientific career in the workshops there as a technician, rather like his great predecessor Michael Faraday, he picked up a PhD somewhere on the way and had many publications to his name. A very spare man of medium height who appeared exactly the same throughout his long life − some colleagues thought he looked as if he would waste away and must have a serious health problem but this was pure illusion as he was in fact very robust and active. I found him a delightful man full of a dry and ironic humour and considerate of his colleagues; his skill with his hands was legendry and his instinct for what would work physically unerring. The other members of his team were Nick Allen, whom I knew from the training school and Ernest Medway. That Nick was a first class technician I knew, but Ernie Medway was an unknown quantity to me, an ex baker with a colourful vocabulary. He had been working with Ralph for many years and though set in his ways he and Ralph had a good understanding. In fact Ernie had little understanding of the science behind the apparatus he constructed but the end result was usually effective. Nick Allen had a far better technical grasp and could be left to devise apparatus with only minimal guidance. Though as an AEO I was senior to them I still had a lot to learn and I shall always be grateful to them both for the help they gave me. My first job involved measuring the scattering of a low energy beam of particles arising from a charge exchange process. Ralph‘s ion source produced positively charged particles e.g. the nucleus of the hydrogen atom or proton which were then accelerated to a few thousand electron volts. Furthermore if this beam is then transported through a gas such as mercury vapour the process known as charge exchange can take place. In this process there is a probability that negatively charged electrons are Harwell 35 donated to the fast moving beam producing beams of neutral particles, i.e. in this case a hydrogen neutral beam, or more usefully in the present context, a beam of negatively charge hydrogen ions. The resulting negative ions could then be accelerated to high energy by means of a single ended Van de Graaff machine, see page 26. A device of this class is known as an injector as the resulting beam can then be further accelerated by a Tandem Machine giving the possibility of a three stage accelerator; this was to be the basis of Doug Allen‘s next project, the so called Oxford project more of which later. In the meantime we had to establish if the low energy particles travelling through the donor would experience a large mean scattering angle thus causing severe beam loss. I inherited most of the apparatus for this experiment which had been designed by Ralph and Eric Maunders41 and constructed by Nick & Ernie. The scattering was determined by the use of a paddle moving across the beam and by measuring the beam current transported detected by an electrode. The differing charged species were separated by a magnetic field (spectrometer).
Plate 13: Experiments on Negative Ion Formation [ 42]
41 Eric Maunders was a SO who worked with Ralph Dawton just prior to my joining but left soon after. 36 Ion Source Development and life in Didcot
Over several weeks a vast amount of data was recorded and though the main result of the mean scattering angle was easily deduced, demonstrating that the idea of producing negative ions in this way was feasible for acceleration by a Van de Graaff machine, Ralph encouraged me to relate our results to scattering theory. This proved a difficult task for me as our results were for lateral scattering only and to make a comparison with theory one needed the current scattered into annular rings rather, as in our case lateral strips, as the scattering problem was essentially cylindrically symmetric. After some discussion with a theoretical physicist it became clear that I needed to apply a transformation that involved solving an integral equation numerically. Eventually, I was able to do this and produced a number of scattering curves. Sometime later I realised that our results involved multiple collisions with the gas particles but in fact our data was unique at that time; unfortunately, pressure to move on did not allow a complete investigation but an internal report on the experiments was written42. This work was noteworthy for me in another way also as I wrote my very first computer program in order to calculate the differential cross-sections43. I used the Ferranti ‗Mercury‘ computer at Harwell using the Auto-code language but much more of this later. Doug had acquired a large part of Hangar 10, building 10.3 for the research and development work for the Oxford project and for this he assembled a fairly large team of about 40 personnel. I was allocated an office next to Ralph‘s which later I would share with a visiting scientist from India. A mezzanine area along the side of the hangar was set aside for our ion source and beam experiments. The large area in the central part of the hanger was reserved for the construction of the prototype test Van de Graaff machine. My work on neutral beam scattering was timely as it prepared me well for Part 2 of the degree course at the Poly. I elected to take the theoretical physics option which would involve a six hour problem paper as well as two three hour papers on Physics. In fact my crude attempts at fitting the scattering data to theory had led me into the study of classical atomic scattering and the models of atomic structure based on Quantum Physics which supplemented the formal lectures at the Poly in a fortuitous way. I noticed that often the questions set in the problem paper in the past years were exercises involving the solutions of the wave equation to determine the energy levels of the
42 R H V M Dawton, E J Maunders and C W Trowbridge, ―A Convergent Neutral Beam and the Scattering Involved in its Production‖, Unpublished 1961, MS in possession of author. 43 On 5th January, 1961 Harwell 37 hydrogen atom and closely related topics. So when my time came, on that proverbial ‗steamy afternoon in June‘44, I discovered to my delight that among the choices of problems to be solved there were at least two on topics that were fairly familiar to me. The examiner proved to be P T Matthews, the current professor of theoretical Physics at Imperial College, London and to my surprise I found that I was the only candidate that had selected the theoretical option; he treated me extremely well, sitting me in a small annex room near his office and handing me the paper he immediately corrected a spelling mistake on the front page. Dr Matthews provided me with a mechanical calculator and made sure I had everything I needed. I selected a problem on heat conduction which was an area that I had practiced so, all in all, it was a good experience for me. It felt strange to be given such personal treatment as normally one sits in a crowded hall lost among a sea of desks and feverish scribbling and sweating bodies. It was back to normal though the following week when I had to sit the written papers in Physics, an all day affair with three hours in the morning and a further three hours in the afternoon. Again the Gods smiled on me as at least two questions were on topics related to my work at Harwell including an essay on particle accelerators. I felt I had done reasonably well which was confirmed in August when the results were announced and I was awarded an upper second class honours degree. This, I was told, was a good achievement for a part time student and in fact I was the only student from the Poly that year to gain a 2a degree which was reflected in the award of the annual Robert Mitchell Medal, which would be presented to me at the annual Polytechnic dinner. I duly presented myself at the Annual Dinner at the Café Royal (Monday 15th October 1962) and found that I didn‘t know a single person, hardly surprising. At my table was sat the other winner from the Arts side45 but I think we were both felt like ‗fishes out of water‘ and hardly communicated. We were indeed a minor part of the event as several awards were to be bestowed as it was the occasion for the Poly to celebrate its year‘s achievements. I remember little about the dinner itself apart from a lively speech by the then Minister of Education, Sir Edward Boyle and the response by Lord Hailsham the Minister for Science who was, of course, the descendent of the Poly‘s founder, Quinton Hogg, see page 17. It was Lord Hailsham who presented the medals and I felt quite uptight and not a little proud as I stumbled through the closely packed tables to receive my ‗gong‘. I realised that my name would be carved on the honours wall over looking the main
44 Actually late May, Physics I & II was 29th May, 1962 morning and afternoon and the Problem paper the following Saturday 2nd June. 45 George Denis Sands, an architect 38 Ion Source Development and life in Didcot
staircase at the Poly in Regent St. which was very vain of me but I did feel that this was a climax of a long haul which began many years earlier when I was ‗all at sea‘, trying to master elementary physics and mathematics during long voyages.
Plate 14: Oxford Electrostatic Generator (Artists Impression)
The award of a degree in physics consolidated my position in the ion-source group and I began work on design problems associated with beam optics which, of course, involved field computation. I was soon struggling with the problems of how to predict fields and field gradients to help with the design of lenses, bending magnets, and quadrupoles and in the first instance by use of conducting paper and electrolytic tanks, though some useful results could be obtained with conducting paper the technique was at best only an indicator of field behaviour. The conducting paper itself was very anisotropic and a steady hand was required with the paint brush when drawing the electrodes. We had many an argument about how to correct the essentially XY symmetry results to axial-symmetry for round lenses. Never-the-less one learnt a great deal particularly about boundary conditions and orthogonality. For instance when moving to magnetic problems instead of painting the Harwell 39 conductor boundary, as in the electrostatic case, scissors were used to cut the boundaries for the magnetic poles. In this way the basic art of field computation could be mastered with simple materials. As I have already mentioned, on the completion of the Harwell tandem generator the team was asked to design and build a larger nuclear structure facility for the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford. This was begun in 1960 by building a prototype machine at Harwell to investigate critical components to generate a voltage of 10 MV on the terminal. In the Oxford Project, it was decided to seek increased energy by developing a compound system. A standard tandem; a horizontal machine guaranteed to operate at 6 MV on the centre terminal would be procured from The High Voltage Corporation of Burlington, Mass., U.S.A., for which our team would provide the ion source and beam bending magnets at earth potential. However, in addition it was decided to inject negative Ions from an ion source installed at the top terminal of the large vertical machine, mentioned above, running negative and designed, constructed and commissioned by us under the auspices of NIRNS38. Since the Ion source of this machine needed to have considerable flexibility, it was necessary to allow an ample volume (5 ft. diameter by 9ft. high) to house it, see artist impression Plate 14. The pressure vessel of the vertical machine (40ft. long by 13ft. diameter) would be housed in a tower. Negative Ions from the top terminal would be accelerated through voltages or 8-10 MV deflected through 900 by a 6 ft. radius magnet and injected into the tandem. By these means, beams of protons with 20 MeV of energy and of oxygen and sulphur ions with 60 to 80 MeV of energy could be realized. To achieve the above design Doug Allen‘s team was expanded to include a number of researchers who would be using the finished accelerator and the principal member of this group was Richard Hyder (Dick) a former Harwell physicist who had been designated to lead the technical team at Oxford and would work alongside us in the design and development phase. To achieve better results we naturally moved on to the electrolytic tank and it was with some excitement that we took a kit of specially machined half-models of our electrostatic lens system to Cambridge to use the new tank at the Cavendish Laboratory. In this work we were also joined by Denys Nicholas, an ex pupil of Professor Llewellyn-Jones from Swansea University who had recently been recruited by Doug Allen to strengthen our expertise in high voltage physics. Dick arranged the visit as he was a former Cambridge graduate and had good contacts with the Cavendish Laboratory. Although the Cambridge ―Electrolytic Tank‖ allowed good precision on fields using the latest electronics in the potentiometer circuits it also claimed to be able to compute particle trajectories as well 40 Ion Source Development and life in Didcot
by measuring current paths. Indeed good fields were obtained and we were able to achieve some degree of optimization but unfortunately the trajectories were not reliable. Our first test was to validate the symmetry by firing a ray straight down the axis and to our dismay, instead of a straight path along the axis, the ray shot off to the tank edge! Although by many adjustments we were able to get some improvement, hand calculations from the field values proved to be the only reliable method. One Analog method for predicting particle trajectories that was successful for beam bending magnets was the use of alpha particles from a Thorium-90 source. In this technique the entrance and exit positions of a beam could be checked against the first order optics theory for inclined pole edges. However it rapidly became clear that the lens and magnet system required for the Oxford project would not be amenable to Analog methods. This meant the construction of costly models and prototypes to an extent not done by us before. Fortunately digital computing was becoming available and I was lucky and privileged to be in near the beginning of this evolution. I have already referred to my first experience with a digital computer which was with the Ferranti Mercury newly sited in a hut on the Harwell campus, see page 36. It is quite astonishing to compare this device which exceeded a millisecond for a floating point operation and required a large room to house it with our modern Pentium 4 PC in a small box46. We had to use Mercury Autocode as a programming language with the paper tape as the media. The team running this machine was led by Jack Howlett who later created the Atlas Computing laboratory nearby. This was a formidable team pioneering the use of numerical methods in science and engineering. Current expertise and resources in computing in the UK owes much to the work of Jack Howlett and his colleagues. In order to make sense of results the paper tape was fed into a printer but it was remarkable how well the user support team could diagnose errors. On one occasion when I was trying to identify a bug I was told by an expert who read my tape by touch, as if it were Braille, that I had violated the basic law of division by attempting to divide a quantity by zero. One application I remember with pleasure arose in connection with the design of a magnetic spectrometer and in the analysis of ion beams from the Dawton Mercury Pool arc source47. We needed to identify the impurity ions in the beam and the computer was used to tabulate the
46 At the time of writing this was state of the art 47 Ralph Dawton devised a new type of source which exploited striking an intense arc using a pool of mercury as cathode. The copious electrons produced were then able to initiate a plasma arc in the low pressure gas, e.g. of Hydrogen Ions to create a source of protons. Harwell 41 number of different species expected. This work led to my second paper in which Nick Allen and I wrote up the results of our beam analysis which was later published by Rutherford Laboratory48. In parallel with all these activities I joined with Doug Allen and Denys Nicholas in an experiment to measure the life time of a Negative Helium ion, He- . This was interesting as, in addition to other species of ions already referred to, it was proposed to inject negative Helium ions into the vertical electrostatic generator. The Helium negative ion, unlike the negative Hydrogen ion, is not stable and can only exist in a meta- stable state for a finite time. So the question arose as to whether sufficient beam current, to carry out useful nuclear experiments, could be achieved. Although simple calculations showed, based on the theoretical lower limit for the life time (10 microseconds), that the losses in our situation would be small an experimental measurement had yet to be carried out. This was quite challenging as the decay of the negative helium ion would be small (~10%) so the ‗daughter‘ products, the fast neutral atoms, must be observed directly, and furthermore, the larger decay due to interactions with the residual gas needed to be taken into account. We worked intensively for some weeks constructing the apparatus, mostly in the evenings and weekends as the time table for constructing the Oxford Machines could not be jeopardised. The apparatus was based on the same Ion source that was used for the charge exchange experiment (Plate 13). The critical measurements were carried out late in 1965 and after some adjustments we were able to establish a mean lifetime of 18.2 microseconds. This work was written up and later published in ‗The Physical Review‘ 49 In 1964 I experienced my first aircraft flight. Doug Allen organised a visit to the Chadwick Laboratory at Liverpool University for members of his group. We mustered early in the morning at Abingdon Airfield and boarded a twin screw De Havilland Heron on route for Manchester from Bournemouth. A new experience accompanied by some slight feelings of nervousness but apart from being able to see the ground between ones legs through a fine gap in the bottom of the fuselage all went well and we had a interesting day out. After a coach trip from Ringway airport to Liverpool we were shown the newly installed 12 MeV Tandem Van de Graaff by Professor Leslie Green which was of particular interest to us as this machine is similar to the horizontal machine currently being installed at Oxford. I must have made some sort of impression as Leslie Green offered me a job later to join his staff.
48 ‗Analysis of Ion Beams from a Mercury Pool Arc Source‘, C.W Trowbridge & N Allan, RHEL/R115 1965. 49 ―Lifetime of a Negative Helium Ion‖, D J Nicholas, C W Trowbridge and W D Allen, Phys Rev, Vol. 167, No. 1, 1968. 42 Ion Source Development and life in Didcot
Our day job continued as the finishing touches to the assembling and testing of the ion source proceeded. Ralph asked me to carry out more detailed calculations on the optical system and for this the new computer resources were used to develop tables for magnetic fields in solenoids and other primitive coils by evaluating integrals and furthermore we started to compute specific solutions to Laplace Equation by using both finite difference and Monte-Carlo methods. Our results were not always believed of course, a healthy scepticism of numerical results was essential then as it should be today. However an experiment usually confirmed the predictions and we began to benefit and spend less money on costly prototypes. In order to carry out the design of the lenses for the ion beam focusing I developed a general purpose software package which we called PATHFINDER which was based on a general two dimensional Poisson50 code first developed at CERN(1963)51 by John Hornsby but later extended by us to include general boundaries and particle ray tracing. Using this code we were able to design the ion optical system for the new accelerator. In this latter work I collaborated with Jim Diserens who was a notable pioneer in the use of computers in field computation as well as an inventive experimenter. Although his main job for the Oxford Project was to develop a bonding technique for joining the glass insulators in the high voltage stack he became interested in programming and together we acquired a working knowledge of the Fortran programming language; Jim modified the CERN program for general boundaries and I wrote a series of subroutines for tracking ions in electric and magnetic fields. Meanwhile our family life was progressing in Didcot with several happy and some sad events. In January 1963 my younger brother David was married. David had embarked on a career as a party political agent. He had been a prominent member of the young conservatives in Bournemouth which was how he came to meet Pamela Lovell. The wedding was in Poole and, despite the very cold weather which had prevented many people from attending, was a stylish affair with everyone dressed formally; the only occasion when our father and his three sons appeared together in ‗morning suits‘. Later in the year my elder brother Peter married Hilda Greenwell, an elegant lady whom he had known for
50 Poisson's equation is a partial differential equation with broad utility in electrostatics, electromagnetics, mechanical engineering and theoretical physics. It is named after the French mathematician, geometer and physicist Siméon-Denis Poisson (1781-1840). In the limiting case where there are no sources (charges etc) the equation is known as Laplace‘s equation named after Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827) 51 Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research) Harwell 43 very many years. This was a quiet family wedding in Bournemouth Registry Office in June. Peter and Hilda had been to stay with us in Didcot a few months before and I remember just two things about their visit, first, some embarrassment on my part about the sleeping arrangements which, after a clumsy enquiry on my part, it became clear the old fashioned arrangements were to be observed and, secondly the obvious pleasure Hilda experienced when she helped Rita in bathing Dinah. Sometime in 1962 Lionel Fell joined the group to take over the tube building section after Jack Partridge & Gordon Baker left (see page 25). Lionel had had a varied background in manufacturing & business and a flair for production engineering and was just the right man to take charge of the tube building activities as we were now into the production stage. We became friends and when he moved to East Hagbourne he persuaded me to help him concrete his drive but I only agreed provided he helped me do the same in Didcot as a base for a new garage I wanted to erect next to our house. He master-minded both projects and I was amazed how efficiently he organized the preparation and the handling of the pre- mix concrete when it arrived. Lionel did all the work and I mostly watched and occasionally ‗obeyed orders‘ to smooth the surface with my spade. As a hobby activity Jim Diserens and I together with Lionel decided it would be fun to make a reflecting telescope in our spare time52. Lionel soon demonstrated that he knew exactly how to grind a concave surface on to an 8 inch diameter circular glass block using two blocks with grinding paste of decreasing granularity. Jim and I devised a simple optical test bench to check the curvatures achieved. Grinding the mirrors turned out to be the easy part as we soon discovered that to make a decent mounting and all the mechanisms needed to rotate and control the instrument would require more resourses than we could afford. Thus our beautiful mirrors languished in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet for years and I suppose were finally dumped53. Early in 1963 an event occurred in Hangar 10 which caused some distress; one day a notice was pinned up in the coffee room which bore the legend ‗Juden Raus‘ which was very offensive particularly to one our staff members a man whose surname was Rouse, a very helpful man, who worked in a support capacity, drove the group van and was a general factotum54 . When Doug saw the notice he was very angry and issued a stern warning to the effect he did not want see any further notices of this
52 March 1963 53 In fact Jim told me recently that he rescued the mirrors and has them still. 54 Out with the Jews 44 Ion Source Development and life in Didcot
kind. I think the notice was meant as a joke rather than a racist slur on a colleague, but if the former then it was, at best, in extremely poor taste. However Lionel‘s next project did get off the ground. His entrepreneurial appetites had been wetted by the growing demand for accelerator tubes around the world and he had carried out some market research that suggested to him that the time was right to start a company to manufacture tubes. So on 23 September 1963 we met at my house to discuss this idea. In addition to Jim and Lionel we had invited John Ayres to participate, John was also a member of the Electrostatic generator group working on the engineering aspects of ion source and tube construction. At that meeting we drafted a brief business plan for a company to be known as MegaVolt Ltd with the view of floating the idea to Doug Allen for his advice and comments. Doug was supportive and even arranged a meeting with the Deputy Director who encouraged us to investigate the potential market further and make an assessment of the cost savings to the Laboratory. Unfortunately, though we established good grounds for the costs and market, some private capital would be needed. Lionel remained completely confident and even suggested that the four of us take out second mortgages on our houses, this, of course, was untenable55 and we were forced to give up the project. Lionel however decided to go ahead on his own and was able to persuade the company in Taunton56 that we had used for many years to grind the glass insulators to optical flatness to partner Lionel in a venture to be carried out in Taunton, thus MegaVolt was formed in 196457. It was in November 1963 that the 50th Anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten was celebrated58 and it was while Rita and I were watching a birthday tribute on TV that the shocking news of President Kennedy‘s assassination in Dallas was announced. He next day the BBC‘s satirical show ‗That Was The Week That Was‘ paid an eloquent tribute to John Kennedy which most movingly included a piece by Dame Sybil Thorndyke the great and much loved actress. The world seemed different after this with many illusions shattered and the subsequent doubts about what actually happened raising forever a profound mistrust in the reporting of public events.
55 At this stage I didn‘t even own a house! 56 Gooch & Housego Ltd 57 Sometime later Lionel broke away from Gooch & Housego to start up his own company, Dowlish Developments Ltd which eventually prospered by manufacturing an improved version of the Inclined Tube designed based on principles researched by Dick Hyder. 58 Born St Cecilia‘s day 22nd November 1913. Harwell 45
Meanwhile our young family was developing and Dinah started her first school in Didcot, also Rita was pressed back to part-time teaching at East Hagbourne School which she accepted provided she could take Simon along. This was agreed and she transported him in a child carrier basket on her bicycle. Rita and I made a determined effort to give up smoking and I was helped in this by a challenge made by John Ayres in the Harwell canteen at lunch one day to refrain from smoking for three weeks. In October sadness came to us as Rita‘s mother died after short illness but the real cause, I believe, came about because of the debilitating effect of the Rheumatoid Arthritis which she had been suffering for many years. Rita‘s sister Eva gave us the news as we arrived for a week-end visit to Little Windsor, we were not expecting bad news and indeed my first word to Eva & Bill were ‗have you stopped smoking yet?, we have!‘59. The funeral took place a week later at Weymouth Crematorium with only close relatives present; Bernard insisted on taking the coast road home a route his mother always enjoyed, overlooking the Chesil Beach and Abbotsbury. She was a lovely lady and the centre piece of Rita‘s family. My memories of her go back to the time Rita and I were getting to know each other twelve years before and her many kindnesses to me; an effective ally in my pursuit of Rita. She was a remarkable lady who showed quiet stoicism in her battle against her illness. For some time Rita and I had been thinking it was time to move. My career was developing and we felt we could afford to join the ‗housing ladder‘. In the summer of 1964 we read in the local paper news of a small development estate of houses in Harwell village which we initially began negotiations but soon abandoned them because of the open-plan nature which we felt would not be a good environment for the children. Then sometime in the latter months of 1964 whilst walking home from the station in Didcot I passed a house-agents office which advertised three bungalows for sale currently being built next to the recreation ground in Moulsford near Wallingford; we drove over and Rita thought this would be an ideal place for us as there was an infant‘s school in the village, just a hundred yards away and open down land country nearby. The property was in the process of being built by a local man from Streatley and was due for completion sometime in 1965. The price was £5,060 and I was able to obtain a mortgage from the Abbey National and a contribution to the down payment (£300) as a long term loan from the Laboratory60. My father visited us early in 1965 and I took him see the work in progress at Moulsford (
59 John Ayres‘ challenge worked and we have never smoked since 60 This was under an enlightened scheme to help first time buyers and also relieved the pressure on ‗Authority Let‘ properties for AERE staff which was still expanding. 46 Ion Source Development and life in Didcot
Plate 15). The house was basically a two bedroom bungalow overlooking the village recreation ground and the builder suggested that we could add a room with dormer windows in the ample roof space above. Someone suggested that we asked Michael Ayris a young solicitor newly established in Didcot to organize the legal side of the purchase and we were soon on track for completion later in the year.
Plate 15: Visiting the building site
At the beginning of 1965 a great national event occurred following the death of Sir Winston Churchill (25 January) which was his funeral. This was to be seen by millions on television and afforded day of rich spectacle, particularly for those of my generation and older, who remembered him with gratitude for his inspirational leadership during the war. Back at the lab preparations to install our ion source for the Oxford project were now advanced. The main insulator column was constructed within the vertical pressure vessel (Plate 14-2.) and it was now time to install the ion source. An important feature of this project was that the ion source was at a high potential (~10 MV) in a vessel containing 3 tons of gas: it can therefore be described as somewhat inaccessible with Harwell 47 reliability at a premium. According to Doug‘s report61, ‗… life tests on the source for different ions generally ended after several hundred hours because of the boredom/or exhaustion of the operator, rather than because of the failure of any component‘. Being the person responsible for these tests I can confirm Doug‘s remarks as the many entries of late working in my diary testify.
Plate 16: Vertical Electrostatic Generator Terminal
So, sometime towards the end of the summer in 1964, we loaded all the equipment on to a lorry complete with Ernie Medway and Nick Allen to make sure the delicate glassware involved was protected. It had been decided that members of the group involved in the installation and commissioning of the accelerator would move to Oxford. So accordingly I found myself sharing an office in Keble Road with Dick Hyder. Doug
61 W.D. Allen, Electrostatic Generators at Oxford, Orbit, Journal of the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, No. 45 April 1966. 48 Ion Source Development and life in Didcot
Allen organized a celebration lunch62 at a restaurant in George St. Oxford for all those involved in the project, this may have been a little premature as the vertical machine installation and final commissioning was not quite complete. However our confidence in ultimate success was total. The lunch proved convivial and after various tours around the installation some of us gravitated to the Eagle & Child public house in St Giles for further refreshment. I look back in horror at the casual way we had in those days of driving after drinking. However we all got home safely but our wives were not impressed. The actual installation of the ion source proceeded in the early months of 1965 and went mainly according to plan with the maximum voltages recorded for the acceleration of individual ions in the machine of 10.2 MV for negative hydrogen ions and ~9.5 MV for other ion beams. In order to achieve good performance it was necessary to ensure that the surfaces of the terminal in inter-shield was smooth and, to this end, Doug had all of us working in shifts rubbing the surfaces with fine Emery cloth for several days! Coupling the injector to the Tandem (Plate 14-6) proved straightforward yielding an acceptable performance. Several months were required for the final installation of the beam handling components, the multi-gap spectrometers and computers and to carry out the complete commissioning tests for the entire system. The machine was handed over to the Department of Nuclear Structure on 31 March 1966. I was promoted to the Senior Experimental Officer grade in July, 1965 with an annual salary of £2045 which, whilst sounding miniscule by today‘s rates, was in fact roughly one third of the house we were buying, which was borrowing ‗rule of thumb‘ customary in those days. We moved to Moulsford on Monday 8th November, 1965, this was our first experience of major house move and I had saved my annual leave to be able to cope. We had lived in Didcot for nine years and had accumulated a fair amount of goods and chattels. As far as I can remember the move went well enough but we soon found ourselves in a new house surrounded by piles of boxes and various bits of furniture wondering how we would ever get straight. But I needn‘t have worried as Rita was more than up to the challenge and we soon had a livable environment and set about enjoying our new homeIt was lovely to be near the countryside with good walks beginning at out back gate and then on up to the Ridgeway. Plate 17 shows the bungalow pretty much as it was when we first moved in, we decided to name the property ‗North End‘ as it was on the northern edge of
62 21 October 1964 Harwell 49 the estate63. Members of our family came to visit and inspect the property and liked what they saw. My father (Grandad) and Brenda came up just before Christmas with presents for the kids, including a pedal car for Simon. We also had a visit from Rita‘s cousin Dot and her husband Alan, teachers both, at a village school near Hungerford. They had two girls only a little older than Dinah & Simon and we thought it would a good scheme to join up for a holiday next year in North Wales. So plans were made and even menus devised and Dot said ‗not many people will know months in advance what they would eat for Sunday lunch on 14 August 1966‘.
Plate 17: North End Moulsford (1966)
Early in the New Year I noticed that I had an infected thumb so I took it to the A&E department of the Radcliffe Infirmary; the young doctor who examined it frightened me rigid when he started to describe the treatment to some of his colleagues, completely oblivious to me, that he would have to make an incision immediately. Then he smiled at me and said but perhaps on second thoughts we will try penicillin first. I am glad to say that this worked. We also decided to change our car, this time we would get a new one to replace the old banger Austin A55 which I acquired from a dubious second hand car salesman in Didcot and was giving me a lot of trouble. We decided on a new Morris 1100 which I collected on 1st February; it was a joy to have a car which showed no signs of breakdown.
63 Our first apartment in Frome was in a road called West End so no doubt the memory of this prompted the name also. 50 Ion Source Development and life in Didcot
During the early months of 1966, see page 41, I was heavily involved in measuring the life-time of the negative helium ion at our base in Hangar 10 and the testing of the ion source at Oxford. This often meant late nights and on more than one occasion I left my car outside the building in the Banbury Rd but eventually I was caught and done for illegal parking – my impassioned plea for ‗special‘ circumstances, I have forgotten the grounds, was completely ignored. I was now coming to the end of my time with Douglas Allen as the Oxford project would soon be completed and he was to take up a joint appointment with Reading University as a Professor of Physics64. For reasons beyond his control he had missed the opportunity to become head of the new synchrotron accelerator (7 GeV) at Rutherford. He had been appointed the designated head but decided to see the Oxford Project through to completion despite the unfortunate delays. I owe my new career in Physics mainly to him; first he recruited me from the Merchant Navy on the strength of my performance at the interview in 1956 with only minimal qualifications, secondly he encouraged me to study and obtain a university degree in physics and thirdly he gave me projects which wetted my appetite for computational electromagnetics. I had not had the last of Doug‘s guidance however as we were to collaborate again in my next phase. Others were, of course, involved as I received tremendous tutelage from Ralph Dawton a true inheritor of the experimental physics of the Michael Faraday School, and Jack Partridge who taught me how to become a member of a laboratory team. It was also time for good-byes to colleagues like Nick Allan and Ernie Medway. For others like Jim Diserens and Dick Hyder our fate decreed that we should work closely again in the future65. The electrostatic generator group had its fair share of remarkable characters, Lionel Fell who I have already mentioned now building a new company and ‗tubes‘ down in Dowlish Wake and Ted Pyrah who had been responsible for much of the engineering of Doug Allen‘s projects. Ted indeed was a remarkable character who pulled me aside once near the beginning of my scientific career and walked me around the old airfield at Harwell and outlined how I could progress up the ladder. But I really felt he was somewhat lonely and liked to talk to good listeners. I believed he was separated from his family and now lived alone; we shared an interest in music, he told me he had a grand piano
64 Doug was also head of the Proton Linear Accelerator at Harwell in its final phase from 1966-68 65 Jim became a very close colleague in the years to come whilst Dick and I got together again in 2002, in our retirement , to work once again on accelerator tube optics benefiting from the advances in the intervening years on computer based technology. Harwell 51 and had even composed a piano concerto and that his favorite composer was Hindemith. He retired in 1967.
Plate 18: Douglas Allen (R) with Ted Pyrah (L)
52 High Field Bubble Chamber
.
2. Rutherford Laboratory
High Field Bubble Chamber
Plate 19: Artist’s impression of proposed High Field Chamber
The machine at Oxford was in operation by 1966 and had achieved its design voltage of 10 MV and to a minor extent was a successful example of applied computing. However computers from now on were to Rutherford Laboratory 53 play an increasingly important part in the design of accelerators and everything else. For me a number of important events happened in 1966/67. Doug Allen recognising my strong interest in applying computing techniques to problems arising in Technology arranged for me to be interviewed by Bill Walkinshaw the division head of Technology at Rutherford Laboratory (RL). Bill thought I would fit in very well with the newly created High Field Bubble Chamber Group, under the leadership of David Thomas. This seemed a good opportunity so I accepted and started work in June, David‘s team were designing a 7 Tesla (70 Kilogauss in old money) superconducting magnet to provide the main magnetic field for a very large hydrogen bubble chamber (1.5m) detector envisaged for the new 300 GeV accelerator, to be built at CERN (see Plate 19). A bubble chamber works on the principle that a sudden reduction in pressure above a liquid close to its boiling point (e.g. liquid hydrogen) lowers the boiling point of the liquid and a situation of ‗super- heating‘ is created66. If an ionizing particle passes through the liquid at this instant, bubbles of gas form round the ions, thus marking the path of the particle which in the presence of a strong magnetic field is curved. Several carefully located cameras are then used to produce photographs of the tracks which can then be measured to yield information about the physical nature of the ionizing particles and nuclear events that occur during collision processes. This exciting project which began with great enthusiasm but unfortunately, for many reasons, political, financial etc. turned out in the end to be a paper study only; however, it spawned a number of activities and great deal of research into the design of superconducting magnets which was of great importance to future devices that were built. All of these factors were to become very significant for me. My job was to develop computer algorithms for calculating the magnetic field distribution, the forces, and the mechanical stresses in the coils. A well established technique to calculate the fields produced by a rectangular solenoid is to simply model the helical conductors as an assembly of current filamentary loops of small area. The magnetic field at a particular point in the space surrounding the loop is then calculated by an analytic formula; whence the field for the whole solenoid is merely a matter of summing the contributions from each of the loops. Indeed since the current density is essentially constant over the whole rectangular cross-section of the solenoid, these elementary filaments do not have to coincide with the actual number of turns and can be fewer in number (larger elementary area) depending upon how close the field
66 First proposed by D Glaser in 1952; a legend has it that he was inspired by the bubbles forming when opening a bottle of beer. 54 High Field Bubble Chamber point is to the winding region. This suggests an algorithm for calculating fields within the conductor windings, which are needed to estimate the high stresses acting on them and to establish whether or not the materials used in fabricating the coil are sufficiently strong. Thus the solenoid is divided into a number of uniformly spaced filamentary conductors and then each is the sub-divided by four repeatedly until the sum of the fields of the sub-divisions is equal to the field of the filament within a prescribed tolerance. For points within the conductor space itself the relevant filament is deleted to achieve convergence. In fact we were given a head start by having the use of a simple computer code developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory which uses the above algorithm. I was then able to extend the code to produce the forces and stresses within the coils. In this work I collaborated with Alan Middleton a gifted engineer67 who derived excellent empirical methods to check my computations and together we produced a paper which was subsequently published in the proceedings of the forth coming Magnet Technology Conference to be held in Oxford in 196768. Alan was a near ideal collaborator and I certainly learnt some structural engineering from him. He even wrote me a letter whilst we were North Wales on holiday in August pointing out that if I studied the two bridges across the Menai Straits I should discover two of the main methods of bridge construction, i.e. suspension and box girder. In my Conway days, see Volume 1, I used these bridges on many occasions but hardly noticed how they were built! I was getting to know the main players in David Thomas‘s group, two of them, Ron Newport and Paul Williams had been at Liverpool and had worked on Bubble Chambers for a number of years and were leading exponents in the multi-technical aspects of bubble chamber physics. Ron excelled in cryogenics as well as the thermodynamics of bubble growth, whilst Paul, it seemed to me at the time, was already developing people skills which would ultimately lead him to scientific management. They had both previously collaborated with David Thomas on the National Hydrogen Bubble Chamber which was a joint Liverpool and Imperial college project. As Bill Walkinshaw told me at my interview David was a very energetic person who led from the front. But as I soon discovered he also had a vision of how the growth of technology should develop by embracing the emerging new developments in microelectronics, superconductivity and in the use of computers for design, which matched my aspirations completely. In November 1966 I was invited to
67 Alan had started his career in Electrical Engineering but later moved over to Mechanical. He had been a flyer in his youth and still kept his Pilots licence up to date. 68 Mechanical Stress in Large High Field Magnet Coils, A. J. Middleton and C.W. Trowbridge, Proc. Second Int. Conf. on Magnet Technology, Oxford, 1967 Rutherford Laboratory 55 accompany David and Ron on a visit to CERN69 near Geneva to have a series of discussions with the bubble chamber group there about our proposals for a High Field Superconducting device. I met several scientists and technicians involved in the provision of particle detectors and as expected they came from many parts of Europe; but fortunately for us, the meetings were conducted in English though there were some lively exchanges concerning our proposal, particularly from the French speaking participants. I thought then, and do still now, that the apparent advantage of English being the de facto standard language often induces a careless approach and a lack of precision, which the non-English speakers, who are on their mettle, often avoid and gain advantage in agreement making. One matter of interest to me was that it became clear that the actual appearance of particle interactions in the proposed chamber on the photographic plates needed to be investigated, in order to establish the degree of distortion introduced by the chamber optics; David asked me to develop suitable method and software to do this. It was also obvious that my work for the HFBC was expanding and I needed help so, accordingly, David arranged for John Collie, who had recently joined the laboratory after graduating from Oxford, to be seconded to help me. John and I were to work closely together for many years and indeed he was the first member of the group I was to subsequently to lead and I soon discovered that he was a man of considerable talent with a fine brain and good knowledge of Physics with a flair for theoretical concepts; he also needed gentle leadership from time to time but, once motivated he would usually deliver. We decided that I would develop the methods for tracking the events based on my TOPIC program70 and John the effect of the proposed optics. Our results were published as an internal report71in which we showed simulated tracks ‗photographed‘ by a computer model of the four cameras and gave all concerned confidence that the system would prove effective in practise.
69 European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), an international research centre straddling the French-Swiss border west of Geneva. It was founded in 1954 by the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research). 70 TOPIC – Trajectories Of Particles in Coils, C.W.Trowbridge, 1965 71 On the Appearance and Reconstruction of Tracks in the Proposed High Field Bubble Chamber, C.J. Collie & C.W. Trowbridge, Applied Physics Division, Rutherford Laboratory, TCP/9, 1967 56 High Field Bubble Chamber
Family Matters 1965-1966 At home in Moulsford we had settled in and it soon came to the notice of the Local Education Authority that Rita might like to return to teaching so with Dinah safely ensconced in the village School under the watchful eye of Miss Weight, she was asked to do supply teaching in neighbouring Streatley which she was pleased to help out. This meant taking Simon in with her because he was not quite old enough to attend Moulsford School; it also meant acquiring transport for her and almost straight away we saw an advert for a second hand Hillman Imp car which she liked and we bought it. She had ultimately planned to resume her teaching career and intended to secure a permanent post. The little village school in Moulsford had gained some publicity when in 1964 an ex pupil, Anne Packer, won a gold medal in 800m in Tokyo. Rita became quite involved with the church and other local events in the village but I fear I tended to opt out as my work was all consuming. Both Dinah & Simon made friends with other children in the village and we all enjoyed the open space behind, cricket on Sundays could be watched from our back garden and the downs nearby were always inviting for fine walks.
Plate 20: Dinah & Simon in the garden at North End overlooking the cricket field
In August we all set off for a two week holiday in North Wales, this had been planned several months ago when it was decided to combine with Dot & Alan (Rita‘s cousin) and share a farm house on the Portmadoc to Caernarvon road opposite the entrance to the Pennant Valley, an area well known to me from my HMS Conway days. Rita was Rutherford Laboratory 57 concerned that the long car journey would be tiresome for Dinah & Simon so we set out one day early (Friday August 18) and booked a room for the night at Tenbury Wells (Worcestershire) which was halfway. I remember the weather was awful with heavy rain most of the way and we feared that the holiday would prove to be a washout. We arrived at the cottage (Called Ymlch Bach) late afternoon on the Saturday and met Dot and Allan with their two girls. Alan said he couldn‘t see any of the hills nearby but when Mrs Jones the cottage owner saw all our gum boots, 8 pairs in all she said it was a good omen as they would ward off the rain and she was proved correct as the next day the whole area was bathed in glorious sunlight. It was a delightful spot and the kids loved it, especially the trips to seaside where we all played beach cricket, Alan had been a sports master and even managed to teach me some minimal skill. I wanted to renew my acquaintance with the hills so I hit on the plan of getting up very early (5 AM) and climb one of the nearby hills surrounding the Pennant Valley hills, and still be back in time for breakfast and then drive the family out for the rest of the day. I even managed to get to the top of Moel Hebog in the second week. In the evenings Alan and I escaped to one of the nearby pubs to yarn and sample the local ale – days of bliss. The climax for the whole family was our ascent of Snowdon. Since we had small children we took the train!
Plate 21: Summit Party on Snowdon L to R: Anne, Dot, Gillian, Bill, Dinah, Rita, Simon (Alan took the photo)
58 High Field Bubble Chamber
Whilst we were away Bernard, Rita‘s brother was married, and they spent their honeymoon at our house in Moulsford. Bernard married a Margaret a single mother with a small child, Denise. Margaret had originally come to live with the family to look after Rita‘s mother when she was incapacitated with Rheumatoid Arthritis and also to keep house for Bernard and Rita‘s father, Bert Creed. After Rita‘s mum died in 1964 Margaret stayed on and a romance soon developed between Margaret and Bernard though I know that Bert was very fond of her as well and he adored Denise who followed him around the farm everywhere. By the end of year Simon was old enough for the Moulsford School and Rita applied for a full time teaching post at Cholsey Junior School, she was interviewed by Bill Campbell who, as well as being the headmaster, was a will known naturalist and ornithologist writing regular ‗nature notes‘ articles in local and national newspapers. She was offered a job to start in the new year (1967). This was part time at first to teach a small remedial class of the slower learners, but Bill soon offered he a full time job in which she stayed for over twenty years. Also, when Dinah and Simon reached junior school age they moved to Cholsey as well.
Rutherford Laboratory 59
Growth in applications computing 1967-1970
I returned to work much refreshed and we set about installing the TRIM computer program from LRL Livermore. TRIM was written by Alan Winslow and was a tour de force in those days72. He derived a numerical algorithm for solving Poisons Equation over an irregular triangular mesh in three ways (a) using a resistor network analogy, (b) a finite difference scheme and (c) a variational method. This last approach was in fact the finite element method in a different guise! So I think Alan Winslow was the first to develop a Finite Element (FE) package for non- linear electromagnetics applications. Early in 1968 Jim Diserens joined us. Following the completion of the Oxford Project Jim had been working on the design of the Polarised Proton Source with the Proton Linear Accelerator Group. Jim was a most valuable addition to our small section devoted to developing software for solving electromagnetic problems for the High Field Bubble chamber. We had worked together on the Pathfinder code, see page 42, and were good friends. His first job with us was to implement the TRIM program on the new IBM 360 mainframe computer at RAL. We originally used the Atlas Computer73which when it was first established was state of the art with 48K core store operating with a 2µs cycle time, in 1964, it was said, to be the most powerful computer in the world. It is amazing now to look back on those days and marvel at the good results we achieved with such limited power. We had to prepare both code and data using the Hollerith Punched Card system and then walk a few hundred yards carrying the cards in a tray to the Atlas centre, keeping firmly in mind that if the stack was accidentally shuffled disaster would inevitably follow. The main computing reception area housed an army of young women operating punched card machines, which was part of the excellent service Jack Howlett and his staff offered to clients if, unlike us, they preferred to have this chore done for them. You would submit your stack of cards to the reception person on duty for processing. If you were lucky then your results would appear on line printer output within an hour or so but often next day depending on their work load— it was rather like visiting the laundry. However the debugging cycle could take many days, if not weeks. I often preferred to work at the centre but
72 A.M. Winslow, ―Numerical Calculation of Static Magnetic Fields in an irregular triangle mesh,‖ University of California Report, UCRL-7784, 1964, J Comput Phys 1, p. 149, 1966. 73 The Atlas Computer Laboratory was set up by the British Government in 1961. It was originally administered by the former National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science and came under the Science Research Council in April 1965.
60 Growth in Applications Computing 1967-1970
always punching my own cards to retain responsibility. The centre offered good facilities for visitors. Over the next few years everything would change dramatically with Rutherford Lab acquiring a series of IBM machines with increasing storage and power, ranging from 360/75(1968) to 360/195 (1971) and later there were online terminals for users to submit data. My old mentor and boss Doug Allen came to see me in his capacity as a professor at Reading University and asked me about the status of the Pathfinder program, see page 42, and I told him it could be used to investigate problems arising in ion optics for electrostatic accelerators but unfortunately we didn‘t have the manpower needed to carry out such a study. Doug then suggested that he had good student who was looking for a MSc project and would I be interested in supervising him at Rutherford. I thought this was a good scheme and so Pat Stenning joined me for a few months and we worked together and produced a very detailed study for whole range of electrostatic lenses74, we also applied Pathfinder to the problem of beam focussing by the entrance aperture of accelerator tubes and developed an empirical formula for the focal length which I discovered years later had been widely used by the accelerator tube designers. This was only the first of several collaborations with Doug at Reading as he later asked me if I could give a series lectures to his students on field computation, I was pleased to be asked and said I would write up some of our recent work in a suitable lecture-format. For all sorts of reasons this got delayed until 1970. Another event which in retrospect I feel was seminal for me was the 2nd International Conference on Magnet Technology at Oxford in 1967. I was strongly influenced by three papers given by pioneers from the USA. Firstly there was Andrew Halacsy, professor of electrical engineering at Reno, who described his work using integral equations for solving three dimensional field problems, next John Colonias, of LRL Berkeley, who using a CDC 6600 together with a CRT display showed user interaction with the boundaries and meshes produced by the field program TRIM, and finally Klaus Halbach, also from LRL, who amazingly presented inverse problem solutions using a ‗least squares technique‘ with the TRIM program which he named MIRT (TRIM backwards). I was sitting next to Bill Walkinshaw, our division head, during the lecture on the interactive use of the TRIM progam and he and I had a mild argument when I suggested we should be doing similar work but he was reluctant to accept the idea that was where the future lay; I suspect he thought the heuristic approach to achieve a design by interactive placement of
74 P. Stenning and C. W. Trowbridge, ―The Pathfinder Programme and its Application to Ion Optics‖, Rutherford Laboratory/Reading University Report, RU/RL-1, 1968. http://www.trowbridge.org.uk/downloads.htm Rutherford Laboratory 61 materials and boundaries in itself lacked a proper scientific basis albeit the priceless knowledge of the designer; whereas the alternative approach proposed by Klaus Halbach used optimisation theory. Of course both approaches are useful and so it proved in the future.
Plate 22: The TRIM Program in ‘Interactive’ Mode As presented by John Colonias at the Oxford Magnet Technology Conference, July 1967
At this same conference Alan Middleton and I presented our work on computing fields and mechanical stresses in high field superconducting coils and we needed to extend these calculations to include three dimensional geometries and I enjoyed lengthy discussions with John Colonias on how to modify the TRIM program to do this, but the problems of 3D meshes seemed too daunting at that time. However work was proceeding for the design study of the proposed bubble chamber with the superconducting magnet parameters more or less decided, the mechanical engineering design was undertaken by Peter Clee who had recently returned from an extended visit to the US and had considerable expertise there. We produced a report for David to present at the forthcoming summer study to be held at Brookhaven National Lab 62 Growth in Applications Computing 1967-1970
in 196875. At this time John Collie, Jim Diserens and I moved to R50 a temporary building adjacent to the car park; this block of offices housed most of the members of David Thomas‘s group which enabled us to enjoy a much closer integration with the various elements of the project. In fact the team was growing in size and within a year we were all to move again to R25, a two story building connected to R1 the main building via a bridge-building connecting the 2nd floors, which was to house a new library. It is often said that ‗In the Kingdom of the Blind the one-eyed man is king‘ and I soon discovered that with a little knowledge of mathematics and computing my growing expertise was in demand from engineers who lacked these skills. One such, and a very colourful figure, was John Fox a electrical engineer with imaginative and intuitive gifts which led him to propose a ‗Static Power Supply‘ for generating the large power pulses for the cyclic excitation of the magnets required by the new generation of particle accelerators like the 300 GeV machine under construction at CERN. The normal method used was the large scale rotating ‗motor generator sets‘ which had proved unreliable with long outage times. John‘s idea was to exploit, by direct connection, the high energy available from a modern public electricity power system in such away as not to induce a corresponding system disturbance of unacceptable dimensions. He had successfully applied this idea to the modest 4 GeV electron synchrotron at Daresbury (NINA) and had been awarded a prize by the IEE in 1966. John approached me and said that as he was mathematically and computer illiterate would I help? Well, flattery does work, especially when you are trying to make your way in the world. So I buckled down and after some weeks of intensive ‗night- work‘ at the Atlas Computer Lab we produced a computer code to analyse the effect of such a device on the grid76 . This demonstrated, in John‘s view, an acceptable disturbance if used for the forthcoming 300 GeV proton machine at CERN. John later joined the group at CERN to design the power system. The man himself, as I have said, was a colourful character, outspoken to a degree that bordered on the offensive and indeed I had the reputation of being the only person at the lab that he hadn‘t insulted. He had a very quick wit and was highly intelligent, however he had very right wing views which I remembering him vehemently voicing at the time of the Rhodesian crisis. He would repay
75 A 70 Kilogauss Magnet for the Proposed Rutherford Laboratory 1.5 Metre Diameter Hydrogen Bubble Chamber, P Clee, D B Thomas, C W Trowbridge, Proc 1968 Study on Superconducting Devices and Accelerators, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Long Island, New York 76The Mathematical Representation used in the Static Power Supply Computer Programmes, J A Fox & C W Trowbridge, RL E/PS-DS/300 GeV/JAF-5, 1968 Rutherford Laboratory 63 favours by entertaining the donor with scurrilous comments about colleagues; he had an egg timer on his desk which when I mentioned someone I had admired who had recently died said, ‗here are his ashes‘, grabbing the timer and twisting it, ‗he did nothing when he was alive but he is bloody well going to work now‘. He was always critical of the lab management and he said to me one day that he had coined a new unit; the unit of organisational competence which shall be the ‗Vance‘. Now our director at that time was the eminent and much admired physicist Gerry Pickavance77 and ‗Pico‘ anything is a very small quantity indeed (one million millionth). However John‘s jibe misfired as a ‗Pica‘ is the measure of type size 12 points, a large font for reading purposes.
Plate 23: Zermat March 1968
In1968 Jim and I went to CERN to visit the magnet design group on the 6th March; I can only remember few things about this trip. One was whilst waiting in the departure lounge to board our flight I bumped into an old Conway Boy, he was wearing the tie, and we started reminiscing and this caused us to miss our flight but fortunately we were rescheduled on to the next one so our luggage got to Geneva before we did. After our technical meetings had finished on the Friday we went to hear a concert at the Victoria Hall given by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Sir John Pritchard, a fine English conductor, in works by Purcell (Funeral Music for Queen Mary), Dvorak (Cello concerto, Zara Nelsova) and Stravinsky (Divertimento and the circus polka). On the Saturday I had my first sight of the Matterhorn. Our host at CERN a charming Frenchman, Alain Riche, offered to drive us there via the Rhone Valley. Alain‘s wife came too and we had a splendid but very long day. As there are no public roads to Zermatt we had to take the train
77 Thomas Gerald Pickavance, FRS (1915-1991) 64 Growth in Applications Computing 1967-1970
from St Nicholas and I was delighted to see the horse drawn taxi sledges waiting at the station — we were still just about in the winter season. We enjoyed our brief visit with just enough time to ascend by cable car to the great glacier and see a fine view of the Matterhorn. In the spring I had a successful interview to the PSO (Principal Scientific Officer) grade and was formally promoted in July — I now felt my scientific career had matured as I had transformed myself from Merchant Navy Officer to Scientist. My little group was expanding with two new members Mike Newman and Alan Armstrong who were both transferred from the Nimrod78 division as they had expressed interest in applied technical computing. With the addition of David Barlow, a scientific assistant, we were now six and I was confirmed in the status of group leader in September. In parallel with our own in-house developments on methods for computing electromagnetic fields we began to look into the Finite Element Method as a systematic methodology for extending the TRIM code to three dimensions as well as providing a generic technique for handling other physical problems such as heat conduction and stress analysis. I wrote a simple program using Finite Elements but soon realised that we had to master the huge literature of this subject and needed guidance. I had been reading a number of books written by Prof. Olek Zienkiewicz, the professor of civil engineering at the University of Swansea, which showed how the method could be used for all the standard problems arising in Physics and Engineering79 and I decided to contact him and ask for his advice. He immediately invited me to come to Swansea for discussions and so the first of many such journeys took place on 17th October, 1969. I found him a most friendly and encouraging character; he was half Polish, having an English mother. They had just managed to escape from Poland at the outbreak of WW2 when the family moved to England. He attended Imperial College and studied under one of the great pioneers of numerical analysis, R V Southwell. He was interested in our Magnetics problem and offered to help. I agreed to write a short note to define the problem mathematically and to further cement the relationship between RL/SRC with Swansea I persuaded David Thomas to seek an ongoing consultancy with Olek, which he did and which ran for over ten years. I invited Olek to come to the lab and give a lecture on Finite Elements which took place on 7th April 1970 which was well attended and made a strong impression. I will have a more to write about our very fruitful collaboration later.
78 The name given to the 7 GeV accelerator designed and built by Gerry Pickavance and his team which was the core facility at RL 79The Finite Element Method on Structural and Continuum Mechanics, O.C. Zienkiewicz, McGraw Hill, 1967 Rutherford Laboratory 65
Plate 24: West Berlin 1970 The author outside the Kongresshalle (b) Overlooking the ‗Wall‘
Early in 1970 we were asked to help investigate induced current effect in the composite superconducting cables that were to be used in the High Field Bubble Chamber magnet. Pioneering research and development had been carried within Technology Division by the Superconducting Magnet Group under the leader ship of Peter Smith and Martin Wilson. Initially they had developed a composite conductor consisting of parallel superconducting filaments embedded in a copper 66 Growth in Applications Computing 1967-1970
matrix. However when the current changes with time (at start up say), associated magnetisation currents are formed which decay slowly producing a perturbation of the magnetic field amounting to several percent. The group realised that these difficulties could be minimised by ‗twisting the filaments‘ and from these ideas the famous Rutherford Cable was developed and subsequently was to be used throughout the world. To assess the degree of these parasitic magnetisation currents I was asked to calculate the effect for a number of configurations that could be used for the bubble chamber magnet. Our results, both experimental and by calculation showed that the use of twisted filament conductor was essential and they were published in the proceedings of the forth coming Cryogenics Conference in West Berlin80. I was asked to present the work at the conference in May. The laboratory had several papers in this conference and quite a crowd of us descended into this divided city on the 12 May. West Berlin appeared full of life and colourful with many new buildings, parks and night life, the conference was to be held at the spanking new conference centre. The hotels allocated to the delegates were scattered around the city and I found myself some way from the centre; it proved to be rather a rundown place presided over by a rather tiresome individual who seemed to be still fighting the war and furthermore during the night someone, very intoxicated I supposed, came crashing through the glass fronted door of my room: no apology and no reaction from the manager. The conference however went very well and was enjoyable; the Kongresshalle was situated in the Tier Gardens overlooking the river where one could enjoy pleasant walks. The social events were generous; we went to a staged performance of Catulli Carmina & Carmina Burana (Carl Orff) at the ‗Deutsch Oper‘, a fairly new modern opera house, the rhythmic drive from the orchestra under Eugen Jochum, the animated dancing and singing particularly in Carmina Burana were marvellous.It brought back memories for me of a concert I attended in Buenos Aires in 1950 when this piece was given its first performance at the Teatro Colon. However in this Berlin performance a huge photograph of Marilyn Monroe was displayed at the rear during the final climactic moments.
Hail, most beautiful one, Precious jewel
Another notable event was the dinner and the seemingly endless supply of drinks, hosted by the giant company Siemens on the last night.
80The Diamagnetic Behaviour of Coils wound from Multifilament Stabilised Superconductor, P T M Clee, P Gottfeldt, D B Thomas, C W Trowbridge. Proc ICEC-3, Berlin, pp. 450-455, 1970 Rutherford Laboratory 67
Many delegates found themselves enjoying late night entertainment afterwards at a night club nearby. We also had a chance to climb up on one the platforms provided to gaze over a section of the Berlin Wall; rather depressing as the landscape in the east was dismal in stark contrast to the high-life in the West. Some of us also went to see the 1936 Olympic Stadium with its concrete monolithic statues built by Albert Speer and co during the ‗Hitler‘ era. My talk went well enough; I was quite nervous as this was my first time giving a technical presentation at a conference; I stumbled through the material adequately but during one of questions in the discussion afterwards I dried up and Peter Clee kindly had to rescue me.
Plate 25: The High Field Bubble Chamber Group relaxing after visiting Brookhaven National Lab. Top Row L to R: Brian Diplock, Ron Newport, Author, Joe Swain. Bottom Row L to R: Author and the three bubble chamber kings, Ron, Paul Williams and David Thomas
68 Growth in Applications Computing 1967-1970
The following month David organised a visit to the US to attend the bubble chamber conference in Chicago with a pre-visit to Brookhaven National Lab at Long Island New York. I was scheduled to give a repeat of the paper we had given in Berlin. After Chicago I went on with Ron Newport and Martin Wilson to Boulder Colorado to attend the applied superconductivity conference and finally to California to visit Berkeley University‘s Lawrence Laboratory. Also in the party were the engineers Brian Diplock and Joe Swain and the physicists Paul Williams and Colin Fisher. We flew to New York (Sunday June 7) on a Super VC-10 aircraft and as this was my first ‗log-haul‘ flight I became somewhat nervous when after we had boarded we were ordered off as engine faults had been discovered. We then had a free lunch in the terminal cafeteria and boarded another plane some two hours later. I should have been reassured as it was far better to discover the fault before we took off than after! The flight was uneventful and it was a thrill to fly in to New York and see that fabulous sky-line last seen by me from the bridge of a ship in 1949 (See Volume 1). Our first visit was to be to Brookhaven National Laboratory situated on Long Island some 60 miles to the west. David & Ron picked up rental cars and we arrived at the visitor centre early evening local time. We spent the next day being shown the lab facilities, especially the 7 foot Hydrogen Bubble Chamber, as well as having a series of ad hoc discussions on magnet design and computing techniques. There was still enough time for a short trip to the nearby beach before Jet Lag compelled me at least to seek an early bed. The next day we proceeded to Chicago via La Guardia airport and American Airlines. We were booked in to the Conrad Hilton Hotel on Michigan avenue. This, the original Hilton, was a massive building stretching one block and I was impressed by the complex network of fire escapes snaking down the building. A coach had been arranged to convey us to Argonne National Lab each day for the conference, a journey of about 26 miles taking about one hour. The Bubble Chamber conference got underway the next day and apart from the technical sessions we saw the impressive 12 foot bubble chamber recently operational. This device was huge but its superconducting solenoids were limited to a field of order 2 Tesla as compared to the smaller but far higher field device, 7 Tesla, we were designing at Rutherford for CERN. However the Argonne chamber was a reality and state of the art whereas ours was still a paper study. We also taken to see the construction work (Plate 27a), now underway, of the new 200GeV superconducting accelerator at the laboratory81 out at Batavia, some 30 miles further west, this was to be the
81 Later to be named Fermi Laboratory after the great Italian Physicist Rutherford Laboratory 69 largest particle accelerator in the world for many years and several important discoveries were made using it.
Plate 26: Delegates at the Bubble Chamber Conference, ANL, 1970
By far the most important event for me was to meet Larry Turner who, at that time, was a Physicist academic at Muskingum College, New Concord Ohio, but a frequent visitor to Argonne where he had been a summer visitor and worked on problems associated with Bubble Chamber Technology. He told me that he had shared an office for a short while with Andrew Halacsy whom I had met at the Oxford Magnet Technology conference in 1967 (see page 60). Larry said he was trying to extend Halacsy‘s simple ‗dipole method‘ to model the non-linear iron components in magnets, this was exactly what I had been searching for – a method that would generalise to three dimensions without having to model free space as in the TRIM program (page 59). He also said that he had applied to RL for a one year visit to work alongside us on techniques for bubble chamber design. Afterwards, David said he already had been introduced to Larry via the good offices of Prof. Walter Welford of Imperial College, who had worked with Larry at Argonne on Bubble Chamber optics a year ago, and he now asked me what I thought about Larry coming to RL to work alongside me — I was delighted. 70 Growth in Applications Computing 1967-1970
Plate 27: (a) 200GeV accelerator under construction. (b) Boulder Colorado
I decided to go to hear the Chicago Symphony under its new permanent conductor Georg Solti on the Friday evening. Most of the delegates were going to see the new musical ‗Hair‘ with its swinging sixties youth and nudity theme but I enjoyed a great evening of music instead. Haydn, Richard Strauss and a new work by a William Thomas McKinley, his triple concerto for Piano, Bass, Drums and Orchestra, was a work just as modern as ‗Hair‘ in its way and quite as outrageous with a Rutherford Laboratory 71 series of free improvisational cadenzas. I had earlier suggested to Ron we should go to the concert together but he said he had already promised Paul Williams to go to a Baseball game.
Plate 28: (a) Central City (Old Mining Railway) (b) Williams Towers Hall of Residence (Over 6 Million Hamburgers sold)
The next day Ron and I flew to Denver en route for Boulder to attend the Applied Superconductivity Conference. At Denver we rented a car and had a leisurely drive through the foot hills of the Rockies and a 72 Growth in Applications Computing 1967-1970
brief stop at Central City a former mining town but now a theme park. We were staying at the Williams Towers, the University of Colorado Residence Hall, on the edge of the city which is situated at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The next day being Sunday we decided to go to Estes Park a 36 mile drive up into the heart of the mountains; we met up with Martin Wilson and invited him along. This was the first of many visits to this stunning place I was to make over the years to come and in particular to Bear Lake and the high mountains that form the breathtaking backdrop.
Plate 29: Estes Park & Author at Bear Lake
On Monday the conference started and as I was not giving a paper I could relax and just enjoy the occasion. We were invited for a reception at the home of the head of the National Bureau of Standards Laboratory in Boulder a very amiable man with the imposing name of Boston Wayne Birmingham (accent on the ‗ham‘ in the American manner); it appeared that he had invited the whole conference judging by the large number of delegates that filled his large house. I have several vague memories of the evening; plenty to eat and drink, an agitated Japanese professor demonstrating origami with paper napkins filling a large table with incomplete attempts to make a paper helicopter - BWB whispered in my ear, ‗ he won‘t manage it, he never does‘. Also an English delegate (of Jewish descent) murmured to me, ‗look at that German chap with the Rutherford Laboratory 73 blond hair, can‘t you imagine him in an SS uniform‘, I knew the man he was referring to, in fact a pleasant kindly fellow and far too young to have known much about WW2. Just before we left BWB said to me ‗we are having a terrific party up at Central City after the conference so be sure to come‘, I had to tell him that I was leaving a day early to go to California, he was not impressed. The next day there was a session on superconducting materials and a famous pioneer, Charlie Laverick, known the world over for his work with superconductivity, was to give a lecture. An extraordinary charismatic character both on and off the ‗stage‘ and his performance today was unexpected to say the least. He was going to use a 35mm slide projector to illustrate his talk but as soon as he began the machine broke down and instead of improvising his talk (each talk was strictly time limited) he asked for a screwdriver and then proceeded to take the machine apart, carefully lining up each component on the speakers‘ table; the audience sat patiently watching as Charlie, a born DIY man and practical engineer, diagnosed the problem and reassemble the machine. All this took twenty minutes and finally as he switched it on in triumph to much applause the chairman said, ‗your time is up Charlie‘. On Thursday I left for San Francisco, I travelled with Roger Hancox from Culham Lab who was going to visit Livermore and had arranged to pick up a rental car, this was a benefit to me as he offered to drop me off at Berkeley. I spent Friday visiting the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and in particular to see Klaus Halbach and John Colonias (see page 60) for discussions on field computation. Klaus was a leading theoretician in the magnet design business with many years experience and John had also established himself as a pioneer in interactive computing but had an electronics background. My meeting with Klaus was quite memorable, he ‗held court‘ in a terrapin wooden building and sitting in an imposing arm chair on gimbals which he swivelled round rapidly from blackboard to his audience as he made technical point after technical point speaking English (not American) with a German accent. I found him quite overpowering; he appeared to know everything and when I ventured to speak about my own work he was somewhat dismissive about the role of computing. I was to discover later that this manner was something of a mask after I got to know him better in future years. On the other hand John was Greek and altogether different and we discussed matters on more equal terms. He asked me if I could write a section on a new book he was writing on computational magnetics; in fact what he needed was a survey of available computer codes and methods and I said I would think about doing this82.
82 The opportunity to do this arose later when I was able to extract the information from a paper I was to write for the next Magnet Technology conference in 1972. 74 Growth in Applications Computing 1967-1970
I was able to explore the beautiful Berkeley Campus which overlooks the Bay Area and later have a trip into downtown San Francisco. I remember that the cab driver said to me as he dropped me in Market Street, ‗ you are bound to meet someone you know before you get to the end of the street‘, what he didn‘t tell me was that the street was so long (over 3 miles) that you soon gave up, as I discovered. I did the usual things though; the Golden Gate Bridge, visited Fisherman‘s Warf and gazed at Alcatraz. Yesterday (Thursday) was Election Day in the UK and when I switched on the TV in my room I discovered that Edward Heath had won, and the conservatives were back in power. The next day I returned to Chicago and met up with Ron on the Saturday evening at O‘Hare Airport to fly overnight back home. It was good to see Rita and my family again and also to be greeted by Mick Montgomery our brand new Springer Spaniel who showed his delight at greeting a stranger by gently biting my leg (see page79). In November Jim and I went to see Olek Zienkiewicz in Swansea for further discussions on the use of Finite Elements for magnetic field problems; we also met Bruce Irons, Olek‘s very famous collaborator, who has been regarded very highly indeed as an important innovator with many publications to his name including the development of the Finesse computer software for structural analysis. This visit was also noteworthy because of the decent lunch we had at The Osbourne Hotel (Caswell Bay), not because of the food but as we went in we noticed a Rolls Royce car out side with the number plate HS1 and then we heard lots of laughter coming from a table on far side of the dining room; it was Harry Seacombe83 a local lad having a nostalgic day out with his relatives. After lunch whilst we were drinking our coffee a voiced boomed out behind us, ‗How are things at the University then?‘, it was the man himself who promptly sat down with us and chatted away for 30 minutes or more entertaining us with tales from show business and he also showed a keen interest in what we doing — a lovely man.
83 Sir Harry Seacombe, famous Welsh comedian and singer Rutherford Laboratory 75
Family matters 1967-1970
Plate 30: Family on Holiday (a) Charmouth 1967, (b) Shell Island
These were years of consolidation in Moulsford; building fences around our property, a patio area, and gradually developing the room in the loft which was to become our bedroom eventually. We also made plans for various extensions, a conservatory at the rear and an additional 76 Family Matters-1967-1970 room at the side for a study. When Rita started her full time appointment at Cholsey School in September 1967 she began to arrange for Dinah and Simon to be transferred to Cholsey School as well as the Moulsford Village School was soon to be closed. We also made regular visits to Dorset to see Eva and Bill as well as Rita‘s father who, at least once a year, came to stay with us. We tried to get away as a family as often as we could in the school holidays; we joined my father and Brenda in 1967 for two weeks in May at a self catering old farm cottage near Penmorfa in North Wales; an idyllic spot nestling under the Alt Wen, a long ridge just near the main Caernarvon road. The weather turned wet and after a week Dad and Brenda decided that they had had enough so they went home, or maybe we were rather too noisy for them? In the second week the weather improved so we had good days at Shell Island, Black Rock sands and walking the hills. In 1968 we went further a field, to Killarney in South West Ireland, which we enjoyed immensely. It was Rita‘s idea as she had been to Dublin and toured round Ireland whilst she was at College and had long wanted to revisit. We were recommended a farm house holiday which catered for families with young children, full board and lots of farm animals etc, and I was attracted to the mountains in the region which included the highest peak in Ireland, Carrantuohill (1041 m). We decided to go by road and take the ferry to Dublin from Holyhead; I remember getting lost in the suburbs of Dublin and Rita went into a nearby shop to ask the way to Limerick. The shopkeeper said to her, ‗do you be having a husband out there?‘, so he came out to tell me the way. We felt we were in a ‗time warp‘ which had stayed still since 1930, and the roads were like that too. However we found our way west to Limerick then South West to Killarney and all was well. There were quite a number of guests staying at the Farm House and the accommodation proved somewhat primitive but the food was good and the people very friendly. The next two weeks were a delight with plenty of walking, swimming and just generally relaxing; they ran a child minding system as well so Rita and I could go out and enjoy the folk singing in the local pubs; no sign of the Irish troubles in the North just about to break out. The climax for the kids, I think, was the pony trekking through the famous Gap of Dunloe, see Plate 31 For me it was climbing Carrantuohill; the family came part way and wandered around the ‗Hags Glen‘, playing in the stream and sketching whilst I did the climb; the lady back at the farm house though I was mad. For Rita it was the Dingle peninsular and the tiny seaside village of Inch which was so peaceful, I see it in my minds eye yet. We came home via Cork and Wexford using the ferry to Fishguard in South Wales Rutherford Laboratory 77
Plate 31: Kerry August 1968 Farm House near Killarney, Gap of Dunloe Ride, Contemplating Carrantuohill 78 Family Matters-1967-1970
Plate 32: Rita in front of the wall tribute at Inch
The following year I bought a new car, a Ford Focus and we went to the New Forest for a short visit in May and to North Wales in August. We hired a cottage at Gyfyng Pont in the Pennant Valley alongside the Dwyfor river in which the children had a great time swimming and playing with model sailing boats, Eva and Bill came for one week and we took them to the top of Snowdon on the train, though I walked down. Then in July 1970 we got really brave and flew to Switzerland to stay in Zurich then by train to Zermatt. This was the children‘s first flight and indeed their first trip abroad; we stayed just two nights in Zurich with only a brief opportunity to visit the Zoo and see a little of the city. After Zurich we took the train to Berne where we changed trains to go south over the Bernese Oberland to the Rhone Valley and thence to Visp and Zermatt. I had booked us in for two weeks at the ‗Sport Hotel‘ a small modest dwelling – it did not rate a horse drawn courtesy carriage as the posher hotels boasted with smartly dressed liveried footmen; we had a hand cart pulled along by a strong young man. Zermatt looks quite different in the summer months to what it did when I came here a couple years ago toward the end of winter, the high pastures were in full use with cattle and covered with alpine flora as the snow had receded to the very high passes. The town had a kind of unreal aspect, an old fashioned fairy land out of books. We had a lovely time exploring the high Rutherford Laboratory 79 meadows, ascending by cable car and rack railway to see the great glaciers and alpine lakes. Some months previously Rita‘s father said we ought to get a dog, especially for the children, initially I was reluctant but he persuaded me and we went ahead to buy a Springer spaniel, father also bought one from the same breeder. Ours was born on 19 April and we took delivery in June and we named him Mick Montgomery.
Plate 33: Matterhorn, Dinah and Monte Rosa, 1970
Also things were changing at Cholsey School, Bill Campbell with his wife retired on August 31, 1970 and went to live in Charlbury; this 80 Family Matters-1967-1970 was a major change in more ways than one as his successor, John Haworth, was a rather different believing in more ‗modern‘ teaching methods. One of his innovations was to scrap the old system of classes for each year and adopt an open plan approach by dividing the school into three teams each with three teachers covering the entire age range. So Rita found herself the team leader of Green Team working under a new headmaster with an entirely different approach. As we got to know John we realised he was an exceptional man with wide ranging interests from left of centre politics with a deep conviction for fairness in all his dealings, a likeness for countryside rambles and to all forms of music. He arranged walking and musical appreciation clubs, my son Simon remembers that he collected a group of boys in his house after school to listen to music, Mahler being a particular favourite. Rita got on with him from the start and, though sometimes she did not always agree with his ‗advanced‘ ideas for the children when taken beyond what was practical, she supported him strongly for the next twenty years as his ‗heart was always in the right place‘. We became friends with his wife Dorothy and sometimes went to concerts together.
Rutherford Laboratory 81
Notes culled from a Diary for 1971
The year 1971 can be seen as a crucial period in my career as we nudged toward the creation of the so called GFUN software system for electromagnetic design. I had the honour of leading a small team of physicists active at a time when digital computing was becoming available but still well before the explosion of personal computing systems. We were still using large main frame machines normally by ‗batch processing‘ in which computer programs were submitted one day and the results, if one was lucky, were collected the next. However online interactive technology was on the point of becoming a reality and the notion of interactive graphics was in the air. Our group was fortunate in that we had the perfect application for interactive graphics in the design of magnets for particle accelerators. The climax of this work came the following year, 1972, and the use of the system rapidly spread84. The year 1971 was also a year that I kept a regular diary so my account of the events from this most seminal of years for me is less prone to memory lapses than usual. Some of the events mentioned in this section are further amplified in the next section, particularly our technical progress with the GFUN system. The year began with a family event as on the first of January we went to the New Theatre, Oxford, to see ‗The Sleeping Beauty‘ pantomime with the family and Mrs Roger our neighbour. Jimmy Edwards85, a popular comedian of the day, improvised his way through the show in his usual manner. Simon had to go to out during his first solo act. Jim said ‗Someone‘s leaving‘, all eyes were on us as I took Simon out to find a lavatory. As we reached the back of the auditorium Jim said, ‗It must be the vibrations‘, he was playing the Euphonium at the time. The children enjoyed the show. Also in January I gave my first lecture at Reading University ‗Field Theory: some computational aspects‘. I had a warm welcome by Doug Allen who seemed reasonably pleased with the talk and the discussion afterwards; I was somewhat relieved as this was my first experience of giving a didactic talk at a university. The following month I recorded that on Saturday February 6th I spent the entire day at the lab developing a new on-line graphics program to aid the design of magnets, and made significant progress. This became
84 GFUN: An Interactive Program as an Aid to Magnet Design. M J Newman, L R Turner, C W Trowbridge. In Proceedings International Conference on Magnet Technology (MT4), pp 617-626, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1972. 85 His speciality was that of a comic school master whose bark was worse than his bite, he was the star of a BBC TV series called ‗Whacko‘, he also played the trombone. 82 Notes from a Diary for 1971 the GFUN program already referred to above. I named it GFUN because all interactive codes at RAL had to have a name beginning with the two letter personal identifier of the author, which in my case was GF and it is hard to find a four letter word beginning GF! Also in February we began a series of walks across the downs encouraged by the need to give our new dog Mick (and me) some exercise. The Gamekeeper of Well Barn estate near Warren Farm was impressed with Mick, said ‗I could make something of you‘– he gave Mick a lesson by making him retrieve and drop a ‗dead‘ pigeon. We had a chat about people who don‘t follow the ‗code‘. He said we could walk through the estate provide we kept Mick on his lead. Also this month we had a long weekend in Dorset visiting Rita‘s sister Eva and on the Sunday I persuaded them to drive me to West Milton so I could walk back to Broadwindsor, about 7 miles cross country. The object was to avoid roads as much as possible. I took the footpath across hills in westerly direction and reached Stoke Abbott in two hours. It was a great relief to find the pub still open full of the Sunday lunch drinking crowd. Had a chat with a Mr & Mrs Pinny86 and after a pint of best bitter I left Stoke to walk along the road to Stoke Knapp. I saw the Edward VII commemoration tree in Stoke Abbott planted in 1901, my father‘s birth year – he is in better shape than the tree. The Pinnys caught me up and gave me a lift for the last ½ mile into Broadwindsor. They had a Springer called ‗Spice‘; not a pure breed like Mick. During March the first version of GFUN was in use by members of the magnet design teams. This first version was limited to two dimensions and could not yet compute systems with iron, however the interactive graphics were up and running which gave us good publicity. Furthermore Larry Turner was fast developing his extension of both a two and three dimensional and algorithm to the class of method we discussed in Chicago87, see page 69, last year. On the interactive graphics modelling side we also needed a major extension to be able to model real three dimensional objects and as Mike Newman had been researching the current status of this topic he agreed to develop the necessary new software. At this time there were many projects underway in the Oxford Area and we were asked to provide support for magnet design at the nearby Culham laboratory for the controlled fusion experiments as well as local industries like Oxford Instruments. The Culham project involved a design study to examine the possibility of using superconducting coils. This was team effort involving both computational expertise and engineering. The engineering aspects were provided by Peter Klee and
86 I found out from Bill Boucher later that Mr Pinny was the local liberal candidate 87 Dipole magnetisation Rutherford Laboratory 83 his team; we enjoyed a good relationship with Don Cornish a senior design engineer at Culham who became a strong supporter of our work. The design study report was published in October 197188 and led to further work sponsored by Culham, notably, for the Joint European Torus (JET) project. The Oxford Instrument collaborations led eventually to further joint projects for the computing of superconducting coils to be used for MRI magnets89. My abiding interest in the music of Edward Elgar received a nudge when on the 6th of March I read a piece in the Daily Mail about an Elgar Society. Apparently formed last year but no publicity given. According to the article the patrons, including the Prime Minister (Edward Heath) and several leading musicians are withdrawing support. The reasons appear to be somewhat obscure but hinted that had been a quarrel between the society and the Elgar Trust. I thought it odd that there had been no effort to recruit members90. Early spring was in the air and the following Sunday I awoke to a clear frosty mornings with bright sunshine and I took Mick on a long walk across the downs to Compton, 12 ¼ miles; probably equivalent to 24 dog miles. We began by going to the top of Halfpenny Lane via PNEU School path and then on to Lowbury via the Fair Mile – it was indeed a ‗fair mile‘ today with perfect walking weather. It took exactly one hour to the top of the hill and we met many people out enjoying the day, also a Dalmatian Dog much appreciated by Mick. I had some coffee at Lowbury then walked SW toward Compton. At Stocks Meadow Farm we joined the old railway track and then walked towards the old station. It seemed only yesterday (14 years ago) that Rita and I frequently used this line to travel from Didcot to Newbury on the first leg of the journey to visits Rita‘s family in Dorset. We passed the church and the beautifully kept churchyard and walked a little way toward Aldworth. At the Red Lion we turned up the downs road and had lunch before crossing the downs to Well Barn and the A417 and so to Moulsford. We arrived home much refreshed in body and mind —a superb walk. About this time David Thomas told me that I should aim for a special merit promotion but I wondered if I should subject myself to this
88 Design Study of a Tokamak Fusion Device with Superconducting B Coils. P T M Clee, C W Trowbridge, RL-73-067 1971 89 Magnetic Resonance Imaging used for medical diagnostic scanning 90 I discovered later that a society had been created several years ago as Worcester activity in a low key manner and the national society proposed by Heath and others appears to have been a rather clumsy affair. The original society prospered soon after widening its scope and after contacting the curator, Allen Webb of the Elgar Birth-Place museum I joined the London branch. 84 Notes from a Diary for 1971 strain91. I perceived that there were changes to the structure pending and that David was in the thick of the politics involved. There was also news of a tragic event in Northern Ireland; 3 British soldiers killed by IRA terrorists – we in the rest of the UK have security which is being denied to the people of Northern Ireland, but not for long for this was the beginning of the latest and most terrible round of ‗troubles‘ in Ulster. April came and with it the completion of the first GFUN program manual92 and had one dozen copies distributed. I Read in the paper that James Mossman93 had taken an overdose - why? What a tragedy when a man like him with lots of his life left suddenly commits suicide. Easter was upon us and we decided to have holiday at home. It was a happy time with many long walks and family games in the garden. On Easter Day Rita went to church at eight o'clock and I made breakfast – boiled eggs and we enjoyed beautiful weather all day. At four o'clock we all went for a walk; we did the Cholsey Round, the first mile was along the road, which was very boring. Oh those dreadful internal combustion engines — well named infernal. At the Bull‘s Hole the children lag behind and we played the game of going on ahead. Simon gets quite worried. When we reached Lollingdon farm we split up, Rita and I go round the hill and we told the children to go the direct way, and we must all meet on the other side. It was very pleasant in the evening sun, and we saw many hares in the green cornfields. Unfortunately the kids didn't follow orders, so we had trouble locating them. Simon was very upset, apparently, they took off to the right and lost themselves. All is well that ends well. The following week we collected Rita‘s father who was to stay with us for a week. We persuaded father to make us a small gate for the side path and so the next day father and I (mostly father) made the gate, perhaps Mick will now be constrained and be prevented from running right round the house. Father has a tot of gin just before bed to cure his wind, one is tempted to remark that this is one of the least convincing excuses for a drink ever. 1971 is census year and the form was delivered that evening. I have no objections to filling it in, but I do rather object to people who get all steamed up about it at the last moment. The questions have been on public display for over a year — why the Liberals wait for the last moment to stage a protest I can't think. I have made use of the 1851 and 1861 census in my researches into family history. The fact of the matter is that these questions do not really add new private
91 A senior appointment which allows a scientist freedom to develop ideas and lead a team to implement them. This indeed happened a few years later. 92 GFUN Interactive Graphics Magnet Design Program, C.W.Trowbridge, Applied Physics Div, Rutherford Laboratory, Internal report, 6 April, 1971 93 Well known TV Journalist Rutherford Laboratory 85 information of a personal nature as all such information already exists under other headings e.g. registration of births and marriages and deaths etc income tax returns and, in any case, the personal details in the returns are denied public access for 100 years.
Plate 34: Bert Creed with his daughter and grandchildren at Moulsford, 1971
Watched a programme on Colin Davis94 on television and later went to the Waterloo pub with father who won 50p on the one armed bandit machine. The next day we erected a trellis work fence which was very enjoyable to do and made the garden more interesting. Physical exertion is the best antidote to mental inertia. The evening ended with a trip to the Waterloo Pub for beer and the wretched one armed bandit — my father- in-law is an addict. May began with football as I took Simon to the match between Arsenal and Stoke city on Saturday May 1st. The Cholsey bluebirds95 had arranged a coach and tickets for the match. I bought Simon an Arsenal
94 35 years later he is still conducting, better than ever. 95 The Cholsey football club for youngsters that Simon belonged to. 86 Notes from a Diary for 1971 rosette and we took our seats at 2 pm. We had a superb view and we were impressed by the crowd. Vocal supporters on our right were entertaining the 60,000 crowd. A match was under way between the Arsenal reserves and a junior team from Zürich which ended without score. Before the main match Pete Murray and Cardew Robinson96 came onto the pitch and rehearsed the crowd in cheering Arsenal especially for the cup final next Saturday. The match itself was dull in the first-half but after the interval Arsenal applied pressure and the substitute scored the only goal of the game. I cannot remember his name. I admired the Arsenal keeper Wilson; he kicked the ball beautifully long and high. We arrived back home after a noisy journey feeling very tired97. My diary for May 20th records a tragic event close to work. The morning papers carried a report of a murder of a family of three killed at Thatcham. The young mother was a Mrs Flack — Jill Flack a blonde rather ‗tasty‘ girl who was a tracer at the Rutherford lab until two weeks ago whom we knew fairly well. A sad story, she was separated from her husband and had been living with a man called Thompson, who also worked for a while at the lab as a contract draughtsman. The rumour is that she returned home to her husband taking her five year old boy with her and the man Thompson followed her back and killed both her and the child and the husband as well. She had had a very sad life and it was said was the type to attract trouble. She lived in some fear of this man and was scared he might harm her. One reads of such cases fairly regularly but the reality is stronger when you know the people involved. On Saturday 29th of May we began our week‘s holiday in Beddgelert staying at the Saracens head Hotel. We had arranged for Mick to go to a kennel and for the sitting room to be decorated whilst we were away. On the way there we stopped near Llangynog to have picnic lunch at a place high on the Berwyn‘s , Our first view this year of Snowdonia was at the top of the pass. A marvellous panorama; I have not seen it before as the weather in previous years has always been hazy. But this day one could see the entire range from the Carnedds, Glyders, Snowdon itself and the Nantle Hills, not forgetting the outlying Moelwyns, the Arrenigs, and the Arrans above Bala. We arrived at Beddgelert well before 2 p.m. After booking in we spent a lovely lazy afternoon in the sun by the River Glaslyn. I climbed up a few hundred feet to the top of the hill above the river and could survey the village and the mountains all round. The week as a whole was mixed for weather but we managed several excursions to favourite places. This included climbs in and around Cwm Glas and the
96 Popular Entertainers of the time 97 Later we heard that Arsenal won their match against Spurs so they now led the first division. They also won the cup final against Liverpool on Saturday 8th and as a result Simon became life long supporters. Rutherford Laboratory 87
Snowdon Horseshoe, Shell Island, Ogwen Valley, Cwm Idwal and Tryfan. Tuesday 1st of June was a glorious day for our visit to Shell Island, an enchanting place, and we also had fine weather over the next two days as well.
Plate 35: Simon & Dinah in Cwm Glas
On Wednesday we went to the Ogwen valley and I climbed Tryfan but first we drove to Caernarfon via Colwyd, parked at the castle and did some shopping. Rita bought sketching pads and pencils for the children and herself. We then proceeded to Ogwen via Bangor but there was no parking space at the Youth Hostel so we drove along to the milestone buttress which suited me better. I left the family there to sketch. The guidebook said that the old North Ridge of Tryfan was the most sporting climb in the district. It turned out to be delightful, plenty of rock scrambling. A lady with two large Alsatian dogs overtook me and literally shot up the ridge, I was astounded. It took me 90 minutes to reach the summit. I had a lovely lunch sitting on a boulder. There were many parties on the mountain today. I descended by the South ridge to Bwlch Tryfan and then to Llynn Bochlywd. From the lake I made a line straight back to the milestone. It was four miles for the round trip and very enjoyable. After a welcome cup of tea we returned to Beddgelert and collected bathing things and proceeded to Black Rock Sands for a swim, Rita bought a new bathing suit and she looked charming. After a dip we returned to the hotel for dinner.
88 Notes from a Diary for 1971
Plate 36: On the Snowdon Horseshoe
The next day we went to Capel Curig to start a walk to Llyn Crafnant.. This was a very attractive walk starting through woods then through a a wild valley, part of the Crag Clogwyn Mawr. It took just under 1 1/2 hours to cover the 3 miles. The children played Stagecoach hold-ups. We stopped by the stream near the head of the lake and enjoyed our picnic lunch and afterwards we walked over to the other side of the valley to a farm which sold tea and lemonade. The journey back proved interesting, I led the family back along the other side of the valley, opposite side to the path that we came in along. The path meandered through a lovely pinewood. At the edge of the wood the only way was to climb up and over the heights of a crag (1700 feet). This proved unpopular and I had to suffer much verbal abuse! We returned home on Saturday and the weather was dull and overcast all the way. England were batting in the test match, Pakistan had made 600 runs in the first two days. The England‘s innings was described by John Arlott and Co (on my car radio) and their failure kept us company all the way through Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. We stopped for tea at Ledbury at the same cafe as on the way out. England were 145 for six when we left the car – Knott was Rutherford Laboratory 89 on about 10, but when we came back he had scored a hundred98 We arrived home tired and set about putting the sitting room to rights. The wallpapering was finished and my first impression was a little disappointing. On Saturday 19th of June it was our wedding anniversary and we had been married for 17 years. Rita had agreed that Simon and I should go to London today to see part of the second test match against Pakistan at Lords. It had rained most of day before and there had only been little play but we were hopeful. We arrived at Paddington by 10 and I first took Simon to Baker Street to have a quick look at Madame Tussauds. We both enjoyed this — especially the Trafalgar exhibition. The model, full-size, of the gun deck was complete with cannon and sound effects and also the smell. We then went on to Lord's and found that the wicket was to be inspected at 1.30. Very disappointing but we sat in the grandstand for two hours, the weather, ironically, was fine and even sunny at times and it was difficult to understand why they couldn't start. Finally the umpires inspected and declared that the pitch was unplayable! So we left; to avoid the complete frustration we decided to go to the cinema and chose a new film ‗Waterloo‘, very spectacular and colourful. Two hours of carnage even Simon (nine years old) thought that war was a nasty business at the end. We walked through Soho and visited my old college, the Polytechnic in Regent Street. We saw the plaque on the wall with the prize winners, I must confess to showing off in front of Simon. We then had an enormous ice cream (Knickerbocker Glory) before catching the train home, we arrived home by seven. Rita greeted me with a sight of £170 in notes, she had sold her a car! The next week she bought a new one, a bright yellow mini. The following week was an intense period working on GFUN and on the Thursday I worked very late with Mike Newman, leaving well after midnight. Disaster on the way home, my car ran out of petrol between Upton and Blewbury. There was nowhere safe to leave the vehicle so I had to push the car for a mile to find a suitable place just outside the village at a road junction. I then walked through the village to find a telephone box, it was very dark and I had great difficulty in finding a number for a taxi in Didcot. I could not see to dial in any case. I managed to dial 100 and get the Oxford exchange. After being transferred to directory enquiries and back to Oxford I got them to place a reverse charges call to Pryors Taxis. I spoke to an Irishman who told me that it would be double after one o'clock. I agreed and waited for 15 minutes. The Irishman turned out to be Mr Oare from Abbott Road,
98 The match was ultimately drawn 90 Notes from a Diary for 1971 whom we used to know. He got me home around two o'clock and I collapsed in bed, very done in. The next day Rita took me into Blewbury to collect my car. I went to work for the morning but came home in the afternoon and after cooking myself an omelette I went to bed. Heard the news of the three Russian cosmonauts found dead on arrival back to earth. The following Friday during our usual group lunchtime meeting at the Hare & Hounds we decided to have a group walk across Salisbury plain. On Sunday Dad and Brenda came, Brenda left Dad with us and went on to Bedford to collect her mother for a short holiday. We had a pleasant day mostly in the garden. We played some tennis and showed dad Rita‘s new car and the newly decorated lounge. We always enjoy his visits. After a traditional lunch (he correctly identified the distiller of the whisky) and later we watched the cricket. Two local teams gave an entertaining display, Mick was very interested in Judy, Dad‘s dog and he wouldn't leave her alone. Dad said it was an example of sex raising its ugly head! Brenda turned up with Mum (her mother) at 5 p.m. They didn't stay long — Brenda is very restless if she stays in one place too long. Dad, I thought, looked well and we were sorry when they left. Monday 12 July was the day of the Stonehenge Avebury walk. I estimated 22 miles by the map plus 10% for detours giving nearly 25 miles. We left the lab at 9:30 a.m. John Collie, Larry Turner, Alan Armstrong and Mike Newman in Mike's car. We met Jim Diserens in Avebury. Leaving Mike's car at Avebury we all six left in Jim's car to travel to Stonehenge, arriving there at 1140. Alan became agitated at the thought of not being home by 6 p.m. and cried off. In fact he rang his wife who wanted him to come home because of a broken tooth! The rest of us, after inspecting the stones, set off at just after noon along the track road to Larkhill. The Salisbury Plain military zone apparently was closed this day for artillery practice on the ranges, but fortunately we were able to persuade the army to allow us to pass to the east of the Larkhill ranges. We followed the boundary by walking always toward the red flags; we stopped at a small wood near a place marked as Lavington's folly for lunch. We left at just before 3:00 PM. at somewhat brisker place, the weather was superb for walking, as the cool northerly breeze kept the temperatures down. We had been warned to keep clear of a small unit firing mortars. We heard the bangs but decided to carry on. The soldiers saw us and allowed us to pass. We left the Plain at Wilsford on the edge of Pewsey Vale. The Vale is a delightful area. We arrived at the small footbridge across the Avon River and rested while enjoying the pleasant afternoon. It was now 5 p.m. and we had come some 12 miles, still only halfway. We stopped at the barge Inn on the Kennet and Avon canal and enjoyed immensely a Rutherford Laboratory 91 quart of ice-cold lager. We arrived there at 6 PM, (17 miles from Stonehenge) and left the Inn at 10 minutes to seven crossing the Pewsey Downs climbing up to Walker hill some 900 feet. Alton Barns Whitehorse had been prominent and a good marker for some miles however we decided it was in need of scouring.
Plate 37: CAG Walk from Stonehenge to Avebury 92 Notes from a Diary for 1971
We struck out to the North from the summit and traced our way around the fields of barley and finally came to High Mound from where we could see Silbury hill in the distance. We set out toward this landmark and by 8:45 p.m. reached Long Barrow. After a quick look round we dropped down to West Kennet and headed over the last hill to meet the avenue to Avebury. We walked through the ancient stone wall at 9:45pm. We all enjoyed this walk and climbed into Mike's car and proceeded back to Stonehenge. Jim went straight home but the rest of us had a meal in Amesbury and we eventually arrived back at Rutherford lab at half past midnight. I arrived home tired at 1 AM and had a good night's sleep. On the 14 July we went into school to Cholsey, to see the school play, School children's version of a Midsummer Night's Dream. Simon had the part of Peter Quince and Dinah, one of the fairies. The play went very well and was watched by a large audience of parents and children. The play was helped along by two narrators who told the complications of the story with great animation. The fairies were very pretty and sang and danced beautifully. The tradesmen were funny and the lovers were suitably confused and charming. The play was simply presented with a minimum of props and altogether a very creditable effort. The producer Carol Lomax was given a good round of applause. I was due to take my annual leave at the end of the month, so it was a busy time and I stayed late in the evenings working on the new software. It is always a rush before a holiday and I have a rotten cold as well which refuses to get better. We decided on impulse to go camping for our holiday this year. Therefore, after consulting Jim who had up-to-date experience in these matters, we went to Reading and bought a tent, sleeping bags etc a toilet tent & toilet equipment etc. The tent slept 4, a blue frame tent. We came home and spent the afternoon erecting the tent in the garden. On the following Monday we left for the New Forest after breakfast. We obtained the camping permit in Lyndhurst. Our camping site was to be in the Queen‘s Bower area, near Brockenhurst, where I camped as a boy scout and close to where I went to school. There were lots of campers in the area but we managed to find a site near the bridge over Ober water in a small clearing in the trees; we spent a pleasant night apart from Dinah who had trouble sleeping. The next day because of the dirty ground we decided to move. It was a race against the rain. Could we strike camp and re-pitched the tent before the rain came? We did. We moved to a place near Boldreford Bridge. It was quieter and on grass. We foolishly pitched the tent facing southwest, the prevailing wind direction. We won't make the same mistake again. Our favourite meal Rutherford Laboratory 93 proved to be bangers and bread. I walked into Brockenhurst after lunch and bought some food. It rained in the evening, off and on. Mick settled well but barked at night whenever wild ponies came close. On Wednesday we went into Lymington and spent time walking the town in the morning. We had lunch down that the Quay. It is rather curious, as I spent the first 16 years of my life in Lymington, but today I only spotted one person I could recognize positively. A girl riding a bicycle down the Town Hill, I thought for a moment that her name was? But I'd forgotten already, she always was to be seen riding her bicycle down the Town Hill in my memory. The next day the weather was fine and we walked in the woods during the morning but decided to visit my father in the afternoon. We had lunch in the pub at Emery down, bread cheese and pickle and visited Dad & Brenda in Damerham in the afternoon. The garden looked pretty. The following day was our last day in the New Forest; I would have loved to have stayed longer as I was just beginning to feel refreshed and pleased with life but we had agreed to visit Eva the following week. Rita went into Brockenhurst in the morning and after a good lunch of bangers and rissoles we struck camp and came home. After the week in Dorset it was back to the Lab in glorious weather of course. One evening the brigadier from next door99 and entourage came out into the recreation ground and played a knockabout cricket match. Since he has returned from Northern Ireland where he was the army commander of land forces he has been guarded by police and dogs. On Friday we said a temporary farewell to Larry Turner and we took him out to lunch at The Plough (East Hendred). Larry goes back to USA on Monday, though as he has made a notable contribution to our work, I do so hope he returns in October. On September 7th we took Dinah to school in Didcot, St Frideswide. We decided not to let her attend the school in Wallingford as we believed the standards at the Didcot School were higher. I left her at the gate and although she seemed quite pleased she was a probably very nervous inside —an experience we've all had. The following Saturday I went to Windsor after lunch. I had looked forward for sometime to a very rare complete performance of Elgar's early oratorio "The Light of Life" Opus 29100, which was to be given at Windsor Parish Church. The performance was conducted by a young man called Robert Tucker with the Broadheath singers and the Windsor Sinfonia. It was an amateur performance which went very well. It was
99 Brigadier Anthony Farrar-Hockley 100 The beautiful meditation that begins the work and the final chorus are well known but I had not heard anything else from the piece; this was probably its first performance since before the war. 94 Notes from a Diary for 1971 notable for the two attractive young soloists singing the soprano and contralto roles and two brothers for the tenor and baritone. I enjoyed it immensely—a lot of good things in it. It will be splendid to judge the work with top-class artists, but they did more than justice. The choir sang marvellously in "A light out of darkness". On Thursday I received Tom Browne's101 book "The skyline is a promise" from the author nicely inscribed with a quotation from Richard II,:
‘I count myself in nothing else so happy As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends’ Act II, Sc 3, L. 46
Not entirely apt as Bolingbroke says this to Percy whereas by the next play (Hen IV Pt1) he wants to kill him! In the evening we went to AERE drama Society production. They did two plays, Ionesco‘s ‗The Lesson‘ and ‗Black Comedy‘ by Peter Shaffer. The children were looking forward to this as one of their teachers, Mrs Carol Lomax, was in it. We all thoroughly enjoyed the performance. I think amateur dramatics has improved since I indulged in it 20 years ago. On Friday I went to North Wales for camping climbing weekend today with Mike Newman. I picked up Mike in Oxford at 9:15 a.m. after taking Dinah to school. We went via the A42 to Cheltenham and thence to Ledbury and from there the usual way via Welshpool and Bala. We stopped in Ludlow for lunch. Mike drove from here on. Weather was fine and beautiful until Wales when it clouded over. We arrived at Beddgelert around 4 p.m. We ended up in a fine camping site just above Llyn Gwynant and alongside the Glaslyn River (247 feet). We pitched a tent by the river and decided we had a very pleasant situation102. The water was very clear. There were a group of soldiers camping nearby, we collected wood then had some supper. I went to phone Rita. Wood was in short supply and we only could collect enough for a small fire. We went to bed around nine o'clock. Some newer rivals disturbed our first sleep; sound does carry as the next morning it only appeared to be a very small group. After an early breakfast we left to traverse the Snowdon horseshoe. The weather was very dull and Crib Goch was just visible as we left Penny Pass at 8:45 a.m. We arrived at Bwlch Moch at 9:35 and started up the crib Goch ridge soon after. Mist descended to meet us and we saw no views once we were above 2000 feet. The summit of Crib Goch was reached by 10:40 a.m. and we were pleased with our progress. On the
101 My old Headmaster from HMS Conway 102 The Family and I came back to this site to camp a year or so later and I got my new car stuck fast in the mud! We had to be hauled out by tractor and my reputation nose-dived. We had to find another site! Rutherford Laboratory 95 summit we were joined by an army party consisting of about eight privates and one officer. We left Crib Goch after eating an orange. It was now getting quite damp. Mike had a nylon waterproof and managed to keep fairly dry. We gently traversed the knife edge and climbed the pinnacles, which was great fun. We arrived at Bwlch Goch at 11:40 a.m. and reached the summit of Crib-y-dsgl by 1230. Very thick weather, but we were delighted by the sudden appearance of ‗Eryri‘ ghost train at Bwlch Glaslyn. We soon after found ourselves at the Snowdon hotel and had a quick bite. The rain was very heavy here and we were forced to stay outside the hotel as it was closed. We made a quick visit to the summit cairn and headed on down to the Bwlch Satheau by the direct descent and arrived at half past 1 p.m., the way was difficult to find but we found the slopes of Llywydd and enjoyed the airy climb to the peaks and had some fine views of the sheer rocks. We then descended to Llyddaw and got back to the car by four o'clock. The weather had improved and I enjoyed a dip in the river by the camp and later a pleasant evening in the Llewellyn Arms at Beddgelert. The next day we decided to climb the North Ridge of Tryfan. We left the car at the milestone buttress after a journey via Capel Curig. It was very windy, but we managed to climb up to Adam and Eve on the summit of Tryfan in about two hours. We returned by the south ridge and Cwm Bochllewydd. After a cleanup we had a pleasant evening in Beddgelert. We had good dinner in the Prince Llewellyn Arms. The wind was so strong that the stove blew over. We awoke to find the tent surrounded by pools of water. All things considered we struck camp quickly and soon we were on our way home. We literally dumped everything into the boot ringing wet. We arrived home by 6 p.m.: after a damp but successful weekend. Helen Diserens called to say that Jim had Kidney pains and would be off work for a while. The next eight days at busy at the Lab but working on the room upstairs in the evenings. The carpet was laid and curtains hung. Finally we were able to move into a new bedroom upstairs. Bill and Eva arrived on Thursday evening. Helen rang to say that Jim‘s X-ray showed that one of his kidneys had stopped working. I felt worried. A few days later we went to see Jim at the Royal Berks Hospital and found him fairly cheerful all things considered. Helen left with the two boys soon after I arrived. She has a lot to cope with. Rita came with me and said she thought Helen was upset. We went to see him again on following Saturday. I found him rather depressed and in pain. Helen was with him and I spent about an hour chatting. He is due to have his operation next Tuesday. I visited Jim at the Royal Berks on Monday; he is due to have his operation tomorrow. He was very cheerful and I hoped I would behave as well. Some good news was that Larry Turner had returned to spend 96 Notes from a Diary for 1971 another year with us. On Wednesday I rang the hospital but they would not tell me any thing concerning Jim's operation. Later Helen rang to say that they had told her that one of Jim's kidneys had been removed. She said it was a tumour and not a stone. She said it was a complete success and that the other kidney is safe. Poor Jim he‘s had such a rough time. I visited Jim at the Royal Berks after lunch, John Collie and Larry Turner accompanied me. Jim told us about his kidney and the tumour. A week later I saw Jim again I found him found him sitting up and quite cheerful. He hopes to be home within a week. Another British soldier killed in Ulster that makes 37 so far this year. That evening we watched Pinter's play "The Caretaker" and we didn't understand any of it. The Work on the new software for GFUN Mark II was now well under way and I was informed that the new IBM 195 computer would be operational next Monday. Harry Hurst asked me if I would test our oin- line magnet design facility soon after start-up as a check that the system was working properly. We were very impressed by the improved performance of the new machine which would allow larger and more realistic problems to be solved, On Sunday next Dad and Brenda came to lunch. I recorded Dad talking about his old days in a Bowerchalk, when he was quite young; especially memories of his mother and grandfather Frank Vincent. We had the group Christmas celebration on 21st of December. This year we combined with the ‗Fast Cycling‘ group and had a buffet lunch. We went to the Crown and Horns at East Ilsley. Jim and I walked back (3 miles) and walked off 3 pints of beer plus a double whisky! It was very pleasant to walk with him again; you would never know that he'd just had a kidney removed. The next day I begin my Christmas leave and Rita gave a party for some of my colleagues. We had eight guests, Jim and Helen Diserens, Larry and Donna Turner, Mike and Jenny Newman and Alan and Brenda Armstrong. We had food and a chat and the children stayed up late and were entertained by Alan who consumed 4 pints of beer. Mike brought us all a computer generated calendar. The evening was a success I think. Rita and I washed up at half past midnight. We went to Dorset for a few says after Christmas and I managed some long winter walks. On one occasion I did the coastal route from Charmouth to West Bay, about 7 1/2 miles with many ups and downs. I had done this walk before but the other way starting at West Bay. I left the car at Charmouth at and set off up the East Cliff. The cliffs along here are falling away and will one day crash down to the beach. There were very few people about, only the odd fossil collector. I made good time and topped the first rise 500 feet in well under one half hour. Stanton Gabriel by 45 minutes. A long pull from sea level at Stanton Creek to the summit of Golden Cap took a Rutherford Laboratory 97 further 40 minutes. I had a conversation with a fellow traveller at the top doing the reverse of my walk. He had lived in West Bay all his life but never before had stood on the Cap. The sea views were really sharp and splendid; the cliffs to the West as far as beer head with fairytale Lyme Regis in between appeared to be empty of folk. I descended into Seatown and sat down to lunch and a well-deserved pint. I next climbed up the East Cliffs at Seatown which are a very extensive with several ‗ups and downs‘ and most remarkable views both the West and East. The harbour of West Bay soon appeared ahead plus the vertical cliff of Burton Bradstock. The hills inland, "cow with calf" stood clear on the northern horizon. At Eype I left the cliff and completed the walk along the beach — this I regretted a little but I wanted to be near the sea for a little while. The sound of the sea is such sweet music. I arrived at West Bay at 2:45 p.m. taking just over three hours for the walk. The walking was not over as I had to go a further 1 1/2 miles into Bridport to get the bus back to Charmouth. I arrived back at Wild West at 5:30 p.m. A fine day Earlier that day whilst I was out walking Eva and Rita had an accident. Whilst driving to Crewkerne to the hairdressers they swerved off the road into the hedge on the right, it happened just before the South Parrott turning. A dark mini overtook them and, as it pulled in front a baby carriage fell off the roof rack and bounced in front of them. The mini did not stop. The girls were unhurt, thanks be to God.
98 Interactive Graphics 1970-1972
Integral Equations and Interactive Graphics 1970-72 In 1969 despite some opposition103 we acquired a device known as a COMPUTEK 400/15 Storage tube display which could be connected via a satellite computer (Honeywell DDP224) to an IBM 360/75 main frame to allow single user interactive computing. Using this environment the first version of GFUN was developed which allowed the modelling of graphical primitives representing conductors and other materials in two dimensions for the design of electro-magnets. In the first version semi analytic techniques were used to compute the fields which could be displayed on the screen. The geometric shapes could be modified interactively and new solutions obtained. To day of course this is routine but then it was considered rather novel and we received much encouragement. The interaction was achieved by using a new command language processor written by Mike Newman and subsequently this work, in itself, proved to be a rich development and the principles are still relevant today. As already mentioned in 1970 I met Larry Turner for the first time at Argonne National Lab (see page 69) during the Bubble chamber conference. There I discovered that he had been investigating field solutions using magnetization integrals independently of Professor Halacsy and in fact had some original ideas on how to extend this formulation. This was just what we needed in order to re-design GFUN to have, firstly a full non-linear algorithm for saturable materials in both 2D and axisymmetry and secondly a possibility of solving three dimensional problems without the burden of generating complex meshes. I realised that the magnetization method is an integral equation approach which only requires meshes in the active parts of the model unlike the classical methods based on Differential Formulations (e.g. TRIM, Finite Differences or Elements) which require meshes over the entire problem domain which is usually empty space. The next two years were very productive. Larry came to Oxfordshire to work with us and together we developed what we believed to be one of the first examples of a three dimensional non linear code using an interactive environment. We presented our results at the third Magnet Technology Conference at Brookhaven in 1972104 and, as many principles that we used in the design are still relevant to day, they are worth quoting despite the somewhat dated terminology.
103 We had crucial support from Percy Bowles the Chief Engineer at the lab at that time to whom I shall always be grateful for his faith in what we were doing. 104 M J Newman, L R Turner, C W Trowbridge, GFUN: An Interactive Program as an Aid to Magnet Design. In Proceedings International Conference on Magnet Technology (MT4 (Y Winterbottom, ed), pp 617-626, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1972 Rutherford Laboratory 99
―We used three criteria in deciding how to develop it.
It should be easy for the magnet designer to use. Most of the work of data input should be done by the computer. The input data should be displayed for checking. Results should be displayed in a way to make interpretation simpler. It should be interactive. Calculating interactively saves the magnet designer time. His train of thought is not broken as it is when he must submit a job and wait minutes or days for the results. His ideas and doubts can be checked immediately. For example he can see from the picture if he has set up the problem incorrectly or awkwardly, or he can follow up anything interesting the graph of the field reveals. He can stop when a line of thought proves unprofitable… It should be available in both two-dimensional and three dimensional versions, which the user operates with similar commands. This criterion led to a choice of a direct calculation approach… "
The third criterion goes on to emphasize the advantages of an integral equation approach for 3D problems. The alternative approach to extend the finite element method to 3D which had recently been applied to electrical machine design by M V Chari and P. P Silvester105 would entail the difficult problem of generating 3D meshes for both the active (iron, conductors) and free space (air) regions. Furthermore even in 2D the necessity for far field discretizations in an FE approach made the integral equation method more attractive at this time. However, as methods in geometric modelling and graphics advanced the FE method became far more competitive and so the collaboration initiated with the Swansea group and Olek Zienkiewicz would eventually bare fruit. For the time being the group concentrated on improving the GFUN algorithm, Jim Diserens added a new axisymmetry option and presented our results at the last of the Reno conferences presided over by Andrew Halacsy with attendees from most of the North American groups. This gave me the idea of trying to start an international forum for field computation which would bring together researchers from Academia, National Laboratories and Industry. Many other extensions to GFUN including eddy currents and the introduction of higher order basis functions were planned and it was at this stage that John Collie developed his methods for evaluating fields and potentials of linearly varying current or magnetization in a plane bounded region.
105 M Chari and P Silvester, Finite element analysis of magnetically saturated dc machines, IEEE Trans. PAS, 90, 2362 1971
100 Interactive Graphics 1970-1972
Plate 38: GFUN in action
Early in 1972 I was invited to give a lecture on Field Computation at the 4th Magnet Technology Conference to be held at Brookhaven National Laboratory in September which meant we would have two papers to present at this conference, the GFUN paper with Larry & Mike and the invited paper which was to be a survey of methods and codes for magnet design106. Thus I flew to New York for the conference on 16th of September and met Larry there who had now finished his tour of two years with us and had returned to Muskingum College. Larry was to
106 Progress in Magnet Design by Computer. C W Trowbridge. Proc 4th Int Conf on Magnet Technology, Brookhaven, pp. 555-565 1972
Rutherford Laboratory 101 present the GFUN paper, see footnote on page 81, but my survey contained supplementary information on GFUN. We were very pleased with the reception of our work and we were soon to be inundated with requests for GFUN at many of the US Department of Energy Labs (DOE). With the new conservative government of 1970 Margaret Thatcher was appointed Minister for Science and for a variety of reasons her various priorities prevented the High Field Bubble Chamber from being funded. Nevertheless the sub projects spawned by David Thomas‘s group were important, for example the work on superconducting magnets and field computation. On the retirement of Bill Walkinshaw the lab was reorganised and David became our division head with a number of groups reporting to him including Superconductivity, Electron Beam Lithography and my group on Applications computing. Design of Magnets for particle accelerators, detectors and eventually MRI devices were well underway at Rutherford by this time and a number of young graduates joined the lab to work in this area. One of these was John Simkin who began by using our techniques but he quickly established himself and was soon making developments himself and he eventually joined our Computing Applications Group (CAG). We were also beginning to attract the attention of Colleges looking for suitable placements for the students needing industrial or laboratory experience, one such was Paul Thompson from Woolwich Polytechnic whom I agreed to supervise for a year. Paul turned out to be very keen and naturally talented in computing and he was one of the first of the batch of students that had used computers as part of their everyday learning experience, a new breed that would dominate in years to come. I set him the task of writing a code for Ron Newport who was interested in the rate of bubble growth to be expected in the High Field Chamber. He soon produced a working code based on Ron‘s theory of growth which subsequently proved to be a useful tool in bubble chamber design. His time over all with me was very productive, working on magnetic field computation as well but his main strengths were soon identified as being in the area of computer management and in operating systems so later, after his year with us had been completed, he joined the Rutherford Laboratory and became a key player in computer management. Another ‗sandwich‘ student was Peter Perring who was attached to the High Field Bubble Chamber group, but as he showed a strong interest in computing and Magnetics he gravitated toward us and he and I became good friends because of his strong interest in music; he worked principally on the code I had devised for computing the self and mutual 102 Interactive Graphics 1970-1972 inductances of sets of coils107, we named this code HENRY. On more than one occasion I persuaded Peter to escape with me to hear a concert, once we dashed into Reading (3 Dec 1970) to hear a lunch time organ recital by a distinguished local organist, Albert Barkus who thrilled us with his performance of Liszt‘s Fantasia and Fugue on B.A.C.H. After a year Peter left us to take up an appointment with ICL, the leading UK computer manufacturer but we kept in touch and he remained interested in HENRY. Doug Allen and I were seeking to employ a research student to be based at Rutherford under the auspices of Reading University and in response to our advert a bright chap, Harvey Rosten, had applied and had been appointed. He was to read for a higher degree at Reading but I was to be his supervisor and he would be based at Rutherford. Thus Harvey joined the group in 1972 and stayed with us for two years. His project was to develop a software library of routines to compute the magnetic fields for a range of conductors shapes used in the design of Superconducting Magnets including Solenoids, Race Track Coils, and other commonly used configurations. This library was originally designed to be used in conjunction with the GFUN code but we realised that it actually formed an essential component that could be used in our future developments.
107 A transient change in the current in a coil changes the magnetic flux linking neighbouring coils with a consequence that electric currents are induced in those coils. The coefficient for this effect is termed the mutual inductance between two neighbouring coils and is measured in a unit named the ‗Henry‘ after the American scientist who first investigated this effect. Rutherford Laboratory 103
Moulsford & Camping 1971-1976
Dinah had started at Didcot Girls School and for the first two years I took her whenever possible on my way to work. In the evening she caught the train to Cholsey in time for Rita to collect her on her way home from Cholsey School. Didcot girl‘s school became a secondary modern school in 1973 and a regular bus service was provided.
Plate 39: Camping in the Jura and Riviera, July 1972 104 Moulsford & Camping 1971-1976
As already mentioned (see page 92) we had begun to go camping and already in 1971 we had made two very enjoyable visits to the New Forest complete with our new dog, Mick, who enjoyed himself as did the kids splashing about in the stream near Queens Bower. In those days you could camp almost anywhere and fires appeared to be allowed. A group of young men camping near us spent the entire week-end cutting down small trees and lopping branches from larger ones and feeding them to their fire; quite thoughtless and if they had continued at the same rate I feel they would have cleared the entire Boldrewood Enclosure. Strict controls were brought in soon after. In July 1972 we set off on our longest and most extensive camping holiday yet; I needed to make a brief visit to CERN to see Ch Iselin and others to obtain some information on their work on field computation to be included in my survey paper to be presented in Brookhaven in September so we planned to go to Switzerland first and Camp in the Jura near to CERN. I had bought a new car just before we left, a bright yellow Volvo to give us more space for our ever growing amount of Camping Equipment and to replace the Ford which had been a most unsatisfactory vehicle (the metallic finish had peeled off when I ‗hosed‘ it for the first time and it had never looked at all decent afterwards). We drove to Dover, then car ferry to Calais followed by our first leg across France stopping for the night in the municipal camp site in Beaune. I had a silly encounter with a French Doctor in the camp wash house when I asked if the water was safe to drink; this man rudely butted in and said, ‗where did I think I was?, up country in India perhaps‘, he implied that the water in France was just as good as in England, if not better but I told him it was common sense to ask just to be sure, and in any case I would use the water purifying tablets recommended for use by campers. In a restaurant in the town later, after waiting for ages to be served, I said we would like a few more ‗pommes frites‘ with our rather tough steak and the waiter (conscious no doubt that we were dining in the gastronomic capital of the world!), ignored me but Rita was more pressing and he reluctantly went to get some and to teach us a lesson he brought back a mountainous pile, and said, ‗ees thees enuf‘?. We camped at a village called Saint Cirque amidst the Jura Mountains a most delectable spot; our camping neighbours also with two children came from Montelimar and were very pleasant and Dinah became friends with a girl of a similar age. I had to drive down to CERN via a long winding road with many sharp bends to negotiate but the Volvo handled very well. I met Christoff and some of his colleagues and got the information I needed and I also bumped into John Fox now Rutherford Laboratory 105 established as part of the design team under John Adams that were working on the new 300GeV accelerator; John was full of himself as usual making outrageous comments about his colleagues; I had to resist hard as he wanted me to help him with some further ‗sums‘. I managed to escape back to our Camp site unscathed. After a delightful time in the Jura we proceeded on our way to Switzerland and drove around the northern shore of Lake Geneva and then up the Rhone Valley to Visp. The weather and the views were simply gorgeous and we were tempted to stop too often, at Sion we did stop for lunch and admired the splendid hill castle. We planned to camp next at Saas Grund and explore the Saas Fee area to the east of the great massive of Dom (4545 m); Saas Grund was accessible by road and there were good camping facilities to be had. We spent several days there enjoying gentle walks and alpine scenery before moving on to Italy via the Simplon Pass. On the Italian side we descended to the shores of Lake Maggiore and found a small camping site near the edge of the lake just a mile north of the town of Stresa. It appeared quiet and spacious and we wondered why there were so few campers, not even the people from the Netherlands who in our limited experience were so friendly that they would camp right next to you to an extent we called them ‗Nearlanders‘. We didn‘t wonder for long as soon as we went to bed the noise began, there was a marble quarry nearby that only seemed to operate at night. We stuck it out and had a few days of sight-seeing, the best excursion was a short boat trip to the beautiful Borromeo Islands, though not to everyone‘s taste. Isola Bela for example has been described as a layered wedding cake. After Stresa we departed for the South of France crossing part of Lombardy and into Piedmont; by mistake I drove into Turin which slowed us down a little but then picked up the road to Cuneo and thence over the Alpes Maritime down to Nice via the Route del Pointe. At one point I had let Rita rest by the roadside as she got quite giddy from the continual turning as we negotiated the dozens of ‗lacets‘ (tight bends). Without any warning we found ourselves negotiating the narrow streets in Nice as we desperately searched for a camp site. In the end we had to go on to Saint Tropez and then beyond before we found a site at Le Lavandou. Actually by chance circumstances we found an excellent camping ground very near the sea and had a most enjoyable time there. As always there was a ‗Brit‘ on hand who knew the ‗ropes‘ and was more than willing to tell us what to do and where to go; a sort self appointed squire of the beach who could say , ‗D‘Accord‘ with the best of them in the camp shop. My main memory, however, was rather painful as I cut my foot whilst extracting a metal tent peg which proved troublesome all the way home. 106 Moulsford & Camping 1971-1976
The year 1972 was of great interest to us musically as in February we went to hear the Guildford Philharmonic for the first time. This orchestra was conducted in those days by one of the most charismatic musicians that England has produced, Vernon Handley, who presided over a series of Guildford Corporation Concerts for very many years playing on Sundays and Saturday evening at the Civic Hall. The orchestra was often led by the splendid Hugh Bean a violinist of exceptional talent who over the years had led some of the most prestigious UK orchestras, including the Philharmonia under Klemperer. What attracted me to this, our first visit to Guildford, was that they were presenting a series of concerts featuring the music of Elgar and on this occasion a real thrill was that the chosen work was, in those days, a rare performance of the ‗The Apostles‘ his largest and most complex score. Handley was considered a specialist in English music in general and Elgar in particular. He was almost unique among conductors in that he was not skilled at the piano or indeed any musical instrument other than his voice and indeed the orchestra itself of which he is a master. On this occasion only Dinah came with me as both Rita and Simon had been suffering winter colds but this event created a pattern of monthly trips to Guildford (40 miles away) for many years, mostly following the same plan; drive early afternoon taking about one hour, shopping, which for me meant Thorpes secondhand book shop, then a nice meal in the Kardomah Café108 followed by the concert. I remember these years with a special glow, a kind of golden aged in our family life. On this first occasion in the Café Dinah and I were privileged to be sitting at a small table quite near a large group of men, clearly members of Guildford Philharmonic, including Hugh Bean, close enough to hear something of their conversation which was mainly about ‗conductors‘. At one point we heard one of them say, that so & so was a shit but got good results. Shortly after this I joined the Elgar Society and began to attend the monthly meetings of the newly formed London Branch at the Institute of Recorded Sound in South Kensington. I remember vividly the first meeting I attended on 13 November 1972 at which Charles Groves gave a talk and made a vow to try to perform and record as many of the pre- Gerontius choral scores as he could109. We introduced ourselves whilst standing next to each other in the cramped two holer toilet in the Gents Lavatory; I told him I remembered several performances he gave whilst he was in charge of the Bournemouth Orchestra way back in 1948; he gave the premier of Malcolm Arnold‘s 2nd Symphony to great applause and just before the quick fire last movement he turned to the audience and said, ‗hold on to your hats‘.
108 I think? 109 He kept his promise as the record catalogue testifies Rutherford Laboratory 107
Also in 1972 the children began having Piano lessons from a well known Wallingford character Charles Colquhoun, musician, schoolmaster and octogenarian. He gave Dinah a good start which she was able to build on at Didcot girl‘s school. Simon though he developed a fondness for music found Charlie a little too old to inspire him. I found Charlie a mine of information about English musical life in the early years of the century and I enjoyed our little chats when I picked up the children after their lesson. He chatted away about the music he loved which included Brahms, particularly the late piano intermezzi illustrating passages that meant the most to him as he spoke then without a pause he would play some Granados, ‗The Lady and the Nightingale from the Goyescas which he played with genuine passion. As we spoke the kids would get restless and Charlie‘s wife would interrupt shouting out ‗Come on Charlie it‘s time for Coronation Street‘. His music room was a jumble, mostly books piled high, in fact the whole house was crammed with books of all kinds; he was bibliophile and had many first editions including a bound set of early issues of the ‗Punch‘ magazine. We exchanged dinner visits later when I discovered he also had a strong liking for Elgar‘s music, I remember I played him some excerpts from Gerontius on a historic live recording from 1928 conducted by Elgar I had recently acquired and he exclaimed, ‗ that was at the Albert Hall and I was there‘. Our life at this time largely revolved around taking the kids to their various activities, swimming in Reading, Piano lessons in Wallingford, Riding lessons and a daily run to take Dinah to school in Didcot on my way to work. The following year we had two camping holidays the first in Wales in May was literally a washout. We attempted to camp at the same idyllic spot in the Gwynant valley between the two lakes Llyn-Gwynamt and Llyn-Dinas by the Afon Glaslyn, the same place that Mike Newman and I had camped in 1971 (see page 94) but, unfortunately, it had been raining for hours before our arrival and I foolishly drove our fully laden car, camping gear piled high on the roof rack, across the meadow toward the river when without much warning, apart from my loss of common sense, the vehicle gently sank into the mud and would not budge. Finally I went on a hike to find a telephone box to call for help. Rita et al showed minimal sympathy and a great deal of scorn whilst we waited some two hours for a breakdown tractor to arrive from Beddgelert to pull us out. Eventually we found a camp site a little lower down the valley at Nant Gwynant in a small field near the Nantmoor road turning. There were many other tents in the meadow so we felt safe? It rained all night but the next morning all looked well so we went out for the day, but the weather was so foul we ended up in the cinema in Caernarvon (Song of Norway!). It was still raining when we came out so we made our way 108 Moulsford & Camping 1971-1976 back to the camp site only, to our horror, to find that all the other campers had disappeared, our ‗toilet‘ tent had blown away, and the nearby Glaslyn River was on the point of bursting its banks. We hastily struck camp with water lapping around our feet, much to Dinah and Simon‘s glee to seek pastures new, the farmer refused payment for our stay on account of the weather, which was thoroughly decent of him.
Plate 40: Ordesa National Park
Rutherford Laboratory 109
For our second camping trip we were determined to seek a warmer climate so on July 25th we set of to Spain, via Southampton, Cherbourg, Chateaubriante (175 miles from Cherbourg, overnight stop), Pau, Col du Pourtalet (1794 m), Biescas, Torla (459 miles, a very long days driving). The journey, though tiring went well and we eventually found a superb camp site by the rushing river Arazas in the spectacular Parque Nacional near Monte Perdido (second highest mountain in the Pyrenees) , from the door of our tent we could see high up the gorge a pair of Egyptian Vultures. There was a camp restaurant nearby and I remember the delicious omelets we had there and how the waiters teased Simon because of his long blond hair, ‗El Rubio‘ they said. Whilst we were there Rita had a vicious attack of Cystitis and we had to go to the nearby town of Jacca to see a doctor to get antibiotics, this we did and she recovered quite quickly; I was amused to see a large notice in Jacca displaying the legend ELGAR, I though fame at last for our native composer abroad but we realized that it was merely advertising the local station. The next leg of our journey involved travelling across northern Spain, from Aragon to Barcelona, we found the roads terrible and in a state of construction with many miles of rough by-roads to navigate as well as long delays whilst the road builders blew holes in the rocks. We had a brief stop at Montserrat Monastery, one of many legendary ‗Holy Grail‘ places but actually a 9th Century Benedictine Abbey, but it is considered the most holy place in Catalonia. We reached Barcelona by early evening and went to our pre-booked camp site on the beach a mile or so South of the city. This beach, we soon discovered was badly effected by sewage and we felt uncomfortable bathing there; instead we drove along the coast to Sitges an attractive little resort town in those days with a well regulated bathing area. We explored the city of Barcelona, admired Las Ramblas and the port area with its homage to Columbus, his statue points the wrong way, to the East, but perhaps this just symbolises that he was an Italian from Liguria. Dinah became sick with a ‗tummy‘ bug so we decided to cut short our stay and head for home. We returned via Perpignan, Nimes (Overnight stop), Lyon, Paris & Lisieux (Overnight Stop). We had lunch in Paris and a charming Gendarme stopped the traffic for us and found us a parking spot just outside the Palace de Justice and then directed us to a friendly restaurant nearby, such astonishing service, they really do ‗order things better in France‘. After lunch Simon and I had a short walk in a park and watched a film crew at work on a film called ‗The Last Waltz in Paris‘. I wanted next to pop into Caen and see our old friend Brian Greenhalgh who was now the proprietor of the English Bookshop there but though Dinah was feeling a little better but we didn‘t want to delay too much, so after one 110 Moulsford & Camping 1971-1976 more overnight stop in Lisieux we proceeded back to Cherbourg and home. A fairly successful trip but our doctor thought that Dinah had picked some form of Typhus bug, so much for the clean Mediterranean.
Plate 41: Camping in the Wye Valley, 1975
It had been announced that my old training ship HMS Conway110 was to be closed in 1974 after a distinguished history dating from 1857 of training officers for the Merchant and Royal Navy; this had arisen because of the lack of financial support from the shipping industry and government in these days when Britain‘s reliance on strong maritime fleets was sadly declining and consequently the demand for officers was
110 See So Long to Learn, Volume 1 of these memoirs, page 89 Rutherford Laboratory 111 much reduced. The Conway club members were asked to lobby their local MP‘s and I accordingly wrote to Airey Neave111 the MP for Abingdon asking for his support for a motion112 in the House sponsored by Captain Walter Eliot113. Mr. Neave replied stating that he would support the motion and he also indicated he would be talking to the Minister (Education and Science Margaret Thatcher) about this issue. Despite a high level of support this bid to save Conway failed, and this famous institution died in 1974. Simon started at Wallingford school in 1973 which was now also, like Didcot girls school, a secondary modern. Rita and I had many friendly arguments as whether we should send both our kids to private schools but Rita had worked all her life in the public system and I felt she was far better informed than me on the subject so we decided to leave things as they were. The beginning of 1974 was rather hectic; my car was scraped all down the left side by a poorly supervised lorry driver training vehicle; whilst overtaking, he suddenly swerved and pinned me to the right hand side of the road. That same evening, January 4, we hosted a buffet supper for members of CAG and their wives. All through January and February I had meetings with visitors wanting to use GFUN and then in March I went down with a severe attack of influenza which laid me up for several weeks. One of our last family camping holidays was in the Wye Valley in the spring of 1974; the chore of packing and unpacking tents and equipment was beginning to pall so we tended, from then on, to use rented accommodation. In May I managed a visit to the Society of Genealogists in London; I decided to join the society as the library had many resources but though I was still keen the time I had for hobbies was becoming very limited; however, I found that they had a transcribed copy of the parish registers for Donhead St Mary from which I was able to confirm the data my father and I noted from the Bishops Transcripts in the early 1960‘s, also I discovered a copy of the book by Chapman (~1895) on the US branch of the family114. In May we had a short holiday in Wales, I cannot remember where but I do remember the dash home to dump the kids, then off to the Wigmore Hall in London that same evening to hear John Ogden115 play Elgar‘s Concert Allegro followed by the piano quintet. He had the
111 MP for Abingdon and war hero who was to cruelly murdered by the IRA whilst leaving the House of Commons on 30th March 1977. 112 Hansard 6 December 1973 113 Ex Conway (1923-27), MP for Carshalton 114The Trowbridge Family History 1690-1990, Bill Trowbridge, www.trowbridge.org.uk, revised and expanded edition 2007 115 John Ogden a fine pianist who had suffered some mental problems but recovered to give us the first modern performance of the Concert Allegro and later a fine recording. 112 Moulsford & Camping 1971-1976 autograph score on the piano which, as he drove the music magnificently forward it kept sliding off adding a wonderful uncertainty. In June Simon and I went to Lords to see part of the England vs. India match, England made a massive total in their first innings (628 all out) and we watched the third day (Saturday 22 June) and saw India all out for 302, Old and Underwood taking three wickets apiece116; it‘s strange but I cannot remember the final outcome117; it doesn‘t matter as we had a great day. We took Dinah to Breconshire to deliver her for a pony trekking holiday in August for a week. Rita‘s father who was staying with us came with us also to collect her. I had a routine medical examination in November and I was diagnosed with high blood pressure; on consulting my doctor, Dr Dixie in Streatley, I was prescribed tablets to control it which I have been on ever since. Then in May 1975 we had bad news from Mosterton; Eva called to say that grandfather had collapsed and had been taken into Yoevil Hospital with suspected heart attack. We immediately dropped everything and went down but sadly he did not recover consciousness and died on 12 May. He was just seventy; this was unexpected and a shock as he had only been with us in Moulsford last year and he had seemed very well then. He was cremated at Yeovil on 16 May with all his close relatives present; his step granddaughter Denise was a nurse at Yeovil Hospital and looked after him during his time in intensive care, his grand daughters, Dinah and Debra (Bernard‘s daughter) and his only grandson Simon. In his will he left the farm and his estate to Bernard apart from two small legacies to Eva and Rita; Rita bought a new piano with hers as she wanted to encourage Dinah and Simon with their music and she felt her father would have approved. The legacies to his two daughters was small and I think he felt that they had made good marriages and were well provided for whereas Bernard running a farm was always a precarious business. We had enjoyed Bert‘s visits to us in Moulsford and we remembered him fondly as good kind man and I think we were all grateful to him for encouraging us to acquire Mick our lovely Springer spaniel. Later in the month we went back to Mrs. Jones at Ymlch Bach for a week in May and I recorded completing the Snowdon Horseshoe in 6 hours. But for our main holiday in 1975 we booked a chalet in Switzerland at Zinal, an alpine village in an adjacent valley to the west of Zermatt. We used two smaller tents for overnight stops on the journey out and back.
116 According to Simon‘s scorecard 117 Wisden states that England went on to win by an innings and 255 runs Rutherford Laboratory 113
Plate 42: Mick at Moulsford, 1975
We drove through Belgium, Luxembourg into Germany and thence south to the Black Forest stopping near Freiburg. As we entered Germany and stopped for a picnic lunch by the roadside near a vineyard two tractors appeared and began to spray us and the adjacent field with insecticide; they did this with much laughter as we scampered quickly away. Some anti-German feelings, inherited from my father‘s generation view of Germans in WW2, came to the fore, probably ungenerous of me as there could have been a notice, or some warning which we did not heed. However by the time we reached the lovely Black Forest area and were safely camped in our little overnight tents above a pretty lake all ungenerous thoughts were forgotten. From there we followed the Rhine to near its source and then the Rhone down to Brig and Siere to Zinal. On the long winding and hilly road south to Zinal from the Rhone Valley we encountered several groups of Swiss Army at manoeuvres and I wondered if my friend Ch. 114 Moulsford & Camping 1971-1976
Iselin from CERN was among them. He the son of a General, was a Colonel in Switzerland‘s part time army. The chalet proved to be very comfortable with a fine balcony overlooking the valley. We were surrounded by many of the highest mountains in the Valais including the mighty Weisshorn (4505m) to the East and the Dent Blanche (4357m) to the South. The next two weeks were spent enjoying the Alpine meadows and I even managed some longer walks to view the Glaciers and climbed several of the smaller hills; this valley was largely unspoilt by ‗winter sports‘ facilities in those days
Plate 43: Zinal 1975 Rutherford Laboratory 115
Computing Applications Group 1972-1976
In parallel with our work on Integral methods we were experimenting with the finite element method as an alternative for 3D field computations and in this we were helped by Olek Zienkiewicz the renowned international authority. Jim Diserens and I developed a simple code using vector potential118. Thus began a very long collaboration with Olek and a series of very enjoyable visits to the University of Swansea in South Wales already mentioned (page 64). We had already been using the Swansea code FINESSE for stress analysis in superconducting coils in conjunction with our GFUN code for fields and electromagnetic body forces. We were able to apply these techniques to get a realistic estimate of the stress patterns arising in superconducting coils particularly in the design studies for the early Tokamak fusion devices119 — experiments to investigate the harnessing of the enormous energy released in the process of Nuclear Fusion. However, for static fields the use of scalar potentials is far more economical and together with the Swansea group we discussed the use of the reduced scalar potential for a 3D field code. This was then implemented at Swansea by adapting a standard Poisson Equation (see footnote page 42 and next section on page 129, for more technical information) solver and the results compared with GFUN. Good results were obtained for the test problem and for the time being the GFUN method was preferred as meshing was only required within the magnetic materials themselves and not the surrounding air space In order to promote the work at the lab on Interactive computing we decided to make a short film demonstrating the use of GFUN for magnet design that could be shown to visitors. We used a company in Slough for this and a small camera crew came to the lab in February 1973 to film me driving the program at our graphics terminal; several illustrative examples including the superconducting dipole shown in Plate 38 were used. I wrote a script which was to be narrated by a professional speaker and Mike Newman and I went to Slough to monitor the dubbing and oversee the editing. I wanted to use Magnetic Rag by Scott Joplin as the
118The gradients of potentials are related to the value of the magnetic field: there are two types of potential, the scalar form which has a single value and is only valid for static fields and the vector form which has three values at each point and is quite general. In the simpler case of 2 dimensions the vector potential reduces to a single component vector. 119 At this time the JET (Joint European Torus) project was being designed based on the Russian Tokamak system in which a plasma is heated in a ring-shaped vessel (or torus) and kept away from the vessel walls by applied magnetic fields. 116 Compumag at St Catherine’s College music but the film makers said that wouldn‘t be possible in the time scale owing to copyright issues, so some horrible electronic music had to be used. The completed film (just fifteen minutes in length) was unveiled during a lecture I gave at the Lab on 28 March. I was encouraging Mike Newman to extend our interactive graphics capability, especially for 3D modelling and he had made contact with researchers in this area in Holland so we arranged a trip to Nijmegen in March 1973; in those days it was very convenient to use the Harwich to the Hook of Holland ferry and then use the excellent Dutch railway service from Rotterdam. In 1974 I was approached by the Philips Company in Eindhoven by Simon Polak who had come to Rutherford to hear the lecture by Olek Zienkiewicz (see page 64) and had been following our joint work on Finite Elements and Computational Electromagnetics. Simon invited me to come to Eindhoven to give a lecture on our GFUN code. I again used the Harwich route, boat to Rotterdam and train to Eindhoven where Simon met me and took me to the Cocagne Hotel which was, in those days, was a very fine hotel indeed actually owned by the Philips Company. Over dinner he told me a little about himself: he had began his professional life as a schoolmaster teaching mathematics but was far happier making things out of wood and so made a compromise by a career change to applied mathematics. He decided that electrical and electronic applications would be congenial and he found himself on the Philips pay role, where he soon demonstrated technical leadership skills, and began to apply engineering design using computer science methods. Like us at Rutherford Laboratory he soon realised the importance of numerical methods in this field but the pressure of the Philips design teams for commercial products didn‘t allow him the luxury of building all the systems required from scratch, so he built up a small team to exploit existing methods. For two dimensional systems he acquired from Cambridge University a computer code120 developed for analysing magnetic lenses used in electron microscopes and adapted it for general 2-D magnetics problems which they called MAGGY and for 3D problems he wanted to explore with me the possibility of acquiring our GFUN code. It was a very pleasant evening and together we cemented a firm friendship and a productive scientific relationship that was to last for over twenty years; he also told me that his parents had perished in the Gas Chambers of Nazi Germany but he as baby had been adopted by a Dutch family. He appeared to be very level headed about this without and showed no signs of trauma. I spent a good day at the Philips research centre, met many of Simon‘s colleagues, and after my talk on GFUN they were anxious to try
120 Written by Eric Munro Rutherford Laboratory 117 it out for themselves and would be happy to purchase the code after a trial period. Unfortunately, we were not ready for such a venture as much work was needed on preparing the code and the writing of manuals etc. however a restricted version was sent to Simon for evaluation purposes. After a few weeks evaluation Simon said he was ready to negotiate a license agreement, so I had a meeting with Messrs Stiff and Gay121 of the patents office at Harwell who proceeded to draw up a contract for Philips. Simon came over and we soon had a draft contract which was signed by June but we agreed to produce more comprehensive documentation by September. A similar agreement was made with KEK National Laboratory in Japan. However, the demand from other laboratories to have a version of GFUN increased over the next two years and, because of reciprocal arrangements, GFUN was made freely available to: Daresbury Laboratory United Kingdom European Organisation for Nuclear Research CERN, Switzerland Centre d’Etudes Nucleaires de Saclay Saclay, France Institut fur Experimentalle Kernphysik, Karlsruhe, Germany Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (LRL) USA Fermi Laboratory USA Brookhaven National Laboratory USA Argonne National Laboratory USA Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre USA
Eventually it was decided that the appropriate organisation to exploit the Rutherford software commercially was NRDC122, and in 1975 I was asked to summarise the organisations that were currently making use of our magnet design expertise. This led to a new exploitation outlet as NRDC had created a special company called COMPEDA Ltd to market and sale inventions and software created by government funding in universities and national laboratories. At the end of June Harvey Rosten‘s two years with CAG would finish and he was to have his viva for his MPhil at Reading in September so we decided to have a group walk to celebrate his time with us which had been very productive. We decided that the Wye Valley offered a very varied route of about 10 miles across the Wye and nearby hills. The day was marvellous, good weather, good company and a good dinner afterwards, Harvey passed his viva on October 30th and his degree was awarded in December, both Doug Allen and I were present. Harvey
121 Sounds like a firm of ‗undertakers‘, I found John Stiff & John Gay a very professional team and they did a first class job in this early phase of software exploitation. 122 National Research and Development Corporation 118 Compumag at St Catherine’s College decided to join a company specialising in fluid flow, a spin-off from Imperial College, called CHAM. In fact the founder of CHAM, Prof. Spalding called me and asked me for a reference for Harvey which I was proud to give. Later, much later Harvey became the founder of his own company called Flowmerics.
Plate 44: Wye Valley Group Walk Start
Rutherford Laboratory 119
After the Harvey Rosten‘s experience, which had been so successful, I asked Doug if we could repeat the process, he agreed and got approval for another SRC funded studentship at Reading. Accordingly we recruited a fresh graduate from the University of Southampton to read for a PhD at Reading on a project to be carried out within my group at RL. His name was Christopher Biddlecombe who came from the Isle of Wight; he showed a strong interest in our research work on field computation and devoted the next three years (1975 to 1978) to extending GFUN to include time dependent fields. He later joined the group and was associated with me until I retired in 2005. During one of the discussions I had with Simon Polak early in 1974 we resolved to bring into being the idea of an international conference on Computational Electromagnetics (CEM), which also had strong support from David Thomas. We invited several prominent workers in the field, appointed an international steering committee (ISC)123 and had our first meeting at Rutherford Lab in 1974. I was elected the first chairman with John Simkin as the secretary. Among the members was John Carpenter (Imperial College), one of the most outstanding theorists in EM fields, whose deep knowledge and enthusiasm have had a considerable influence on our work particularly as he supported our desire to investigate fully the choice of formulations in field computations. Also involved and representing the Academic community were W Geysen (University of Leuven) and U Ratti (University of Rome) both foremost specialists in electrical power engineering. To cover the national laboratories we invited Ch Iselin from CERN, G Neyret from Saclay and J Erb from Karlesruhe all using computational methods for designing magnets used in Physics experiments. Finally, Industry was represented by Simon Polak (Philips Eindhoven) and John Steel (CERL Leatherhead). Both Simon and John headed active groups in developing methods for industrial applications. At our second meeting hosted by John Steel at CERL, Leatherhead (26 Nov. 1974), George Neyret proposed the name COMPUMAG for the conference which was immediately adopted. Over the next year we had several meetings in which our collective ideas were refined and many of the features that the Compumag retains to this day were worked out. In parallel with the work of the international steering committee we appointed an organising committee within RAL chaired by Frank Telling, a senior administrator. We decided to host the conference in Oxford and after checking availability and resources we decided to use St Catherine‘s, a relatively new college with, for those days, good facilities.
123 Not to be confused with the later ICS (International Compumag Society formed in 1993) 120 Compumag at St Catherine’s College
The college had a modern lecture theatre to accommodate 200 delegates and a significant number of student rooms to provide relatively cheap accommodation. There was also adequate ancillary space for an exhibition, and relaxation. During the period leading up to the conference the ISC met several times, thus we were determined that any lack of adequate planning should not militate against the success of the conference. One important task was to establish a mailing list of possible participants and, to this end, members of the committee provided names and addresses of over 1000 people. By April 1975 the call for papers setting the pattern that has been largely followed since was circulated, see Plate 46. From the outset the committee was concerned to make the quality of submitted papers as high as possible, so a practical reviewing procedure was devised using members of the committee124. The committee also gave careful consideration to the ‗invited speakers‘, many suggestions were made and possible speakers contacted. Finally we were able to secure the services of Prof. P Silvester (McGill University, Montreal) to present an overview of the current status in field computation, Dr Richard Stoll (University of Southampton) on recent developments in Eddy Current computation, Dr H Zylstra (NV Pbilips, Eindhoven) on material modelling and Mr M Newman (Rutherford Laboratory) on CAD techniques in Electromagnetics. The reviewing procedure was completed in November 1975 with 65 papers accepted but in those pre-poster days it was only possible to have 39 presented orally over the three days with the remaining 27 included in the proceedings only. The committee decided that each paper should be allotted 30 minutes with discussion, it was also agreed that selected questions and answers from the discussion should be included in the proceedings. The conference fee was set at £25 which would include the proceedings but not the cost of the dinner (~£6). Over 200 persons had replied positively to the announcement bulletins and the preliminary conference program circulated in January 1976 thus the scene was set. We were interrupted in our planning by an important lab event that took place on October 30th and this was the visit by the Engineering Board of SRC. As future project funding for Technology Division was changing towards Engineering Science for David Thomas wanted to put on a good show. The Chairman of the board, Prof John Brown125, spent
124 In later conferences this procedure was much modified in order to utilize a ‗peer‘ reviewing system involving the community at large. 125Head of Electrical Engineering Department at Imperial College and President of IEE(1979) Rutherford Laboratory 121 some time looking at the GFUN demonstration and I think was generally impressed with our work, see Plate 45.
Plate 45: Engineering Board visit to RL Oct 1975 L to R Author, John Simkin, Prof. Brown, ?, David Thomas, ? L to R John Simkin, Prof. Brown, Author
122 Compumag at St Catherine’s College
Compumag at St Catherine’s College
Plate 46: Compumag Oxford Announcement Rutherford Laboratory 123
The attendance at the first Compumag exceeded our expectations, the meeting attracted over 200 participants from universities (66), government laboratories (90) and Industry (58). Of these, 15 participants were from the USA/Canada, 5 from USSR and 191 from Europe including 89 from the UK. The conference was opened by Dr G Manning126 the deputy director of Rutherford Laboratory; in his welcome to the delegates he remarked on the importance of electromagnetic devices in current scientific research. The first lecture was given by Prof Peter Silvester who reviewed the current status of the Finite Element method, see Plate 47. The lively discussion following this paper set the tone of the whole meeting as the subsequently published proceedings illustrates where the text of the questions and answers can be read, see reference127. As most delegates were staying in the college itself there were opportunities for making friends and exchanging ideas during the evening. The five delegates from USSR made a strong impression on us as they invited John Simkin and me to their room for a midnight feast. They opened up a suitcase to reveal ample quantities of Vodka and caviar, their leader said, ‗we have come prepared as we did not know if you would be able to feed us‘. They were a charming group but, as was common in those pre glasnost days, they always appeared together as a group clearly under the direction of a ‗political‘ supervisor. Another feature of the conference was a series of demonstrations of software for field computation. Rutherford laboratory provided a remote terminal and a GEC 4080 workstation coupled to the RL IBM 360/195 128 main frame which attracted great interest. In addition to that of the RL group both Imperial College, London and CERL, Leatherhead were able to demonstrate their work. Several papers stand out in the memory by authors that were prominent in our community. These included, in no particular order; Christoph Iselin, Simon Polak, Theo Tortschanoff, Ted Deeley, Percy Hammond, Eric Munro, John Carpenter, Konrad Reichert, Zol Csendes, Giorgio Molinari, Sandro Viviani, Bill Lord, Richard Stoll, Tom Preston, David Jacobs, Peter Johns, Dave Lowther, Alain Bossavit, Peter Lawrenson, J C Nederlec, Ernie Freeman, Larry Turner, and others. There were some notable new developments reported for example the application of the Boundary Element method to electromagnetics129,
126 Director of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, 1980-85 127 Proceedings of Compumag Conference on the Computation of Magnetic Fields, 1976, Rutherford Laboratory, see www.trowbridge.org.uk/Documents/Compumag_Ox.pdf 128 In 1976 state of the art but now a dinosaur! 129 J Simkin & C W Trowbridge, ‗Magnetostatic Fields Computed using an Integral Equation derived from Green‘s Theorems‘ 124 Compumag at St Catherine’s College and the use of non-divergent vector finite elements for magnetic field calculations130. At this first conference there was only one social function and that was a conference dinner served in the college refectory. This was memorable, I have been repeatedly told over the years, about the rubbery nature of the ‗Duck‘ served but I was too busy talking to notice! The weather was very fine and everyone enjoyed the early spring sunshine and the many interesting sights in and around Oxford. At the closing ceremony Konrad Reichert made a fine speech to thank the organisers and the delegates for coming, and said finally, ‗I hope we can all meet again in Oxford soon‘. That has not happened, yet, but we have been meeting more or less every two years or so at many interesting places in the world.
Plate 47: Peter Silvester gives the first invited lecture131
A report on the conference appeared in the Rutherford Laboratory‘s Bulletin gives a summary of the event. This short article also appeared in the CERN Courier where it was acknowledged that the technical discussions at Oxford had made a significant contribution to magnet design for particle accelerators and fusion devices as well as serving the broader activities in the electrical power industry.
130 Z Cendes, ―Non-Divergent Vector Finite Elements for Magnetics Field Calculations‘ 131 Also in the picture sitting at the table left are the session chair (Bill Trowbridge) and secretary (John Collie) Rutherford Laboratory 125
One of the delegates to Compumag Oxford was Bob Lari from Argonne Laboratory, a colleague of Larry Turner and accelerator Physicist who had been using GFUN to design magnets; Bob became a very close friend of the group and shortly after the conference we took him out to lunch at the Crown & Horns (East Ilsley) one of our favourite watering holes; he later sent me the photograph of the occasion, see Plate 48). In 1981 he wrote the biblical spoof on how GFUN was created based on the characters shown in this photograph (apart from Jim Diserens who unfortunately was not present), see Appendix 1.
Plate 48: CAG at the Crown & Horns (1976) L to R John Collie, John Simkin, Larry Turner, Mike Newman, Endo San (Visitor from KEK Japan), Bill, Alan Armstrong
126 Compumag at St Catherine’s College
3. Computational Electromagnetics
The Wider Community 1976-1984 By 1976 the UK academic engineering community started collaboration with Rutherford Laboratory on a significant and far reaching project known as the Interactive Computing Facility which had the broad aim of providing an interactive computing network based on the emerging multi and single user mini computers. In order to provide application engineering software support my group was further expanded to organize a special interest group (SIG-EM) for EM field computation and to implement a developing suite of software for engineering applications. This SIG consisted of a mix of industrial and academic engineers and brought together some of the most influential practitioners in the country to guide us. Most of the people involved had already supported the first Compumag conference and created a forum of expertise which led to a series of workshops on eddy currents, first national then international, which became a pattern still emulated throughout the wider international community. It was during this period that we got to know the outstanding work of the McGill group (Montreal) under P P Silvester who made several visits to us which began at Compumag Oxford and led on to our association with Ernie Freeman and Dave Lowther at Imperial College. The pioneering work of this group had a considerable influence, particularly in the emerging use of single user machines and the application of FE mesh generation and CAD techniques. Also the ISC, after the Oxford experience decided to try and repeat Compumag in two years. In Oxford we invited Peter Silvester (University of McGill, Canada) and Konrad Reichert (AG Brown Boverie, Switzerland) to join the committee which they readily agreed to do. But who could we get to host it? The solution to this problem came about primarily through a small specialist conference held in Santa Margherita Liguria in Italy in June 1976; this meeting was organized by the CAD specialist Prof Frisiani (ICCAD, International Centre for Computer Aided Design, Genoa) under the auspices of the publishing house Wiley as an adjunct to their journal IJNME. The leading Finite Element method researchers Olek Zienkiewicz and Richard Gallagher (founders and joint editors of IJNME) were keen to produce a book based on the meeting which would address the use of Finite Elements in Electromagnetic Field problems. They invited Peter Silvester and M V Chari to edit the book; Chari had Computational Electromagnetics 127 been a collaborator with Silvester and indeed had written the first paper on applying Finite Elements to electrical machines132. For some time Olek had been a consultant to the Rutherford group and we had collaborated with him on applying the FE technique in 3d magnetostatic problems and he suggested that I might like to participate.
Plate 49: J C Sabonnadiere with Bill Trowbridge & Peter Silvester133
Plate 50: Chari, Zoltan Cendes & Peter Lawrenson
132 M Chari and P P Silvester (Editors), Finite element analysis of magnetically saturated d machines, IEEE Trans. PAS, 90, 2362 1971 133 Outside the Imperial Palace Hotel, Santa Margherita 128 The Wider Community
In the event Prof Frisiani invited many leading researchers some of whom had attended Compumag Oxford and these included, M Chari, Al Wexler, Peter Silvester, Bill Lord, Zol Cendes, K, Reichert, Sandro Viviani , Peter Lawrenson, Simon Polak and Jean Claude Sabonnadiere. The latter was the leader of a strong group of young researchers at Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble. He knew about Compumag Oxford from Peter Silvester and others but we had not met before. He broached the subject of his group hosting the next conference and over the next few days I became convinced that this would be good idea. This meeting at Santa Margherita with many of the major players in field computation proved to be very enjoyable with animated debates on the relative merits of FE, TLM and Integral methods. As all ready noted many of the papers from this conference were later published in book form and helped to publicize the work of a growing international community134. I was invited to make a contribution to this volume about our work on Integral Equations135 . I subsequently visited Grenoble as an external examiner in January, 1977 and had further discussions with Jean Claude and I agreed to consult the ISC to see if they would agree to Grenoble hosting the second Compumag Conference. Some remarks about the procedures involved in the calculation of magnetic fields and other physical quantities maybe helpful here. It is clear that the concepts of mathematics, logic, geometry (points, line and volume) and number are fundamental in quantifying nature and apart from anything else as Lord Kelvin has said, ‘...when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it‘136. However, the quantities to be measured arising from the physical phenomena are not directly available as in the case of spatial objects but are the consequence of the appropriate well established physical theory. For example, if an engineer needs to know the temperature distribution arising in a component when a source of heat is applied to its surface he will use the theory of heat conduction which is described conveniently in the language of mathematics. Indeed he would solve the equation of thermal conduction, Laplace‘s Equation137, which governs the way heat energy is transported through the body subject to the specific boundary conditions, i.e. the known applied sources and sinks for his particular problem. For simple objects a ‗closed‘ formula
134 Finite Elements in Electrical and Magnetic Field Problems. Ed. M V Chari and P P Silvester,Wiley, New York 1979 135 Applications of Integral Equation Methods to the Numerical Solution of Magnetostatic and Eddy Current Problems, C.W. Trowbridge 136 Lord Kelvin. Lecture to the Institution of Civil Engineers, 3 May 1883 2 137 In this case the partial differential equation T 0 , which covers a very wide range of physical phenomena arising in ‗steady state‘ flow Computational Electromagnetics 129 can often be derived and it becomes a matter of arithmetic to compute the temperature distribution. But for complex objects no such formula exists so the thermal equation has to be solved numerically by subdividing the object into simpler shaped sub regions where local relationships at adjacent regions can be derived for the temperatures and then by a process of integration, taking into account the boundary conditions, a numerical map over the whole body can be determined. In effect the continuous Laplace Equation is discretised into large set of linear homogeneous algebraic equations (see Plate 51 ). This approach is the basis of the Finite Difference (FD)/Finite Element (FE) methods.
Plate 51: Comparison of Differential & Integral Method138
Similarly in electromagnetics, where often the magnetic or electric field distributions are needed in order to design a electromagnet for example to meet a specification. In this case, however, the free space (air) surrounding the object (magnet) is itself a magnetic medium, i.e. magnetic fields are propagated throughout space. Thus, not only has the object (Coils, iron core) to be discretised but the surrounding space as well. There are many possibilities, depending upon the exact nature of the problem, for the kind of boundary conditions and sources. For a magnet energized by a coil, carrying an electric current (the source), in
138 The equations have to be solved for the vector U which represents the unknown ‗fields‘ corresponding to the known ‗sources‘ Q at each node of the mesh of elements shown in Plate 51 . The matrix of coefficients operating on U is large but sparse in the differential case but small and fully populated for the integral case. 130 The Wider Community isolation, the fields decay essentially to zero for points far away. Thus the discretised zone, in the surrounding space, can be terminated for points that are sufficiently far away139. Nevertheless the problem of generating good discretizations of a complex 3D geometric object embedded in free space at this time had not been satisfactorily solved although automatic grid (mesh) generation in 2D was by now a reality. This was the reason why we adopted the alternative technique of formulating the magnetic problem in terms of an integral equation when we began the GFUN development in 1970. The difference between the two approaches is one of a local description as opposed to a global description. Partial differential equations, e.g. Laplace Equation, describes local effects within the discretised space whereas the alternative integral equation expresses the field at any point in terms of the sum of all the ‗sources‘, both the known current sources from the coils and the induced magnetisation secondary sources present in the iron regions. With this approach only the active parts of the problem need to be discretised, leading to a smaller system of equations to be solved. Unfortunately the system is fully populated because every point within the model is coupled to every other point and not just to its near neighbours as in the classical differential methods. The down side of this is that the solution time and storage requirements are far higher. However for modest size of the systems (the number of discretised point) the trade off is often favours to the integral approach. This reasoning led to an increasing awareness of the limitations of our 3D integral code for iron dominated problems and for eddy current effects. Encouraged by the early success of the Swansea collaboration John Simkin and I embarked on the FE software development that ultimately became the 3d Statics code TOSCA140. For static field problems it is more economical in 3D problems to use scalar potentials instead of the field which is a vector quantity – 1 unknown instead of 3 at each mesh point. In essence the field is equal to the gradient of the potential and can be recovered from the potential by further processing. There are two main types of potential depending on whether the region concerned contains currents (reduced potential) or not (the total potential). The total potential cannot be used in current regions because field lines encircle the current paths leading to a multi-valued (non- unique) problem. Whilst the simplest approach is to use the reduce potential which is valid everywhere we encountered a problem, known as field cancellation between the induced and conductor source fields.
139 Of course, in practice, more elegant and accurate techniques to handle the ‗far field boundary‘ can be used 140 J. Simkin and C .W. Trowbridge, On the use of the total scalar potential in the numerical solution of field problems in electromagnetics, IJNME, vol 14, p. 423, 1979. Computational Electromagnetics 131
Eventually we evolved a solution using a combination of Total & Reduced potentials, using the total potential for current free regions. The finite element method proved to have all the flexibility needed to couple the regions together this allowed us to obtain excellent results for a wide class of problems which had proved difficult for GFUN. During the next few years we also developed a 2d general purpose code for static and low frequency fields which we called PE2D141 as well as a series of special purpose integral and boundary integral programs. This was a rich period indeed for us. John and I travelled extensively implementing the software at laboratories in the spirit of free exchange as was the custom in those days, particularly in the USA during September 1976 where we felt we were repaying a debt for the early encouragement many of the national labs there had given us. We began in New York visiting Brookhaven National Lab then on to Oakridge Laboratory near Knoxville in Tennessee; the security here was very strict and we were intrigued by the site guards who were very large ladies with heavy revolvers strapped around their immense waists. We spent two days installing the software but what I remember most was the canteen for lunch, we didn‘t have sufficient security clearance to use the smart restaurant and were taken by our hosts to queue in line for ‗food‘ dished into a polystyrene tray with plastic cutlery which I found very inefficient. But the best part was the end when we solemnly lined up to leave carrying our trays with us and dumping them into a huge waist bin. After Oakridge we flew to Alabama then on to Los Angeles and finally to San Francisco to visit Lawrence Livermore lab. I particularly remember us implementing the software in 1976 from a terminal over a modem line from our hotel room in Livermore as we did not have sufficient security clearance to go inside! Finally we moved to the bay area to install the software at Lawrence Berkeley; John Colonias had recommended that we stay at the Claremont Hotel with its stylish architecture and stupendous views of the bay area, John and I watched on TV in hotel bar some of the build up for the 1976 presidential election which had followed the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It pitted incumbent President Gerald Ford, the Republican candidate, against the relatively unknown former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate. Ford was saddled with a slow economy and paid a political price for his pardon of Nixon. Carter ran as an honest Washington "outsider" and reformer and was to win a narrow victory. We enjoyed our visit to Berkeley and visited John Colonias for dinner at his house in Walnut Grove; he also, knowing my strong interest
141 Poison‘s Equation in Two Dimensions, Poison‘s equation is a generalised form of the Laplace Equation 2Uq. 132 The Wider Community in Opera, provided us with seats at the San Francisco Opera for a performance of Britten‘s Opera, Peter Grimes. John Colonias and his wife were season ticket holders and since their tastes were for Italian opera didn‘t mind too much allowing us to take their place on this occasion. It was a fine production staring John Vickers as Grimes, Heather Harper as Ellen Orford and Geraint Evans as Captain Balstrode and the performance was conducted by John Pritchard. On the Saturday Steve Sackett, a colleague of John Colonias took us on a trip to the Yosemite National Park, where we hiked up to see the Yosemite falls; a marvellous day. Steve was a fine companion providing us with ponchos to keep us dry and a wealth of knowledge of the area; I had first met him during my visit to Berkeley in 1970. On our return to UK we were thrown into a series of meetings to organise a steering group of university and industrial people interested in field computation, to advise SRC on software provision for university research This was part of the Interactive Computing initiative set up by the engineering board; John Collie became the secretary of this group now known SIG-EM (Special Interest Group for Electromagnetics) and he and I spent several weeks visiting departments around the country in an attempt to sign up a number of key figures, in this we were helped by the contacts we made at Compumag and the meeting in Italy in 1976; Peter Lawrenson of the Leeds university was the obvious choice to Chair the group, Peter was one of leading electrical engineers in the UK with many innovations to his credit as well as being the author with Ken Binns (Southampton University) of a leading text-book on analytic methods for field computation (see page 152). He kindly agreed to serve for an initial period of three years which ensured that we would be taken seriously. I had known his co-author Ken Binns for some while and he readily agreed to serve as well. Also Professors Peter Johns (Nottingham University), Bob Paul (Bangor University), Fred Eastham and Ernie Freeman (Imperial College) offered their services; we also signed up John Carpenter (Imperial College) the leading theorist and Tom Preston (GEC, Stafford) to represent Industry. All in all this was a very strong team. The personnel of the SIG changed over the years with many younger researchers being brought in, when Peter had to stand down he was succeeded by Bob Paul who guided us for nearly four years, after which time Ken Binns took over; Ken moved from Southampton to Liverpool as the professor of Electrical Engineering and became a ‗champion‘ user of our software, particularly the new code TOSCA. Over the next decade the group met regularly and we were able to establish a strong interest in CEM in the UK and promote several research grants. We also arranged regular seminars opening up our work to the wider community. Computational Electromagnetics 133
1977 was also a productive year for me; to cement our growing relationship with the University of Grenoble I agreed to act as the external examiner (16 January) to one of Jean Claude Sabonnadiere‘s students, this entailed some significant study on my part as the thesis was written in French; here Alan Armstrong was a great help as he was a fluent French speaker. This experience was something of an eye-opener for me as the Continental system involves a jury of examiners who have to quiz the candidate in public following his presentation of his work to an audience of colleagues, family and friends. On my way in to the lecture theatre I noticed that the outcome was almost certain, as a feast was under preparation for a celebration; however this candidate was really first class and fully deserved to pass. I could not help wondering what would happen if this were not the case142 — I was told that this would never happen. In the UK the oral is done in private and candidates are sometimes failed or deferred. In February I gave my annual lecture to Doug Allen‘s students at Reading but was then involved in the arrangements for Compeda the NRDC Company to take over the marketing and selling the RL software in March. Our relationship with Imperial College was also getting much stronger; apart from John Carpenter who was involved in SIG-EM and the ISC for Compumag we had visits from Ernie Freeman and Peter Silvester who was spending a sabbatical at Imperial with regular visits to RL in addition. In July Jean Claude came to visit and attend the first meeting for planning Compumag 2, he was appointed to succeed me as the chairman and it was agreed to hold the conference at Grenoble in September 1978. Also in 1977 I was interviewed for an Individual Merit promotion to Senior Principal Scientific Officer; the interviews were to take place in London in the Civil Service Department, Old Admiralty Building on 26 April; to be considered for this was an honour and the anticipation of the coming ordeal made me feel very apprehensive. If I were to be successful it would allow me, within reason, to pursue research areas of my own choice within the framework of the laboratories‘ priority programmes. The invitation to attend gave directions, ‗…the building is situated in Spur Rd, off the Mall (just behind the statue of Captain Cook)‘. As I passed by the statue of Cook I felt mightily encouraged, being an ex seaman and navigator myself I felt I was in good hands. The panel consisted of a high powered group of scientists, engineers and civil servants (Including Prof W Cochran, Edinburgh and also Prof W Elliot Imperial College) but my chief interrogator was Prof R Mason
142 Later I was to experience such a case in which not all the candidates results were available at the time of the examination; I found myself in a minority of one but a compromise was found which allowed the ‗celebration‘ to proceed and by the time of publication the work was complete. 134 The Wider Community
(Sussex University) the chief scientific adviser to the government. Also present was the friendly face of Bob Paul the chairman of the SIG-EM. I was aware before hand that he was on the individual merit panel but it was made clear at the outset that he would remain silent during the proceedings. This was a stroke of luck for I am sure Bob would be able to make positive noises afterwards during their assessment discussions as he knew my work well. I remember very little about the questions except at one point Prof Mason said, ‗I put it to you Mr Trowbridge that you have made a career of touring round the world selling Rutherford computer methods‘. I said I saw nothing wrong with this as a clear demand was there and, as I believed strongly in technology transfer from the private to the public sector this was in the interests of UK Ltd. Prof Eliot asked me to discuss with the panel the key points in the software that made our methods innovative. This was ‗meat and drink‘ to me and I was able to give some account of this that seemed to satisfy them. One more thing I remember was the encouraging glance Bob gave me as I left the room.
Plate 52: From the House Journal Quest, Vol 10, No. 2, 1977
Computational Electromagnetics 135
I also remember seeing Jeremy Thorpe, the former Liberal Leader, crossing the Mall looking elegant in his ‗Edwardian‘ suit deep in conversation undoubtedly discussing Jim Callaghan‘s offer of a Labour- Liberal pact to avoid a general election143. In July I got a congratulatory letter from the Chairman of SRC, Sam Edwards, in which he said, ‗I was delighted to approve your special merit promotion today‘; so many thanks to Captain Cook and Bob Paul.
143 This was the day that Andrew Newton, who had been convicted of assaulting a close friend of the Liberal leader in 1976, was released from Jail and there followed a very public scandal which ruined Jeremy Thorpe‘s career. 136 Compumag Grenoble
Compumag Grenoble The following year in April 14th a PhD Student, Bernard Ancelle, from Grenoble came to RL for two weeks; he was working on some aspects of the Boundary Element Method which John Simkin and I had worked on earlier and Jean Claude had wanted him to study our approach. Bernard was also the secretary for the next Compumag Conference and wanted guidance from us in preparation for the ISC meeting to be held in Grenoble at the end of the month. The ISC confirmed the choice of Grenoble for the second conference and an inaugural meeting was held at Rutherford Laboratory to set the main parameters and arrange the handover of material144. Prof. Sabonnadiere was elected chairman of the ISC and Prof G Sacerdoti (Frascati, Rome) replaced Prof. Ratti who had to retire owing to other commitments. Jean Claude proposed that the conference should be held in September 1978. The committee decided as sufficient experience had now been gained there would be fewer planning meetings, particularly as the style and timetable evolved for Oxford would be substantially repeated. It was agreed that the crucial paper reviewing and the program planning meeting would be held in Grenoble on 25 April 1978. At the planning meeting it was decided to introduce two panel sessions on specialist areas; one on electrical machines and other on Higher Energy Physics applications. In the event there were 60 papers accepted for presentation at the conference, 33 presented orally, 12 presented during the panel sessions and 15 additional papers appearing in the proceedings only. The date for the conference was now fixed for 4th, 5th, & 6th September 1978 and would be held at The Laboratoire d‘Electrotechnique centre. Student style accommodation, as in the case of Oxford, would also be available The conference attracted over 180 delegates with several representatives from leading groups in USA, Canada, Japan as well as most countries in Europe. The conference included a number of invited speakers including Prof. O C Zienkiewicz one of the founding fathers of the finite element method who addressed in his talk the fundamental problem of dealing with open boundary problems and proposed a hybrid solution to the problem in which classical differential finite elements are coupled to integral elements using a boundary representation. David Jacobs from CERL surveyed some recent developments in the solution of large systems of equations including the seminal ICCG method of
144 The minutes have been mislaid but the meeting must have occurred some time in the spring of 1977. Computational Electromagnetics 137
Meijerink and Van der Vorst145, and M Lucas from Laboratoire IMAG, Grenoble, surveyed the state of the art in CAD appropriate to CEM.
Plate 53: ISC & LOC Grenoble, April 1978 Left to right: B Ancelle (LOC), Bill Trowbridge, Ch. Iselin, John Carpenter, Joe Erb, Jean Claude Sabonnadiere, John Steel, G Sacerdoti, George Neyret, J L Coulomb (LOC), Simon Polak, P Rafinejad (LOC)
145 J A Meijerink and V der Vorst, ―An Iterative solution method for systems of which the coefficient matrix is a symmetric M matrix‖, Maths. Comp., 31, 148 (1977)
138 Promoting the Rutherford Software
Promoting the Rutherford Software
In October Chris Biddlecombe‘s PhD thesis was examined at Reading; he had achieved all that was expected of him and the end result was a detailed comparison of methods for computing time dependent electromagnetic fields (e.g. Eddy Currents induced in conductors in the presence of time changing fields). Chris turned out to be a very organized talented young man with very strong religious beliefs which, whilst informing his activities, both social and work, he kept to himself unless asked. His written thesis was a model of economy and clarity, so much so that at the viva one of the examiners held it up, pretending to weigh it, and said, ‗it‘s a little light weight‘, he was comparing it to the usual thesis style of ‗heavy weight‘ paper bound between the two regulation thick blue boards, whereas we had produced the thesis as a standard RL report. Chris had no trouble convincing the examiners that he had made a significant contribution to the subject. At this time he joined RL staff and became a permanent member of the group. As the group was growing additional funding allocated by the Engineering Board was provided to equip a new area on the top floor of R25 with computer terminal facilities. At the heart of any numerical method for computing fields is the linear solver, the mathematical procedure for solving a very large set of algebraic equations, and the recent work reported by Meijerink & Van der Vorst (see footnote on page137) provided a major economy in computing time and thereby allowed far larger problems to be solved with an increase in accuracy. We quickly set in motion the software development to exploit this method and John Simkin soon had a working version, I remember Peter Silvester came down to see the results for himself and was able to reproduce this at Imperial College. John and I visited Albert Reece and Tom Preston at GEC Stafford where their small team were using Finite Elements for the design of electrical generators and motors and gave them a copy of the new solver. Tom was a true pioneer in the use of numerical methods in industry and working with him was a new graduate from University College London, Chris Riley who had a particularly good aptitude for this kind of work. Eventually, the promotion of software became his main interest and in 1980 he applied for a new post created by Compeda Ltd. He was offered a job in the new section there that had been specially set up by Keith Trickett under the management of John Whitney, a Mechanical Engineer by training but a Marketer and Salesman by circumstances. John Whitney now became a regular visitor to CAG and began to market and sale our software under the marketing name of REMUS (Rutherford Computational Electromagnetics 139
Electromagnetic User Software). One of his first actions was to send Chris Riley to see me at RL. Chris told me about the that fateful day; he said, ―everything was so informal at Rutherford, I was somewhat surprised, the gateman vaguely directed me to R25 where I would surely find Bill Trowbridge but I had no idea where. As it was close to lunch time there were few people about and I was about to give up when this casually dressed man came down the corridor so I asked him where I could find Bill, ‗I am he and you must be Chris Riley‘, he said‖. Chris soon became an honorary member of CAG and spent a few very productive months to familiarise himself with the REMUS products. On July 27th 1979 Rita and I set off to the US for a combined business trip and a short holiday in New York. This was Rita‘s first visit to America and experience of a ‗long haul‘ flight. Our first port of call was San Francisco and after the flight we were very tired and distressed by the awful delay in getting through immigration; it took several hours to process the very long queues with only one booth open; not a very friendly welcome. I vented my feelings by writing some remarks about the non-existent ‗special relationship‘ in the visitor‘s book a day or so later in the city hall. We eventually picked up a rental car and drove across the bay to Berkeley to rest up for a day at the Claremont Hotel and then on to Livermore (36 miles) to see Don Cornish about some further calculations we were carrying out on Superconducting coils. Rita rested up in Don‘s house for the day and was surprised to see his fully automatic garden spring in to action during the day, watering selected areas controlled by Don‘s computer. After a steak Bar-Be-Q we returned to the Claremont146 with its tremendous views of the Bay Area. The next day I had to give a talk to the magnet design group at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory about GFUN; I was able to give a demonstration of the latest version which was only available at Rutherford using the recently released ARPA Network, a satellite computer link, the forerunner of the internet. We had a good discussion with Klaus Halbach and others afterwards. The next day (3 August) Rita and I drove south to Monterey to see our old friend Olek Zienkiewicz who was spending a year‘s sabbatical at the Naval College. He offered to put us up in the retirement village chalet he was renting at a very favourable price. We stopped off at a supermarket on the way for a bottle of Brandy, Olek‘s favourite tipple, and on arrival we were very warmly welcomed by Helen, Olek‘s charming Canadian wife. Olek came in soon after with a huge steak for supper and, what with the Brandy and gossip, we enjoyed a balmy
146 Conceived as an English estate, the grounds of The Claremont Resort & Spa were selected for their astonishing views of San Francisco, California and San Francisco Bay; I first stayed here with John Simkin during our visit in 1976. 140 Promoting the Rutherford Software evening in the garden accompanied by humming birds. By Midnight the Brandy was all gone so we retired for the night. The next day we had a grand tour of the area, including Point Lobos with its superb rocky coast, the seventeen mile drive passing the famous golf courses and then lunch on Canary Row fishing dock in Monterey. In the afternoon they took us to Carmel with its famous Mission and then mercifully back to the chalet for a good rest. The next day being Sunday, and Olek, the good catholic that he is, got up early and went to mass. We had to go back to San Francisco on Sunday evening in order to fly to Chicago, the next leg of our journey. However, there was still time to stop off at a village market at St Juan Bautista and go for a swim in a lake (San Luis Reservoir) out in the desert. On a white wall of a village dwelling I notice some graffiti which look a little like a formula we both knew well; Olek came to look and gave me an impromptu lecture on the finite element method which, apart from his faith, Helen, and his liking for Brandy is his greatest passion. Our last view of Olek and Helen was of them bathing and relaxing in the cooling waters of lake as we drove away north under the hot bright sun towards the airport. They are a wonderful couple.
Plate 54: Olek Zienkiewicz on the beach near Monterey, 1979
Another couple awaited us in Chicago, Larry and Donna Turner, Larry and I had kept in close touch since he returned to work at the Argonne National Laboratory in 1973 and indeed he had been a regular Computational Electromagnetics 141 visitor to RL in the meantime having attended both Compumag Conferences. Apart from the pleasure of staying with them and getting to know their family, Ray, Scott and Paul (now growing up from the kids we last met in England in 1972) we were taken to a small neighbourhood theatre in nearby Lisle to see an amateur production of a play directed and starring Donna with Larry also playing a role. We knew that Donna was a teacher specializing in Drama but we had never seen them in action before; after all this time I cannot remember much about the play itself except the title which was, ‗Mind with a Dirty Man‘, listed as an adult comedy. Yet I do remember the strong impression the Turners made on us as actors and I began to regard Larry in a new way, we also discovered his private passion for writing poetry.
Plate 55: Larry & Donna Turner (1979)
Larry took me into Argonne Lab to attend the First GFUN users meeting which took place August 16. Some 25 participants from 15 different institutions attended this meeting and we heard four speakers discuss their experiences and modifications to GFUN. I also gave a talk on the most recent developments to GFUN and our newer software. Other speakers included John Colonias, Bob Lari, T Tucker (Oakridge), and E Leung (Fermi Lab). After the meeting Larry showed me some of 142 Promoting the Rutherford Software his recent work on a new code he named EddyNet which applies the Integral Equation method to time dependent problems; the energy loss in large scale magnets caused by spurious eddy currents was becoming a crucial issue in the design of superconducting magnets
Plate 56: The Silvester’s Retreat L to R: PPS, Author, Elizabeth & Rita Elizabeth & Pete and their cottage Ernie Freeman, Rita, Pete and the Author in the woods
We had some lively discussions on the best approach for calculating these effects as I was now favouring the Finite Element approach for this following the good results John Simkin and I had now obtained from our scalar potential code for time independent problems. I also believed the way forward was to use vector potentials to represent Eddy Currents in conductors as computers were now becoming powerful enough to solve the larger systems of equations involved. Larry also took me to visit Fermi Lab which was under construction when I was last here in 1970. Now a splendid white building graced the skyline in the shape of the mathematical symbol for PI, this was the hub of the giant 200 GeV Computational Electromagnetics 143 accelerator which was first operated in 1972 but with many major enhancements since; one staggering statistic: the new Tevatron147 accelerator will employ 1,000 superconducting magnets — rather encouraging for the humble magnet designer! From Chicago Rita and I flew to Montreal where we met up with Peter and Elizabeth Silvester. Ernie Freeman was also visiting McGill at this time so we three were invited to spend a week-end at the Silvester‘s cottage near a small hamlet called Brome near the Vermont border of the US (50 miles SW of Montreal). Our ‗sanity‘ refuge Elizabeth called it and indeed it turned out to be a magic place, deep in the woods with the ground carpeted by fungi which had to be collected for dinner. We enjoyed two days of peace with long walks across the Vermont border places quite unknown, apparently, to the customs and emigration authorities. Back at McGill we spoke for hours about the coming revolution in personal computing about to break out, with the advent of the single user minicomputers. Pete‘s vision was that Engineers would be demanding application software and that we should supply it and both Pete and Ernie and Ernie‘s young colleague at Imperial College were already making plans to start a company. I could see the logic with this but I was not yet ready to become commercial and I felt that our efforts at RL should concentrate on developing the techniques. In fact I envied the McGill/Imperial College set up as they had a continuous supply of research students that could be channelled both into development and exploitation.
Plate 57: Empire State Building Rita on the observation level and View towards the Twin Towers
147 The Tevatron, four miles in circumference and originally named the Energy Doubler when it began operation in 1983, is the world's highest-energy particle accelerator. Its 1,000 superconducting magnets are cooled by liquid helium to -268 degrees C (-450 degrees F). Its low-temperature cooling system was the largest ever built when it was placed in operation in 1983. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has designated the Tevatron cryogenic system an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. 144 Promoting the Rutherford Software
After Canada, Rita and I set off for New York for a short holiday before returning home. It was Rita‘s first visit to New York and she was keen to see as much as we could manage in just a few days. So we went to the top of the Empire State Building; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Macy‘s, Central Park; Greenwich Village and the Statue of Liberty. Then home to Oxford and back to work In December I met up with Peter Silvester in Grenoble to be a member of the examination Jury for the Thesis of Bernard Ancelle; this posed a problem for me as I discovered when reading Bernard‘s Thesis that some results had not yet been obtained. When the Jury deliberated the Chairman of the panel said, ‗Gentlemen are we all agreed that a Docteur d'État148 of the premier class should be awarded‘, I then commented that though the thesis was of very good quality I was concerned about the missing results. However I was informed that the results were indeed secure and that the thesis would not be published until these results were included and that I would be sent the appropriate information. So at this point we could rejoin the audience to announce the result and enjoy the celebratory meal. A major event in the organisation of Rutherford Laboratory took place in 1979 when the Appleton Laboratory149 was merged with the Rutherford Laboratory to form the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). Also in 1979 the SRC was renamed Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) to reflect an increased emphasis on engineering research. The previous year I joined IEE and, I suspect because of the growing relationship between Science and Engineering at RL, I was sponsored by Prof John Brown who had become the IEE President. Both David Thomas and I were elected Fellows. I also was asked to be a founder member of a new professional group named ‗Electromagnetics‘ under the chairmanship of Prof Hammond of Southampton University. In February 1980 we were asked by CERN to run a short course in Computational Electromagnetics; this arose out of the good results on accuracy we were getting for accelerator magnets using our TOSCA code. So John Simkin and I visited CERN for three days and gave a series of lectures on the theory and practical use of this system. I also gave a lecture at Harwell on 26th February on the same topic. John and I had recently submitted a new paper on the use of Scalar potentials and the TOSCA code to IEE Proceedings which was awarded the Maxwell Premium in 1981150
148 Equivalent to Habitation in Germany and PhD elsewhere. 149 In 1973 the Radio Research Station at Ditton Park became the Appleton Laboratory 150 Three Dimensional Non-Linear Electromagnetic Field Computations using Scalar Potentials, J Simkin and C W Trowbridge, IEE Proc Vol 27 pt B, No 6., Nov 1980 Computational Electromagnetics 145
In March 1980 we interviewed a young mathematics graduate from Oxford, Karen Thornton, to fill a new post in the group for which I had obtained approval. Our role was now expanding to include computational aspects of integrated circuit design particularly in the area of translating an electrical circuit into the geometric patterns which define a set of integrated circuit masks. These masks were then made at the Electron Beam Lithography Facility at RAL and subsequently used to fabricate a silicon chip. Support software had to be provided for this and John Collie with help from Karen was asked to provide this.
Plate 58: CAG Computing Room Fan Ming Wu and Karen Thornton in the foreground
Other notable events in 1980 included visits from Alain Nicholas, another of Jean Claude‘s ex students from Grenoble, who came for a two weeks visit in April to discuss our work on Boundary Element methods and the arrival of Fan Ming Wu from China in June who, as part of a British Council sponsored scheme, was to be attached to the group for two years. Towards the end of the year I met John Miller for the first time, John was a mathematician and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin as well as being a publishing entrepreneur151, and he came to discuss possible collaborations and to interest us in participating in the Nasecode
151 The founder of Boole Press 146 Promoting the Rutherford Software
Conferences, held annually in Ireland on electronic circuit CAD. There were several SIG-EM meetings and events during the year culminating in a well attended open meeting held at Cosenors House, Abingdon on 13 November. The second GFUN users meeting took place on September 24 1980 at the Westinghouse R & D Centre at Pittsburgh, organised by Jim McWhirter. About 20 participants from nine institutions heard John Simkin describe the most resent developments at RAL, including the work on TOSCA. The following year (1981) Compeda wished to intensify their market for the REMUS software in the US and as I was attending the next Compumag Steering Committee in Chicago in February John Whitney asked me to sound out Argonne National Laboratory if they would act as a broker for a deal to supply the big National Labs in the US with our newest software based on Finite Elements (TOSCA & PE2D). I contacted Larry Turner and he said that Bob Lari was willing to try and get approval from ANL for him to act as an intermediary. In the meantime John wanted to be introduced to these potential customers and I agreed to try and help. From Chicago I had arranged to visit Chari at GE and as they were already a customer for the UK‘s Gaelic Integrated Circuit design package, another suite of software sold by Compeda, we agreed to meet in Schenectady. Then I would accompany him on part of his tour, taking in Brookhaven NL in New York and Oakridge in Tennessee, after which I was committed to visit Westinghouse in Pittsburgh and then on to Canada. The start of this trip was not without some amusement. I flew to Chicago accompanied by Ernie Freeman (See next section for more details about Compumag Chicago) and we were to be met by Rich Smith the conference secretary and colleague of Larry‘s; he met us alright but the trouble began as he tried to direct me out of the rental car parking lot through the way in, which of course had a barrier for one way traffic only — it was very dark. Ernie was highly amused by Rich‘s antics and I gritted my teeth and ignored him until at least I found the right way out. I assumed as he was local, and that is why he came meet us, he would know the way to Argonne; that was my second mistake as he proceeded to lead us through a maze of streets first into a no-go area of a black ghetto and then to the funeral district which proved a ‗dead end! Once again I ignored him and finally found the correct freeway. After the visit to Chicago John Whitney and I went to GE in Schenectady where Chari decided he could not allow a ‗salesman‘ into his lab; I had been invited to give a lecture there and I was upset about the way John was being treated and threatened not to play; however Chari charmed his way out of the problem by claiming it was against the rules GE of commercial security and inviting John to a good lunch Computational Electromagnetics 147 afterwards. We had another small adventure on Long Island on our way to Brookhaven NL152; we had boarded a taxi at Kennedy and the driver ignored our plea to be taken west to Brookhaven and headed straight for downtown New York; it transpired that he was from Cuba, could not speak English and only knew the way to New York. So he dumped us in the road miles from anywhere. Eventually we found a pay phone and called a local taxi firm; John was very philosophical about these travelling mishaps as he had been marketing and selling engineering products all over the world for years. We had a good visit to BNL and then went on to Oakridge; this time we had proper clearance and were allowed to dine in the ‗smart‘ restaurant and John was well pleased that he had made good contacts. I drove him to Memphis as he was going on to the west coast from there and I returned for a further day at Oakridge then on to Pittsburgh and Canada.
152 We must have stayed at least one night in New York City as I attended the City Opera for a matinee performance of Carmen and then the same day in the evening The Magic Flute at the Met on Feb 21. 148 Compumag Crosses the Atlantic
Compumag Crosses the Atlantic After two successful European based conferences the committee decided it was time to look further afield. The ISC chairman Jean Claude Sabonnadiere wrote on 8th January 1979 to all members as follows: Dear Colleague, As you remember, at our last meeting in Grenoble we foresaw some places for the venue of Compumag III. After some contacts have been taken by Bill Trowbridge and myself, we have now a proposal of Larry TURNER to hold it at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, U.S.A in Spring 1981. This seems to be an excellent way to stimulate the international interest of our Conference to hold it once in North America and then come back into Europe. To know officially your opinion about this proposal I would suggest you write me back your opinion before February the 8th (with the rule no reply = agreement) .If every body agrees I shall give a positive reply to Larry Turner; on the opposite if a discussion seems necessary I will propose a meeting during February or March 1979 to make the decision. Looking forward to hear from you at your earliest convenience I wish you a happy and successful year 1979. Yours sincerely J C Sabonnadiere
As there were no objections to this, the offer from Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) was welcomed by the committee. In order to arrange a smooth transition Larry Turner came to London to attend the first meeting on 2nd July 1979 held at Imperial College153. Larry was chosen as Chairman of the ISC; and Richard P Smith, also of ANL, was chosen secretary. Ch. Iselin resigned as Vice-Chairman. Peter Silvester was chosen to succeed him. The membership of ISC had further changed as at the end of the Grenoble Compumag John Carpenter and Willie Geysen resigned and were replaced by David Lowther (Imperial College) and Ron Holsinger (New England Nuclear, USA) respectively. David had been a graduate student of John Carpenter at Imperial but had recently become Peter Silvester‘s principal co-worker and would be joining him in Canada. The committee wished to strengthen membership from North America and the inclusion of Larry, Ron and now David would do that. To fill the vacancy from Imperial College who through John Carpenter had been such an important factor in the evolution of Compumag (the committee wished to retain their involvement), Professor Ernie Freeman, head of the CEM activities at Imperial, volunteered to serve. Ernie apart from his work on field calculations was very much involved in the IEE and power
153 Minutes of ISC Meeting, 2 July 1979 Computational Electromagnetics 149 engineering activities in the UK. Konrad Reichert also resigned owing to pressure of work in transferring to the Swiss Institute for Technology, Zurich. The new committee reviewed the conference topics and made some changes. For example the limitation on magnetostatic and low frequency fields was removed and in future all Electromagnetic field calculations would be covered, with the exceptions of semiconductors and of antennas and similar low power-high frequency devices. It was also decided to have a four-day conference in order to avoid parallel sessions, or evening sessions if there were sufficient good papers. The date for the conference was scheduled for September 1981 but plans for the venue, either ANL itself or downtown Chicago were still to decided. The biggest innovation for Compumag Chicago was, however, the decision to publish the proceedings in the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics. The committee warmly endorsed this as the exposure for our work would dramatically increase, but it was stressed that a satisfactory agreement must be reached on the refereeing process. Just six months before the conference the ISC met in Chicago154 in order to referee the submitted abstracts, finalize the program and ratify the good work carried by the ANL organization over the planning period of the previous year. Larry throughout had been ably assisted by his ANL colleagues Bob Lari and Rich Smith. The preliminary notice and call for papers had been sent out and 79 abstracts had been received. At the meeting it was announced that the conference would take place at the Chicago Pick-Congress Hotel. The conference fee would set at approximately $185 which would include the conference dinner and a copy of the proceedings. Plans and rules for refereeing the final papers for Magnetic Transactions were then discussed. The IEEE rules for publishing conference proceedings in those days were less onerous than today as only one reviewer per paper was required. The committee decided that each committee member would be responsible for having ten papers reviewed, preferably before leaving the conference. We were also informed that the IEEE was planning to publish in IEEE S-MAG Transactions in March 1982. The abstracts (paper summary) were then refereed by the committee. All abstracts were reviewed twice and this task was completed prior to the end of the first day of the meeting. Next, a paper by paper resolution of the two reviews was carried out, with detailed discussion if necessary. On the second day the final program was drawn up with 47 papers accepted for oral presentation, 26 for proceedings only and 4 rejected155.
154 Minutes of the ISC, Feb 16-17, 1981 155 How easy it all seems in those days compared to now! 150 Compumag Crosses the Atlantic
The meeting end with the committee expressing their thanks to Bob Lari, Rich Smith, Larry Turner and last but not least to Miriam Holden the manager of Conference planning at Argonne. Meanwhile major changes were made to RAL organisation in April 1981 when the responsibility for engineering applications software was transferred from Computing Division to Technology Division. Under the new arrangements the existing Technology Division CAG, which had for many years carried out a programme of engineering computing, writing software for electromagnetics and microelectronics, was expanded and reorganised to include all the engineering software activities formerly managed by the Interactive Computing facility.
Plate 59: The Expanded Computing Applications Group L to R. Seated: Alan Armstrong (onfloor), Alan Bryden, Subodh Chanda, Bill (Group Leader), John Simkin, Robert Gay, John Collie. Standing: Jim Diserens, Chris Biddlecombe, Sally Hall (Secretary), Pravin Savjani, Peter Crowhurst, John McLean, Ken Paler, Chris Greenhough, Peter Dewar, Tom Randle, David Boyd, Dave Porritt. Mike Newman and Ken Robinson were absent
This was a tremendous endorsement of our achievements but a far larger group would mean a less focussed life for me particularly, however I was determined to continue to promote my particular interest which was and remains electromagnetics. Also my secretary, Jane Madgewick, had to leave as she had recently married and was to move to Stevenage. However our misfortune was Compeda‘s gain as I Computational Electromagnetics 151 recommended her to John Whitney and she subsequently joined Compeda. Jane was replaced by Sally Hall, an efficient and well read lady with whom I occasionally discussed books but our tastes were different and sometimes led to strong differences in opinion. . I had to reorganise the expanded group into sections which reflected the various SIG‘s, i.e. Artificial Intelligence and Control engineering (Alan Bryden), Electric Circuits (Mike Newman), Electromagnetics (Jim Diserens), and Finite Elements and Tools for Interactive Programs (Ken Robinson).
Plate 60: Bloomsday 1981
Earlier in May 1981 I had attended the IEEE magnetics conference INTERMAG in Grenoble to give an invited talk on 3D Field computation. Also, David Thomas was now named by SERC as the Director of Information Technology in addition to his leadership of Technology Division at RAL. This activity led him play an important role in the ‗Alvey‘156 Directorate a British government sponsored
156 The original Alvey is John Alvey, former Senior Director, Technology, at British Telecom (now retired). Alvey chaired the committee that recommended the launching of a major industrial technology program. 152 Compumag Crosses the Atlantic research program in information technology that ran from 1983 to 1987. The program was a reaction to the Japanese Fifth generation computer project. In June I was invited by Peter Lawrenson & Ken Binns to join them as a co-author of a new book to be published by Wileys; in part it was to be a major revision of their earlier text157 with several new chapters written by me on Numerical Solutions; this occupied me and them for a number of years and was eventually published in 1992158. Also in June I attended the Nasecode Conference in Dublin; this was notable for two things for me both of them concerning John Miller the conference chairman; firstly, he had been pressing me to put forward Dublin as a possible venue for the next Compumag and secondly, to be a founder member of the editorial board of a new Journal he was creating called COMPEL which was to be targeted at computational aspects arising from all aspects of the electrical industry. In order to persuade me that Dublin was the place for Compumag and knowing my interest in James Joyce, the great Irish writer, he persuaded the Mayor of Dublin to invite me to a reception and lend me his official car with chauffeur for a tour of the Joycean sites. I happened to be there on Bloomsday159 so this was very appropriate and I thoroughly enjoyed the outing, see Plate 60. Unfortunately for John, his bid to host the next Compumag, as will be seen, was turned down as the committee thought that the rival bid from Italy was stronger.
157 Analysis and Computation of Electric and Magnetic Field problems, Pergamon, 1962, 1973 158 The Analytical and Numerical Solution of Electric and Magnetic Fields, Wiley, 1992 159 Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904. The day is a secular holiday in Ireland. The name derives from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses, and 16 June was the date of Joyce's first outing with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, when they walked to the Dublin village of Ringsend Computational Electromagnetics 153
At Compumag in Chicago and afterwards at RAL
Plate 61: Opening Compumag Chicago, Gail Pewitt & Larry Turner
The third Compumag was opened by Gail Pewitt, Deputy Director of Operations, ANL. A major technical advance was reported at this conference which, was the introduction of ‗edge‘ finite elements to the CEM community by Alain Bossavit & Jean Claude Verite160 . Another broad development was the use of single user computers and new packages for field computation with contributions by groups from McGill, Rutherford Lab, ANL, GEC (USA), GEC Power (UK), NV Philips, and Grenoble. Several University groups also taking a leading role included Prof Nakata‘s team at Okayama Japan and Dave Rodgers from Bath, UK. The social events and excursions were very popular. The conference Banquet was held at the famous 95th floor of the John Hancock centre and after the feast we were entertained by a well known local singer, Arlene Robertson, who sang a selection songs from Broadway musicals. This was a very enjoyable experience though, in common with most conference banquets, not everything was perfect as several delegates said that the ‗pears‘ served in the ‗sweet‘ were rather tough—shades of the rubber duck at Oxford. Immediately after the conference Bob Lari organised the third GFUN user meeting, with 53 delegates from 34 institutions attending. The RAL staff members present were able to
160 Alain Bossavit and Jean-Claude Verite, A Mixed Fem-Biem method to solve 3-D Eddy Current Problems, IEEE Trans, Mag. Vo; 18, No 2, March 1982, p431 154 At Compumag Chicago and after at RAL describe the most recent developments at RAL, but there were four presentations about GFUN and the remaining four were on other programs. After Compumag in Chicago Rita and I had a post conference holiday touring in New Mexico, Arizona (Grand Canyon) and Nevada (Las Vegas). But we had to stop off at Albany before returning home to attend the Whitney Symposium a prestigious conference organised by GE and through the good offices of Chari I had been invited to make a presentation on the computational work at RAL. Here we met up with Peter Silvester who was also giving a talk. This meeting turned out to be a very pleasant experience with organised walks through the nearby forests in the golden fall of the year. I was a little puzzled by Peter Silvester‘s odd behaviour; he presented us with two delicious apples and then disappeared and when I asked Chari where he had gone, Chari merely said, ‗that‘s Pete for you he gets bored quickly‘.
Plate 62: The Whitney Symposium, 1981
Then in October a tragedy came upon us when Karen Thornton our newest group member sustained a very serious accident at her home when a balcony collapsed. She went into a coma from which she never recovered. Poor John Collie was devastated the most, because he and she worked closely together, but we were all deeply saddened by her loss. She and John were doing great work. Computational Electromagnetics 155
In November the first planning meeting for Compumag No. 4 was held. Plans for the next Compumag had been discussed at meetings held during the Chicago conference in September. There were two front runners, Trinity College Dublin and the University of Genoa. The following extract from the minutes161 relates the discussion and decision:
3. Venue of COMPUMAG-4 Larry prefaced the discussion with the remarks that hopes for a COMPUMAG meeting again in two years are jeopardized unless a venue can be chosen before the Committee disbands at this Conference. Bill, along with Simon, talked to John Miller and learned that John expects a formal reply to his proposal since he has been sponsored by others in Dublin. John has agreed to the points raised by the ISC, vis, ISC Chairmanship, ISC choice of Proceedings publishers, and in fact John offered to hold COMPUMAG in Galway one year from now if the ISC so desired. Bill received the desired concrete proposal from the Italians and believes the Italians are sincere, and guesses they would re-extend their invitation two years hence if they are passed over this time. It was judged that John Miller will advertise heavily, but Simon remarked that attendance at NASECODE is smaller than at COMPUMAG. Jean-Claude reminded the Committee of the importance of having a host team that is professionally involved in magnetic computation. His point was acceded to by all, and after some discussion of the point Ernie proposed that the ISC accept the Italian proposal. Bill remarked that the recent Italian meeting was well run.
Thus the decision was made. John Miller took the decision on the chin and understood the reasons very well I thought — it was clear to me that I would be hearing more from him about other projects in the future. At the final wrap-up meeting, two days later, Sandro Viviani (University of Genoa) was elected to the ISC to replace G. Sacerdoti who had resigned. Also Sandro‘s close colleague Professor Giorgio Molinari was welcomed as the conference secretary. Giorgio Molinari described in more detail the possible sites for the conference and after some discussion the committee agreed to the Santa Margherita option. The choice of date and detailed planning would be discussed at the next ISC meeting in Genoa on 12 November 1981 The ISC met to start planning Compumag 4 in the ancient and beautiful Ligurian city of Genoa appropriately on 150th anniversary of Maxwell‘s birthday, Nov 13th which that evening was celebrated by the committee in the Hotel Londres in fine style. Apart from Sandro Viviani, our host and new chairman, and Giorgio Molinari, the new secretary we welcomed one new member, Taka Nakata, a very distinguished researcher from Okayama in Japan. This was an important step of the
161 Minutes of the Ad-Hoc Meeting for the consideration of Venue for Compumag-4, Wednesday Sep 16 1981 156 At Compumag Chicago and after at RAL conference organization to take in making us more international. Furthermore during the run up to Compumag Genoa Ch. Iselin resigned as he had been transferred to other work at CERN; he recommended that he be replaced by Theo Tortschanoff who was active in accelerator magnet design. The number of members remained at 14 as both Prof Sacerdoti and John Steel also resigned after Compumag Chicago.
Plate 63: Compumag Genoa: Sandro Viviani with Bill Trowbridge after the ISC meeting in Genoa
The most important innovation decided by the committee was the introduction of Poster Sessions. This allowed our tradition of no parallel sessions to be maintained but with the advantage of including more papers. The members also felt that the poster papers should be in no way regarded as second class and indeed would provide a more intimate and meaningful discussion of new work. Further meetings would be arranged during the build up to the conference to decide the contents of the announcement bulletins and finally to review the submitted summaries. Again the proceedings would be published in the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics after a final review. The conference venue would be at the Hotel Miramare in Santa Margherita Ligure, near Genoa on 30 May to 2 June, 1983. The ISC were conveyed by our hosts to visit Santa Margherita and the beautiful surrounding countryside. On the day of our departure Ernie and I had several hours to kill and we decided to go to Nervi, a small seaside resort Computational Electromagnetics 157 a few miles to the south, we went by Taxi and asked him to wait whilst we had some refreshment in a small bar overlooking the beach; the driver didn‘t seem to mind, I noticed he was reading Almayer‘s Folly, the Novel by Joseph Conrad, in English — another example of how much better our European neighbours are at languages than we are. The Folly was ours though, as we discovered, we had no cash left to pay the bill in the bar. In true Italian style the bartender reached for a bottle of grappa and poured us both a stiff one whilst we fumbled through our pockets for cash, credit cards were of no use, but I found I had some English pounds which saved the situation, indeed enough for the taxi as well. On the 30th of November Clive Bryant, a PhD student at Imperial College, came to RAL to have his viva in my office. Clive had been working on a project closely coupled to our work and I was asked to be his external examiner. His supervisor at IC was none other that the electromagnetics guru John Carpenter who had been involved in Compumag and our SIG-EM work. John said he preferred to have Clive‘s exam off-site because it be more relaxing for him. I am not sure about that in the event as John was several hours late for the ordeal and Clive was kept hanging about for most of the day. He finally turned up on his ferocious motor-bike, clad head to foot in black leathers which he proceeded to divest as Clive and I waited patiently. You would think that John would have been easy on him after this, but not a bit, as he proceeded to attack Clive‘s project, not because of the quality of the work, but the nature of the project itself which he, John Carpenter himself, had proposed in the first place. John, forever self critical, thought he should have proposed a tougher project for Clive. I didn‘t agree as the work was an important contribution to Computational Electromagnetics. Alls well that ends well and we duly passed Clive. In March 1982 the laboratory had to play host to a distinguished visitor the Minister for Science, Margaret Thatcher‘s fellow traveller, Sir Keith Joseph. The Chairman of SERC applied a lot pf pressure to the lab to ensure that we put on a good show and I suggested from my area that we should invite Prof. Olek Zienkiewicz to participate in a presentation of our Finite element work. Though this was indeed a small part of RAL‘s work it was considered to be significant in as much that offered an example of a very useful and practical engineering application to balance the very expensive ‗big science‘ projects for which the lab was mainly known. Olek agreed to come and do his best, so we prepared a series of display boards and such like and fine tuned a TOSCA live interactive demonstration. Olek would speak to the display boards which illustrated the universal good work that FE was doing in large scale Civil Engineering and Industry. Sir Keith was accompanied by a retinue of servants, civil and otherwise and some of them were distinctly self 158 At Compumag Chicago and after at RAL satisfied. However the main man was in good form; he had asked for a pre tour talk with senior scientists and as soon as we had assembled he asked about the ‗Big Bang‘. Then followed a number of sincere comments by our theorists only to be soon interrupted by the minister who asked, ‗ Well now, what happened before the Big Bang?‘, an unfair question perhaps which was greeted by stony silence‘. Sir Keith looked around at us and then said, ‗Oh well, I suppose that‘s a question for theologians‘.
Plate 64: Close Friends at Cosenors House Abingdon L to R: Bill, Olek Zienkiewicz, Larry Turner and Jim Diserens
Soon after we moved on to the demonstrations and I had the privilege of escorting the party to our computing room where Olek and the others were waiting. Olek was introduced and gave a very confident account of the Finite Element‘s methods success in a wide range of fields. However, we were interrupted by one of the minister‘s minions with whispered messages162 and I was encouraged by Geoff Manning and David Thomas to cut things short but I insisted on showing the ‗live demo‘ . But Sir Keith‘s mind was already on to ‗higher things‘, so the show had to be curtailed. Olek asked me afterward how well did he do; I
162 The Falklands War was about to break out, the Task Force left UK on the 5th April Computational Electromagnetics 159 told him he was brilliant but that we were a poor alternative to the Big Bang. In October 1982 another US trip loomed. Alan Armstrong and I were to provide technical expertise at COMPEDA user courses to be held at New Jersey and San Francisco and then attend the fourth GFUN users meeting to be hosted by Colorado State University at Fort Collins and finally a visit to Montreal to see Peter Silvester. The course was held in New Paramus at the offices in New Jersey rented by Compeda. If I remember correctly we had about 15 attendees and it was quite successful with Chris Riley giving most of the course with support from Alan and me. We managed a visit into New York where Chris and I went to the Met for a performance of Verdi‘s La Forza del Destino, conducted by James Levine with Leona Mitchell, Carlo Bergonzi and Sherrell Milnes; a fine performance with Gabriel Bacquier notable in the comic part of Fra Melitone. Before leaving New York Alan, Chris and I went to visit the Twin Towers where we had a dinner in a restaurant near the top with marvellous views of the harbour. We next went out to California to repeat the course which was run by Chris, Alan and the local Compeda representative Bob Anson; I was not involved as I had agreed to visit Lawrence Berkeley to see John Colonias163. After this we all met up in nearby Livermore for a visit to see Don Cornish and the fusion magnet group, and it was whilst we there, staying in the Holiday Inn, that I received a phone call from Ramona, Chris Riley‘s wife, during the night to tell me that Compeda had announced that the company had been sold to Prime Computers Inc. I immediately woke Chris up and he was able to call her back. This news was very upsetting to Chris as his future now seemed insecure. Chris later the same day received confirmation from Compeda and was told they were all on three months notice. In the meantime Chris and Bob were told to continue with their planned trip with Alan and me to attend the GFUN users meeting in Fort Collins. Our hosts were Bill Lord, the Professor of Electrical Engineering and his colleague Nathan Ida both regular Compumag supporters. The GFUN users meeting was a US forum, held annually to discuss the RAL software, organised by Larry Turner and Bob Lari, and we were now trying to stimulate interest in our other codes, PE2D and TOSCA as replacements for GFUN. At this meeting it was decided, because of the wider scope, to rename the event Magnetics Computation Users Meeting or MAG-U-Comp for short. The mission statement for meetings was defined as a forum to bring together users of magnetic computer programs from industry, universities and national laboratories to discuss informally their experiences in this field. There were 25 delegates
163 John had two spare tickets for the Opera, ‗Marriage of Figaro‘ with the delightful Lucia Popp singing Susannah, Alan said he liked the tunes but the bits between were boring. 160 At Compumag Chicago and after at RAL attending the meeting which was held on the 22 October. After six full presentations an update on the RAL software was presented by the Alan and me. During the last year I had been experimenting with a new class of single user work station machine (PERQ) manufactured by ICL under licence from Three Rivers Computer Corp in Pittsburgh. For this machine I had written a new code (APPLE164) to analyse a range of field problems including magnetics, electrostatics, torsion and heat flow etc. The system offered high performance graphics and real time interaction. I managed to persuade Three Rivers to send a PERQ to Fort Collins in time for the meeting and our new software was installed without errors and we were able to demonstrate its capability.
Plate 65: Some of the delegates on the Trail Ridge Rd. L to R: Dick Early (SLAC), Larry Turner (ANL), Chris Riley (Compeda), Bob Anson (Compeda), Bill (RAL) and Bob Lari (ANL)
After the meeting we visited Estes Park and had a relaxing two days visiting Bear Lake and driving along the ‗Trail Ridge‘ Rd. From Fort Collins Alan and I drove back to Denver for the next leg of our journey. Our Rental car conked out halfway and we managed to drive off road a little way to a farm; the lady of the house was very suspicious of us but eventually let us use her phone to get help. The rental company sent out a breakdown vehicle and we completed our journey to Denver being towed. On arrival in Montreal we upset Peter Silvester by taking a rental
164 A Pascal Program for Laplace Equation — this was the forerunner of a more advanced system developed by John Simkin and myself, see Compumag Genoa Computational Electromagnetics 161 car out to his retreat at Brome, as he had given us detailed instructions of buses which we ignored. Instead of quarrelling with me he had go at Alan; Elizabeth intervened and Peter calmed down — a strange but quite brilliant man. I was appointed the Chairman of Professional Group S8 and as the new chairman I wrote an article for the IEE to introduce the 82/83 program of events165 in which I tried to be encouraging but stressed the difficulties that would arise if we confused information with knowledge. I also questioned whether the confidence originally showed by our group was ‗well founded‘ — ‗can the computer solve realistic problems‘, i.e. will computer based algorithms predict fields to the accuracies required by designers? In those far off days of 1982 I suggested it was a matter of concern that an unqualified answer in the affirmative was true only for a very small number of cases. A question that I hope to come back to — are things really any better today? I spent the first few months further developing the PERQ program I had first presented In Fort Collins and with John Simkin‘s help we extended the system to include a new model building facility enabling more realistic problems to be solved in real time. In this we were following the seminal work carried out at McGill under the direction of Peter Silvester in the use of Single User Machines (SUMS) in 1977 which in their case the target machine was the PDP11166, however the PERQ was a more advanced machine offering more power and higher quality graphics. Actually we had been a little behind in these developments having concentrated on the multi-user and mainframe machines. Just before Compumag Genoa in May Ernie Freeman gave his inaugural professorial lecture at Imperial College and I had been invited to make the closing speech. Ernie had founded Infolytica Corp to market the ‗MAGNET 2-D Software for electromagnetics in 1978 jointly with Peter Silvester and David Lowther. In 1978 David joined Peter at McGill University in Montreal and most of the developments were done there. I remember Pete inviting me out to lunch to ask me if I thought Ernie
165 Electromagnetics and Computing — Wisdom, Knowledge and Information ?,, Appeared in IEE Divisional News — SETLINK October 1982 166 The PDP-11 was a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corp. in the 1970s and 1980s. The PDP-11 was a successor to DEC's PDP-8 computer in the PDP series of computers. It had several uniquely innovative features, and was easier to program than its predecessors. It was well-liked by programmers, and it was replaced in the mid-range minicomputer niche by the VAX-11 32-bit extension of the PDP-11. Much of the market for both machines would be taken by personal computers, including the IBM PC and Apple II, and workstations, such as those from Sun Microsystems.
162 At Compumag Chicago and after at RAL would be upset if he was ‗poached‘ to go to McGill; I found this strange as it soon appeared that this was part of the plan all along.
At Compumag Genoa Most delegates came by air or train but some decided to sail, not across the Atlantic as the picture shown in Plate 66 suggests, but from Marseilles to Santa Margherita in a yacht chartered by Jean Claude Sabonnadiere crewed by Compumaggers, Lowther, Polak and Deeley. Santa Marherita in June was delightful and spirits were high and the meeting finally got underway on Monday May 30th but not before a reunion and reception held by the pool the night before.
Plate 66: Compumag moves to Italy
The conference was opened by Professor G Biorci, head of the Electrical Engineering Department of the University. The conference was Computational Electromagnetics 163 well summed up in the introduction to the proceedings by Sandro Viviani and Giorgio Molinari which included the following statistics:
The 1983 Compumag-Genoa Conference, hosted by the Electrical Engineering Depart University of Genoa, was held at the Miramare Hotel in Santa Margherita Ligure, on the Italian Riviera, and included participation by 175 attendees from 19 countries, nearly balanced as to affiliation between universities and industrial/research organizations. The Conference Proceedings contains 98 papers, which were presented either in oral or in involving the work of 186 authors. Poster sessions, first introduced at COMPUMAG-Genoa, have been very well received by the audience.
Plate 67: Relaxing on the Miramare Terrace L to R: ?, Lowther, Tortschanoff, Rita Trowbridge, Irene Lowther, Nakata, Turner, ?, Hazel Freeman
The conference was a technical success with several papers introducing new methods in Computational Electromagnetics. These included fundamental work on Dual Energy methods, a classic method but here used in conjunction with the finite element method and applied to electromagnetics. The authors demonstrated that error bounded solutions are obtainable when complementary pairs of functionals are extremised.167. Also a paper for 3D Eddy Current Calculation using a network method has proven since to be ahead of its time as in recent
167 J Penman & J Fraser, Dual and Complimentary Energy Methods in Electromagnetics, IEE Trans. Mag., Vol 19, No 6, 1983 164 At Compumag Genoa and after at RAL years there has been a renaissance of methods using complementary Electric and Magnetic meshes. This paper was also notable in providing the community with one of its famous bench-mark problems, the so called Bath Cube168. Several authors presented work on eddy current computation using the boundary element method which had hitherto been confined to statics problems169 170.
Plate 68: The author demonstrating the PERQ machine at the conference exhibition Ed Heighway (Chalk River Labs) standing left.
A boost to the important area of computing forces was made in a paper in which the principal of virtual work is compared to a new method that evaluates the second derivative of the stiffness matrix. The latter method only requires a single field solution and is at least as efficient as
168 J A Davidson and M J Balchin, Three Dimensional Eddy Current Calculation Using a Network method, loc cit 169 W M Rucker & K R Richter, Calculation of Eddy Current Problems with Boundary Elements, loci cit 170 A Nicolas, A Boundary Integral Equation for Eddy Current Calculation, loc cit Computational Electromagnetics 165 the Maxwell Stress method and much easier to apply171. The now ubiquitous use of Delaunay meshing was also introduced to the CEM community172. It must be emphasised that this list is a personal selection that has ignored the many exciting software, CAD and applications papers presented. One final comment to make was that it was during Compumag Genoa that Dr J Rikabi, currently at Imperial College London, had the idea for a new error based finite element functional which later was to have an important effect on FE based methods. He named his functional ‗The Ligurian‘ in honour of the region173.
Plate 69: Dr Rikabi Inventing the 'Ligurian'
The ISC committee met many times during the conference mainly to select the hosts for the next conference. There were a number of outstanding bids to host the next Compumag. These included the Plasma
171 J L Coulomb, A Methodology for the determination of Global EMech. Quantities from a FE Analysis…, loc cit 172 Z Cendes et al, Magnetic Field Computation using Delaunay Triangulation and Complementary FE Methods, loc cit 173 Tragically Dr J. Al Rikabi was killed during the Gulf War in 1990, see also, J Rikabi et al, Error–based derivation of complementary formulations for the eddy current problem, IEE Proc, 135 Pt A,4, 1988. 166 At Compumag Genoa and after at RAL
Fusion Center at MIT, case presented by Bob Pillsbury; Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, case presented by John Colonias; Los Alamos, case presented by Herbert Vogel; all of these were well received and the fact that three major labs in the US were making these bids was considered to be extremely encouraging for the future. In the event the committee reluctantly decided on none of these as there was a fourth bid from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, presented by Bill Lord, which had a slight edge over the others because the scientific development work in CEM at that time was felt to be less orientated to large scale applications and was directed toward applications in NDT (Non Destructive Testing), a subject of critical industrial importance.
Plate 70: Chari at Lymington 1983
As soon as I returned home the next event was upon me; John Miller‘s Nasecode conference (15 June) — this year in Galway. We fielded a strong team from the group because of our expanded role in IC design the main subject of this conference. I was somewhat surprised to Computational Electromagnetics 167 meet Chari there and Isaac Mayergoyz174 from the University of Maryland as the subject was a little outside their main interests. They told me that they come to see me to discuss boundary elements and, as it happened, John Simkin and I had developed a new boundary element algorithm that exploited the advance architecture of the PERQ machine175. Isaac at first doubted the validity; he is an outstanding theorist and was apt to question everything new, especially in an area he had overlooked! However after many hours of discussion I think we convinced him. Chari was on his way to stay with us at RAL for two weeks to study in more detail our work and I had asked him to give a lecture at the IEE as part of our S8 activities. As a special guest lecturer the IEE provided expenses and after his talk I had to take him out for a meal; unfortunately Chari is a strict vegetarian and this made finding a restaurant that he approved of very difficult. After questioning the waiters about the way the food was prepared he rejected the first two places the IEE selected, but the third choice was deemed to be safe. Rita had the same problem with him when he came to our house; but he was reassured after inspecting our kitchen to ensure the vegetarian food was not contaminated by animal products. Just before the IEE lecture he accompanied me to Ashurst Lodge in the New Forest to attend a course at which I had been invited to give a guest lecture on the use of Boundary Elements in Electromagnetics. Ashurst Lodge was the home of the Wessex Institute of Technology, an organisation created by Carlos Brebia, an acknowledged expert in the use of Boundary Element method in Computational Mechanics. When we got there we discovered that Carlos, who was to give the course, had not turned up; he had been in the US and would not return until the last day. The lady administrator asked me if I could give the course, I was taken aback by this as I had nothing prepared and most of the scope of Brebia‘s course was outside my field. I spoke with Chari and asked if he would help out and improvise a series of lectures on computational electromagnetics from our own speciality. So we did; I don‘t know what the ‗punters‘ thought but we did our best; when Brebia turned up on the last day he was too embarrassed to thank us properly; I introduced him the Chari from GE and he tried to sell him their Boundary Element
174 Isaac settled in USA coming from Soviet Union where he was a former pupil of Academician Dermichan. Indeed such was his reputation that when he approached both Peter Silvester and myself to sponsor him in his bit to emigrate to the US we were very willing to help. 175 Electromagnetics CAD using a Single User Machine, C W Trowbridge and J Simkin, IEEE Trans-Mag 19, p2655.
168 At Compumag Genoa and after at RAL package! As the New Forest was my home area, I was born just a mile from Ashurst, I took Chari for a tour and he especially enjoyed visiting my old home town of Lymington. Back at RAL I received a letter from Ed Heighway (see Plate 68 on 164) of Chalk River Labs inviting me to send a member of our group to work with them for a year. This was in return for the year that Ed had spent working at RAL, I decided to ask Jim Diserens, and he accepted and spent the year September 1983 to September 1984 in Canada. This had the additional benefit in that Jim would act as a focus of our software in Canada. Also Mike Newman was working more closely with the Alvey project with David Thomas (he left RAL in September 1983 to join the Alvey Directorate) and was actively encouraging me to seek funding from the new EEC ESPRIT in the area of semi-conductor device modelling; this was to have far reaching consequences for me and indeed Mike who was soon to join the ESPRIT organisation in Brussels (he joined the EEC Commission in April 1985). Mike had been an extraordinary colleague, firstly with Larry and me on the GFUN project, then his very creative work on graphics and computer science technology which had been very crucial to the work of the group over the years. I take some credit in encouraging him in these areas as we identified long ago that underlying computer technology requires mathematical training, which I had picked up as an autodidact, but Mike‘s background had been in Physics so he set about studying for a degree in Mathematics under the Open University which he achieved with honours. I received news that John Fox (see page 62) had died (August 26) of cancer; he was in his prime and still very creative — a sad loss. The following month I went to Berlin to attend the Computing in Accelerator Design and Operation conference where I gave an invited talk on our work at RAL. Here I met for the first time J B Adams the CERN Director General, creator of so many large scale ‗big science‘ laboratories including both CERN and Culham Lab in Oxford; a very remarkable man of whom, it is said, he had no formal qualifications but his genius. He was John Fox‘s mentor and leader at CERN for the design, construction of the 300GeV machine. At this conference he gave the opening Honorary Invited Lecture on ‗Future High Energy Accelerators‘ and the audience were enthralled. I was flattered when John Adams congratulated me after my talk176 and asked me to send him regular updates on the progress of our work, which he said was important and invited me to accompany him on the conference tour of the Hahn- Meitner Institute.
176 Computer Aided Magnet Design, C.W. Trowbridge, Lecture Notes in Physics 115, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1984 Computational Electromagnetics 169
The shock of COMPEDA being sold to Prime Computers had left a vacuum in the support of our customers. Some while previously John Whitney had been ‗head hunted‘ by a CAD company which subsequently failed but he quickly found alternative employment with ICL and Chris Riley was about to join Ken Binns at Liverpool University, so our two closest colleagues at Compeda were surviving. But what about our clients? There was still a chance that Prime Computers in Boston would continue the marketing and support of the REMUS customers and I was asked to visit them for discussions. I also had to attend the next ISC meeting to plan the next Compumag, which was to be held in Fort Collins and then to attend the Mag-U-Comp meeting in Milwaukee (GFUN USER Mtg 5). Alan came with me as he was to make a presentation at Mag-U-Comp and together we set out for Boston on 22 October. The visit to Prime was a complete waste of time; they had no intention of getting into Electromagnetics Software and I began to think the only way to deal with this problem would be to do it ourselves, and I believe at that moment the idea of Vector Fields Ltd was conceived.
170 ISC Visits the Rockies and New Projects at Home
ISC visits the Rockies and New Projects at Home
Plate 71: Bill Lord, Chairman Compumag Fort Collins
Bill Lord convened the first planning meeting for Compumag Fort Collins on Monday, October 24, 1983 at Colorado State University177 those present were: W. Lord, D. A. Lowther, J. Erb R. Holsinger, S. Polak, C. W. Trowbridge, L. R. Turner, A. Viviani. Giorgio Molinari was also co-opted on to the ISC because of his experience in the organisation of Compumag Genoa technical programme and reviewing. Nathan Ida, the original secretary, would be moving to the University of Akron in Ohio and Bill Lord decided that to ease the transition Nathan and Satish Upda would act as joint secretaries. David Lowther was also appointed vice chairman. It had been muted for some time that each conference should have a unique poster and to this end Bill Lord had consulted Dale Rosenbach, Art Director, University Communications, Colorado State University, who along with student interns working with him, presented a total of six COMPUMAG poster designs for the committee's consideration. The poster designers explained their motivation behind the choice of layout and the colour scheme. The Steering Committee members were polled and the poster designed by Genine was judged as the one most suitable for expressing the objectives of the conference as well as being
177 Minutes of ISC Meeting, October 24th 1983, in possession of the author. Computational Electromagnetics 171 aesthetically pleasing. However, it was agreed that the style of the text be altered and the style used in the past be retained. The Committee expressed their admiration and thanks to Dale and the artists for a job well done. The old format of the preliminary announcement and the call for papers was found acceptable in general. However, it was decided to include topics relating to semiconductors, antenna and other high frequency, low power devices.
Plate 72: The Prize Winning Poster
After lunch and a walking tour of the 1985 COMPUMAG Conference facilities and student housing, a discussion was held on the ISC membership. Concern was expressed that the nature of the COMPUMAG Conference requires an active involvement on the part of 172 ISC Visits the Rockies and New Projects at Home the ISC members. Refereeing and planning duties associated with the conference preclude "honorary membership". Indeed, during the discussion it was agreed that ISC membership be increased to fifteen and that a board or panel of referees be established at the next ISC meeting in Eindhoven to help with reviewing procedures. It was also agreed that review of all final full-length papers be carried out at the 1985 conference site even if an additional day is needed to complete the task. These measures should not only serve to speed the reviewing process, but also provide a source of new ideas and members for future COMPUMAG conferences. It was unanimously approved, effective as of the next ISC meeting on April 6, 1984, that failure to attend three consecutive ISC meetings by any ISC member be interpreted as a withdrawal of the member's services and, that barring extenuating circumstances, such membership be revoked.
Plate 73: The Fastest Pumpkin Carver in the West
Finally the committee unanimously endorsed Dr. M.V.K. Chari as a potential ISC member. Chari was well known as a pioneer of the application of FE methods to electrical machine design and it was felt his Computational Electromagnetics 173 appointment would strengthen the conferences ties with industry. He would be replacing Georges Neyret who had announced his retirement at the end of Compumag Genoa. Further meetings were arranged in April 6, 1984 at Eindhoven, Netherlands and in December 10 to 12, 1984, Fort Collins, CO, U.S.A. After this meeting several of us moved to Chicago and thence to Milwaukee for the MAG-U-COMP meeting hosted by the Electrical Machines Company A.O. Smith Inc. and organised by John Brauer. There were 34 delegates and 11 presentations followed by a demonstration of the A O Smith software. This had been the fifth meeting in the GFUN user series now a more general forum which was eventually to be transformed into the CEFC (Computational Electromagnetic Field Conference) sponsored by the IEEE. After spending a few days in Chicago for Halloween with Larry and Donna where Alan distinguished himself by becoming the ‗fastest pumpkin carver in the west‘, we returned home.
Plate 74: SIG-EM at Cosenors House Abingdon L to R Brian Davies (UCL), Ron Ferari (Cambridge), Bob Paul (Chairman, Bangor), Fed Eastham (Bath), Ken Binns (Liverpool), Cris Emson( RAL), Farouk Abdulla (City), John Smith (Aberdeen), Tom Preston (GEC),Jim Diserens (Secretary, RAL), Bill
Back at RAL there were many things to think about. The Special Interest Group for Electromagnetics was very active throughout 1983 with regular meetings and good exchanges of ideas between the Universities involved. By this time Jim Diserens had replaced John Collie as secretary and had been very effective in strengthening our ties 174 ISC Visits the Rockies and New Projects at Home with the universities. Indeed a little rivalry was apparent between us and the group at Bath University led by Fred Eastham and Dave Rogers. A new face appears in Plate 74, this was Cris Emson who had joined our group in 1982, but we had known him for some years, in fact I had supported Olek at Swansea to secure a PhD studentship in an area of relevance to our work at RAL and the post had been advertised. Cris applied and had visited RAL for some preliminary discussion three years before. Olek invited me to Swansea to interview Cris and I had expected Olek to chair the panel but in the event he left it to me; Cris was an outstanding candidate and the result was clear cut; however toward the end of the interview Olek came in and called me out and whispered into my ear, ‗Bill he‘s got a ring in his ear‘, true and Cris was a man of his time, not like us old fogies, and I reassured Olek that we were not hiring a ‗beatnik‘. Whilst he was at Swansea he was guided principally by Peter Bettes a very creative ex student of Olek‘s who specialised in open boundary problems, an area of great importance in Electromagnetics, and the work Cris did for his thesis was first class.
Plate 75: EEC Semiconductor Modelling Project Meeting L to R Seated: Peter Mole (GEC), Simon Polak (Philps), Bill Trowbridge (RAL), Ken Board (UC Swansea), John Miller (Trinity College Dublin)
Computational Electromagnetics 175
The idea for a Pilot project under the EEC IT funding as suggested by Mike Newman had started to take root. Following some preliminary discussions between Simon Polak we decided to define a project in the area of Semi Conductor Device Modelling, as it seemed that the next generation of computing hardware would, to a great extent, depend on increased miniaturisation in order to reduce the reliability of complex systems and reduce the costs. Furthermore the EC Microelectronic Technology initiative has identified the modelling of such devices as important in maintaining the competitiveness of its industrial companies in the world market. Toward the end of 1982 we invited the following partners to join us; General Electric plc, Philips Bedrijven BV, Trinity College Dublin and University College Wales. The first meeting was held in my office with Peter Mole (GEC), Simon Polak (Philips), John Miller (Trinity College) and Ken Board (University of Wales). With Mike Newman‘s help, who had studied closely the rules for these Pilot projects, we quickly drafted a proposal to develop software for the modelling of MOS devices at a cost of £2 million, of which the EEC would fund half. It appeared a very favourable deal as we were allowed to estimate our manpower costs in terms of the actual cost plus a generous 140% for overheads. The project was approved and the contract signed on the 15 December 1982 to begin early in 1983. This was the time of my first serious collaboration with Bryan Colyer; Brian had been at the Lab for about as long as I had and AERE before that and was an outstanding engineer specializing in cryogenics and all things mechanical. He had played a leading part in the development of superconducting cables and had interacted with CAG in the computation of stresses and fields in windings. More recently he had been involved in the design of the Clerk Maxwell Telescope support structure in Hawaii. The direct collaboration with me arose out of his interest in the new generation of computers like the PERQ (see page 160) and he asked me if we could extend the magnetics solver that I had written to include the appropriate stress analysis equations. I did quick case of the simple torsion problem which is mathematically equivalent to the magnetics case and he thought this looked promising, so we set about writing new code for the plane strain and plain stress cases in mechanics. He got really hooked on the architecture of the PERQ, which led him to study in depth methods for improvements in the graphical user interface (GUI), which as it happened were to be of great importance in the future to both of us. For some time several senior academics involved with numerical modelling and computing had been complaining that the award of research grants in their areas had declined. Olek Zienkiewicz had been urging me for sometime to try and help. In February 1983 I contacted 176 ISC Visits the Rockies and New Projects at Home
Prof Ian McLeod (Strathclyde University) the chairman of the Finite Element Special Interest Group who was broadly sympathetic and had similar disquiet; he was also involved in the Engineering Board so was in a position to lobby more directly. Ernie Freeman was also concerned that funding was drying up in his area (Electromagnetics) so we arranged an ad hoc meeting to discuss strategy at Imperial College on the 10th of March. The outcome of this was that Ian secured approval for a further meeting of leading experts, both academics and industrial, to formulate a strategy document. The choice of delegates was important as we needed the leading people in each of the main engineering areas to attend. This meeting finally took place in March 1984 which led to a significant initiative involving a large scale open conference which I will discuss later. Also, at the beginning of 1983 my secretary Sally left and was replaced by Pam Peisley a very experienced lady who was well able to manage the admin of a large group and we soon became good friends. Following the disappointing response from Prime computers I was determined now to press ahead with the idea of forming a company to market the RAL software. Preliminary discussions with David Thomas and Geoff Manning were very constructive and according to Geoff the way was now clear for SERC employees to seek consultancy agreements as additional spare-time activities where there was no conflict of interest. I spoke in detail with John Simkin and he was enthusiastic so we sat down and prepared a business plan. So 1983 ended on a note of high optimism.
Computational Electromagnetics 177
Family Life 1976-1984
Plate 76: Chalet in Wales, 1976
Our family was growing up fast and I have to confess that life at home appears in these years to have been overshadowed by my ever expanding commitments to my career as the last section shows. Rita was also very busy at her school, which had become demanding with the changing methods of teaching with mixed ability streams. Dinah joined in at school with most of the musical activities on offer and was hoping for some kind of career in connection with music, and Simon was developing his interests in Art at Wallingford. Dinah progressed to Grade 6 in piano and to grade 8 with the flute and was singing in local choirs. By 1977 she was in the sixth form and studying for her A levels in Music, English and Art. Simon when he reached the sixth form at Wallingford selected for his A levels Art, English and History. He was 178 Family Life 1976-1984 also playing cricket a great deal for his school, becoming captain of the school side and on one of the rare occasions I got to watch him I saw him score 50 not out — to our great delight. In July1976 we rented a small wooden chalet in North Wales, a box on stilts among a vast number of similar chalets on a holiday estate near the Trawsfyndd reservoir. In August we attended the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford, and we kept our musical interests alive by continuing our regular visits to Guildford to hear Vernon Handley and his orchestra. In 1977 we had an extended holiday beginning in the Lakes at Skelwith Bridge, an attractive hotel near Ambleside, which became a favourite place of ours in the years to come. After a few days we went on to Scotland and stayed for ten days at a hotel in Aviemore. I remember I did a five star walk from here to the summit of Ben MacDui, the second highest peak in Scotland, via Cairngorm and Loch Avon; the wild life was most interesting as I spotted seven Reindeer, two dotterels and many Ptarmigan. One day we did a long car trip to Skye and, whilst on the road to the Kyle of Lochalsh, as we stopped in a lay-by by Loch Duich, a lorry swerved into the lay-by at speed and scraped the car all down one side. If any of us had been standing on the offside then a very serious accident would surely have occurred. We followed this lorry all the way to Kyle but by the time we entered the town it had disappeared. I gave the registration number at the local police station but heard nothing from them. Our time in Cairngorm area was made especially interesting by seeing the Osprey nesting on Loch Garten, one of the very few places where this rare bird could be seen in those days. We returned home via Skelwith Bridge again, for a few days in the Lakes. In September Rita had have a small operation at the Royal Berks Day centre which she bore as usual with quiet stoicism and then in November I took Dinah for an interview at the West Midlands College of Education; she wanted to study for a B.Ed degree in Music; it was her first choice and she was so pleased to be successful. The following year 1978, I enjoyed a great Elgar day at Tewkesbury to hear the Apostles in the afternoon followed by the Kingdom in the evening, as part of the Elgar Festival being put on at Tewkesbury Abbey under the direction of James Walkley. James Walkley, who is also a fine Bass soloist, and his wife the contralto Diana Walkley live in Craeg Lea, Elgar‘s old house in Malvern. In the morning there was a lecture by the Elgar scholar Jerrold Northrop Moore, as always with him it was a fascinating talk but there were only five of us there to hear him. The artists performing these works were mainly semi-professional but were none the worse for that; the singing was first rate. Unfortunately James Walkley had caught laryngitis and had to be substituted but his presence was everywhere; I particularly Computational Electromagnetics 179 remember how he gave the bass in the Kingdom singing Saint Peter fine support at the crucial moments singing from behind178. We were back in Skelwith Bridge for our summer holiday in July 19th for two weeks. We did many fine hill walks including a glorious day out on Helvellyn; 14 miles 4.5 miles, fine to begin with then wet on the descent and very windy on striding edge. Then on the first of August I repeated a walk that I had done in 1947 as boy to Scafell Pike from Langdale along Rosett Ghyll a round trip of nearly 20 miles. Dinah decided she would come too and all would have been well if the weather had been better, a lot better. It rained all day and we did not see thing; the forecast promised good weather later so we pressed on. I shall never forget the disapproving look on Dinah‘s face as she staggered back into the hotel telling her mother, who had stayed in the dry all day, ‗that is positively the last time I will do this‘, and she threw her boots in the nearest bin. Simon was fine though and the 7 hour trudge didn‘t seem to bother him.
Plate 77: Dinah in her room at College
178 Rita and I heard this group sing on several other occasions and the Walkleys gave outstanding performances of Gerontius; in the interval of one of their concerts we spoke with them and it turned out that Rita was at Cheltenham Teacher Training college at the same time as Diana Walkley 180 Family Life 1976-1984
Plate 78: Wedding Anniversary Gathering 1979 L to R: Jonathan, Brian Amesbury, Marjorie,Briony,Bill Boucher, Eva, Dinah, Rita, Simon, Barnaby, David, Pam, Brenda and sitting Grandad Trowbridge Computational Electromagnetics 181
Dinah had left school at the end of the summer term and was to start her degree course at the West Midland College of Education at Walsall on 25 September 1978. Rita‘s term had already begun so I took her on my own and felt most unhappy about leaving her there with all those strange people. Rita and I went to see her following week end and found her in great spirits having been exposed to a welcome party where the old hands put on a risqué show and she had made a good friend with a girl called Anne. It was good to know that Dinah had settled in so well and apparently enjoying her new life. The picture in Plate 77 shows Dinah in her room at College looking quite at home.
Plate 79: Rita and Bill at St Jean de Luz, 1980
The following year (June 19th 1979) we celebrated our silver wedding anniversary, see Plate 78 and we held a family party at Moulsford for Dad & Brenda, David and Pam with their two sons, Jonathan and Barnaby, Eva & Bill Boucher (Rita‘s sister and brother-in- law). Also, from Bristol, came Marjorie Amesbury (Rita‘s bridesmaid) with her husband Brian and daughter Briony. We were pleased to have got through the first twenty-five years more or less unscathed and hoped for another helping. I was so pleased that my father was still with us and he thoroughly enjoyed being with his four grandchildren. The only disappointment was that my brother Peter and his wife Hilda were unable to be with us owing to Hilda being ill. 182 Family Life 1976-1984
Our holiday the following year was in France, we decided to drive down to St Jean de Luz a small seaside resort near the Spanish border on the Atlantic coast. We caught the ferry from Southampton to Cherbourg and I was thrilled to find out that it would sail along the Solent passing my home town of Lymington and then round the Needles at the extreme west end of the Isle of Wight. On our way to the ferry port at Southampton Simon got me to call to phone up to see if his A Level results were out; I did this from the service station on the M27 and the results were good: A in English and a B in History. He had applied to go to Birmingham University and these were the results he needed. So we were all pleased for him and the news meant he could now enjoy his holiday in a relaxed mood. We travelled to St Jean via Chateaubriante where we had an overnight stop arriving the next day on 16 th August. I had hired the upper floor of a holiday ‗cottage‘ which turned out to be a small modern detached house some way from the beach; however I suppose the walking was good for us. The beach was fine, one of the best we had ever been to, so Dinah was in her element swimming and lazing. The Town was famous as the birth place of Maurice Ravel and we enjoyed visiting the museum in his honour. Also the scenery in the Pyrenees, which are close by, is magnificent, so we had several excursions including the Roncesvalles Pass, where according to legend179, Roland died heroically commanding the rear guard when attacked by the Saracens during Charlemagne‘s campaign in 778. We also visited Pamplona, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Navarre where each July the famous bull-run takes place; San Sebastian, the summer capital of Spain, a very gracious city by the sea; and to the birthplace of St Ignatius Loyola at Azpeitia. The latter place not far from San Sebastien has the famous church of Santuario de Loiola with its imposing cupola. The Basque region is rather a strange region at acquaintance because of its language which, to us, has almost incomprehensible names but fortunately as in Gaelic Ireland double names; Basque and Spanish are often signified. Back home and down to earth I took Simon to Birmingham on Wednesday 24 September for his first term at the University; we both felt awkward when I had to leave him there; he had a room in a University apartment which he shared with others. On the following Sunday Rita and I took Dinah back to Walsall; this was to be a regular pattern over the next four years. At half term Rita and I managed to sneak a short break
179 La Chanson de Roland is the oldest major work of French Literature. It exists in various different manuscript versions, the oldest of these versions is the one in the Oxford manuscript and is usually dated to the middle of the twelfth century (between 1140 and 1170
Computational Electromagnetics 183 walking in the Lakes, again staying at Skelwith Bridge. We revisted favourite places including Loughrigg Fell, Paterdale, Crinkle Crags and Buttermere . Also the drive to Wasdale via Hardknott and Wrynose was still exciting providing Rita kept her head down on the steep sections.
Plate 80: Simon in the Basque Country and a modern monument to Roland
In November Pete & Elizabeth came for a weekend and we explored the Cotswolds and also had a day out in Windsor; I remember two things showing different sides to Pete‘s character: in Windsor he got quite cross with Elizabeth because she went off on her own whilst we were looking round Eton College and when I asked him what the problem was he smiled bleakly at me; secondly in Burford he took me by the hand into a book shop and said, ‗do you think Ernie would like this‘, well it was book on architecture and when I said that I was sure he would he then bought it and insisted that I sign it too. In June 1981 we had a family gathering in Damerham to celebrate Dad‘s 80th birthday, and after lunch he said let‘s go to Misselfore, the place near Bowerchalke he loved as a boy. His four grandchildren, his three sons and their wives (Hilda, Rita and Pam) and of course Brenda piled into our cars and we all went on this sentimental journey back through time to Bowerchalke and to the hamlet of Misselfore, where his grandfather had a small holding which was a kind of fairyland to escape to when he was a lad. In 1981 for our summer holiday we all went to Scotland and stayed in a crofter‘s cottage in Altbea near Gairloch, a most beautiful place. We liked Wester Ross so much that we came back the following year and stayed this time in Ullapool. One of Rita‘s favourite places was Inverewe Garden a place where all sorts of exotic plants flourish 184 Family Life 1976-1984 surprisingly so far north. The creator of the garden, Osgood Mackenzie, chose a barren and rocky promontory in Loch Ewe and despite it being as far north as Hudson‘s Bay in Canada (latitude 57.8 degrees), the warm currents of the Gulf Stream ensure it is far warmer. To protect the garden from the prevailing strong winds and salt spray he established wind breaks of Native and Scandinavian Pine and reclaimed land by importing good soil. He planted the walled gardens with all sorts of plants from around the world. Today it is owned by the National Trust.
Plate 81: Dad at 80 and David and Peter at Misselfore
I am particularly fond of the mountains of this area whose comparative highness seems to grow straight out of the surrounding sea lochs and give a truly grand appearance. All peaks in excess of 3000 feet are named Munros after the Victorian surveyor Sir Hugh Munro who first listed them. By today‘s reckoning there are 284 of them and a high proportion of them are in North West Scotland. My favourite is An Teallach, not far from Ullapool on the ‗road of desolation‘, so called because it was one of several constructed after the potato famine of 1846- 7 when food and nothing more than food was provided for work. So we spent our time roaming these hills, exploring coastal lochs and visiting Inverewe. The weather is often very wet and one memory is of us parked by the side of Loch Maree listening to the Cricket commentary on the car radio— it was ‗Botham‘s match from Headingly, the third test match against Australia when he scored 149 not out to win the match. Of course Bob Willis‘s 8 wickets also helped!
Computational Electromagnetics 185
Plate 82: Four Views of Wester Ross 1981/82 An Teallach, (b) Inverewe Garden, (c) Crofters Cottage, (d) Loch Broome
In May of 1982 Rita had a Hysterectomy which she bravely endured and afterwards we went to a Hotel in Bournemouth for her to relax for a week; she had been troubled by womb problems for a number of years so it was something of a relief for her as she had kept putting it off. Then in July on my birthday was Dinah‘s graduation; how time flies. We were very proud of her — she got an upper second class degree which was excellent. The ceremony was a great occasion for the students and their families and we met many of her friends now about to go out to the wide world. Her final project had been a setting of Yeats‘ poem ‗Sailing to Byzantium ‗for voice and small orchestra which she now hoped would get her into a post graduate college in music.
That is no country for old men. The young In one another’s arms, birds in the trees —Those dying generations — at their song,
186 Family Life 1976-1984
Plate 83: Dinah Graduates
After we returned from Scotland in 1982 Ernie Freeman and his wife, Hazel, invited us to stay with them in Brighton. The purpose of the visit was meet up with Jack Trowbridge, who was the grandson of my grandfather‘s brother Morgan Trowbridge, so Jack and I shared the same great-grandfather Elisha Trowbridge, see footnote 114 page 111Error! Bookmark not defined.. Ernie and Hazel had got to know Jack by Hazel‘s interests in country crafts. Several members of the Sussex branch of the family crowded into Ernie‘s house and there followed a veritable Computational Electromagnetics 187 tower of Babel as everyone spoke at once. Jack Trowbridge was a silversmith who was an apprentice of Eric Gill and has several pieces that are well known to his credit. Ernie recorded the whole proceedings and later I had the ‗pleasure‘ of trying to unravel what was said. Jack Trowbridge‘s father, Reginald, knew my father well and had several interesting stories to tell except that his wife kept interrupting him. The following year, 1983 we visited Dad and Brenda in Damerham in the spring and we went to Lymington and to Exbury Gardens; and we found him quite frail. Brenda said his mind was going and he was becoming difficult to cope with. Prostate cancer had been diagnosed and he had an operation recently but it had achieved nothing. Back home I received a package from him with a scrawled note that said this is for you, ‗here are my sea writings and I think Brenda is going to throw them out‘180, nonsense of course but so sad. In August the four of us went to Brittany for our summer holiday. I had booked us into a ‗Gite‘ near Vannes in a small village called Pluvigner; our route to France was by the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry and we stayed one night in Lewes in order to catch the first boat out in the early morning. We spent a quiet fortnight exploring the coast on the south side of the Brittany peninsular and I liked particularly Quiberon Bay area and Carnac with its Menhirs. Shortly after our return Dad was taken into care at Salisbury (Old Manor Hospital) and we went down to see him. I hated seeing him in the day room trapped in one of those dreadful chairs with an integral tray. He knew me and said, ‘Get me out of here Bill‘. I asked why they were securing him like this and I was told he was found wandering around the town the day before. Salisbury was his town; he grew up there and knew every nook and cranny (See Volume 1) but now it was gone. On the fifth of September he died of the usual thing, Myocardial Infarction etc but also was added Dementia and Carcinoma of Prostate. I doubted the ‗Dementia‘ I would rather say ‗confused‘. As a young man he had little religious convictions; the strict Baptist childhood upbringing in his case didn‘t help. But in middle life with Brenda they discovered Anglicanism together and he became confirmed and a regular church goer. At the funeral on the 12th September many friends from Damerham church were present and the Vicar‘s Eulogy was heartfelt. I have some difficulty in reconciling the two halves of his life, the first as a younger man with growing family trying to build a small town business, a career forced on him by the ill health of his own father. After leaving the sea at the end of WW1 his interests were in the new field of Radio (Wireless as they called it in those days) and he was clever enough to have made wireless engineering his career. This was not to be and he
180 For years he had been planning to write up his experiences in the Merchant Navy during WW1 188 Family Life 1976-1984 did create a successful retail business in the milk trade but his hobbies remained. He probably built the first radio in Lymington and carried out experiments on improving the technology and I am sure this must have rubbed off on me. It certainly rubbed off on his eldest son Peter who did become a radio engineer. But he also loved the traditional country pursuits of shooting and fishing, or should I say poaching. He loved guns and was a great collector of firearms of all types; at the height of his business career his study walls were covered by the display of shotguns and rifles. His second career with his second wife Brenda was different; together they became anti blood sports and developed a great respect for animals. He did take up clay pigeon shooting with Peter as a companion and they won several prizes.
Plate 84: My Dad Aged 82; his last photograph
I think he had a fine intellect with deep knowledge, often incomplete like all auto-didactics, of many things. He was a modest poet and wrote poetry all his life in a rural style somewhat derivative to be sure but vivid Computational Electromagnetics 189 for all that — I wish I could do as well. He could recite with passion the poems he learnt as boy; I have a tape of him reciting from memory Shakespeare and Milton. My debt to him is considerable; he sent me away to sea to make a man of me and when that was done he encouraged me to change toward science when the time was right i.e. when Rita came along. He sent his youngest son to a public school which gave him the basis for a career in politics and he helped his eldest son Peter to acquire a radio and TV business. He had a good life. 190 Round the World to China 1984
Round the World to China 1984 Before relating the steps that led up to the formation of Vector Fields Ltd which marked a major change in my life, I reproduce in this section excerpts from my diary covering a round the world journey to Canada, USA, and China that Rita and I made as it really belongs to my RAL career though, I did not completely sever my employment there until 1987. The main purpose of this trip was to give a series of lectures on Electromagnetic Field Computation in the People's Republic, at the invitation of the Atomic Energy Institute, Beijing and at the Institute of Electro-technology at Harbin. This came about following a visit to RAL in 1977 by Prof Zhou DeKing, the doyen of electromagnetics in China, and the two year visit of his ex pupil Fan Ming Wu on attachment to CAG in 1980. Ming Wu had now returned to the Atomic Energy Institute and had arranged my visit in conjunction with another of his former teachers Prof. Tang at the Harbin Institute.
Montreal Sunday 29 July The day began by meeting Ernie Freeman, Dave Lowther and his wife, Irene, for breakfast. The weather was warm and sunny — perfect. Picked up rental car from Hertz - a white 'Reliant', then collected luggage from the hotel. We then walked up to Peel Street and saw the Infolytica offices on the 3rd floor of a corner building. We were impressed by their 2000 sq ft suite including a Hewlett-Packard 9000 on loan. Rita and Irene left to go out to Point Claire to see Dave's boat. We followed in my car later. Point Clair is on the north shore of the St Lawrence River near Dorval - 10 miles west of Montreal. After a pleasant hour on the boat - a 36 foot yacht fitted with outboard motor and accommodation for 4 (cramped). We had a sandwich at the Club house then Rita and I departed for Lake Placid at 13.30, crossing Pont Champlain on route 15 south. Roads were fairly quiet and driving conditions good and we reached the border at about 15.00. The emigration people were friendly and efficient, the officer tormented Rita after her remarks on weakness of American tea - he said he detected a trace of Scottish in her when she appeared reluctant to agree about using two tea bags! We found the turn - off route 87 to Lake Placid through interesting scenery with Adirondack peaks all around, over fast flowing rivers and through gorges —rivers not very full. The final way into the village was up hill to the shores of a lake called 'Mirror Lake', past the former Winter Olympic Stadium and Centre. The main street was very crowded and we had difficulty at first in finding the entrance to the hotel. However we eventually discovered it and safely parked at the side of the Golden Arrow Motor Inn. Our room was large and pleasant, overlooking the Computational Electromagnetics 191 lake, and appeared comfortable. Young families could be heard playing on the hotel‘s private beach directly below us. After a bath and unpacking, we explored the hotel and 'town'. First impressions were of a crowded commercialized over-worked holiday centre, yet the surroundings looked promising. We had dinner in a hotel restaurant - Tiffany's. There are Tiffany lampshades everywhere in this part of the USA - like tiny stained glass windows!
Plate 85: At Pt Claire to see Dave Lowther’s Yacht (R to L Dave, Irene, Bill & Rita)
Lake Placid Tuesday 31 July We woke at 01.00 and then later by a mouse! Rita did not like the mouse so we had our usual antics to chase it out. We had spotted a large fat mouse yesterday, so it proved an omen. Slept again eventually, awoke 6.30 felt refreshed, Rita's headache was much better so we had a good breakfast at hotel. We drove to Wilmington (10 miles) then along the Memorial Road to Summit of Whiteface Mountain (4867 ft). The car park is 273 ft below and you reach the peak either by a lift or by a pleasant ridge climb over rocks - handrail all the way. We chose the lift! Entered a long, well lit, tunnel and walked into the mountain for 50 yards. The lift was operated by a lady who told us the history of the road and tunnel. The panorama from the summit was fair; a slight haze prevented really good views. We spent about 1 hour looking and taking 192 Round the World to China 1984 photographs, then walked down to the car park. On our way back to Lake Placid we stopped to see High Falls Gorge — the West branch of the Ausable River.
Wednesday 1 August Awoke to find the weather overcast and unpromising. The forecast was not good; however, we decided on hill climbing and so went by car to high peak area at Heart Lake - a beautiful spot. Mount Jo overlooking the lake was to be our objective - 2876 ft. We took the short trail up about 0.8 mile 700 ft, and thoroughly enjoyed the exercise and wild life - of course nearly all climbs in the Adirondack's will be in woodland, the tree line is at 4000 ft. On the ascent we encountered numerous toads, well disguised, and a garter snake. The summit was a flat rocky shelf about the size of a tennis court surrounded, of course, by trees. We could see clearly the outlines at least some of the nearby high peaks of the MacIntyre range and Marcy in the distance and quite clearly the eponymous shape of the lake below. We were joined by a lady and 4 year old child, friendly people. The lady told us, after offering us food which we declined, that she was training her son to be a hill walking companion since her husband showed no interest. We returned to the car via the long trail (1.25 miles) passing at least 2 other parties ascending, a fine short walk. We returned to Lake Placid for lunch, then we drove out to look at John Brown's farm house and grove which is just a short distance. This was an interesting museum, showing the furniture and memorabilia of the Brown family with literature telling their tragic story. The graves of John Brown and his two sons, together with their companions at Harpers Ferry, are enclosed by an iron fence and marked by a headstone and huge natural rock boulder. By standing back to observe the grave site, farm house and nearby barn together make a poignant scene framed by the soft hills and trees. The views are relatively open and on a clear day would be spectacular. The effect, however, is quite destroyed as one looks west toward the giant Olympic ski jump structures. The 1936 statue of John Brown with Negro boy appears to me to be somewhat self-conscious and sentimental.
Thursday 2 August The weather showed signs of brightening so we decided to go to Saranac Lake area to climb Baker Mountain. The start of the trail not being obvious, however, we followed the instructions in the guide and selected the most likely path. We were soon ascending in forest country of course,and appeared to pass the 'old quarry' on the left as expected. The path levelled out for a while and we spotted a woodpecker (red Computational Electromagnetics 193 headed). After a short walk on the level the path climbed again and we saw our first ADK trail marker! The summit was reached soon by a series of rocky shelves and we could see good views to the south. After a drink and exploring the top we sat and had our lunch. The place was so still and warm that we could have slept except we would have been eaten by insects despite the protection of sprays, creams etc —we both were liberally covered with the 'Adirondack insect repellent' recommended by ADK. The views from this little hill, 2452 ft, are delightful. You can see the 'high peaks' in the distance and the little villages and lakes of the Saranac area below. We quickly descended the 900 ft to the car and drove into the village for a cup of tea which was refreshing. The journey back to Lake Placid was 'round about' as we decided to go via Bloomington and Franklin falls and encircle White Face Mountain. The river near Franklin Falls is superb, a fast flowing brown stream broad and full of boulders.
Friday 3 August Today was hazy with plenty of sun. We drove to Keene then on to St Huberts. Interesting drive - passed the Cascade lakes and several high peaks followed by a long descent into Keene Valley. I thought it would be interesting to walk to the lower Ausable Lake by the side of east branch of the Ausable River, a distance of 3½ miles with an ascent of only 700 ft. We discovered from the guide books that the whole of this area belongs to the Ausable Club (Adirondack Mountain Reserve) —a very private outfit though they do allow 'hikers' to cross their property under sufferance provided regulations are observed; 'No hunting, Trapping or Fishing', of course, and 'No camping or fires', quite reasonable; but, all these would be allowed if you are a member or a guest. We drove to the Club house, a large affair covered with notices prescribing this and that, particularly about no car parking, and yes ties must be worn at all times in the dining room. The grounds near the Club house are attractively and neatly arranged into golf course, tennis courts and chalets. The surrounding view of the high peaks is superb. We found the private road which leads to the Ausable Lake but could not find a legal place to leave the car; in the end we were forced to go to the 'hikers car park' at least a mile away at the bottom of the hill by the main road. However, we accepted this with good 'grace' and, after signing the registration book we ascended back up to the club and on through the gate to begin the walk. The walk proved interesting and was for the most part beside the river under very fine trees. Since the sun was overhead and extremely powerful, we were grateful for these trees. We saw a fine red deer and some trout in a dammed river pool. After nearly 2 hours and 194 Round the World to China 1984 feeling quite tired, we arrived at the lake which nestled in a narrow valley between some of the highest hills in the Adirondacks. There was the boathouse crammed full of canoes from floor to ceiling, owned by Ausable Club. I enquired if I might have the use of a boat for a while, but the surly youth looking after the place asked me if I was a member or a guest! We enjoyed our packed lunch of ham and cheese, orange juice, apple and chocolate. I felt rather tired and fragile so we were delighted to discover that the club ran a bus service back to the Club house. Apparently non-members could ride on the bus at a fee of $1.25 if there were any spare spaces!, there were some on the 2.15 pm bus, so we rode back in discomfort, saving us a 3½ mile walk in the heat of the sun. We returned home via the Olympic ski jump centre adjacent to John Brown's farm. We went to the top of the highest jump - a tall concrete tower - by the elevator and enjoyed the panoramic views - Mt Marcy and Algonquim being particularly fine. Rita very much enjoyed watching the 'boys' practicing ski jumps on summer matting. I felt 'done up' and was glad to return to the hotel for a rest. After dinner I felt quite tired and faintly sick, went to bed at 20.30. Saw final stages of 3 day event from Los Angeles - British team got Silver only just missing the Gold medal which went to USA. It was a good night on the whole, since I awoke twice only. Rita was thoughtful and considerate; despite the cool draft she left the air conditioning on.
Sunday 5 August Today we drive to Schenectady. How to sum up our weeks holiday at Lake Placid? The weather certainly fine and warm but views spoilt by hazy atmosphere, however we saw a fair section of the Adirondacks and climbed three peaks, albeit small ones. I imagine the region is one that grows on one with closer acquaintance. At first sight the ever present forests which cover most of the hills militate against regarding the area as truly mountainous in the conventional sense, i.e. true mountain scenery begins at heights above the tree-line. Nevertheless this region is a wilderness with extraordinarily rich wild life - wolves, bears, deer, eagles, etc, its lakes and rivers form a vast network of water routes and there are literally thousands of forest and mountain trails. Many months are required to explore the· region - a week visit only allows a tiny glimpse; I did pine for open ranges though and thought sometimes of the wide rugged expanses of Torridon. The village and hotel were what one expected; the Golden Arrow has the prime position beside Mirror Lake and is quite well run. It is ideally suited to families with young children, with a superb outlook, there are good facilities for all form of water sport, and the staff and guests were very courteous. The town provides good facilities too but Computational Electromagnetics 195 heavily commercialized leaning heavily on former Olympic glory. They hope to host the games again in 1992. The journey to Schenectady took 3½ hours including a short stop for lunch, and was uneventful, the State Highway 87 relatively quiet until Saratoga Springs, then we used Route 50 to Schenectady from there, arriving at 13.30 after losing our way finding the Holiday Inn. Bela Konrad181 telephoned to invite us to dinner at 7.00 pm. After a cup of tea we spent the rest of the afternoon resting. We enjoyed a pleasant evening with Bela at a local steak house then later at Bela's home, where we met Yvonna, his pretty Polish wife. Bela is musical; he plays piano good enough to do the Chopin studies, his tastes are romantic and conservative. He also paints; his efforts adorn the walls. Their home is tastefully furnished with their Eastern-European origins much in evidence with bric-a-brac, etc. They both pretend not to be exiles but I believe the trauma of coming to the West has had a deep effect but they are a 'sturdy' pair determined to make a success; they have two children - Andrew aged 3 and Caroline aged 7. Bela left Romania 20 years ago when he was 18, brought out by his parents and settled in Canada. It is remarkable the number of 'Canadians' we know who come from Eastern Europe - Bela and Yvonna, Elizabeth Silvester from Czechoslovakia - even David Lowther is only half English - his mother comes from Estonia and also Irene (Dave's wife) is from Eastern Europe somewhere. Yvonna made some superb coffee and served blueberry pie which is quite American. We listened to the Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti playing Liszt - the Dante Sonata.
Schenectady Monday 6 August Bela collected me at 10.30 and we went first to GE. I was surprised to find an audience waiting for me expecting a talk; I nearly refused as I had only my material for the scheduled lectures to be given later today at Union College. I did not want to be unfriendly so I agreed; in any case, there were several old friends present, including John D Angelo and Kimal Khallifalla, who used to work at Culham. Chari was there of course and gave me a very warm welcome. I talked principally about the new 3D eddy current work at RAL and of course in such bright company, I was subject to many searching questions, it was however quite stimulating and maybe better in these circumstances not to have been too prepared. Chari took me to Union College for lunch and I met the organizer of the course. The subject of Richard Burton came up, who died earlier today, aged 58, in Switzerland. A Union College professor appeared to think it was a case of divine
181 A Canadian Graduate from McGill University now working at General Electric whom we had met at conferences. 196 Round the World to China 1984 justice! I must say I felt sad Burton was a consummate actor and has given me considerable pleasure over the years. I first saw him in Christopher Fry's play 'The Lady's Not for Burning' in 1948, in which he acted with Gielgud for the first time. His voice lives on in the memory. My lecture - 2 hours - went pretty well; the people on the course were lively and very attentive, which resulted in some good discussion. Dave Lowther arrived before the start and sat in on the first hour - Peter Silvester came later. We three plus Rita had dinner together later and both Pete and Dave appear to have accepted the basic conditions for becoming shareholders in Vector Fields182. Earlier I had discussions with several of the course students on their difficulties solving field problems. Chari took Rita and I for a drink at the Holiday Inn and he talked about retiring and returning to India to work with the poor —his wife is to go back later this year. After dinner, I gave Dave Lowther a package, he agreed to ask Bela to post it back to RAL for me, it contained the books I bought at Lake Placid. Tomorrow Rita and I continue our journey, next stop Honolulu.
Tuesday 7 August We travelled to Montreal in a Beechcraft 90 with only 5 passengers and Pilot and co-Pilot- indeed a small twin engine 'tree-hopper'. A good journey though apart from occasional periods of turbulence. We arrived at Montreal at 10.00 (having left at 09.00). The Air Canada flight to San Francisco, via Toronto, was not leaving until 4 pm, so we had a long wait —eating, writing post-cards, etc. This flight proved interesting apart from the good service provided by Air Canada the flight path was diverted to the south because of turbulence so we had splendid views of the Grand Canyon. This brought back memories of the visit Rita and I had there two years ago. We joined the Honolulu flight SQ1 at midnight (West Coast Time) already adding the 3 hours time difference from Montreal. Singapore Airlines gave better service if anything than Air Canada. The flight lasted 5 hours and after a good supper and some whisky poured straight from the bottle by the pretty Singapore air hostess, we settled to sleep with blankets and eye-shields. The Boeing 477 landed on time at Honolulu Airport and we were soon in our hotel at Waikiki. We had been travelling since 07.30 am arriving at Honolulu the following day at 02.30 am, a time of 19 hours + 6 hours time difference, which meant our journey, had lasted 25 hours.
Honolulu Wednesday 8 August
182 This was premature as later events proved. Computational Electromagnetics 197
We slept fitfully and got up early 07.00 for breakfast. We were immediately enchanted by the many shades of blue sky and sea, white surf, deep brown hills and dark green palm leaves. We spent the morning on Waikiki beach enjoying the sun and sea. After a buffet lunch we slept! The evening we spent at the hotel enjoying drinks in the Pupu room and dinner in the Peacock Restaurant, after a walk in which we ventured as far as the International Market, very attractively lit at night and containing thousands of stalls, mostly cheap souvenirs but very jolly.
Plate 86: Near Waikiki Beech
Thursday 9 August We decided not to tour the island but to laze away the time in Waikiki; accordingly we spent the forenoon touring the souvenir shops in the International Market. We bought gifts for the people at home, including gold leaf fossils of leaves and shells at 50c a time. We enjoyed a good lunch of a chicken sandwich and beer in the open near the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, a spoof of a place, stucco pink with deep red carpets and a superb beach and pool. We saw a fine green catamaran majestically cutting through the surf and a vast multitude of 'brown' people basking on the beach. Back to the hotel, we changed for the beach and enjoyed a lazy afternoon going into the sea many times. The evening was also enjoyable; we had a dinner overlooking the sea in Groom's Steak House, 198 Round the World to China 1984 an attractive scene of boats of all types, including a four-master Barque- like ship, but I am sure she had engines and the sails were for show. We finished the day, eating ice cream in the market.
Friday 10 August After breakfast we took the beach bus to Haunama Bay. The bus went east around the back of Diamond Head and past lovely stretches of coast with well heeled houses decorated with a rich profusion of flowers with lots of bougainvillaea. In one case a large yacht was 'parked' outside. Haunama Bay is a majestic cove, nestling beneath brown bare cliffs and not a hotel in sight. The expanse of water crisscrossed by reefs looked inviting from rim of the bay. We followed the regulars down the track to shore; in fact all Honolulu appeared to be visiting this idyllic spot today. People of all shapes, sizes, colours, races, were there - Japanese 'cheek by jowl' with Anglo Saxons, Europeans of all sorts and the usual polygot selection of Orientals. It was difficult to find a vacant spot of beach, but we did manage to find a few square feet on the bare grass (earth), chocolate brown, near some fine palm trees, beautiful tall spare trees windswept by the Trade Winds. We changed into our swim-ware and to my astonishment we immediately saw shoals of fish, some highly coloured, swarming about our legs in the water. It was now apparent why this place is so popular; a delight for those who like to watch wild life in the sea, most visitors had snorkel and mask to get a better view. After this experience we decided to move along the coast a few miles further, using the beach bus, to visit the Sea Life Park. Here we had a pleasant lunch and afterwards looked at the 'reef' fish in something like their natural habitat, in a huge aquarium. We saw tropical fish of all sizes and types, some brilliantly coloured. Of particular fascination was the procession of sting-rays prowling round the aquarium, solemn and graceful. Next came an entertaining show in a pool they called Whalers Cove, complete with a full size replica of the Whaling Ship the 'Nantucket Bay' and a tiny desert island. A girl dressed as a Polynesian lady together with a lad in 'whaling gear' rowed to the island from the ship, these 'actors' were introduced by a MC standing in the ship using a PA system. The stars of the show however were a whale and two dolphins. They did all manner of tricks culminating in jumping high over a stretched wire. The lady at one stage attached a loop round the whale and rode standing on his back at 30 mph around the pond. Later we saw another dolphin show, this time with a Sea-Lion, and a Penguin called Freddy, in the Ocean Theatre, another large tank. We returned to the hotel for a rest by an ordinary service bus and had dinner at the Holiday Inn nearby.
Computational Electromagnetics 199
Saturday 11 August This was our last day in Honolulu. We spent the morning on the beach at Waikiki, the water was perfect. Rita discovered the Jack in the Box restaurant where we could purchase a picnic lunch. We took the lunch to the zoo at Kapiolani Park and spent a very pleasant afternoon looking at the animals and taking photographs - I particularly liked the giraffes, there were 7 of them in a large compound~ the decor blended well with the tropical surroundings. I had booked a car to take us to the airport at 11.30; our luggage was packed and left under the care of the hotel bell-man. We had dinner in 'down town' Honolulu and afterwards we went to the Blaisdel Concert Hall to see Richard Harris in 'Camelot'! The show was memorable in two ways - firstly, before the show began we were asked to stand silent for one minute in memory of Richard Burton who had first created the part of Arthur, and secondly for the terrible acoustics of the hall. The production also left a lot to be desired, Merlin was played by a 'Stage Englishman' almost as in a seaside pantomime and the fellow playing Sir Launcelot of handsome figure, had lost his voice, whilst poor old Richard Harris has no voice to lose. We returned to the Queen Kapiolani and collected our luggage and said farewell to Honolulu.
Hong Kong Monday 13 August The flight was pleasant enough - we had breakfast and a time shift of a further 6 hours. We are now + 8 from UK time. Our travelling problems now begin, we are in the orient and we expect difficulties. In order to buy film and sundries, we decided to go through emigration, collect our bags etc, and then check in to China Airlines in the normal way. To my annoyance I discovered we would have to pay $100 HK each in tax. Also, the HK airport facilities were not good so it was rather a waste, but we did get some film and locks for the cases. Checking into CA also proved worrying as people just push in front of one in queues, which always makes me very cross. However we eventually managed to check in, I had to unpack the large case because the X-ray checker showed a metal cylinder - this turned out to be my shaving cream. We had to pay the tax and have our papers checked, after this we were allowed to proceed to the departure area. Here we waited for some while, approximately 2 hours, but we did manage to buy a sandwich - sliced bread and typically British. We chatted to a charming young Italian traveller who was on our flight - he entertained us with 'horror stories' about Chinese pilots and safety. The plane - a Boeing 727 - boarded at 1.00 pm, a half hour late, but we were soon underway. 200 Round the World to China 1984
Flight CA102 lasted about 3 hours and the pretty air hostesses presented us with a fan each and a reasonable lunch. China Air's approach is to try and copy the Western standards as far as possible; the in-flight magazine is attractively packaged with the usual glossy articles and jet-set life style. This maybe only applies to the prestigious HK- Beijing route. We expected immigration problems at Beijing, our port of entry into PRC, and we had already filled in 3 forms on the aircraft, a health declaration, a customs form and an immigration form. In the event the health and immigration went very smoothly and even customs only caused one 'hiccup' - Rita had declared some cheap jewellery she had bought in Honolulu and the customs officer wanted to see it! She couldn't remember in which of our 7 items of luggage she had packed the stuff, and so she had to start looking in each case in succession. However, after I had explained that the value of these gifts was only of the order $1 a piece he felt inclined to wave us through and so she only had time to open one case before this happened, so we were soon clear and were able to wheel our luggage through. We were greeted by Fan Ming-Wu in the meeting area. There were several people at the airport to meet us - apart from Ming Wu; there were Professors Shi Nai and Wei Chu-Shan from the Harbin Institute as well as the head of Accelerator Division of the Atomic Energy Institute, Beijing. The weather was hot but fortunately with little humidity. We were told that Professor Wei was responsible for foreign visitors at Harbin, we were to travel there tomorrow, and he would be looking after us. Wei Chu-Shan spoke quite good English and explained that he needed our passports to obtain our tickets for Harbin, in the end he needed more than just our passports as he also needed foreign currency to pay for our tickets! Accordingly I had to hand over £100 — he was very apologetic and said he would pay me for my fare later. Our luggage disappeared, all our new friends quickly helping to stow it in the two cars sent to meet us. It transpired that they were unable to book us in the airport hotel as we had expected the first of many such rearrangements we were to suffer. Instead we had to travel to Beijing and be deposited at the 'infamous' friendship hotel. Rita and I travelled with Ming Wu and Wei in one car, our luggage and the rest of the party in the other. It was a cheerful journey, Ming Wu appeared not to have changed, still a friendly and slightly vague personality, you are never quite sure if things will work out as he predicts. He told me· of some of his recent work and how he has applied many of the techniques he learnt at Rutherford. Mr Wei told us he had learnt his English in Hong Kong whilst working for the RAOC and Rita and he sang 'It‘s a Long Way to Tipperary' in commemoration of those days. The journey took at least 1 hour and started in the country with the Computational Electromagnetics 201 car cutting through a long straight flat tree lined road. We passed several donkey carts and an ever increasing number of bicycles. As the suburbs commence this trickle of bicycles became a high density flux; at road junctions the car is held up whilst awaiting a break in the heavy stream of bicycles. We at last arrived at the Friendship Hotel to meet up with our luggage, new friends and more trouble as we were not booked in so Mr Wei had to negotiate for us while we sat, very tired after well over 24 hours travelling and no sleep. Eventually all was sorted out and we were allocated a room. We said goodbye to Ming Wu who said he would be arranging our visit in Beijing and also that he was planning to join us in Harbin next week. Mr Wei arranged with the head man in the restaurant for our meals, dinner and a special early breakfast 6.30 am - and would escort us to the airport in the morning. After dinner we bathed and went to bed. My first impression of the hotel was that it is a little better than your average YH but not quite as good as a YMCA. This proved to be highly exaggerated as our subsequent stay would prove.
Beijing Tuesday 14 August We slept well enough and remembered to brush our teeth in the boiled water provided. Professor Wei's arrangements worked out; indeed we had a special early breakfast in the Friendship Dining room - two fried eggs, bread and coffee. The presence of Wei in the background however was necessary; he somehow ensured that we, the visitors, were not troubled over the sordid subject of money? We left the hotel at 7.00 in a Japanese car, together with Professor Shi-Nai, to the airport. The same sea of cycles saw us off and we arrived in good time for our luggage to be checked at the Harbin check in - Mr Wei somehow got to the front of the queue and soon had our luggage swiftly deposited this, in fine contrast to the debacle at Hong Kong. The flight to Harbin lasted just under two hours and Rita was the only woman from the West on board, though there were several US business men sitting near us. The hostess presented us with yet another fan and in fact delivered a steady stream of gifts throughout the flight, including sweets, a sponge, and rose-hip syrup to drink and finally a cube of health-food to which we needed to add water! Our arrival at Harbin was exciting as we were met by a reception committee including our principal host, Prof Tang, and several of his colleagues as well as an official photographer. Several films were taken of the introductions and groups etc, Rita also managed to take a group picture and the official photographer used my camera as well. We travelled in a Chinese built car which had curtains in the windows and were soon honking our way to Harbin. We were to stay in an apartment 202 Round the World to China 1984 reserved for foreign visitors actually at the Institute, some several kilometres from the centre of town —I must say this filled me with apprehension! The institute, a square white building of some 8 floors, built some ten years ago, appeared on the horizon as we entered the suburbs of the city. The area we were in was not attractive with its half finished avenues and ugly apartment blocks, with many broken windows and already deteriorating masonry, several of the roads were merely muddy tracks rutted with vehicles.
Plate 87: Reception Committee: Prof. Tan on the right Prof Shi-Nai on the left with Mr Wei centre back
Our home for the next two weeks turned out to be on the ground floor of one of these blocks, and we were proudly shown around the official foreign visitor‘s residence. The apartment consists of a fairly large sitting room full of odd furniture, including a set of four large arm chairs, all covered with matching brown dust covers, also a large expensive salmon pink carpet, an empty cheap cocktail cabinet with a b/w TV, a book case/side board, in fact all the furniture except for the carpet would not be up to MFI standard. The wall-paper was quite attractive, pale blue embossed, but the curtains were merely purple cloth draped carelessly over the windows, which have broken panes. The finishing touches to the room are the provision of a bright red telephone that doesn't work, a huge electric fan and two hat stands. A rather grotesque feature is the large left-over Christmas decoration standing on Computational Electromagnetics 203 a wooden desk. The electrical services were fed by lethal wires draped across the floor. Other rooms are a bathroom with an extreme case of DIY plumbing executed, apparently by an idiot; a bedroom containing a double bed, wardrobe, badly hanging curtains and another hat stand; and finally a small study with desk which actually looked to be very useful, and yet another hat stand.
Plate 88: Being briefed by Prof. Tang
As soon as we were settled in we were taken to lunch in a room nearby. I was too tired to take much in and we were grateful to return to the flat for a rest. Later on in the afternoon I took a short walk and passed Mr Wei who was with his wife, a nice quiet lady who speaks good English. They invited us vaguely to their flat but I felt we would need to have a specific arrangement made before we could go. I ventured a little way up the road but soon felt isolated so I returned, next time I would go with Rita and venture further. At 6.00 pm we were collected by Professor Wei to go to the official dinner. This turned out to be in the same small bare room as we had lunch, with a largish round table and tiny stools. The table had the usual small 'saucers' and chopsticks, although we were provided with a spoon each, and later a fork. Our hosts were there: first Professor Li who had spent 2 years at MIT and was wearing a Western suit; then Professor Tang who reminded me of Peter Lorre, short friendly, and very considerate, who sat between me and Li. Rita sat on my right hand next 204 Round the World to China 1984 to her the two Vice Presidents of the Institute—we didn't rate the President! Next to them sat a young man whose main function seemed to be to keep the drink flowing. Our friend Wei sat next and finally Professor Shi Nai who appeared late wearing a smarter version of the 'Mao Boiler Suit'. Thus there were 9 of us present. The meal was elaborate and consisted of many courses, some of the local specialities, i.e. fish from the Songhua River. We had chicken, steak, pork all done in elaborate garnish and sauce. The chop-sticks were not a success so we soon resumed to fork and spoon. There were three sorts of drinks, each in a different glass, a rather pleasant tankard of Chinese beer, a rich ruby Port and a fiery pale yellow liquid —a grain alcohol. This later was used for numerous toasts, the Vice President toasted me and I replied, we toasted mutual cooperation and lasting friendship, we also toasted Rita and the success of the lecturing. The climax came with a dish of potatoes, a real local delicacy. These spuds were baked in treacle and you had to lift them high, standing on your feet, to draw fine fibres of syrup which having done was received with much laughter. One of the VPs got drunk and all were merry, I called for the cook and his staff and toasted them. We parted feeling very welcome and returned to the flat to sleep but then further guests arrived, professors from Chinese universities in Harbin to attend my lectures; we had to talk for a further hour before sleep!
Harbin Wednesday 15 August I slept reasonably well, up at 6 am to prepare the first lecture. The lecture programme is to be 10 lectures each lasting approximately 3 hours, with a 'tea break' at half time and Professor Tang to translate. The lectures are to begin at 8.00 am each day with free time after lunch, but I suspect they will want to fill this time up with other technical talks; we shall see. I decided that my first lecture would be an introduction in which I would broadly describe the SERC setup of CAE and some facts about RAL. I would end by giving a synopsis of the lectures to come which would be divided into 9 further slots. We were to have our meals next door and it transpired that a 'cook' had been specially laid on for us, breakfast at 7.15, lunch at 12.00 and dinner at 5.30 pm and we agreed to try Chinese food! So we went for our first breakfast in a small room just containing a table with a dull outlook, looking out on to a red brick apartment block. The cook, a short chubby man dressed in proper gear white coat and cap brought our breakfast on a tray; poached eggs floating in salty flavoured water, also a dish of sweet milk and Chinese croissants. The eggs were OK and the croissant not bad but the sweet milk183 was not to our taste. Both Prof Shi Nai and Prof
183 This liquid proved to be not real milk but 'rice milk' Computational Electromagnetics 205
Tang escorted me to the first lecture on the 5th floor of the main institute building — no lifts of course. The lecture room is like a board school classroom and 40 or so people were waiting patiently, sitting at the rows of desks. Both overhead projector and 35 mm projector were arranged to direct images on to screen of near white sheeting, but to my dismay the room was only partially blacked out - there were no window drapes on 2 of the 4 windows. I tried the OH projector and to my relief it worked though the level of illumination was far too low for a decent projection. It would do. The 35 mm slides however were not visible, the room would have to be darkened.
Plate 89: First Lecture
By this time Prof Tang had started talking and was busy introducing me to the audience who came from all over China just to attend this seminar, it was all very flattering and encouraged me to do my best. I decided to begin without slides, but several young men arrived carrying curtains with which they proceeded to black out the room; so I switched to my slides, but the projector was not standard and the slides were not loaded correctly, so we had some good humoured fun! I firmly declined to go on fussing with the projector and said we would sort the slides out during the tea break. A bright young man in the audience took over and said he would sort the slides out so I used viewgraphs only until the break. After the break with the slides now working moderately, I was able to finish the first lecture. 206 Round the World to China 1984
I returned at 11.30, met Rita, and we had lunch at 12.00 in the box- room, Chinese again some of it quite delicious but we miss plain water to drink and fruit.. We slept in the afternoon and I felt pretty depressed, feeling we should have been accommodated in a hotel in the city centre. Rita didn't agree with this, she prefers the living in with the people, maybe I will get used to it but we do seem to be stuck in a dreary part of the suburbs with no 'flesh pots'. Slept for a spell afterwards, but also managed some music—Elgar's Falstaff. I wonder if this was a first performance of this in Harbin. Before dinner at 5.30 we took a short walk; we managed to find our way out of the institute's muddle of buildings to the main road, passing a steady stream of people coming and going, women marketing, children playing, old people talking and in the main street outside, lorries, trolley busses and bicycles galore. Everyone stared at us of course as we were told they would, but we found a small park and after paying a small entrance fee, we walked around it, the place was mainly used by children. We managed to return to the institute a different way. Professor Wei our mentor and guide arrived to present us with his 'account'; he had been scrupulous in writing things out, he paid us for my fare (I had paid in Beijing) 160 Y + the allowance of 10 Y per diem as agreed. He then went on to tell us of the programme that had been arranged for us while in Harbin. It appeared very full indeed, Rita had the use of a guide, a charming young man, a Mr Fan Yu aged about 30, and he was a post-graduate at the institute. Also provided, as required, would be a car and driver. While I was lecturing this morning they had already seen something of the city and shops. Professor Wei proposed several outings for us both in the afternoons, but many afternoons were to be filled up with 'lecture conferences', discussions with the faculty professors and an additional lecture to the Heilongjiang Electrical Engineering Society. However, I was going to have a tour of the shops tomorrow afternoon, a visit to a craft factory and to the city museum on Friday. On Saturday a visit to Sun Island was arranged. But next week looked full. He dropped a further bombshell by announcing that there is no electric power in institutes and rooms on Fridays and Saturdays, so I would have to lecture without visual aids on these days. I thought of Dennis Wilkinson's184 comment on his visit to China, 'If you don't want to play; don't go'. Another of the many helpful young men brought me a cassette recorder/player and typewriter; this was very considerate since now we could play our music tapes in the room and listen together. We went to bed feeling very tired.
184 Formerly Head of the Nuclear Physics Department at Oxford University. Computational Electromagnetics 207
Thursday 16 August Up early, breakfast at 7.15 - eggs poached in a sweet liquid - not to our taste! Lecture at 8.00, so Professor Tang came to the apartment at 7.45. This was to be the first lecture proper and would deal with the theory of Integral Equations for Electromagnetic Fields. I spoke for 90 minutes with Prof Tang translating. All, as far as I could tell, went well and he is doing a splendid job. The audience were as attentive as ever. After a 'tea break' I resumed another 90 minutes, I felt tired but managed to survive. I invited questions and soon they were forthcoming, this was a new experience; there were several, including some pertinent remarks on multiple connected surfaces and symmetry. I spoke afterwards with a Prof Sung Yu-shi from Nanjing Aeronautical Institute who was interested in discussing his work, we walked back to the apartment to have a discussion, he was accompanied by his sister-in-law, a Mrs Dong-Lei. We found Mr and Mrs Wei talking to Rita, but they left after introductions. Rita gave our guests some tea and we discussed Prof Sung's impending visit to USA, I advised him to work at the University of Colorado with Professor W Lord. After lunch Rita and I were taken into town by Fan-Yu and a colleague; we visited the International Hotel to change some money and we also bought some gifts - ties and table cloths; then on to the Friendship Shop for whisky and other essentials. The car turned out to be the official car for the President of the Institute, it is a pale blue saloon, built in Shanghai (2 litre) and roughly 1 year old. The young men are very considerate, Fan Yu speaks English quite well, especially when one considers that he must have been a victim of the 'cultural revolution' and missed out on his education. I demanded to be taken to a book shop - I knew of one from the guide-book - and so we went to No.1 Hongyhuan Street — not a Blackwell‘s, but interesting enough, there were foreign language books upstairs though mainly for English learning purposes. I bought a Chinese language version of Alice - English one side and Chinese characters on the other. The books lack totally the glamour packaging of the West, being mainly paper-back with almost no decoration. Rita wanted some fruit which was to be had at roadside markets, she bought some peaches, however we could not find apples, and so they took us to a grocer‘s shop where we bought some rather poor looking efforts rather like Golden Delicious. We were being watched very closely by the locals everywhere we went, e.g. in the shop a young woman emerged from the crowd to pick a huge black beetle that was crawling up along Rita's shoulder near her neck and hair with some wooden tongs! We returned to the institute for dinner, dinner is less 208 Round the World to China 1984 elaborate than lunch, but nevertheless consists of several dishes of meat and fish with eggs being used a great deal. I felt rather off and returned early to bed. However I did enjoy my whisky.
Plate 90: Mr Fan-Yu, Rita‘s personal guide
Friday 17 August Lecture 3, and no power. I met Tang outside the institute and we went up together. Lecture proceeded well with usual interval for tea, Professor Li joined us for tea and we discussed computing in China. Professor Tang asked me if I liked classical music. Rather, I said and we discussed composers. He liked violin music especially; he said he could bring me some tapes this evening. At 11.30 I returned to the flat for lunch. After lunch Fan Yu came with car to take us to town to visit the Chinese Craft factory. The craft factory turned out to be a place Computational Electromagnetics 209 foreigners are taken to buy souvenirs. Hand craft goods mostly, Chinese feather and shell pictures and 'wheat stalk' pictures; we saw these being made by an assembly line of girls. The wheat stalk pictures were made by gluing strips onto black velvet. The 'head girl' who showed us round was eager to make a good impression and quite charming; but she did persuade us to buy several pictures and some decorated boxes. She was eager to try her limited English and escorted us down to the car when we left, waving goodbye. The exhibits in the city museum, though often fine and interesting, are poorly displayed. Good quality sculpture often decorated with 'fairy lights', etc, and there are stalls selling crude and overpriced pictures and artefacts everywhere, with traders quite pushy. However Rita bought a tiger and I a pen rack. We returned for dinner at 5.00 pm. Professor Tang arrived with tapes, a fine selection of classical romantic composers; Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven. He looked at mine and I was delighted to learn that he knew Elgar, said he admired the violin concerto in B minor. He borrowed some Mahler and Elgar, including Falstaff. He learnt the violin in middle school, and his life during the cultural revolution was spent working on a farm; Tang is altogether a charming cultured man whom we are getting to know and like. The water-man arrived so I had a bath in tea and went to bed.
Saturday 18 August Today we went to Sun Island with Professor Li; he collected us in the car at 8.00. The weather was very warm and we should have left our coats behind. We drove to the city and boarded a crowded ferry boat to cross the Songhua river, we queued to board, life all round us, people of all sorts out for the day; many children and families, the single child 'edict' much in evidence, one of them urinated over my feet but who cares, it's a holiday! People frequently gave us stares and we all set off across the river. The other side, the Sun Island, which the guide book describes as idyllic, was less than this, too many people, too hot and somewhat monotonous, the river scenery not very picturesque and island itself a sort of amusement park with 'monorail scenic' train, mini circus and, as a centre piece, a landscape lake with island, boating and 'Swan Lake' sounding loudly over a PA system. The avenues, though pleasantly tree lined, were worn and crowded and packed with stalls selling cheap cameras, film and ice-cream, and trinkets for children; the occasional floral beds spoilt by crude statues. I developed a headache and asked Professor Li if we could return , he found us a shady spot where I could have a drink and take a tablet and he brought us some 'bottled banana fluid' which I thought pretty foul, but it was sufficient to swallow the 210 Round the World to China 1984 pills. We took a smaller boat back across the Songhua river, which was more interesting because we could have an all round view of the river activities. The best part of the outing was the walk along the promenade to the 'flood monument', this proved to be a large imposing, but ostentatious structure consisting of a semi-circular arch and central obelisk rather crudely executed. The promenade, however, was tree-lined and gave spacious views of the river in the shade, a blessed relief from the blazing heat of Sun Island. Professor Li then took us to the shopping district nearby and I spotted a music shop with a battered B flat euphonium in the window. Inside there were violins, both European - small half-size for learning - and the proper traditional Chinese violin with its long stem and stubby cylindrical sound chamber with stretched skin. Also present were some cheap bamboo Chinese flutes, I asked to see one and tried to make a note. I failed to get the hang of it and then the fellow behind the counter, clad in singlet and trousers, stuck a small piece of paper over one the holes and proceeded to play - a delightful Scottish jig! We bought the flute for Dinah, costing 39 cents, and a Chinese harmonica for Simon. We then returned home for lunch. I slept after lunch and felt very much better. At 6.30 after dinner Fan-Yu collected us to take us into town to go to the weekly dance at the International Hotel. We went by car and parked outside and were promptly ushered into the hotel and up four floors in the lift. We found ourselves in a small ballroom with a band tuning up, sitting in a type of Minstrel‘s gallery above. I felt very conspicuous since most of the other people arriving were young people, teenage boys and their girl-friends and many unattached kids of both sexes. Mr Fan bought us beer and soft drinks; I had a can of beer brewed in Hong Kong which I had to drink with a straw, the beer tasted very unpleasant to me. The band started up a Valeta, some tune by Johann Strauss I think with a Chinese flavour at the end of each phrase; we couldn't see the players but it sounded like a 3-piece with a strong drummer and tenor saxophonist with a weak pianist. There were so many unattached males present that two men started the dancing! All this reminded me of a 1940‘s local hop, except then it was always two ladies who would start things moving. The noise was acute and we soon felt like leaving. We asked Fan Yu to take us down stairs to the hotel bar where we could have a quiet drink. The place had got so crowded that our seats were immediately grabbed by others. The hotel did not have a regular bar only a shop where cans of drinks were sold for foreign exchange currency, so we were ripped off. Incidentally the dance tickets cost 3Y, a high cost when you consider a young man would earn no more than 15Y a week. We talked to Fan Yu and the driver, Mr Zhang, who we had Computational Electromagnetics 211 noticed was always reading, the cover of the book had a picture reminding me of Anna Karenina and so it transpired - he was reading a Chinese version of the Tolstoy novel after seeing the recent BBC version on Chinese TV. Fan Yu recommended that I read the great Chinese novelist Cao Xie-Qin book 'Hong Lon Ming' and I resolved to look out for it in Beijing. We returned home in the dark, bicycles without lights everywhere and marvelled at Mr Zhang's driving skill.
Sunday 19 August Lecture 4 today, complete with slides. Mr Zhao arrived at 7.30 to help me load the slides and all went well with the lectures. Professor Tang and I discussed music in the tea break and I discovered he liked Mahler's 9th and had listened to our tape of Mahler 5 with interest. After lunch I had a sleep because I find the 3 1/2 hours lecturing very tiring indeed. I have never had so much strain before; there were lots of questions at the end. We went for a walk and saw all Harbin out for the day, or so it seemed, markets busy, people enjoying their day off. We returned to find Mr Wei standing outside the apartment and he asked us to his flat for a cup of tea. This was on the 4th floor of the block and was neatly but simply furnished and contained some luxuries - i.e. colour TV, radio and tape recorder. We sat in their living room and had tea with their son. Mrs Wei also came in and we spent an interesting hour discussing China, England, tea, food etc. We formed a strong impression of a friendly atmosphere and they wanted us to return. Their son teaches English and seems a lively intelligent lad - China has appalling problems to solve, but with people like the Wei family, Prof Tang and the ardent youngsters all around, they will, given some luck, succeed. We returned to dinner: omelette, fish and some vegetable with a meaty sauce. We felt content. A short walk at dusk, when all Harbin seems to be eating on the pavements, brought the day to a close. I have just let the 'Water Man' in and my 'tea bath‘ awaits, so I must stop.
Monday 20 August We were awoken suddenly at 5.00 am by the door bell - it was Mr Fan-Yu who said telephone! At first we though there was emergency news from home and rushed about dressing feverishly; it transpired that it was only Mr Fan coming to take me to town to make a telephone call to home as we had previously arranged. He had mistaken my request; I said 5.00 PM not 5.00 AM. However I went to town at this, ungodly hour and made the call (cost 28Y) and got through to Dinah without too much trouble. I did lecture 5 at 8.00 finishing at 10.30 and have now completed the Integral Equation part of my course. I start differential operators tomorrow; all appears to be going quite well. Mr Wei and Prof Tang have 212 Round the World to China 1984 agreed to my reschedule so the last Saturday morning would be a lecture conference, leaving Thursday afternoon free. After lunch I had the first lecture conference and 14 written questions were presented to me, some inviting answers including considerable mathematics on the black-board but nothing at all difficult. The class is lively and eager to squeeze me dry - I feel like a sponge, the room is hot and dusty. I am getting to know them better, they walk me back to the apartment, they carry my books, they tell me I need exercise, they are quite disarming and without affectation.
Plate 91: Some visitors to our apartment Front L to R Prof. Tang, Prof (Madame) Sheng (Xian University), Back L Prof. Li and centre Prof. Shai
I returned to the apartment, Rita's out shopping, so I was listening to music. Rita came in at 5.30 from her shopping expedition with two young Chinese in tow - she took their photographs and said they had had an interesting time.
Tuesday 21 August We don't like our new cook as well as the old185. Today‘s lecture (Lecture 6 at 8.00 pm) considered differential methods; the weather was
185 Unfortunately and rather crassly we had mentioned to Mr Wei that the Cook had been over feeding us and I believe this was taken as a criticism and he was promptly removed. Computational Electromagnetics 213 wet so slides showed up much better since no bright sun beamed through the windows. After lunch we were collected by Fan-Yu to visit the Harbin Electrical Machines factory. This proved interesting, we were first given tea and short presentation by Liang Zhongxue, an engineer in Generator Design and Research Department. Then there was a video presentation, quite good pictures and visual presentation but partly ruined by too intensive music playing 'Yellow River Symphony'! We then had a tour round the works and saw the huge machine tools being used to machine parts of rotor and stator of the 300 MW Turbine Sets. The works are very similar to factories making turbines elsewhere in the world, e.g. Westinghouse, GE, GEC (UK), etc, the design of these beasts are all very similar. Rita was very impressed by the size and atmosphere and enjoyed the tour. After dinner we met Fan Ming Wu who had just arrived from Beijing. He and I discussed some technical problems for a while then Tang joined us. They wished me to write a letter implying some official COMPMAG position for Tang and Fan, though I found this an embarrassment. The best I can do is to write saying I have recommended them to ISC to be members of the Refereeing Committee. This I was going to do in any case; their political position is delicate and it is difficult for them to get approval to attend conferences. It appeared now that we will have to travel by train back to Beijing - they said there are no seats on the plane.
Wednesday 22 August Lecture 7 today on 3D Fields. Fan Ming Wu in the audience. Prof Tang presented me with a copy of his book suitably inscribed. After lunch I give my special lecture to the Hilolang Institute of Electrical Engineering. It started well enough but we had severe projector trouble later, the lad helping me tried to get it to work but to no avail, he nearly pulled it to bits. Prof Shi Nai fetched the expert, a morose lad who proceeded to demolish the thing with a screwdriver; they got it going but it soon failed so my talk was ruined. The fellows didn't seem to mind, we improvised as best we could, Ming Wu translating, Shi Nai proposed a vote of thanks and I met the chief engineer of the local works. We were then called out for a group photograph; all the course delegates sat on a bench or stood behind with me in the centre next to Rita. The photographer had two assistants and together they made a fine display about getting everything right. It reminded us of the old-fashioned group photographs of our youth. We had potatoes for dinner, dipped in curry sauce - a great treat, but still garlic with the pieces of meat. We visited Wei after dinner and discussed our arrangements for returning to Beijing 214 Round the World to China 1984
- he said that Fan Yu would accompany us and look after us in Beijing. Tomorrow we were to visit the zoo.
Plate 92: Course Photograph
Thursday 23 August Awoke in the night feeling achy all-over; especially below my knees and across my shoulders. Rita made me a cup of tea and gave me Aspirin; I then fell into a hot steamy sleep, dreaming utter rubbish involving airplanes, hostesses and sex. Lecture 8 today on software and mesh generation. Fang Ming Wu did the translation and made rather a 'meal' of it, the projector, true to form, broke down again and caused problems but not as bad as yesterday. The Chinese will simply have to spend more on lecture room and visual aids if they are going to get real value from their visiting experts. I felt ill throughout and was glad to come home at 11.00, accompanied by Prof Tang, and Madame Sheng Jiam-ni from Xian. Prof Tang had some tiny black pills he wanted me to take, beautifully packaged; he said I should take 10 pills twice a day! But I resisted because I was not sure if these drugs would have adverse affects. Madame Sheng gave me an inscribed copy of her book on electromagnetic fields and was very flattering to me. After lunch I lay down with more disprins and felt just about well enough to go out to the zoo. It proved to be a rather dreary, crowded place; however they had Pandas and the local Heilong-jiang Tiger. I felt pretty rotten again so I stopped the trip to the children's park and went back to Computational Electromagnetics 215 the apartment for more disprins and a lie in bed. Felt better for dinner, Rita was late, but we had meat without garlic for the first time. After dinner Fan Yu came and we gave him our addresses at home. He is now not coming to Beijing with us on Saturday, Prof Shi-Nai has decided! Shi appears to be the man who makes the real decisions here — he is a silent Eminence-Gris, probably the Institute's party leader, a sort of commissar. Yu told us also that there was to be a banquet in our honour and a trip to the Theatre. Later Ming Wu called with an ex-Mongolian student who is to be our 'foreign service' guide in Beijing instead of Fan Yu, he was very quiet. Fan Ming Wu also presented us with a pair of melons but his real reason for calling was to apply pressure to me to write letters implying involvement with COMPUMAG. Rita says she will give me whisky, aspirin and put me to bed at 8.30 —I hope I feel better tomorrow.
Friday 24 August I felt very poorly during the night and slept badly. We took my temperature with my 'forehead thermometer' and it appears to have been 101 F. The Aspirins brought the fever down and I forced myself to give the last lecture at 8.00. I spoke about optimisation and also gave a summary of the course. I concluded with a 'potted history' of the COMUMAG conferences. Prof Tang made a nice speech at the end and thanked me for the lectures. I returned to the apartment at 10.00, took more aspirin and lay on the bed until 11.30 when there was to be a farewell banquet. The Banquet was attended by all the course delegates as well as the institute staff who had looked after us. There were very many courses, some quite tasty, and despite feeling ill I managed to enter into the spirit of the occasion. Both Rita and I took many flash photographs. There were 5 large round tables, and on our table there were Prof Shi, Prof Tang, Fan Ming Wu, Madame Sheng, Jiang Zhong-Wei and Sun Yu-shi. There was plenty to drink, the usual beer, the pale yellow spirit called Gu Wen 'wine', and Chinese Port. Soon the speeches started, Prof Tang, the leading expert in electromagnetic fields in China started, Fan Ming Wu translated, I was thanked for the lectures which he said had been very successful, Rita was thanked too, altogether a flattering display which made me feel slightly giddy. I then replied and tried to convey our feelings of pleasure in the welcome we had received in Harbin. I congratulated Prof Tang on the high standard of work at the Harbin Institute and expressed the hope that we will collaborate again in the future. I ended by the usual remark about fostering good relations between our two countries which is the sine qua non of speeches at Chinese banquets. This was greeted with applause and Prof Shi then harangued everyone for a further 5 minutes —I do not know what he was 216 Round the World to China 1984 saying and not everyone was listening — they had all started drinking! The meal proceeded with a great deal of jollity and good humour. The young men at other tables were imbibing beer at a fast rate and were making random toasts. I also went from table to table to toast everyone individually, getting to know these very friendly people. I thanked the staff for looking after us. We left the banquet to much applause! I had another meeting at 2.00 to meet the department professors - more speeches I expect; so I needed to rest and try and keep my fever under control. I lay on the bed and had strange dreams,
I am moved by fancies that are curled around these images, and cling: The notion of some infinitely gentle infinitely suffering thing.
I awoke in time to meet the professors at the institute for tea, speeches and discussions. The institute has 1400 undergraduates in all branches of electrical engineering, excluding electronics. There are 40 post-graduates with 7 working on computational electromagnetics. They have modelled their degree system on US, i.e. BS (no grades), MS, PhD and the lecturing staff: Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, and Full Professors. Prof Tang is the only full Professor. They offered me tea, biscuits and fruit - bananas and grapes. Everything looked nicely tidy. There were several people in the room, ten I believe, including Fan Ming Wu and myself, and they were somewhat embarrassed because the President had not shown up! After waiting a short while they decided not to wait longer and so the speeches started. Prof Shi began as usual and I replied, it was the same with the others; each, including me, trying to out- do the others in mutual flattery. I asked questions about their institute and we discussed the state of electromagnetics research world-wide. I told them that although we could accept their point that they could make a very large labour force in software; the young men need the advanced computer equipment available to their colleagues in the West. We then discussed future visits and the possibility of me visiting the more scenic parts of China. Many photographs were taken during the discussions. It was clear the institute President would not appear so I stood up to go, shook hands with everyone and returned to the flat. Prof Tang returned my tapes earlier and I returned his - I gave him my new tape of the Elgar Sonata for Violin and Piano but unfortunately he reciprocated immediately by giving me a boxed set of cassettes of the Beethoven music for flute and Piano. This was not my intention; it is far easier for me to get tapes than Prof Tang. I took more pills and slept or dozed in the bed until dinner at 5.30. We ate very little. Rita had developed a very nasty migraine headache and decided not to go out this evening. We had been invited to go to a theatre to see a 'music' show—I decided to go but I really should not Computational Electromagnetics 217 have, but I was reluctant to miss the opportunity of seeing some local culture. I was deplorably wrong, the theatre is near the 'flood monument' by the Songhua River and we went by the institute‘s bus with Ming Wu, our new guide, a Japanese visitor with his interpreter plus others. The bus ride was unpleasant - it was raining as well. The theatre, was a standard sea-side Hippodrome building with quite a spacious foyer and balcony but the ‗loos‘ are far worse than I expected. Unfortunately I was treated to the best seats, 5 rows back from the front of the stalls. The show was called the 'Harbin Song and Dance Group'. The band, ominously each with individual microphones, consisted of 8 violins, percussion and drummer with an enormous array of things to bang, as well as two guitars feeding a very high powered amplifier plus a lady ‗driving‘ a synthesizer in the centre; on the right we had the brass section consisting of 2 trumpets, trombone, clarinets (doubling saxophone) and flute. The ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra were dressed in white local shirts with vivid red ties. There were white trousers for the men and white skirts for the ladies. They all looked vaguely oriental except the synthesizer lady who looked European, possibly Russian. The whole concoction was lead by a 'pretty boy' dressed in green shirt and white silk pants playing the maracas with tremendous vigour as he walked round the stage. The noise was deafening. I had to cover my ears to avoid injury and I noticed Mr Song doing the same. The music (the vocals) were Western style arrangements of local songs plus a few standards like 'Granada' featuring the solo trumpet; for the most part we had a series of 'pretty boy' and a choir of highly dressed up ladies, singing, sometimes in tune and always accompanied by the dreadful band. The irritating thing is that the effect is a mixture of the worst in both cultures, sometimes brash, sometimes super sweet, but always noisy; pseudo Western arrangements of local melodies containing oriental harmonies somewhat reminiscent of the Yellow River symphony. The interval came at last and I wanted (a) to go to the toilet, and (b) leave! The first request was eagerly granted and Fan lead me to the enormous crowd of youngsters jostling for position at the urinals - the stench was over-powering and in my debilitated state I couldn't face it, so I abandoned (a) and hoped for (b). This was also denied me since the bus driver had gone off. So we sat through the second half. The singing had been interspersed with a dance group of 5 couples, sometimes dressed in long skirts, sometimes in short skirts and stockings, but with plain under-skirts that appeared to be weighed down with lead. I think the occasional display of leg was the reason the theatre was so full of young men who appeared to talk a lot during the singing, there was eager competition to get as near the front as possible. The two best acts were two lady folk singers, one with guitar who was strikingly 218 Round the World to China 1984 beautiful and another slightly older dressed in a pretty turquoise dress, who sang with minimal orchestral backing. I left with relief and was glad to return to the apartment. Tomorrow I hope I feel better especially as we go to Beijing.
Saturday 15 August We spent the day, until 4.30, at the apartment; I still feel poorly, glad to rest. I appear to be running a temperature of 1000F in cycles, though I am trying to minimise the amount of aspirin I take. We had a small farewell banquet with our principals here - Prof Shi, Tang, Mr Wu, Fan Min Wu, and the Vice-President Zhao. Also Mr Song joined us; he eats a lot and says very little. Rita says he will be good for 'humping' suitcases on the train and little else. We left for the station in a downpour, the sky was quite black as night fell at 5.30. Fan Yu also joined us at the station so we had, Tang, Shi, Wie, Yu to see us off and they made short work of the cases, we waited in the First Class lounge and after a few minutes boarded the train comfortably and were soon ensconced in our 'soft sleeper'. The luggage was stacked on a large shelf over the corridor. There were 4 comfortable bunks and so Rita and I had the lower two and Fan Ming Wu and Song the upper two, but we all shared the lower bunks for seating, when not sleeping. We said goodbye to our hosts and Harbin and the train left on its 850 mile journey at 18.50. I soon became weary and miserable with my fever and dozed fitfully.
Beijing Sunday 26 August Overnight on the Express No.18 to Beijing I found it very difficult to sleep, especially difficult because of my headache and fever. I dozed the night away as we moved south toward Shenyang. We stopped for several minutes there at about 3.00 am, during the next 2 hours I listened to Mahler's symphony No.5, it seemed to match my mood as well as the journey. Saw several soldiers on the move, now wearing hard caps and insignia instead of the brown soft caps and plain uniforms customary until recently. 'Humper' Song was snoring wildly in the bunk above, a not altogether too extravagant a counter point to the Mahler! Ming Wu and I saw the dawn and outline of distant mountains, and soon we were flashing by well kept agriculture and peasantry, fishermen in muddy waters, donkey carts, and groups of cyclists on their way to work. We were well looked after by lady attendants who were always cleaning and bringing fresh boiled water. My headaches are getting worse but temperature better. Had Western style breakfast in dining car, 2 fried eggs, bread and jam. Morning passed slowly for me and I did not enjoy the views, we stopped for 10 minutes at the place where the Great Wall starts — a Chinese Wallsend? But it was too misty to see anything. Computational Electromagnetics 219
We took some photos of the train though. We arrived in Beijing at about 1 o'clock after a Chinese lunch. It was hot at the station and we had to wait awhile to clear the crowds to get our luggage out to the car, usual confusion about what to do, organisation a little suspect. We were met by 2 colleagues of Ming Wu and driver from the Institute of Atomic Energy. It was an air-conditioned Mini-Bus, thank goodness. I felt dreadful waiting around and thought I would faint. We at last got underway and drove out of Beijing SW to the Institute Hostel - about 40 km. I remember very little about the journey, we had to stop at the Institute supermarket, because Fan Ming Wu had not arranged a meal for us. Rita got some tinned meat and biscuits. We were then shown our apartment which was very good, several rooms, quite large, complete with colour TV and what is more, air conditioning, and a refrigerator. We had a snack supper and I quickly went to bed.
Plate 93: With Fan Min Wu arriving at Beijing Station
Monday 27 August Slept fitfully as usual, I was still bothered by a fever and fearful headaches that seem to be getting worse. We were collected by Ming Wu at 8.00 and taken to breakfast at the Institute, a drive of about 10 minutes through a sea of cycles. The restaurant is a special one catering for foreign visitors and turned out to be reasonable. We then went to meet the Accelerator Division Head, Li Gong-Pan and one of his senior 220 Round the World to China 1984 colleagues, Cui-Shan. After the usual tea served by a pretty girl we were given a tour of the Laboratory, meeting the leaders of each group we toured. It was fascinating for me, and for the most part like experiencing a time warp backwards - eg the Van de Graff, expertly and proudly shown by Yu-Shu Yi (who has excellent English) was a single ended machine, capable of generating just under 3MV. For the most part, cyclotron, electromagnetic-separators, etc, were acquired from USSR in the late 50's. The Chinese have worked extraordinarily hard to keep those old machines running and are justly proud of the modifications they have made, but their resources are 20 years out of date. However they have recently acquired a Tandem Generator from HVEC Corp. and this machine is currently being assembled, all pristine, shining, and fresh out of the packing cases. Also new is the VAX 11780 computer which will be used for data collection. The laboratory has also bought from USA a new CYBER at the very bottom of the range. So a mixture of old and new but they showed a tremendous enthusiasm. The people here are less formal than Harbin and in some ways are like us at accelerator labs in the West with an easy relationship between levels. A semi-formal reception followed with a mixture of Chinese and Western dishes, this was attended by the people who had showed us round. After lunch Rita departed to see 'Peking Man' with Mr Yu Shi Yi and I to give my first lecture. I felt reasonable, all things considered, and strove to do my best. Alas the projector yet again caused problems but the pretty girl who served us tea managed to retrieve the situation most times. The room was not properly darkened, despite Ming Wu's protestations earlier. There were about 20-25 people present, some from other labs. I did an overview of EM fields at RAL and it seemed to go well enough. Ming Wu translated and I am slightly suspicious he often utters what he thinks rather than what I say. We returned at 5.00 pm, Rita was already home and seems to have enjoyed herself. That evening we went to Ming Wu's apartment for dinner, the first time that they have had foreign guests. We met his wife and elder daughter - we had previously met the younger daughter on Sunday. Mrs Fan Yu Tiao Jin does not speak English, but their older daughter Fan Lan speaks quite well and is a pen friend of Alice Newman (Mike Newman's daughter). They entertained us quite lavishly, a large number of dishes including lobster and fish and chips - not all good! The meal was jolly, with me trying to use chop sticks and many photographs taken and looked at. Mrs Fan did very well. We returned to our apartment in the rain around 9.30 pm and went straight to bed.
Computational Electromagnetics 221
Tuesday 28 August I had a severe headache during the night again; but no fever. Lecture at 8.00 am at the Institute; this one on 3D eddy currents. How I got through it I don't know; especially the question session. Several people were from industry and wished to know if we could solve 'real' problems! I had my lunch at the Institute canteen and joined an Australian who worked for CDC and was installing the Cyber. He had been commissioning the machine for several days and was looking forward to returning to his flat in Beijing. He has a roving commission for CDC in Asia and is based in Beijing — he seemed pleased that he hadn't seen his wife for 4 months - ‗It pays off the bloody mortgage sport'. After lunch Fan Ming Wu gave a presentation on their work at the Institute, the main objective was to rewrite the RAL codes based on the information he had brought back with him! They appear to have succeeded in this but I saw no real evidence of it; although I am prepared to believe they really have achieved working codes of GFUN and BIM type plus a 2D (runs on a LSI) FE Code called DE2D! Their progress on 3D (two-scalar) I am less convinced. They also have developed a 3D eddy current code. By this time my head was raging, across forehead and I had to insist on a taxi back to the apartment for a rest. After dinner Ming Wu and family came, they had soft drinks and bought us gifts.
Wednesday 29 August After a better night I gave my last lecture on software design and optimisation, lively discussion at the end. Good questions on a variety of topics. To round things off Li Gang Pan made a short speech of thank you to me; they appear to have appreciated my efforts. However, both Rita and I were glad to move on to Beijing for the last stage of our journey. My health seems to be improving, no temperature for at least 2 days, but headaches still with me, though less intense. We were accompanied by Mr Yu and Mr Song and were given a farewell send off by Dr Li and Fan Ming Wu's family. The younger daughter performed a dance to send us on our way. The journey to Friendship Hotel, Beijing, was uncomfortable and as far as I was concerned, unpleasant. Mr Yu carried on a noisy and animated conversation with the driver all the way. On arrival at the Friendship Hotel we were allocated a rather nice apartment in Block 4. After a short rest we proceeded in the car to get our return flights confirmed. First to the BA offices who, Fan Ming Wu said, would act for Singapore airlines; this proved to be abortive, after a long search for their offices and ascent to seventh floor of a building near the Embassy district, we were haughtily informed by a blonde English girl in a BA frock, that they could not help us not even to the extent of advising us 222 Round the World to China 1984 who the SA agents would be - I was dismayed at the lack of courtesy shown to a fellow national in far away places. I resolved to telephone SA in Hong Kong myself. We then moved on to China Airways and Mr Yu and Mr Song made short work of confirming our Hong Kong flights for Saturday. Earlier they had tried to get tickets for Peking opera since Fan Ming Wu had promised me he would arrange it for this evening—of course his promises often turn out to be only invitations and Mr Song was quite upset. Mr Song proceeded to comb Beijing to try and obtain seats for Friday; he eventually disappeared into the evening crowds of ‗Beijingers‘ on their way home from work full of resolve to succeed. We returned to the Friendship Hotel for dinner and bed; I tried telephoning the lab—no one replied! I next tried Hong Kong but failed to get through to SA, so I telephoned Hogg Robinson and was successful. Tomorrow we visit the Great Wall!
Thursday 30 August After an early breakfast in the special dining room for foreign experts! We left by taxi to catch a bus to tour the Ming Tombs and Great Wall. Mr Song organised everything superbly well, we had front seats in a modern air conditioned coach which commanded a good view of town and country-side as we covered the 40 mile trip. Our first stop was at the main entrance of the Ming Tombs where we admired the avenue of stone animals, real and imaginary. I bought a fine 'poker-work picture' from the artist who also allowed me to take his photograph; next stop was the first of two tomb sites open to visitors out of the thirteen - the tomb called Ding Ling. This tomb has been excavated and we were able to visit the underground palace, but what interested me was the magnificent setting of sites situated at the floor of a flat valley surrounded by graceful mountains. The surface architecture is all delightful, several pagoda structures surrounded by gardens with flowers and trees abounding. The tomb is capped by a charming stone high walk allowing a panoramic view of the district. We moved on to the second tomb which was not excavated, but if anything, the gardens here were more beautiful. Mr Song had bought picnics which we enjoyed - he really has excelled himself in organisation, not the 'humper' of Harbin at all. We stopped for lunch at the Ming Tomb Reservoir and gazed at the huge monument exalting in the 'Maoist' philosophy of Peasant, Industrial Worker and Soldier. The only trouble is the Reservoir is dry and has been for years! Finally the climax, the Great Wall of China — the goal of all travellers to China and certainly all travellers to China on this day were there!; I should think every race was represented - Aussie accents mixed with the clipped tones of the Home counties, black American and Computational Electromagnetics 223
Spanish, German hearties in jogging kit, and Japanese and Hong Kong charter holiday groups wearing a kind of tour uniform. We all climbed up the steep steps, and on reaching the upper surface of the Wall itself, watched the long snaking line of visitors crawl along the top, both to the east and west. This part of wall has been much restored and belongs in any case to the last phase of Chinese-Wall building (1400 AD). We decided to go west since this side was less popular. We passed a solitary camel, tethered with straps to allow trippers to sit on its back for photographs. I must confess we didn't get to the highest point; I was still somewhat weak from my fever and so was glad to turn back after we reached the second tower. The Wall is a truly grand sight hugging the crest of the green hills, switch backing as far as the eye can see, and although the presence of the multitude detracts something from the overall affect - very many souvenir shops and other services - this is a place to contemplate the past and perhaps worry about the future. We returned at 3.30, arriving very tired at the Hotel at 5.15.
Plate 94: The Great wall
Friday 31 August Today we spent sight-seeing in Beijing itself; firstly the 'Forbidden City', in which there is a fine collection of Chinese architecture including the Palaces of the Quin and Ming dynasties. We saw an impressive collection of artefacts of all kinds, including a museum of Peking opera costumes and musical instruments, and the actual theatre used by the court. There are amazing collections of jewels with very fine craftsmanship; especially in Jade. The huge gold cauldrons used for oil lamps were very impressive as also were the pairs of lions guarding the 224 Round the World to China 1984 entrances of the various palace buildings. After lunch we explored the Tiananmen Square and the Mao tomb. We saw many thousands of the 'young pioneers' practising their display for the October 1st Festival, youngsters singing and marching across the huge square; they were dressed in American base-ball caps and white shirts and shorts, and each carried several coloured hoops which they waved high in the air at climactic moments. After dinner we went to the Peking Opera at the theatre called 'Good Luck', off Wan Fujing Street. This turned out to be a memorable experience, for me at least, with at last a glimpse of a continuing tradition. We saw two operas, a curtain raiser about a battle, very colourful and balletic with a strong comic base - the two leading protagonists, each trying to out-do the other in pomposity and gymnastic dexterity, gave fine performances; and then a comedy of manners involving the trials of a young Mandarin and his wife fighting against the machinations of an elderly cruel landlord. The music was provided by a traditional Chinese orchestra sitting on the stage left; the band consisted of elaborate percussion which serves as the accompaniment to the recitative with Chinese violins, lutes and woodwind. I found the music interesting and exciting, to my untutored Western ears it sounded modern, very rhythmic and with melodies made from scales of fine intervals. The singing was powerful and from the leading soprano who has a very high falsetto, took some getting used to; the story line was fairly clear, especially after a little help from our Chinese friends. However a majority of the current generation do not care for this entertainment very much; e.g. Fan Ming Wu went to sleep! The audience consisted of older Chinese people, who appeared very appreciative and a fair smattering of Westerners who came out of curiosity - most of these left at the interval. I found the evening a colourful and stimulating experience and a fitting climax to our visit to China. After the show we found a taxi with some difficulty and wondered if we should have gone by bus because we had to walk to the Beijing Hotel and queue, eventually we found a taxi but the driver drove like a man possessed - Fan Ming Wu thought nothing of it and said it was OK because it was dark and there were no cyclists about!
Saturday 1 September We started our journey home today. I now felt much better, the headache was much less. We were seen off at Beijing Airport by Fan Ming Wu and Mr Sung, and we quietly slipped out of China to Hong Kong. We arrived at the Holiday Inn at 12.30 and had a good Western style lunch. The weather was atrocious, Hong Kong was feeling the fringe of a typhoon (Typhoon IKE) which was blasting the Philippines - Computational Electromagnetics 225 the rain was torrential. It was humid and unpleasant. We spent the afternoon sleeping but managed to see the Golden Mile of Kowloon in the evening, such a contrast to PRC with Western materialism blatantly on show everywhere. After a quiet self-indulgent dinner of steak and wine, we returned to bed.
Hong Kong Sunday 2 September We spent the morning exploring Kowloon and the harbour, it had stopped raining, but still very gray and humid, the skyline of Hong Kong is a grotesque pile of concrete, which may look better in finer weather, and at the wharf there is a constant stream of expensive craft picking up the wealthy and conveying them to expensive quarters on the islands. One wondered what will happen in 1997 when PRC took over. At 13.00 we left the hotel for the airport to start our long journey home to England, via Singapore. We joined the Singapore Airline flight. SQ 51, at 15.00, and soon found ourselves on route for Singapore, where we arrived at 18.00. The evening was spent waiting at Singapore airport, which is new and has elaborate facilities, all very expensive. We joined flight SQ 22 at 10.00 for the last leg of our journey, via Dubai. The plane left, crowded, promptly at 10.30.
Monday 3 September We travelled on through the night. After the usual plastic dinner, we saw a film, some nonsense about a 'Sherman Tank', the toy of an American army sergeant, who takes on the local sheriff in a bigoted Tennessee community. We slept fitfully and got to Dubai at 3.00 am (really 7 am if you don't subtract the time difference of 4 hours). After a stop of one hour, we continued on to London, another 3 hours time difference and 7 hours flight time. This, the final stage of the journey, was enlightened by watching the film 'Silkwood', the true story of Karen Silkwood and radiation safety at a US plutonium plant - a thought provoking and beautifully made film. Our arrival at Heathrow was ten minutes early; but Heathrow gave us a sting in the tail as it took 5 minutes to clear immigration and over two hours to get our bags - an appalling and disgraceful performance. It was a welcome sight indeed to see the man from Pryors Taxis, Didcot, who had come to meet us, waiting at the barrier. We arrived home at 9.45 after 37 days.
226 Overview of the early years
4. Vector Fields Ltd
Overview of the early years - In the end is our beginning
1984 — A fateful year The year 1984 was an incredibly busy one for us; I have already, in the previous section, written about the ‗Round the World‘ trip to Canada, USA and China that Rita and I made from 28 July to September 3rd but the other major event of the year was the founding of Vector Fields Ltd which I shall return to later. In the meantime, the pressure of providing funding for universities with adequate research money for numerical modelling was becoming a critical problem, and academics at the forefront of developments of these vital tools for engineering design were becoming restless. It was one thing for a central organisation like RAL to provide software tools for academic use in the area of, say electromagnetics, which had evolved out of the funding for ‗big science‘ projects and, to some extent, good provision was already available but in other areas like, say fluid mechanics, far more academic research and development was needed. Back in 1983 I had an ad hoc meeting (see page 176) with Ian McLeod and Ernie Freeman at which it was decided to canvas the engineering community to seek advice and formulate a strategy. So we took soundings and established a list of key research leaders from both academia and industry in the UK and persuaded them to attend a meeting at Cosenors House on March 22. Following several short presentations by leading academics and industrialists and a wide ranging discussion involving the 30 or so delegates a report to the Engineering Board Computing Sub-Committee was drafted and submitted186. There were several conclusions including the desirability of establishing a central focus, a need for positive fostering to overcome a perceived lack of interest, and that SERC should provide more support especially for fundamentals. Finally SERC should be asked to sponsor a larger open meeting over two days to which a wide community of both developers and users could be invited to identify difficult areas, limitations and future requirements and also to publicise SERC initiatives in this area. This was agreed and we arranged a two day meeting (Oct 1, 2) at New College Oxford. This meeting was attended by 104 delegates plus some
186 Report of the Meeting on Numerical Modelling Organised by SERC, C.W.Trowbridge, 1 May 1984 Vector Fields Ltd 227
20 SERC staff and many of the leading players involved were present. Keynote talks were given by Olek Zienkiewicz on Methods, Brian Spalding (IC) on Infra Structures, Ernie Freeman on Pre & Post Processing, D Parkinson (QMC) on New Technologies, John Whiteman (Brunel) on Education, Bob Taylor (Berkeley Ca) on American Initiatives and G Hancock (QMC) on Computational Fluid Initiatives. These were followed by parallel sessions on each topic and then reports were made to the open meeting with discussions. The meeting as a whole was lively but full of personal prejudices as might be expected. Nevertheless some form of consensus was extracted and was further discussed by the keynote speakers and session chairmen at an ad hoc meeting chaired by Ian McLeod. The main decision from the conference was that there was a paramount need for a strong SERC focus in Computational Modelling, which could be achieved by increasing the number of research grants being made available, SERC should sponsor training through MSc and short courses and an improved infrastructure should be established to support these activities. Furthermore yet another SERC committee should be established to service these proposals All this was not surprising and pretty much as predicted. A final report was written and submitted to the Engineering Board and, though some benefits were achieved the research grant situation hardly changed. One result of this was that people like Olek looked increasingly abroad for support. In time the committee structures were made more appropriate to the needs of Computational Modelling, but we were on the brink of new developments in technology as the personal computer boom was about to break out which triggered so many changes. The SIG-EM meetings continued with a lively seminar at Cosenors House in April where the merits of the RAL work compared to the emerging rival group under Dave Rogers from Bath University were discussed. I had to go to Belfast in May to be the external examiner for a PhD examination at Queens; I remember most the horrible security precautions in force at the university guest house as an academic had been recently killed outside in the crossfire of the continuing sectarian violence in the city. After this I travelled by Train to Dublin to attend an Esprit device modelling project meeting. I remember that John Miller invited me to have dinner at the high table at Trinity, but for some reason he was late, he just managed to throw on his gown and drag me there but dinner was already being served. He had to bow to the master but there were no seats left vacant; the master very courteously made room for me, a guest, but John was summarily dismissed to eat with the students. In the summer Peter Silvester was spending time in Cambridge as a visiting fellow and working with Ron Ferrari on a text book for Computational Electromagnetics.He had arranged a seminar in Cambridge on field 228 Overview of the early years
computation and had asked me to give talk on our work on device modelling — the seminar was called ‗CAD on the CAM‘. After we retuned from China in September I had to go to Stuttgart to present an invited paper187 at the Fennomech Conference. Then finally, in December I travelled to the US again to attend the EM Comp at Pittsburgh. This meeting was organised by Zoltan Cendes whom I first met at Compumag Oxford in 1976. He was an ex Peter Silvester student and was now at Carnegie-Mellon University as a Professor of Electromagnetics, he later created the ANSOFT Company and became a formidable competitor in the EM software business. He was now taking on the Mag-U-Comp series of seminars (GFUN users meeting that was) and moving it toward a conference which he called EM Comp; incidentally he asked me to act as a career referee for his promotion to professor. After this meeting which I mainly remember for being ‗so cold‘, (it was winter after all), we went to Fort Collins for the next Compumag Steering Committee meeting. With snow everywhere I had my first experience of driving on the icy roads of North America in winter and to my surprise all roads I used were completely clear of ice and quite safe. Then towards the end of the year we began to discuss further the possibility that a new company could merge with Infolytica. This followed from the letter I had written to Peter Silvester, Dave Lowther and Ernie Freeman in June which was a proposal to invite them to invest with us in a company with a strategy for mutual cooperation. When we met in Schenectady in August, see page 196, they appeared to have agreed with this idea. Unfortunately at a meeting with them at Imperial College at the beginning of 1985 it became clear that this was not the case and the negotiations broke down. So we would remain friends but go our separate ways. As it happened, on the evening of the meeting at IC we had arranged to meet with John Miller at Heathrow Airport to discuss the possibility of new ESPRIT proposal to investigate parallel processing software for engineering design. We felt very enthusiastic about this idea and agreed to approach possible partners including Philips and the University of Genoa.
Towards forming Vector Fields Following on from the business plan that John Simkin and I devised in January 1984 and from the encouragement we were getting from David Thomas, Paul Williams and Geoff Manning the RAL director, we started planning the next step. George Davis of BTG, who worked
187 Low Frequency Electromagnetic Field Computation in Three Dimensions, C W Trowbridge, Comp. Meths. In App. Mech. And Eng. 52 (1985) 653-674, North Holland Vector Fields Ltd 229 alongside Peter Tanner, had inherited the flack when Compeda was sold by BTG and had the problem of support for the REMUS customers who were potentially left in a vacuum. Fortunately at this point Chris Biddlecombe stepped into the breach and agreed to be transferred to BTG and be responsible for managing the software in the short term. The plan was that if we managed to establish the company he could join us later. Three of our colleagues in CAG group that worked in electromagnetics Mike Newman, Alan Armstrong and Jim Diserens had all moved on; Mike was now with the Alvey Directorate, in London and Alan had already left us to join Oxford Instruments the high technology superconducting magnet company (he had been invited to spend time at Los Alamos in the US but despite support from me his request for leave of absence had been turned down), and Jim was now temporarily at Chalk River. I mentioned to Pam Peisley, my secretary that I was looking for a good accountant to advise us on setting up a company and she said she believed Bruce Charles in Didcot was very good. Pam lived in Didcot and knew well the professional people in the town. Also, Oxford Instruments approached John and me to do some consultancy, using our software, for optimising superconducting coils and because of the relaxed attitude now adopted by SERC we quickly agreed to carry out this work in our spare time; this became an important factor in establishing the company which I will come to later. I called Bruce Charles and we arranged to meet him in Didcot on the 17th of May. Bruce turned out to be a very fit compact man with an extremely pleasant bedside manner and we took to him immediately. He explained the process of forming a limited liability company which seemed very simple indeed; we had to define a name which needed to be checked for uniqueness, define brief terms of reference, name the directors, and specify the share capital. By chance the day after this meeting my daughter Dinah was taking part in an amateur chamber opera group (see page 235) performance of Die Fledermaus and during the interval I pondered over a name for our new company and compiled a short list of three on a scrap of paper namely, Oxford Fields, Vector Fields and CompuFields. The next day I showed this to John Simkin my fellow conspirator and after some discussion we settled on Vector Fields. So Dinah was in at the very beginning and was in fact the first employee hired to carry out the administrative work. We wrote back to Bruce on 19 June (my 30th wedding anniversary) specifying the name (giving him a choice of variants) the following terms of reference: Production and sales of computer software and hardware Production and sales of technical literature and books 230 Overview of the early years
Running a computer bureaux service, providing technical consultancy to clients Running courses on computing and computer applications In the first instance there will be 2 Directors:- Chairman C W Trowbridge Company Secretary J Simkin The share capital to be set at £50,000
All of this was tentative but was a start and we formally requested that Mr B D Charles of W S Brayshaws of Didcot to act for us. On the 26 June I wrote formally to Peter Tanner of BTG announcing the formation of Vector Fields Ltd. and to formally apply to BTG on behalf of the new company for licenses to market the SERC developed software. I received a letter from Bruce on the 4th of July stating that everything was now in place, that the name Vector Fields was acceptable and we should come into his office to sign the appropriate forms also make a solemn declaration that needed to be witnessed by a solicitor acting as a ‗commissioner for oaths‘. We next heard from Peter Tanner that BTG is prepared to grant Vector Fields Ltd a license in the Rutherford Magnetic packages once the company has come into existence. Although the definite terms were still to be negotiated it was expected that the royalty payment would be of the order 25% of the income in respect of the packages. John and I met in Bruce Charles‘s office again on the 13 July to sign the Memorandum of Association which contained much legalese but seem to cover everything. We finally set the share capital at £250,000 divided into 250,000 ordinary shares of £1 each. On July 20th Bruce wrote to say we could expect to receive the certificate of incorporation around the middle of August. In fact the certificate with No. 1838656 was dated 6th August 1984. So we were up and flying and all we needed now was some capital and customers but much else had to be done before we could begin trading. Why were we so confident? Well, in 1984 the founding of a specialist company dedicated to the development and application of computer software for the design of electromagnetic devices was timely as the use of computer techniques in engineering design was becoming widespread. The enterprise was also an example of technology transfer, to the private sector, of the results from research and development originally funded by government and carried out at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). We decided that the company would be operated from the outset under a strategic policy of self-financing growth and even in its first few years we had every reason to believe we should capture a significant share of the world market in a high technical niche. Vector Fields Ltd 231
Finally our products were already regarded as among the world leaders as the next section explains.
VF Product Background By 1984 it was accepted that computer modelling for both the conceptual research and design stages of advanced devices is essential and often the only way to proceed. With most components it is no longer cost effective to base designs on analytical means followed by costly and inflexible experimentation and proto-typing. What had been a process of free exchange of software between developers had by now become a business operation. There was no use regretting this as some people did, who tended to regard software as a cultural extension to their normal work in research and development, as real costs were involved. There was no essential difference between hardware and software in this respect; both required development, maintenance and support. The pioneering research carried out at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) described in the previous chapters led to the development of the first generally usable 3-D electromagnetic analysis computer programs in the decade 1970-1980. The motivation for this work had come primarily from the requirements of the high energy physics community to design magnets for particle accelerators and detecting devices to ever increasing degrees of accuracy and efficiency and changing technology. For instance the introduction of superconductivity made simple calculations inaccurate because of material non-linearity. The principal objective was to simulate the performance of these magnets using computers in order to eliminate the need for costly and inflexible prototypes. The early packages developed at RAL were based on classical methods, finite differences, moment methods etc. This work resulted in the first truly three-dimensional magnet design code (see page 81, footnote 84) which was also notable for its early use of interactive graphics techniques. The limitations of these methods, principally excessive computer costs on serial machines and a restricted functionality were recognised by the Rutherford team and it was decided to research and develop the far more flexible Finite Element Method (FEM) for electromagnetic problems. This work in turn led to the first version of the general purpose 2-D package PE2D (Poisson's Equation188 in Two Dimensions) at one time widely used for electromagnetic design. The extension to three dimensional models presented considerable difficulty and required a new approach in the formulation. The method adopted was based on the use of scalar potentials in order to achieve optimal use
188 The equation governing static electric and magnetic fields 232 Overview of the early years
of computing resources and high accuracy (see page 130, footnote 140). The developers of this new method, John Simkin and myself, were jointly awarded the Maxwell Premium by the IEE and the software based on the method, code named TOSCA (Total Scalar), see page 144 and footnote 150, soon gained international acceptance as a world leader in its class and remains so to this day.
A Recap on early exploitation Further interest in the software was stimulated by the first Compumag conference initiated by the development team and hosted by RAL in Oxford in 1976 and also by the increasing involvement by the laboratory in engineering activities at that time, see page 122. The electromagnetic work was now supported by the Engineering Board of the Science Research Council with the software becoming part of the applications support effort in computing. This interest led to the first phase of marketing (1979-1983) and was undertaken by Compeda Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of NRDC/BTG, see page 138. Following SERC policy the laboratory assigned the ownership of the packages to NRDC for commercial exploitation. This operation, under direction of John Whitney, achieved a significant number of customers (25, with 15 in USA). In 1983 BTG sold-off Compeda to Prime Computers Inc. which caused a hiatus particularly in the US where several new customers suddenly became unsupported. The development team at RAL did their best to fill the gap and I indeed tried hard to persuade PRIME to continue. They were persuaded to carry out a market survey and the results of this, though not encouraging to PRIME since their criterion was simply how well would the software help them to sell PRIME computers, suggested that there was, potentially, a sizeable niche market. In the end PRIME decided not to market the electromagnetic software.
The Formation of Vector Fields Ltd The company was founded in August, 1984 by the author (Chairman) and John Simkin (Managing Director). The latter left Rutherford Laboratory in December in order to start trading in January 1985. An agreement was signed between the new company and BTG which gave Vector Fields the authority to market the electromagnetics software world wide on an non-exclusive basis with a royalty payment of 25% on each sale. The first sale was made to General Electric, Schenectady, USA soon after. Dinah had now completed her business administration course at Oxford College of Further Education and we appointed her as VF‘s office administrator, so initially the full time staff consisted of just two people, John and Dinah, and because of the Vector Fields Ltd 233 previous close relationship with the Oxford Instrument Company on magnet design consultancy a special agreement was successfully negotiated that allowed VF Ltd to occupy a small set of their offices in Osney Mead, Oxford. This was an important and fruitful collaboration from which both parties benefited. The two directors soon realised that they lacked essential marketing and sales experience and so by happy chance John Whitney, who had been in charge of the marketing of the software for Compeda, was available. He was invited to join the venture as an equal partner, in consideration of his previous experience marketing the software and how crucial his role would be in the future wellbeing of the company. As the company should be self financing only relatively small loans by the directors were needed. Also in January the first issue of the Vector Fields news-letter appeared, edited by Dinah; this publication was designed to inform the community of the progress of the company. By the end of the first year (in fact only 6 months trading) the company had paid its way and began to contemplate expansion. The first step was to employ Chris Biddlecombe who had successfully carried out his role at BTG but was now no longer needed there. In the following year eleven new customers were added and the company's modest growth was in line with the original business plan. To secure some funding for future developments the company promoted a European project under the ESPRIT initiative. This joint project (ACCORD), involving several European companies and academic institutions, was concerned with algorithm development using parallel computers, which began in June 1985 and was to last four years. In July 1986 I decided that I should divide my time between RAL and VF for the next twelve months, this was agreed which meant I could give more time to the company and to the Esprit work. European projects have played an ever increasing and important role in VF research activities. Also in July Chris Riley joined the company to help expand the market and to look after user support, Chris had been a member of John Whitney's team at Compeda and was a valuable addition to the company's staff. During the next year (1987) distributors for the software were appointed in North America and Japan and in April the company moved to new premises in Kidlington, north of Oxford. Business continued to expand, justifying the increases in staff, and in July 1987 the chairman became full time with the company. In 1986 VF recruited Clive Bryant a recent PhD graduate from Imperial College to assist the chairman in the new European project. Finally in this early phase of expansion Cris Emson joined us in 1988; Cris had been a key member of the RAL group specialising in developing methods for solving time dependent problems. 234 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
Professional & Family Life 1984 to 1987
1984
Plate 95: Simon’s Graduation
Just before Rita and I set out on our trip to China we had the great pleasure of attending Simon‘s graduation at Birmingham in June. He had become interested in modern history and had studied the history of the First World War in his final year, which led him to apply to Kings Vector Fields Ltd 235
College London to study for an MA in war studies. Kings had a thriving department in this subject and there had been a lot of debate and publications recently on causes of war, the possibility of a third world war etc. He was accepted and started at Kings in the autumn term; I think also he was attracted to the idea of being in London with easy access to theatres. There was also a sad occasion in 1984 for the family as our much loved companion, Mick, died. He had been ailing for sometime and his great suffering had been obvious; there was nothing that could be done for him so we had to have him put to sleep— he was fourteen years old which is a good age for the breed. In the meantime Dinah had given up the idea of following a music career and, though she had been teaching music in local schools and also taking private pupils she had embarked on a course in Business administration at the Oxford College of Further Education to widen her job potential. Dinah also started to participate in local music making, she joined a local amateur operatic society at the Wallingford Arts Centre who performed at the Kinecroft theatre where she sang in the chorus and played the flute in the orchestra. About that time the director of the group Valerie Mills started the Barezzi Opera Company in Didcot and put on a whole series of ‗cut down‘ versions of the main operatic classics. Valerie sang the lead role and produced and directed with semi professional singers for the other parts. The programme proudly announces that the company‘s president was Miss Constance Shacklock, OBE a well known British soloist who was Valerie‘s teacher. The orchestra was rudimentary usually with the brilliant piano playing effects of Norman Large the musical director improvising the orchestra. Dinah became one of Valerie‘s devoted band of singers, dancers or whatever was required for several years. By the end of 1984 she had settled into her new job with Vector Fields (see previous section). During October and November I was heavily involved in consultancy for Oxford Instruments in my spare time (what spare time as I was also writing a book with Binns & Lawrenson?). We had a book meeting in Liverpool 14th November in Ken Binns‘s office and I also managed to have dinner with Chris Riley and Ken which was good fun; I had not been in Liverpool to stay since my sea going days and it was very interesting for me to see the Mersey again, though no longer the pride of the British merchant Navy as there were few ships. John D Angelo from GE came to see me at RAL in December to discuss our Boundary Element Codes and Solvers and this led to VF‘s first sale, see page 232. On Tuesday 11th of December Rita hosted a CAG Christmas party at Moulsford. The very next day I set out for the US to attend MAG-U- COMP in Pittsburgh and then to Fort Collins for the Compumag planning 236 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
meeting. These have been referred to in the previous chapter, see page 228. Though I was still at RAL I kept in close contact with Vector Fields and visiting Oxford regularly and looking forward now to the day when it became possible for me to go full time; the first few months of trading had brought some success but we needed equipment particularly to rent a computer. We decided that the each of three directors should loan the company £5000 each to help our cash flow problems and I am glad to say this was the only loan we had to make. At this time John Whitney was living in Bournemouth and was commuting daily so was looking for a house in the Oxford area. As for Rita and me, we decided it was time to move and ideally find a place midway between RAL and Oxford so we put our house at Moulsford on the market.
1985 In February I accompanied Olek to Turin to attend a UNESCO meeting to whom he had applied for funding support and he asked me to help him make the case189. Because Olek was a celebrity he was invited to several functions and I tagged along, one such was a reception at the FIAT AUTO Company where we were both presented with book of the collected papers celebrating the centenary of Alberto Castigliano, the great Italian mathematician and engineer whose theorem in his name is of fundamental importance in engineering design. Whilst I was away Rita had had someone come to look at out house and wanted to buy which meant we had to start looking seriously for a new house for ourselves nearer Oxford. After several attempts we found a suitable place at Frilford (Near Marcham) almost halfway between RAL and Oxford. It seemed ideal with a good sized garden situated in a very quiet unmade lane off the A338. The house itself had four bedrooms a large lounge and plenty of potential so we made an offer that was accepted. The owner, an engineer with British Leyland at Cowley, had acquired the land and had an architect design him a house which he then employed a builder to construct under his supervision. The house was seven years old and his reason for selling was that his job had moved to Coventry. We used Michael Ayris again as our solicitor; Dinah had become friendly with Dianna Ayris, Michaels wife, they were both members of the Berezzi opera group and played piano duets together, Dianna also accompanied Dinah for her flute exams. All arrangements were made and we anticipated moving in August. In May Bryan Colyer and I had been invited to present our work on using the PERQ workstation computer for finite element analysis using
189 He was no more successful with UNESCO than he had been with SERC Vector Fields Ltd 237 automatic mesh generation and advanced interactive graphics. Bryan attended the conference CAD85 held in Brighton and our paper was subsequently published in the CAD Journal190. At the end of May I went to the US to attend the Compumag Conference in Fort Collins with John Simkin and others; we stopped off first at Chicago to attend a new initiative begun in Larry Turner‘s group at ANL on the computation of eddy current effects in coils; this initiative led to the formation of the TEAM (Testing Electromagnetic Analysis Methods) series of meetings — an important landmark as the idea was to establish a set of benchmark problems for code developers to test their methods.
At the Compumag Conference in Fort Collins By the time we met in Eindhoven the conference budget had been agreed and the conference fee was set at $100 per delegate and the estimated charge for publishing in the proceedings was $13,000 again the major item of expenditure. At the final planning meeting Fort Collins in December 1984 the reviewing process for the short versions was mostly completed and the conference programme was roughly worked out
Plate 96: Compumag Colorado in Session191
190 Finite Element Analysis using a single user computer, B Colyer and C W Trowbridge, CAD Journal, 17, 3 April 1985 191 David Lowther opening the conference, as Vice Chairman he had to deputise for Bill Lord, you can just make out the Compumag Flag draped over the lectern made by Irene Lowther for the Yacht in Compumag Genoa. 238 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
As Bill Lord experienced a personal loss as his mother had just died in England which meant he had to miss the first three days of the meeting. Dave Lowther, the deputy chairman, took Bill‘s place. An interesting highlight of the meeting for me was to meet Alan Winslow again, the first researcher to apply the Finite Element method to an electromagnetic problem in the early 1960‘s192. Alan and I first met in 1970 and he had a considerable influence on our work at Rutherford when the code based on his method, known as TRIM was in use for many years. Alan‘s comment after listening very carefully to all the papers was, ―I have been out of the ‗field‘ for over ten years now but I can see the problems we were solving then are still challenging now but I was surprised find that the basic methods are still the same‘. The conference banquet was the usual ‗curate‘s egg affair‘193. The lady who gave the after dinner talk on her early pioneering days in Fort Collins went on a little too long despite the growing restlessness of some delegates. The flavour of the Wild West was sustained by an old style ‗cook-out‘ in the foot hills at the ‗Dude Ranch‘ where delegates were treated to a feast of ‗pork & beans‘ accompanied by Country and Western singing. There many technical innovations reported during the conference. The theme of edge elements first proposed in Compumag Chicago by Alain Bossavit & Jean Claude Verite was extended in two ways, firstly by G Mur & A De Hoop from the University of Delft who showed how to derive a consistently linear set of edge tetrahedral elements194 and secondly by J S van Welij (Philips) who developed edge elements for 195 hexahedral elements . Bill Lord returned in time for the last day and organised the local trip up into the Rockies for the reviewing meetings which were to be held in Pingree Park. This turned out to be an enjoyable excursion at a mountain resort where we could combine work with walking above the tree line. The final task was to choose the location for the next conference which ICS had decided should be in Europe in 1987 there had been several bids and the interviews were conducted during the conference. The winning bid was made by Professor Kurt Richter from the Technical University of Graz who began is presentation with the
192 A.A. Winslow, ―Magnetic Field Calculations in an Irregular Triangle Mesh‖, UCRL-7784-T Rev-1, Aug. 23, 1965 and A.A. Winslow, ―Numerical Solution of the quasi- linear Poisson equation in a non-uniform triangular mesh‖, J. Comp. Phys., 1, 149, 1971 193 ‗Good in Parts‘ 194 G Mur & A de Hoop, ―A Finite Element Method for Computing Three-Dimensional Electromagnetic Fields in Inhomogeneous Media‖ , IEEE Trans Mag, Vol 21, No 6, Nov 1985 195 J S Van Welij, ―Calculation of Eddy Currents in Terms of H on Hexahedra‖, loc cit Vector Fields Ltd 239 remark, ―I persuaded KLM196 to underwrite my expenses to Colorado on the hope that the next Compumag would come to Austria…‖, so how could we disagree! This special pleading, however, was superfluous, as his presentation was masterly and his group in Graz had built up an outstanding reputation.
Plate 97: Moving from Moulsford to Frilford
I had a few days spare before returning home so I took a solitary journey by car up into the Rockies; I visited Leadville, the old mining
196 Austrian Airlines brought him together with the KLM management. In those days KLM was not Air France and Austria Airlines was not in the group with Lufthansa.
240 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
town where Oscar Wilde addressed the miners down in the mine itself and also the Tabor Opera House where he lectured on fashion to the populace. The current owner of the opera house showed me round and gave me a book on its history—this house had put on shows of every description from Opera, Ballet, Drama down to bawdy music shows, a haven of culture in the Wild West! On my return to RAL I had to attend an ESPRIT meeting in Denmark with Bryan Colyer and it brought back memories of my visit here in 1951 just after I had first met Rita. It was agreed to exchange contracts for our new house in Frilford in time for us to move on 23rd August (See Plate 97). In many ways it was sad to say goodbye to North End Moulsford, we had lived there for twenty years and they had been good years. The downside of moving, apart from the stress of moving itself, was for Rita that her daily journey to School in Cholsey would be much further, fifteen miles instead of four and we both wondered how she would cope, also she would be further away from the many friendships she had formed over the years. There had been several staff changes at the school as well, John Haworth had recently retired and a new headmaster had been appointed so we discussed the possibility that Rita might like to take early retirement if offered; we could certainly afford the loss in salary and it would allow her more time to deal with the new garden, a pastime she loved. Simon had now got his MA at Kings and had more or less decided to seek a career as an academic librarian; he was thinking of study now for a library science degree at University College in London but needed some work experience first, so he successfully applied for a job at the Oxford Polytechnic for year and then went to UCL in September 1986. In May also I had to attend a meeting of the pre Esprit device modelling project hosted by Philips; the meeting was held at the Hotel Cocagne as usual and was notable for the small ‗spat‘ between the Dublin Group in the person of Bill Coffey197 of Trinity College, a colleague of John Miller‘s, who gave a talk in a subject area that seemed somewhat unrelated to the project itself and towards the end Simon Polak interrupted to ask what the relevance was and I am afraid Bill exploded and said,‘ you are no gentleman Sir‘, and left the room. This required some skill on my part to smooth things over and I had ask John Miller to explain to Bill that Simon was not intentionally rude just concerned about the direction we moving as we did have a work plan authorised by Brussels for this area. Bill had been to my house recently and stayed the night before he gave a lecture on his pet subject; the ‗Mathematical
197 William Coffey presented me with a copy of the 1910 edition of John Casey‘s ‗A Sequel to the First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid‘. Vector Fields Ltd 241
Theory of Brownian Motion‘198 , he was so nervous that he drank too much, in fact Rita got quite cross with me for leaving him in the lounge with the Brandy Bottle. The next day at the lab he spent the first hour sitting in my office with a towel over his head but when time came for his talk he was brilliant. After our meeting with John Miller in January about a new Esprit Project on parallel software, we had gathered together a project team consisting of Genoa University, Trinity College Dublin, Philips Eindhoven, Vector Fields and Athens School of Economics and Business. We had several meetings earlier in the year and put together an outline proposal. The proposal was welcomed by Brussels but we were asked to try and integrate our project with another which they claimed was related. The month of September was particularly busy, first I had to go to Graz (6 September) for the first planning meeting for the next Compumag where Professor Kurt Richter outlined his plans for the next conference in 1987. Looking at the very detailed minutes written by Kurt Preis (Kurt Richter‘s right hand man and conference secretary) for this meeting some 22 years later I am impressed by the amount of business covered between 9.00 AM and 3.45 PM. This included a midday tour of the city and the conference centre as well as an excellent. Theo Torschanoff was elected Vice-Chairman for Compumag ‘87199. Present at the meeting were representatives from Inter-convention the professional congress organisers. Kurt told us that 50% of the budget would be covered by government grants. Simon Polak and I were asked to draft the conference constitution. The conference was clearly in good hands from the start. Kurt then tabled a detailed timetable of actions leading up to the conference and the format would mirror that of the previous meetings. The members were asked to propose their choices for invited speakers and referees and it was also decided to reduce the number of oral presentations in favour of posters. Many other issues were discussed but in general following the procedures adopted in previous conferences. The next meeting would be held in UK on March 21 1986 and I agreed to make the local arrangements. The next event, following straight on, was to attend the Magnet Technology Conference in Zurich where Vector Fields had an exhibition stand. I also was to present an invited paper. I met John Simkin and John Whitney in Zurich on 8th September; the setting amidst the old town of
198 The random motion of small particles suspended in a fluid first discovered by the British Botanist, Robert Brown in 1827. In 1805 Einstein arrived at a mathematical explanation of the phenomenon but some aspects are still not properly understood. 199 Other members present were Theo Tortschanoff, Bill Lord, T Nakata , Simon Poak, J C Sabonnadiere, C W Trowbridge, J C Verite, A Viviani 242 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
Zurich and the nearby lakes and mountains was superb and we met up with many old friends including Neil Marks from Daresbury, Bob Paul and Albert Reece both members of SIG-EM; also several delegates that had been at the first Compumag in Oxford in 1976 including D Brombach, K Reichert, T Tortschanoff, H Umstatter and I Vetclisky. Theo Tortschanoff had just been in Graz for the Compumag SC and Prof Vetclisky had entertained John and me to a midnight feast of Caviar and Vodka (see page 123). Both Deiter Brombach and Neil Marks would play important roles in the VF story to come.
Plate 98: Compumag Committee on Walkabout Tour of Graz L to R: T Nakata, S Polak, J C Verite, Inter-Convention, K Preis, Interconvention, K Richter, J C Sabonnadiere, A Viviani
After this meeting I had to go straight to Genoa to discuss the commission‘s suggestion to integrate the two proposals that had been submitted to the Computer Integrated Manufacture (CIM) programme. These were the Parallel Engineering software library with the five partners and the proposal for the Integrated System for design submitted by Bertin & Cie, France, GEC Marconi, UK and SGTE, France. On the face of it the match was not good but representatives from both projects gathered in Genoa on 13 September. The meeting went very badly with neither side recognising the relevance of other project. Vector Fields Ltd 243
Later in the month we met in Brussels to discuss the matter with the director of the CIM task force, an English lady I had met before, who was very clear that the only way forward was to have a ‗shot gun‘ wedding. Simon Polak led the revolt and finally, after several verbal skirmishes left the room, leaving me to paper over the cracks. I was sure that both projects had merit but were uncomfortable ‗bed-fellows‘ I also had got to like the leader of the other team, Jean Pierre Pattereau from Bertin Cie, a successful High-Tech consultancy company, a charming and urbane man with excellent English. I felt it was important for this project to go ahead for both teams and was convinced it could be managed if only both sides would take the trouble to understand the motivation of the other. After all, if our library was to be an important contribution, then it should be an important component of an integrated design system
Plate 99: Three members of the APPEAL project in Genoa 1985 Sandro Viviani (UGDIE), Jan Van Gerwen (Philips) & John Miller(TCD)
At a subsequent meeting arranged by the Philips Company that, as a multi-national giant, had considerable influence, I was asked to represent all partners but both Simon and John Miller also attended but were asked by the senior Philips man to keep a low profile and leave the talking to me. I suppose it was now clear that I at least would accept the merger though I think our reservations were understandable. This meeting went well and a compromise was reached. At a subsequent meeting with all sides we agreed that the project should be fittingly named ACCORD with 244 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
two coupled components: (a) ASSET, an integrated system design environment with a number of design environment domains and (b) APPEAL, a Parallel Processing Engineering Applications Library. The ACCORD project (CIM 1062) was approved with 50% Funding by ESPRIT for four years at a total cost of 12 MECU (~ £7M) and would start in January 1986. On the 3rd of December Prof. Il‘in from Novosibirsk (USSR, Science City) came to visit the laboratory for ten days. He was a friend of John Miller who suggested he come to visit me and my group. Valerie Il‘in, a distinguished mathematician, had done important work in numerical mathematics and gave an interesting talk in which he described his work and that of his close colleagues in Russia. I took him to the opera and Madame Tussauds, which he thoroughly enjoyed, particularly being photographed alongside Margaret Thatcher (the Iron Lady, much admired in Russia apparently).
1986
Plate 100: Small beginnings — The Home of VF at Osney Mead L to R : John Simkin, Dinah Trowbridge, John Whitney and Bill
The year 1986 was equally active with two large Esprit projects for me to manage, the RAL device modelling project 962 was now well underway but I was gradually handing over my responsibility to David Boyd and Chris Greenough. The other project ACCORD (1062) was a major commitment for VF which began in June and to help us we recruited Clive Bryant as a consultant to work on the parallel library. Clive had now left Imperial College and in fact had moved to Pershore Vector Fields Ltd 245
(Worcestershire) where he had become the leader of his evangelical church; VF being closer to Pershore than London was an attractive opportunity for Clive. I decided the time was right for me to schedule my complete transfer to VF and so I negotiated that I would work half time at RAL for one further year and in a years time I would leave altogether. This would allow me time to play a fuller role in VF affairs and lead the Esprit ACCORD/APPEAL project on behalf of VF. My former boss at RAL David Thomas had now left SERC to become Pro-Rector for Research Contracts at Imperial College and I must record my deep gratitude for all the encouragement he gave me and my group over the last ten years — a man with strong principles who was brave and single minded in his approach to achieving what he thought was the right way forward. He dragged Engineering at RAL, as they say, alive and kicking into the late twentieth century to embrace engineering and hi-technology. Geoff Manning200 the director had also left RAL to become Chairman of Active Memory Technology Ltd. I have reason to be grateful to Geoff as well as he encouraged us in starting up Vector Fields. Paul Williams became director of RAL and was succeeded by Gordon Walker as head of Technology Division. Both Paul and Gordon were thoroughly constructive in enabling my half-time proposal to go ahead. I wrote to Chris Riley at Liverpool and told him it was warmer here now in the South and he telephoned us and was offered a job starting in July; this was timely as in June we reopened negotiations with Infolytica Inc when Dave Lowther and Ernie Freeman came to see us to discuss areas of mutual interest. This meeting was prompted by Simon Polak who thought we should try to make an effort to collaborate as he felt we were ‗right‘ for each other. John Whitney was keen to have a distributor in the US/Canada and Infolytica were well placed for this; a deal was agreed and to help matters we agreed that Chris Riley should spend three months in Montreal to get things moving. This agreement immediately gave users and potential users the benefit of an active local distributer with an established name in field computation. The agreement signed in June also appointed VF as European distributors for the Infolytica package MagNet. In this we would be helped by Ernie Freeman, the Chairman of Infolytica Europe, and by our new consultant Clive Bryant who was a former MagNet user when he was at Imperial College. Compumag Conference matters were also progressing, Bill Lord and Nathan Ida from Fort Collins visited us in January and we had a
200 While director of RAL he ushered in a new era of wider research and overseeing the design and construction of a world-class neutron source, ISIS, opened by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in October 1985. The following year he received a CBE, and the Glazebrook Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics for services to science 246 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
delightful evening with them at Darcy‘s Field. Then in March we hosted the ISC meeting chaired by Kurt Richter the new conference Chairman for Compumag Graz next year, 1987. Also attending this meeting was our old friend Larry Turner who came to stay with us for two weeks. I arranged for Larry to give a lecture at RAL at Paul Williams‘ invitation that helped him get funding for the trip from Argonne National Laboratory. After the Compumag planning meeting we held a two day eddy current seminar followed by a FELIX TEAM meeting chaired by Larry. On 12 April John Whitney, John Simkin and I left for the US to attend the Intermag Conference in Phoenix Arizona where VF had arranged to exhibit and present a paper201; we travelled out of Heath Row on the first day that terminal four was opened and we all received a BA souvenir pen.
Plate 101: ICP Award Ceremony L to R: John Simkin, Gordon Walker (Head of Tech. Div. RAL), Peter Tanner (Director IT , BTG), Bill, Paul Williams (Director RAL), John Whitney, George Davis (IT Div, BTG)
Vector Fields TOSCA sales had accumulated to a gross of over $1M and the company was awarded an ICP202 Million Dollar Award
201 ‗Error Analysis in Finite Element Models of Electromagnetic Fields‘, C S Biddlecombe, J Simkin and C W Trowbridge, IEEE Mag. Trans. 22, 5, 1986 202 International Computer Programs a publishing company that produce the journal Business Software Review. Vector Fields Ltd 247 which was presented to our marketing director John Whitney at a ceremony and dinner held at the Carpenters Hall in the City of London on June 30th. These awards are held annually during a dinner hosted by ICP president Mr Larry Welke, who said: ‗…the award is recognition of market acceptability of a product and is particularly significant for TOSCA as a specialised software package‘. The guests of the VF directors were Paul Williams, Gordon Walker, Peter Tanner (BTG) and George Davis (BTG). Also, in June we began discussion on a possible Vector Fields Directors pension plan; Bruce Charles of Brayshaws in Didcot, our accountants, agreed to suggest a suitable pension fund provider after he had investigated several possibilities. Rita and I began our summer holiday on July 26 and decided to go to Scotland after spending a few days in Yorkshire staying in Settle. Our trip then took us to Tomintoul where we explored the mountain country to the east of the Cairngorms along the river Avon including the Glen Livet whisky distilleries. Next we moved to Ullapool (An Tealach), Gairloch and then finally Skye (The Cuillins)—three glorious weeks. In September Prof Tang, our old friend from Harbin, came for a ten day visit to RAL and VF. I also showed him Worcester, Stratford, Oxford and London. We visited both the Elgar birthplace and Shakespeare birthplace as well to evensong in Christchurch Cathedral in Oxford. He enjoyed all of this hugely, I think, and we also went to the Festival Hall to a Beethoven concert. He gave a lecture at RAL and I arranged for him to visit Prof. Hammond at Southampton University—for this he bought himself a new suit and it was marvellous to see him out of the Mau Boiler suit. He wore it to a reception Rita put on for him in his honour at D‘Arcy‘s Field. On his last day I took him to Imperial College to see Ernie Freeman —it had just been announced that I had been appointed a visiting professor at Imperial so we had a nice lunch with Ernie to celebrate. Tang Qui presented Ernie with a copy of his book. In October Chris Emson and I were scheduled to give talks at the IUTAM Symposium in Tokyo, and John Whitney decided that this was a good opportunity to have meetings with Kyokuto Boeki Kaisha (KBK) our recently appointed agent. John had had dealings with KBK when he was with Compeda and felt they were ideal company to handle our products. John Whitney wrote in the VF Newsletter203:
The importance of Japanese companies as manufacturers and suppliers to electrical and electronic equipment in world markets doesn't need any explanation by me. However it may not be widely known that the benefits of using Vector Fields advanced techniques in the analysis of
203 VECTOR The Vector Fields Newsletter, Vol 3 No. 1, Spring 1987 248 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
Plate 102: Tang Qui at D’Arcy’s Field L to R: Pam Peisley, John Whitney, Linda Whitney, Tang, Dinah Tang with Rita electromagnetic fields for the design and manufacture of electrical and electronic devices have been recognised by many of the largest Japanese corporations. Consequently it should not be a surprise that a number of these corporations such as Mitsubishi Electric are already users of our software, particularly TOSCA. It was in order to provide local support to these users in Japan that we sought out a suitable Japanese company to assist us in our operations. From my previous visits to Japan I had a high
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Plate 103: Japan 1986 John, Bill & Cris Sightseeing in Kyoto Cris with Alain Bossavit (Elec. de France) at IUTAM, Tokyo regard for a Tokyo company trading in high technology products. I am therefore pleased to announce that the company, KYOKUTO BOEKI KAISHA has agreed to become our agent in Japan. 250 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
The agreement was signed in September, and shortly afterwards, we visited Tokyo to attend the IUTAM conference at Tokyo University where Bill presented an invited paper. We were subsequently welcomed to the KBK offices by the president Mr.Miyoshi and generously entertained in traditional Japanese style. During the visit the KBK team of Mr.Kusayanagi, Mr.Inakatsu and Mr. Kakuo were briefed on the theory and application of the Vector Fields software. Visits were made to our existing users in Japan and interest from other companies was so great that a very tight schedule kept us very busy, ably assisted by the enthusiastic KBK team.
We also travelled to Osaka and KBK arranged a fascinating trip to Kyoto, the ancient imperial capital of Japan, where we visited many temples. From Osaka we also visited Mitsubishi a major user of Tosca, for me this first trip to Japan was memorable and we appreciated to the full the local colour and the warm welcome we received. In November we agreed to join in a short course to be given in London at the Russell Hotel. This course was organised by John Miller who had also invited Zol Cendes and Giorgio Molinari as well as John Simkin and me to give the lectures. Final events in the year were the two review meetings held in Eindhoven, 28 October and in Brussels 5 November for the device modelling project (962), the project was quite well received so far, but early days. The Brussels meeting was made ludicrous owing to the antics of the commission; our project officer had booked a room for the review but when Conor Fitzsimons (Trinity College Dublin) was in full flood describing his algorithm for solving the current flow problem in a transistor we were summarily thrown out on the streets as the room was required by a senior man in the commission, so we continued the review in the Grand Platz sitting in a good restaurant. The sister of my mother, Aunt Bju, died in 1986. She lived with us when I was a child and was always very kind to me; I felt guilty now that I had not kept in touch. Also this year my father‘s youngest sister my Aunt Freda, had to leave her home at Lower Buckland farm in Lymington as she had been diagnosed with dementia and could no longer look after herself. My brother Peter had been appointed her legal carer under the court of protection and arranged for her to go to a nursing home in New Milton. He was responsible for her affairs and would organise that the property should be sold so that the income could be used for her care and expenses at the home. It proved a very difficult task to persuade her to leave as the poor lady was much confused. Neither Peter nor I could cope but, fortunately, Rita could and did—she was able to guide her from the old house out to the car and stay with her until she Vector Fields Ltd 251 was safely in the home. In the years to come Brenda regularly visited Freda at the home once a week, so relieving us all of the burden though Rita joined in whenever possible. I went a few times but always came away feeling very depressed not because of the home which was fine, but I just felt inadequate as I believe Peter did as well.
1987 Three national events in 1987 gave me much food for thought, first there was the car ferry disaster at Zeebrugge with 188 avoidable deaths; a sad realisation on the slackness to which some members serving in the British Merchant Navy had succumbed. Secondly the great ‗hurricane‘ that swept southern England in October; I was away but Rita said it was terrifying and we lost our ‗dead‘ elm tree out front which had been a feature of our house. Lastly the awful kidnapping of Terry Waite in 1987 in Beirut which heralded so much violence stemming from the region ever since. One family event gave us much sadness, Bernard, Rita‘s brother died suddenly on the 11th of March, he had been working on the farm as usual that morning, had his lunch and went for his afternoon nap and suffered a massive stroke.
Plate 104: Appeal Team on the steps of the Parthenon Clive Bryant on the left Connor Fitzsimons on the right
252 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
The year started for me with a round of Esprit project meetings in Europe, Bologna and Venice in January with RAL staff for the device modelling project and then in February to Athens for an ACCORD project technical meeting with Clive. Heavy snow was falling in Northern Italy so we were very late in arriving; our hosts had booked tickets for the opera which I unfortunately missed. The visit to Athens was notable for my first sight of the Parthenon and Clive‘s pleasure at seeing Mars Hill where Saint Paul was supposed to have preached. My green case was missing at the carousel at Athens air-port; we waited patiently and the only case that was left was a similar green one, but, unfortunately, not the one belonging to me. It transpired a careless woman had taken mine and didn‘t realise it until she reached her hotel; so I had to return to the airport the next day to collect my case. In March I went with John Simkin to Eindhoven for an ACCORD board meeting, which went quite well considering the difficulties we had at the beginning; we had designed the project such that the coupling between the two groups was fairly loose and the two sub projects were largely autonomous. The next day we went to Delft to meet Professor Adrian de Hoop. This visit had been arranged by Simon Polak who wanted to introduce us to de Hoop who was the most famous academic in Holland researching electromagnetics. We were familiar with his collaboration with his ex student, Gerrit Mur (see footnote 194 on page 238 ) which independently developed the ‗edge element‘ method in finite element analysis. De Hoop turned out to be a friendly and modest man and we much enjoyed our visit, which had to be brief as I had to fly to Vienna later that day to attend the final Compumag planning meeting in Graz. Kurt Richter was also a splendid host and the business of the meeting was efficiently conducted in time for us all to go to the Opera to see Arabella by Richard Strauss. In fact two boxes, the Styrian Governor‘s and the Graz city Mayor‘s, were made available to us. This excursion was funded by the Mayor as a goodwill gesture to the Compumag committee for bringing the conference to Graz. During the first part of the opera we noticed that Sandro Viviani had disappeared and I was concerned as Giorgio Molinari had alerted me that Sandro had been suffering from memory loss and was sometimes confused. I looked around outside during the interval and found him wandering in the street. I persuaded him to come back, I think he thought the show was over and perhaps had no particular liking for opera. This indeed was the first sign to us, his friends, of an illness that was to prove later to be fatal. Vector Fields Ltd 253
On the 11th of April I set out for my second visit to Japan with Chris Biddlecombe and our account of the trip, reproduced below, was printed in the VECTOR Newsletter204.
Following the very productive visit to Japan last October which resulted in several important contracts, it was decided to make a follow- up visit in April this year, in order to present 'live' demonstrations of our software and to extend the number of contacts; also it was a useful opportunity to bring potential and existing users up to date with recent developments. The visit coincided with the 25th INTERMAG conference, held this year in Tokyo: A record number of over 1500 people attended this conference and exhibition where VF and KBK, our Japanese agents, had a stand with on-line demos of our software. We departed from London Heathrow on 11 April arriving at Tokyo on 12 April205. It was, of course a long and tiring flight and we were very grateful to be met by Mr Kakuo of KBK. After a good night's sleep, we were able to begin assembling our stand. The team from KBK arrived in force. Messrs Shingu, Inakatsu and Kakuo, made light work of putting up our display material while Miss Motojima sorted the literature. Soon the representative of DEC arrived to unpack the MicroVAX which they had loaned. The VF software was soon up and flying. During the conference delegates from over 50 companies showed interest in the software. Established customers came seeking the latest information and new contacts brought their test examples to be solved 'while-you-wait'. The examples included a twisted rotor; posed by a group from Tampere University206, Finland, and a permanent magnet motor. We were very pleased to welcome Mr Motomura, the managing director of KBK and his fellow director, Mr Kusayanagi, to the stand. They told us they were very impressed with Vector Fields progress in Japan, with many prospects already under review. The high spot of the conference was the banquet, superbly organised with, for once, a really high quality cabaret including many traditional Japanese entertainments. The meal itself was fine, starting with a toast, drunk in sake, from small wooden boxes! It concluded with massed dancing Japanese style. At the end the whole conference joined in, forming a crazy cake walk around the huge ballroom. It was a sight
204 Vector Vol 3, No. 2, Summer 1987 205 In those days overflying the Soviet Union was not permitted so one had to travel via Alaska where a refuelling stop had to be endured with all passengers leaving the plane. One wandered around like a zombie not knowing whether it was Day or Night. 206 This was the first time I met young Lauri Kettunen who was to become a great friend. 254 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
never to be forgotten to see so many usually sedate magneticians cavorting more or less in time to the music from the Japanese band.
Plate 105: VF Stand at Intermag Tokyo
On Saturday we took a trip to Mt. Fuji, which involved a bus trip, a ride on a cable car over hot sulphurous springs, a 'sea voyage' across Lake Hakone and a ride back to Tokyo on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train). The views of Mt. Fuji were somewhat obscured by cloud but we went up to just below the snow line at about 8000ft and enjoyed the day out. The next day, Sunday, Chris linked up with an English speaking Christian church for an Easter Day celebration. On Monday we gathered at the DEC offices in the Sunshine 60 building for the first of two one-day seminars on the VF software. The presentations were introduced by Mr Kusayanagi, KBK director. Next we were fortunate to have Prof. Miya of Tokyo University, who gave a survey of electromagnetic computing with particular reference to applications. Several short lectures and live demonstrations followed in which we presented various aspects of VF, the company's history and software products. Tuesday's seminar followed the same pattern. In the two days representatives of 13 companies attended the seminars, and appreciated them too, judging from the questionnaires they completed afterwards. On Vector Fields Ltd 255
Tuesday evening, KBK entertained Prof. Miya and us at a well known Tempura restaurant in Ginza. The chef, a former Tempura chef to the Emperor, came up from below on a platform in the centre of a very large circular table where we sat. He then proceeded to deep-fry in sesame oil various species of fish - it was delicious
Plate 106: User Course at Sunshine City Chris Biddlecombe extreme left, Bill extreme right.
The last three days at Sunshine City were taken up by the user course on TOSCA and CARMEN. Four companies were represented - Hitachi, MHI, Furukawa and JEOL. The delegates showed a tremendous aptitude and inventiveness in using the software. We found the experience of our first ever course in Japan very stimulating and rewarding and were impressed by the dedication of the delegates. On the last day Bill was rushed away to fly to Okayama to visit Prof. Nakata and his colleagues at the 3D Magnetics Institute there. This time Mt. Fuji was clear and there were lovely views all the way. The range of test models undergoing measurement and computation at the lab were most impressive demonstrating that the academic work in Japan is of a very high standard. In the meantime Chris completed the course, packed everything up and enjoyed a day viewing the Imperial Palace gardens and the oldest part of Tokyo, Asakusa with Mr Shingu. We met in KBK offices on Saturday evening, to say our farewells and thanks to our Japanese colleagues. It had been a very strenuous two 256 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
weeks but we hope it will lead to much further collaboration with the electromagnetics community in Japan.
At Rita‘s half term holiday we took Eva and Bill Boucher to Jersey for a short holiday. My only memory remaining is hearing at dusk, standing near the church of St Brelades Bay a choir from within singing, ‘As Torrents in Summer‘, from Elgar‘s cantata King Olaf, most exquisite. An important event for VF happened in June as we moved from our Office at Osney Mead to new offices in Kidlington. For sometime we had been planning the move as we now had seven employees and the company had done reasonably well. We decided to acquire a unit in a new development at the Bankside Business estate north of Kidlington just by the Oxford Canal. John Whitney reported on the move in the Vector Newsletter (IBID) as follows:
Plate 107: Olek Zienkiewicz Opens the New VF Office at Kidlington
On June 17th we were honoured to welcome finite element pioneer Professor Zienkiewicz FRS to officially open our new offices. The ceremony was followed by a reception attended by guests from our customers and suppliers. The new offices at Bankside, Kidlington just 6 miles north of Oxford City centre are purpose built to our requirements and include facilities for training courses and demonstrations on the ground floor. Bill Trowbridge welcomed the guests and introduced Professor Zienkiewicz to Vector Fields Ltd 257 those who were not familiar with his pioneering work in finite element analysis. Professor Zienkiewicz, one of the few engineers involved in computational mechanics to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society, has been responsible for many fundamental developments in finite element analysis. Perhaps of equal importance is that he has been an evangelist in the practical application of these methods to engineering design. Few people know of his interest and involvement in electromagnetic field computation. This began in 1970 when he worked with Bill Trowbridge and Jim Diserens to solve 3D magnetic field problems using a three component vector potential method. To make this work they had to introduce a penalty function in order to ensure a well conditioned matrix, an idea that he had developed from his research in fluid dynamics. When the TOSCA algorithm was devised at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory it was described in terms of a complicated matrix transformation. Professor Zienkiewicz immediately recognised it as an application of his ideas on combined residual equations. This dramatically simplified the description of the algorithm and made clear the underlying physical interpretation. Professor Zienkiewicz's commitment and enthusiasm has always acted as a catalyst to the development of new ideas in electromagnetism although this is by no means his main area of interest. After the ceremony guests were shown demonstrations of our software, particular interest being shown in the new Version 5 of TOSCA with its advanced pre and post processing facilities.
June continued being busy with Esprit meetings, firstly a workshop on the APPEAL Library in Sta Margharita hosted by Giorgio Molinari followed by a full project review in Brussels. However it was at the end of June that a momentous step for me personally was taken. My last day at Rutherford was Tuesday June 30th and on the previous day at lunch time Pam, my secretary gave me a leaving party in her garden with most members of CAG present plus others from the lab and VF. But first (23 June) there was the traditional farewell celebration and presentation by the director Paul Williams in front of my colleagues and many friends to which my dear wife Rita was invited. Paul said some very kind words which appeared in the RAL Bulletin and, there is no false modesty about me, so I give his remarks in full:
Bill Trowbridge began his scientific career in 1956 at Harwell in the most junior science grade possible. On Tuesday 23 June 1987 he left RAL. a world authority on the computation of electromagnet fields. Bill's interest in computational physics developed while he was studying for his 258 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
BSc on day release and became his life's work. Required to design magnets for accelerators, he forged close links with computational analysts in other fields, including civil engineering, and developed the use of finite element techniques for the solution of field problems. His expertise brought him into wide demand as an international lecturer and he travelled extensively. All this was achieved in his second career, his first in the Merchant Navy having led to a First Mate's certificate. In his third incarnation as Chairman of his own Company 'Vector Fields' who knows what he may achieve. Thanking Bill for all he had done for RAL, Paul presented gifts from all his friends and colleagues and wished him every success with his new venture. In reply Bill reminisced on his 30 years at the Laboratory; of the colleagues with whom he had worked and of the happy times he had spent with them. He thanked everyone for the gifts. The Escher print would look very well in his new office, he said. As for the future - he looked forward to a continuing collaboration with RAL.
Plate 108: The Traditional ‘This Is Your Life Card’ Presented to the Author on his leaving RAL after 30 years. (The artist who modestly keeps silent has the initial AP)
I felt immensely proud to have been involved in the growth of information technology and the part that I and my colleagues have been privileged to play in it but one needs support and friends and I have had Vector Fields Ltd 259 many in my thirty year stay at Harwell/Chilton. My huge debt to Doug Allen and David Thomas that has been emphasised throughout this memoir was crucial but several of my closest colleagues were also necessary, I mean Jim Diserens, John Collie, Mike Newman, Larry Turner, Alan Armstrong , John Whitney and John Simkin. I must also mention the help and support I received in the later stages of my RAL career from Paul Williams and Geoff Manning. But more important than any of these is, of course, my dear wife Rita who made it possible for me to be single minded and allowed me to be selfish at times as she subordinated her own career in favour of mine. Now for the road ahead, we had made Vector Fields work so far and the signs were good for the future and I felt confident
Austrian Holiday and Compumag Graz
Plate 109: Bill beside the Danube and Rita overlooking Salzburg
Rita and I set out for Austria in August, firstly to Vienna where we were to have a week‘s holiday exploring the city, its musical heritage the sites belonging to Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. We went to the museums in their names as well as viewing the great art to be found in the museums of the Hapsburgs. We enjoyed the village of Heiligenstadt as much as anywhere, with the Beethoven Museum there and the nearby Danube where we hired bicycles and cycled for miles. We crammed into a small box up in the Gods at the opera and watched the 260 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
Magic Flute (a splendid young John Tomlinson singing Sarastro). We went, in the evening to the Prater and rode the Giant Ferris wheel and were thrilled to see the city spread below. We also did a long coach trip to Hungary via the Haydn birthplace near Esterhazy. From Vienna we went by train to Salzburg to see the Mozart birthplace, attend a performance at the festival and pick up a rental car. The opera was Monteverdi‘s, ‗Il ritorno d‘Ulisse in patria‘ in a new production realised by the contemporary German composer Hans Werner Henze. It was quite a British affair really with singers Thomas Allen, Ann Murray and Robert Tear singing the principal roles as well as being conducted by Jeffrey Tate but the star for me was Kathleen Kuhlmann singing Penelope. To hear this piece with a modern orchestra, at least to me, is an uncomfortable experience but the sense of occasion sitting in this immense house, carved into the side of a rocky cliff, was unforgettable.
Plate 110: At Compumag Graz (a) Bill & Rita at the Wine-Strasse, (b) Poster, (c) Bill giving his paper at the conference Vector Fields Ltd 261
We explored the area in our rental car visiting places like St Wolgang (Whitehorse Inn) and Salzkammergut (Full of ‗Sound of Music‘ adverts) then set out across the Alps to Graz (about 150 miles) to attend the Compumag Conference. Kurt Richter had booked us into the Park Hotel which I knew from previous trips to Graz and is a most delightful place to stay; there we found many ‗compumaggers‘, including Larry & Donna Turner, Jim & Helen Diserens. The following day Kurt organised a car trip to down near the Slovenian border to the famous Wine-Strasse where we could sample wine and enjoy the lovely scenery. I wrote the following report on the conference for the Vector Newsletter207 :
The sixth international conference on the computation of electromagnetic fields, COMPUMAG, was held at Graz in Austria from August 25th to August 28th. The conference was organised by the Electrical Engineering Department of the Technical University under the chairmanship of Professor Kurt Richter. The meeting was attended by over 240 delegates from 27 countries and thus establishes a new record. Those fortunate enough to be there were stimulated by a wide range of interesting and significant papers and by the many informal discussions that are such a feature of these conferences. Not only were we exposed to new and challenging ideas but also to the very fine weather and splendid surroundings that Graz was able to provide. Our company stand at the conference exhibition was well attended with on-line demonstrations of the VF software readily available at all times. Many visitors availed themselves of the opportunity of having their field problems solved on the spot by John Simkin and Chris Riley. Once again the paramount importance of predictive field computation to subject areas like the design of non-destructive testing probes, tape-head magnets and M RI systems was confirmed. The atmosphere on the stand was lively and constructive with good ideas flowing both ways.
After the conference the members of the paper refereeing team were taken to a beautiful village in the hilly countryside to a place called Semriach where they were accommodated in a quiet hotel. Over the next two days the reviewers worked during the day but enjoyed good food and dancing in the evening — the local people performed a dance ceremony to commemorate the ‗felling of trees‘. In Plate 111 (b) Kurt Richter is
207 VECTOR Vol 3, No 3, Winter 1987 262 Professional and Family Life 1984-1987
saying farewell to Sandro Viviani who had to retire from the Compumag Committee owing to ill health, see page 252.
Plate 111: Scenes from Semriach (a) The Tree Dance, (b) Kurt Richter saying farewell to Sandro
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One final event of note in this crowded year was the second short course on Computational Electromagnetics, held this time in the Connaught Rooms in Great Queen St. London. Earlier in the year I asked Kurt Richter if he would replace Zol Cendes who was not available and he had agreed. In fact this was a pleasant affair for the three of us who had become good friends, on the final evening I hosted a dinner at Simpson‘s restaurant in the Strand which we all enjoyed. On the previous Sunday we invited Kurt and his wife Mila to visit us in Frilford; we were to get know the Richters very well in the coming years.
264 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Expansion of Vector Fields 1988 to 1993
1988 Vector Fields continued to make good progress with ever expanding markets. We signed a world-wide deal with the Philips Company in January thus setting the seal on what had been a satisfying and productive collaboration with Simon Polak and his group at Eindhoven. The ACCORD project was now well underway with the completion of the specification of the APPEAL library208 and throughout the year there were frequent meetings in Europe with our partners to discuss this and prepare our report for the review meetings in Brussels. Clive and I also found time somehow to prepare a paper for the upcoming Graz IGTE seminar in September209. During Compumag Graz, Professor Kenzo Miya successfully submitted a proposal for Tokyo University to host Compumag in 1989 and in April of this year he convened the first planning meeting. In order to help with the funding of committee members he had planned the meeting to coincide with other events, e.g. the Fusion Technology Seminar also I had proposed that KBK, the VF distributor in Japan, in cooperation with Kenzo could host a short course at which the delegates to the Compumag planning meeting would contribute lectures and receive some payment. This had been arranged and would take place at Hakone, a resort village near Mount Fuji, on 21 and 22 April. I met up with Larry Turner at the Tokyo Prince Hotel where the Fusion meeting was to take place. Larry and I had a very pleasant day out on the Sunday as we took an excursion train to Niki to visit the Emperor‘s Summer Palace which is now a museum. After a productive planning meeting for Compumag Tokyo we all went to Hakone for the course. Back in Oxford I just managed a short break with Rita in Hereford before going to Athens and Italy. I had been appointed as a Professor under contract at Genoa University; the period of the contract was from May to August to give a series of lectures to the undergraduates and post graduates in Giorgio Molinari‘s department. We had decided to fulfill
208 Specification of the APPEAL Library, C F Bryant and C W Trowbridge, Tech. Rep., Vector Fields Ltd. 1988, ESPRIT(1051), ACCORD/WP4/DEL/VFL/003/26.07.88/CFB 209 A discussion on the use of the Lorentz Gauge in Eddy Current Computations, C F Bryant and C W Trowbridge, Proc. IGTE-3 Proceedings, Graz, 1988 Vector Fields Ltd 265 this in two parts with a short course of five lectures in May and then a longer period of four weeks in August. In between there would be other trips to Italy, with Giorgio, visiting other universities for discussions with groups with whom he was collaborating. First then to Athens for an ACCORD meeting to settle the contents of the proposed APPEAL library with our partners then Giorgio and I flew to Genoa to give my short course; the lectures were spread over five days in the mornings and after a leisurely lunch Giorgio had arranged discussions with the members of his post graduates. One rather sad thing was that Sandro was there and welcomed me most affectionately and then handed over his office to me. He then spent the entire time walking up and down the corridor outside. This was most distressing to all concerned and it was explained to me that Sandro was suffering from a form of Alzheimer‘s disease.
Plate 112: The Staff at DIE Genoa 1988 L to R: Giorgio Molinari, Bill, Silvia Repetto (seated), Paolo Molfino,?, Paola Giordano (seated), ?, Pablo Fernandes, Mauritsio Repetto, Sandro Viviani
I got to know very well Giorgio‘s most senior colleagues, Paulo Molfino, a very jolly man with a special talent for IT and good food, and Paula Giordano, a pretty lady — very active in research of new methods for field computation. Giorgio also took me to Nervi to have a look at a possible apartment for our longer stay in August. I even managed a trip to the Opera at the Teatro Margarita to see appropriately enough Tosca. The Teatro Margarita had been the temporary home of the Genoese Opera for many years as the ongoing tribulations of the new house still 266 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
looking for money to complete. On my return to Oxford I had a visit from Percy Hammond from Southampton University and he brought with him a research fellow newly joined the department there, Dr Jan Sykulski from Lodz. Jan was destined to become closely associated with me in the future as I will describe later.
Plate 113: Rita retires from Cholsey School L to R: Bill Campbell, Bill, Robin McLelland, Rita, (b) John Haworth & Rita, (c) Three Colleagues, Roz Crouch, Joe Johnson & Rita
In July Rita retired from Cholsey School; she decided to take early retirement as the terms offered were reasonable and she wanted to spend more time with me on some of my travels. She had served Cholsey Vector Fields Ltd 267
School for over twenty years and had a teaching career since 1949, apart from a few years when our children were small. Her colleagues at the school arranged a lovely retirement party for her to which her two previous headmasters at Cholsey, Bill Campbell & John Haworth both came and paid her the most generous compliments. She had clearly been popular and dedicated as stressed by her current headmaster, Robin McLelland. She had been leader of Green Team for many years and one of her delights was to look at the local paper to read what some of her former pupils had got up to; some good, some not so. She loved her work as a teacher and was very good at it and on many occasions she refused the opportunities for further advancement as she always felt that her family must come first. Several hectic short trips involving Esprit project followed and also a trip to Ancona in Italy to give a lecture to the Italian electromagnetics club of universities at their annual meeting. I remember Paola organised a splendid dinner on the beach. Then on the 12th of August Rita and I set out by car to drive to Genoa for my second ‗stint‘ as the Professor under contract. We were to stay in an apartment that Giorgio had arranged for us in Nervi, for four weeks. As it happened the let had to be for six weeks and John & Linda Whitney made use of it for two weeks before us. After crossing the channel from Dover to Calais we drove to Laon (Hotel Angleterre) for our first overnight stop, then the next day South to Grenoble for a second overnight stop at the Novotel, finally arriving at Genoa the following day. The apartment in Nervi was in the central square, No. 1. Barbierri and was rather noisy and humid, however we soon settled in and were able to mix my work with the university with several excursions. Dinah and Simon came out for a week; there were several rooms in the apartment and they mostly did their own thing. Rita and I drove to Pisa and Florence and stayed for two nights in Fiesole and also visited Alasio to see the place that inspired Edward Elgar to write ‗In the South‘. In Florence we enjoyed the famous Uffizi Gallery and were thrilled by the paintings. Toward the end of our stay in Nervi Ernie & Helen Freeman came out to stay for a few days. Ernie had moved to the Abingdon area after he had married Helen last year. We soon got to like Helen who had similar tastes to ours; Rita and I had been their witnesses at the registry office ceremony 28 March 1987 and Ernie and I had been good friends for many years, despite being rivals in the software business. This was a second marriage for both of them following the break up of their previous unions — a triumph of hope over experience, according to Samuel Johnson. Rita and I had known Hazel, Ernie‘s first wife well and had liked her, but there had been some incompatibilities and everyone is entitled to a second chance. Ernie, whilst in Genoa, took the opportunity 268 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
to visit Giorgio with me for technical discussions and our mutual thoughts on future developments — it was clear that the way ahead was with the small personal computers, and Infolytica (Ernie‘s Company) had a head start here as they had pioneered the use of use of small micro processing machines like the DEC LSI-11. However we were catching up fast as already the intermediate APOLLO and SUN single user work- station machines were becoming available and the VF software would soon be exploiting this class of hardware. On our return we attended a family get together at Brenda‘s new bungalow near Fordingbridge, she had sold the house in Damerham and moved to Sandleheath where she would be close to her friends and also have space to continue her hairdressing business. This occasion was of the very few occasions we were all together, see plate Plate 114, and we were all pleased to see Brenda settled.
Plate 114: Family Reunion at Brenda’s House L to R seated: Dinah, Rita, Brenda, Hilda, Pamela L to R standing: Simon, Jonathan, David, Barnaby, Peter
China Revisited - BISEF88 A Prospect for the Future?
After our visit in 1984 (see page 190) Professor Tang Yunqi promised us a return trip with opportunities to see more of China and appreciate the vast diversity of the 'longest running show on earth'. Two years later Professor Tang came to Europe and visited Vector Fields and Rutherford Laboratory (see page 248) and we enjoyed his company Vector Fields Ltd 269 immensely. He came with news of BISEF88 (Beijing International Symposium on Electromagnetic Fields) of which he had been appointed chairman and asked me if I would be an honorary president of the symposium and their guest. He also promised to arrange a tour after the meeting; which would include a trip to Xian to see the famous terracotta warriors. It was with some anxiety that Rita and I set out on the 14th October —agreed schedules, in the event, sometimes fail to work out as any visitor to China will know. The flight to Beijing (dep. HR 1600, Friday 14 October) via Paris and Delhi was long and uncomfortable (19 hours). We saw spectacular views of the Himalayas including a very clear sighting of Mount Everest. The time difference was +7 hours so we felt very fragile on arrival (Saturday 1810); however, contrary to expec- tations, there were no problems with Quarantine, Immigration or Customs, just fill out the forms and keep moving! We were met by Professor Tang and our old friend Mr Song, also from Harbin, who warmly welcomed us.
Plate 115: Our Hosts at Hebie Institute of Technology, Tianjin Prof. Yan Weili third from the left. Head of Institute third from the right
We were looking forward to hot baths; bed, sleep etc and I mentally estimated we should be at the Friendship Hotel within the hour. No such 270 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
luck! I noticed Professor Yan Weili standing there; he immediately invited us to Tianjin (120Km from Beijing) for three days, saying this would nicely occupy the time for us before the start of the conference next Tuesday? It was difficult (impossible) to say no; so we said good- bye to Tang and set off to Tianjin by car with Yan. It was already dark and the long journey (over three hours) in our state of disorientation played havoc with our senses. We were taken to the University of Commerce Guest House and were given an apartment reserved for foreign guests. Too late for food, hot water etc, but, never mind, we had a bed. The next three days were spent in the company of our hosts, Hebei Institute of Technology. We did some sight-seeing and visited the institute where I gave a lecture, met the academic staff, saw the fine work on field computation and attended a banquet given for us by the President of the Institute. They showed me a 2-D code running on a PC (MS-DOS) which looked remarkably similar to PE2D. In fact it turned out to be a version of a code, developed by Fan Ming Wu of the atomic energy institute in Beijing called DE2D. Tuesday found us back in Beijing and safely ensconced in the Friendship Hotel. The journey from Tianjin was interesting, a very busy road through mostly flat agriculture country, and the institute driver skilfully negotiating the never ending stream of traffic. We saw small trucks, buses, official cars, horses and donkey drawn carts of every possible type and of course bicycles. The use of the latter was most inventive. Apart from the normal mode, we saw 'bikes' for towing trailers loaded with farm produce, domestic appliances, furniture, building materials, and animals of all varieties. Also, three wheelers both pedal and hand driven, used for personal and collective conveyance of people, old and 'young, infirm and fit. There were farming appliances as well, small tractors, used to tow goods and what looked like gardening power tools were also employed for this purpose. On several occasions we saw whole suites of furniture being transported on bicycles. On approaching Beijing we were stopped at the city boundary police checkpoint where our papers were examined. Beijing is such a large conurbation that it was sometime before we actually arrived at our hotel but as we approached the city centre the roads improved with far less horn blowing and much smarter traffic. The car deposited us at building No.3 of the Friendship Hotel which was to house the BISEF conference delegates. We were greeted by the local organizers, members of the academic staff from the Academica Sinica, who welcomed us with much enthusiasm. All the delegates were given presents, in our case they were 3D cork pictures of the Great Wall and a Panda respectively. Next we went to No 1 building for lunch, a Vector Fields Ltd 271 very large dining room, 'open all hours', it said, and there we found Kurt Richter from Austria (Professor of Electrical Engineering at Graz) already enjoying a plateful of pork and chilli with rice. We joined him and compared notes of our journeys. He had arrived the day before and was already quite at home with the food and chopsticks. I had last seen him in Tokyo in April at the Compumag planning meeting where he was equally at home with the Japanese cuisine. We took a Taxi to Tiananmen Square to have a look round and appreciate Beijing. There were three large floral sculptures: a Panda (very upright, standing 20 feet or more), a similar horned beast (Rita said it was the 'dragon' logo for the Beijing tourist year, but looked more like a devil figure to me, a cross between a human and bull), and lastly a large horizontal figure which I am sure was a dragon. The three objects were quite impressive, decked with flowers, and there were large crowds of tourists and local visitors milling around, including young lovers on holiday, taking photographs of themselves in groups, with the floral beasts as background. The weather was glorious, a brilliant autumn day with an almost cloudless sky. We enjoyed our walk round this impressive square with its modern museum halls, statues marking the revolution, and mausoleums etc., but it is the space and the people that linger in the memory. The older buildings from bygone days are also in evidence, with Mao's picture on the wall that guards the Forbidden City. His 'big brother' presence is a constant reminder of authority. We returned to the Friendship hotel and there we met the Italian contingent old friends Paolo and Laura Molfino, Paola Giordano from Genoa, and three others from Milan. Also there were Bill and Nancy Lord from USA, who had just arrived by train from Nanjing (24 hrs). At seven o'clock I had to attend the meeting of the symposium committee. We were all introduced by Prof Tang who had just arrived by train from Harbin with Academician Dermichian, another of the symposium hon- orary presidents, who had come from Leningrad via Harbin. Each of us then made a short speech expressing our hopes for a successful symposium. The symposium began at 8.30am the next day (Wednesday) at the nearby Beijing Science Hall. Professor Tang made a short speech of wel- come and introduced the honorary presidents to the audience. There were well over 200 delegates present. I spotted Fan Ming Wu whom I had last seen in Fort Collins, USA. He told me he had had to return home in order to keep his job at the Academica Sinica (Atomic Energy Lab)—he was vulnerable because of his long stay in US following his two years with us at RAL. I was the first speaker, and I gave my paper, a review of field computation concentrating mainly on formulations and possible future developments—I showed some of the results on the use of Transputer 272 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
systems for solving Integral Equations that VF have obtained. I was followed by Prof. Wang Xianchong (Tsinghua University) who gave a review of recent developments in China on solving boundary value prob- lems. He was followed by Jiang Zejia (Chongqing University) who dealt with hierarchical elements, demonstrating that the work here is very well informed about developments in the west, not really surprising since Olek Zienkiewicz is a regular visitor here. During Coffee I kept seeing people who knew me from our last visit, many were former students at the Harbin lectures I gave in 1984, including Fan Ming Wu, Prof Sheng (Xian), and Sun Yushi (Nanjing) who warmly congratulated me on my talk. The plenary opening session continued with a presentation by Prof. Nakata from Okayama University, Japan, who gave a survey of computer codes and the eddy-current workshop problems. The next speaker was Zhou Keding, the conference co-chairman and distinguished authority on fields from Huazhong University: he visited me at RAL (see page 190) some years ago and took a keen interest then in our electromagnetics code developments at that time—he mentioned this visit to me later and said how much he had enjoyed seeing PE2D and TOSCA210 in action. The last talk was given by the other co-chairman, Yan Luguang from Institute of Electrical Engineering, Academica Sinica here in Beijing. He gave an overview of their work in Electromagnetics generally. I was impressed by the range and diversity of the research. Superconductivity and conventional magnets applied to a number of high-tech applications, including MRI systems, MHD, Fusion and magnetic separation. All considered, it was a very interesting morning. I was astonished at the high standard of English used by the speakers and it was a pleasure to listen to so many leading Chinese authorities. The symposium now split into parallel sessions. I attended one on the topic of time varying fields chaired by Bill Lord. I sat with Prof Zhou Keding who gave me a copy of his latest book on Field Computation. I was then called away to discuss with Prof Tang my itinerary for the following week but he could not give me many details yet and I felt that we would be kept guessing to the end. Mr Inakatsu from KBK, our agents in Japan, arrived accompanied by Prof Miya (Tokyo University, next Compumag conference chairman) and Dr Uesaka of IHI Japan. The next speaker was in fact Dr Uesaka who reported on his work using the Incanet code, which he developed at IHI, to examine eddy current effects in septum magnets, though, in the future, IHI will be using Vector Fields software to complement their own, which is good news for us. The next
210 In this his memory was at fault since the visit was before TOSCA, he probably meant GFUN Vector Fields Ltd 273 talk was by Kurt Richter who gave an interesting account on the work of the Graz group on the Coulomb gauge for magnetic vector potential At the symposium reception, later that evening, we met the other presidents and co-chairman, including Academician Kama Dermichian who was overwhelming but friendly and kindness itself: he said he and I should work together on a joint business venture, selling software for parallel computers. I think it was mostly fantasy. We were given food and drink in abundance. However, suddenly it was all over, as is usual at official functions here, and everyone left-but not before we had our pho- tographs taken by all and sundry in every possible combination. Rita and I were grabbed by the KBK people. The head of their Beijing office had turned up - a charming man called S.Nagai, who invited us out for dinner (apparently what we had just eaten was a merely a snack, an appetizer!). So together with Kenzo Miya, Mitsuru Uesaka, Kurt Richter and Inakatsu we set off in the KBK car to one of Beijing's top western style hotels, The Shangri La, where we had a fine meal, but unfortunately I was too full already to enjoy it properly. However, of interest to me was the Chinese quintet who played what I supposed was authentic Chinese music while we ate and talked. The group were certainly performing on traditional instruments, percussion, small Chinese harp, bowed stringed (cf. cello, violin) instrument and some kind of keyboard (struck, rather like a zither). They occasionally sang as well, and to my untutored ears it sounded charming. At the second day of the Symposium I attended the session on methods of analysis, chaired by Kenzo Miya. The first paper was given by Paolo Molfino (Genoa) and described their integrated 2-D field analysis system, CDEF, for use by a consortium of Italian Universities. I had seen this demonstrated earlier in the year when I visited Genoa. The Genoa group under the leadership of Professor Giorgio Molinari have created a strong computational laboratory and they are also using the Vector Fields codes, PE2D, TOSCA and CARMEN to supplement their own' in-house developments'. The Italian contribution was followed by Gerit Mur (University of Delft, Holland) who gave a paper on the use of 'edge elements'; this work is fairly new and must have been novel to many in the audience. The next paper, from China, dealt with the inverse solutions for electric fields, which is interesting because it means that many researchers here are now tackling optimisation problems. I then had a meeting with Mr Inakatsu to revue progress of VF products in Japan. Finally, in the evening the entire conference was conveyed in buses to a theatre to see an Acrobatics variety show. On the final day of the symposium I listened to papers by Bill Lord, Nathan Ida, T Wieland (FGR) on his MAFIA code with excellent results for high frequency problems in accelerator magnets: Osama Mohammed 274 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
(Florida Int. University), and also the work of Wang Baikuan (Tsinghua University) on two component field vectors. I had an interesting discussion with Osama Mohammed who sought my help in promoting his university in CEM; we discussed the possibility of his institute hosting a Compumag Conference sometime in the future. As the meeting drew to a close, numbers fell away, as usual. This was a pity because there was a very good paper by A Demenko (Poland) on the use of par- allel computers. There followed a large poster session which has been an important feature on each day. The atmosphere generated at these 'side show' events was quite exciting; such intense activity reminded me of the lively exchange one finds in the many colourful markets which characterise the Far East. For lunch Rita and I were taken to a Peking-Duck restaurant in 'down-town' Beijing as guests of KBK- China. Mr Nagai was our host and it proved to be a very enjoyable experience. Also present were Professor Miya and Mr Inakatsu. Unfortunately we had very little time since both Miya and I were due at the Academica Sinica Institute for discussions and a tour in the afternoon. Another mad dash in Mr Nagai's car got us there only a few minutes late. The meeting began with a wide ranging discussion on the aspirations of universities here to create campus companies. Professor Yan Luguang told us of their progress so far. They had formed a small product company to design, manufacture and 'market' a variety of electromagnetic devices. We were then taken on a guided tour and saw their work on microcomputer controlled machines, MRI systems, MHD magnets and Magnetic Separation. We were next taken to Tsinghua University, to see the campus and visit the electrical engineering department. After meeting one of the Vice Presidents and some of the faculty members we were taken on a tour of this most beautiful campus. Our guide was the elderly and distinguished Professor Wang Xianchong who gave the opening paper from China at the symposium. He speaks the most idiomatic English and has a great sense of humour. He showed me where the Emperor's palace once stood, now part of the garden, and recounted with some relish about how it was razed to ground during the 1840 'Opium War' by the British. He is very much attached to the university. He also showed us the palace belonging to the brother of the last Emperor. I noticed an old man tending the garden—the the ghost of last emperor's brother? The very last event of the meeting was the Banquet. This was a grand affair held in Building 9. The Friendship hotel is a kind of campus itself having a large complex of buildings, apartments hotel blocks, theatre, conference centre, several restaurants, etc. Professor Tang and the Co-chairmen welcomed the delegates to the banquet and Rita and I found ourselves sitting with the other presidents etc, too near the Vector Fields Ltd 275 microphone for comfort(yes, we each had to say a few words - I was most impressed with John Tegoupolis who made a brilliant speech in Chinese). Then we started eating. The meal was excellent, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The proceedings ended quite abruptly as usual and we all went our various ways: the Japanese to the hotel Karaoke bar to sing songs, followed by Kurt Richter and the Italians. Paolo Molfino muttered to me as he passed by, ‗Oh for a Steak!'. Rita and I found Professor Tang and he told us that 'tomorrow we shall go to Xian'. How we will go is not yet clear; he said either by train (we are not too keen on this since it takes 24 hours!), or hopefully by air. We discussed with Kurt, at breakfast the following day, our concern about the lack of firm arrangements for our trip to Xian and beyond (Tang had planned for us to visit Hanchow as well to see the West Lake). We had now decided to try and go only as far as Xian since we needed to be back in Beijing the following Saturday to catch our flight home. Also if Tang was unable to obtain air tickets we had decided to cancel the Xian trip as well and return home sooner. The majority of the Europeans were scheduled to go on a post-symposium tour, pre-booked and paid for. Today they were off to see the 'wall' and on Monday to Xian and then down south to Canton. Kurt was going to Xian too to give some lectures at a CAD course organised by Professor Sheng; however today he was seeing Beijing with a lady graduate engineer from the Academica Sinica Institute who I think, had been asked to look after him. We met Professors Tang, Sheng, also Mr Song after breakfast and faced a confused situation, but Tang appeared optimistic that we might get air tickets to Xian. He said there were two possibilities, both involving Mr Song doing some furious leg work. First he wanted the train tickets back (they had obtained these earlier in the week when it was mooted that we might go by train) to try and get a refund; secondly there was a possibility that influence would secure tickets from the city Air- China terminal and Song was detailed to go there and try; and finally, if this didn't work, we would all go to the airport and try bribery and nepotism - Sheng has a relative who works for the airline. It became apparent also that they had problems with other guests. Sheng had invited some Japanese to Xian as well as Richter and she was not at all sure if they would be able to get tickets. The travel, tourist, business in China was stretched to the limit this year as its 'Beijing Tourist Year', and all flights, hotels etc were fully booked. Song returned at noon—but had no luck. So we piled in a taxi with luggage, Sheng and Tang and proceeded to the airport. There were huge crowds of people there, mostly foreigners, and many showing signs of frustration at the lack of information. For us though, things began to happen. Before we knew what hit us, we were on the plane! Our 276 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
academic hosts had indeed secured three seats; Professor Tang said with a broad smile, 'We have gone through the back door', in other words a 20 Yuan inducement. To see Tang at the airport is a revelation, he gets to the front of the queue with no trouble at all. We waved a hasty good bye to lady Professor Sheng, who had gone to get us some lunch, but she was too late to hand it to us before we were lead away by Tang to the terminal. The plane was an aging Russian jet which was crammed with seats. We were jammed in at the front with no space for hand luggage or legs. The stewardess gave us the usual box of juice, bag of dried fish and a packet of peanut biscuits. But we did get a cup of coffee. The flight was smooth enough (600 miles from Beijing, over Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces); we saw very little of course but at one stage I caught a glimpse of the Yellow river at the point, I think, where if bends ninety degrees at Tongguan to flow from the north. It‘s near here that the Wei River joins the Yellow river, flowing in from the West. Xian lies on the south bank of the Wei River some 80 miles to the east. The weather as we approached Xian became cloudy with some rain and in fact looked quite murky. Quite a change after the superb weather we left in Beijing. On leaving the plane there was some chaos as we waited in the rain for our luggage to appear. The airport was tiny and had few facilities, despite the huge influx of visitors every year to see the archaeological sites that constitute the cradle of the Chinese civilization. Slowly the bulge of visitors dispersed as tour buses, taxis, and for the fortunate various official cars took them away to the walled city. We were left standing, still waiting for our luggage, it seemed that most people were on organised tours and that their luggage would be sent on later. The handling machine had broken down and there was animated discussion going on amongst the experts. Finally, the old fashioned manual way was adopted. A mound of bags appeared in the adjoining shed, which Tang and I sorted, expending more energy than I could well afford, but in the end we managed to collect all our belongings and then staggered over the mud to reach the road, some 200 yards away. A Taxi was negotiated and we were off. We finally ended up at the 'Milky Way Hotel' after discovering that the Xian University guest house was full ( we had arrived a day earlier than expected). The hotel was new and not yet finished, our room had windows that didn't fit so it was very draughty. Also it overlooked the busy main road so it was very noisy. The next morning we had breakfast with Tang. Two fried eggs, bread and coffee, quite like home? The staff here were very young, and as usual in China, very numerous. There were several smartly dressed girls manning the front desk but they were neither too busy nor indeed looking hard for activity. In addition there were several young men just waiting around (were they paid for this?) for opportunities to arise for Vector Fields Ltd 277 work? On each floor a team of budding ‗concierges' seemed to spend the day hanging about. I suspected that there was a lack of efficient management. After breakfast Tang began the tricky negotiations about costs, he did not wish us to pay, and of course his resources were limited. In particular, he had to begin to try and secure flight tickets for us to return to Beijing later in the week, though we were prepared to go by train if necessary. Also Tang had now decided we should remain in the Milky Way Hotel. He had established a good relationship with the manager, a former China air-official and he could see that this might be useful. We said we would be happy to remain there but could we possibly change to a room at the back of the hotel because of the draught and street noise. This was soon organised. A post graduate student from the University joined us to show us around the city with Tang. After some trouble we got a small mini-bus and set off. It was not easy to get a taxi because as soon as they see foreigners they want foreign currency and Professor Tang would not let us pay. We first visited the Great Goose Pagoda with fine panoramic views of the area, despite hazy weather. At least the rain had cleared and although the day started very foggy the sun was rapidly burning the moisture away. We climbed to the top admiring the vistas at each level. The tower was packed with people, but a holiday mood prevailed with courtesy and friendly greetings from both Chinese and foreigners alike. The first temple on this site dates from A.D.652 in the Tang dynasty, but the original was burnt down in 1227. The pagoda itself was built by the Buddhist pilgrim monk Xuan Zang who brought back the sacred texts from India and spent 19 years translating them into Chinese. The pagoda was built to house the texts. From the summit the view of the old Tang town is superb: Xian was once the largest city in the world. It is completely enclosed by a massive wall which has been successfully re- stored. Also far off to the East the tumuli of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang Di, could be seen dimly. We next went into the city itself, and walked along the busy central avenue, where literally millions of people were enjoying the holiday, it was amazing to pass by a cinema showing 'Waterloo Bridge' starring Robert Taylor. Tang said he had seen this picture many times; it is a perennial favourite in China. We had some trouble finding a place for lunch but eventually we were able to get a table in a large restaurant close to the ancient bell tower. This was a restaurant complex offering a range of eating places at different standards. We waited while negotiations took place, finally a deal was made and we were conducted upstairs to a quieter area away from the crowds below. We had a local dish, the name sounded like Chouda, with the first syllable accentuated. Anyhow the equipment consisted of a multi-layered shiny metal steamer 278 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
placed on the table, and when the top lid was removed dumplings were revealed. Each dumpling contained vegetables of some sort and was pip- ing hot. The second and subsequent layers were likewise dumplings but with different fillings. No sooner were we satiated with one type of vegetable then the filling changed to another and revitalized our appetites, and towards the end the vegetables were replaced by meat, a very odd meal, lacking in variety, unusual for Chinese cuisine, but in fact a subtle blend of tastes. Back to sight-seeing with the Bell Tower. The young graduate student was very attentive: it was pleasant to see the relationship between the famous professor and the young man, they supported each other beautifully. He did all the leg work but could be firm when his local knowledge dictated, he saw that our bags, coats etc were kept safe; he did all the queuing for tickets and generally carried out the wishes of Tang. After the Bell Tower we walked (1 mile) to the Provincial Museum where we saw the Xian province museum and the 'Forest of Steles': these are stone tablets with Confucian and other texts dating from the ninth century. Finally we climbed up on the Xian wall itself which is massive. The way between the parapets is very broad with sufficient room for a dual carriageway! Back at the Milky Way, we learnt that Xian airport was now closed because of some technical difficulty with the airport radar system and that no flights had arrived that evening. The Old Russian jets used here have no on-board radar. Fortunately Professor Sheng had managed to come during the morning but the outlook for Richter and indeed the Europeans on the post conference tour looked bleak. Our new room was on the 6th floor and we soon discovered that the amenities were not very good, hot water was very scarce! Never mind we were both tired and soon went to bed. Vector Fields Ltd 279
Plate 116: Xian City Wall
During the night the ceiling in the bathroom leaked and we were flooded. We had a dreadful breakfast, no coffee, and then we had to wait for a car. The electricity had been cut off so we had to climb the 6 flights of stairs to our room. It was then that we noticed just how unfinished the hotel was—a builder was still cementing the stair-case to make the steps! We were to travel west today to visit various tombs, the Maoling Tomb, then a tomb of one of the Emperor's lady friends and finally the Empress Wu's tomb. The weather was very foggy, so this would exacerbate the problem at the air-port, but never-the-less we set off with Tang and the graduate student, I still did not know his name, in the university car. We soon passed the large modern monument that marks the beginning of the Great Silk Road along which trade between China and Europe was first made 1000 years ago. I thought of Marco Polo, and then of our modern Italian colleagues stranded in Beijing. We were soon out in the country. What we saw was a revelation: a time warp back to pre-war in Europe— we saw a plough being pulled by a mule, another pulled by an Ox and a third by two men! We didn't see a machine being used at all except for little old tractors pulling loads of hay or straw. People were all over the place along the sides of the road, in the road, the fields, and sitting eating and even playing billiards along the pavements. It was corn (Maize) harvest time so heads of corn were hanging everywhere, some in trees like immense bunches of bananas, some on poles, many on the house roofs and along the pavements or fences. Some people were taking the grain from their corn and spreading it along beside the road to dry-half the width of the road was often used for this and the car just went over it when we needed to pass another car or lorry. During the day we spent at 280 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
least 5 hours in the car and how we managed to avoid killing someone I will never know! We had a pleasant stop at the Maoling Tomb. The sun had come out but the views were hazy. This place has the burial mound of the Emperor Wu of the Tang Dynasty (87 BC). The mound is 155ft high, about a mile east. Also situated here is the tomb of General Huo who, in 111 BC aged 18, became the commander of Wu's army and fought 6 successful campaigns against the Huns. He died of an illness aged 24. We photographed three delightful girls who had been decorating themselves with flowers. They turned out to be nurses having a day off, and I promised to send them prints. We had lunch here which was very enjoyable, delicious cold meats and salad.
Plate 117: Maoling Tomb-'three delightful girls ...’
Next we went on to the other sites. The climax was the extensive Qian Ling, the tombs of the third Tang Emperor, Gaonzong (died AD 683) and the notorious Empress Wu (A TV soap in UK has been recount- ing the fictionalised everyday doings of these royal folk for some years). The 'royal way' to the tomb was flanked by towers, obelisks, winged horses, ostriches, five pairs of horses, 10 pairs of standing statues representing those who attended the emperor's funeral. The good lady Vector Fields Ltd 281 seized power after her husband died (natural causes?), and her reign of 21 years was infamous for political murders (A sort of Lady Macbeth of Xian) Ten minutes after we arrived home we had to go to the University guest house for a small banquet given by Professor Sheng in our honour. We hurriedly changed and were rushed there by car. We met Professor Sheng, her husband (another Professor) and their daughter (a post graduate engineer). Lady Sheng said that Richter and the others were still in Beijing and it was unlikely that he could come. She then asked me if 1 would give his lectures at the CAD course on Wednesday, and I agreed. Later we were joined by two associate professors; both ladies 1 had met several times before. At dinner we found also our young post graduate guide, Mrs Liu (I had promised in Beijing to try and find her husband a UK university place), and a good English speaking lecturer Bai Lin Qin. The last two would be with us the following day they said. The dinner was excellent, some familiar dishes with variations and one new one- banana cooked in a sweet toffee mixture. We presented Professor Sheng with a bound diary, and after more talk and photographs we returned to the hotel. The leak had stopped but the room was in a mess. The following day we went east to see the terracotta army. We set off in the Xian Jialong University bus immediately after breakfast with Mrs Liu(Yang Xi Le), Qi Qiao, Gu Jun three lady post grads from Jialong University; Chen Gang(or was it Bai Lin Qin from yesterday?); a very good English speaking lecturer from there, together with 2 Japanese students from Tokyo (From Miya's department) and, of course, Professor Tang himself. The Japanese students had come from Beijing on the last flight before the Xian Airport was closed. Our companions were all very pleasant and the party were clearly out to enjoy themselves. One of the lady students was quite overcome with excitement and had to be calmed down by Mrs Liu. We had the usual nerve-racking drive through the people and bicycles, and found ourselves in series with a long line of buses all on the same mission. On arrival at the Qin Shi Huang Di tomb area, which in fact is only 22 miles east of Xian but seemed very much further, we stopped at the site of a vast subterranean funeral vault containing the terra-cotta warriors. The Emperor Qin established a unified China after 25 years of armed struggle in 211 B.C.–– it was he who had started the building of the Great Wall. Though a courageous soldier, and bold reformer, he was a cruel tyrant. He conscripted hundreds of thousands of peasants to complete the wall by joining smaller lengths already in existence. He established a formidable imperial infrastructure, a network of roads, a unified system of writing, and standardized weights and measures. Yet he was cruel to his opponents, he had all texts on Confucianism burnt and 282 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
the scholars banished or beheaded. He reigned for ten years. He built his own tomb using a vast army of workers, and it is thought that these were entombed alive, on completion, to maintain its secrets. This is one mile west of the Qin Warrior site where we were standing. We could see clearly the huge mound of the main tomb which has yet to be excavated. The Warrior vault, conceived to protect the emperor's tomb, was only discovered in 1974 by some peasants who were digging for a new well. Over 7000 life-sized figures, grouped in battle order, rank by rank, some mounted on horse drawn chariots, others in infantry groups armed with spears, swords and crossbows have so far been unearthed. These legions of terra-cotta figures were interred in battle formation some 15- 20 feet underground in a roofed vault measuring some 700 feet east to west and 200 feet north to south. The figures themselves are accurate portraits of real warriors of the emperor‘s guard of honour.
Plate 118: One we could photograph
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A hangar has been constructed over the site to allow visitors to walk round on elevated platforms to view the figures. The weapons found are over 2000 years old, and metal essays reveal that a special coating was applied to resist corrosion, an indication of the state of metal technology in ancient China. We filed in and gazed at this amazing sight. Photography is forbidden and the police are very strict-we saw one visitor having his film removed from his camera. Very important visitors, e.g. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and of course, royalty, are allowed to descend down amongst the warriors for a closer look. As one progresses to the rear of the hangar the restoration is less complete and it gave me a special thrill to see the figures as they would have looked when first discovered. One gets an impression of men emerging from the depths‘ of time, battle weary and in a state of shock. The feelings this tableau of history generates are unsettling, how is it that one man can determine the lives of so many? Are things really any different 2000 years on, and so on – truly a 'wonder of the world'.
Plate 119: The Official Photograph showing the actual Army
We also saw the bronze chariots and horses, two beautifully detailed models scaled at about half size I thought. These are kept in a special room behind glass and were also found in the main vault. Though extraordinary, they don't really fit in with the entombed army. We had some lunch here which became a jolly occasion, relief after the theatre of the condemned army. The next stop was to visit the Hot Springs at 284 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Huaqing. This place is well known in China because of the love story about the Tang Emperor Gao Zong and his beautiful concubine Yang Guifei. He was so besotted with her that he neglected his affairs of state and, when her adopted son led a revolt, the Emperor's ministers advised him that the imperial army would not fight until she was put to death. She hanged herself. In a pavilion nearby Chiang Kaishek was captured in the 'Xian Incident', December 1936. Our final visit was to the Banpo Museum where there is a pre- historic site laid out, dating from six thousand years ago-Neolithic man. There are the remains of houses, food pits, cooking pots, skeletons etc. This ancient place is now guarded by a large, very large, statue of Banpo Woman, naked to the waist and very buxom! But by this time I was too tired and saturated by what we had already experienced. Tang announced that the Hotel manager had used his influence (He used to work for Air China) to get us flight tickets for the following day. We then had a quiet dinner in the hotel and retired to our room to read and to prepare my lecture. I went by car to Jialong in time for the lecture the next day. Professor Sheng introduced me to the course students; there were about 40 people present. I gave my Bisef88 lecture plus some supplementary material, which was ably translated by Bai Lin Qin. The audience asked questions on optimisation techniques and aspects of mesh generation. Lady Zhou asked me to send her some of our RAL reports; she also gave us some terra-cotta replicas (Small) of the warriors from their guest house shop, which I appreciated. I returned to the hotel with Sheng and Zhou where we met Rita and Tang to have a farewell lunch. We heard during lunch that the airport was still partially closed and it wasn't at all certain that our plane would be leaving. Some people had been stuck for two days and neither Kurt Richter nor the post conference tour would now be coming here. After lunch we went to the airport to try our luck. Many people were waiting around for flights. However, fortunately for us, Tang and Sheng were able to obtain the tickets and we eventually arrived back in Beijing at 5pm. We were soon in the Friendship Hotel. Professor Tang said he was going to leave us alone to find our own way for two days, and he would return to say good-bye on Saturday. After unpacking we went for a meal and as usual found Kurt! He told us his tale of woe but was quite philosophical-he had spent several days in the company of the lady engineer from Academica Sinica and had seen many interesting places. He had decided to cancel Xian after camping at the airport for two days. The Italians had become disillusioned, he said, since the temporary hotel accommodation they had been offered was of a very poor standard. Vector Fields Ltd 285
Finally the post B1SEF tour was abandoned and they had returned home. We had a drink in the bar and went early to bed. Next day we took a taxi to the Friendship store in down-town Beijing, then to Wangfujing St. The taxi waited for us at each place. We bought 2 scarves, 2 ties, a Kimono, an Anorak, some bracelets, a blouse and a bag to carry it all in! After lunch in the hotel we rested, and did some reading. I had brought several books with me to read and also music tapes to listen to but I had had no time for either. So at last I was able to read some more of Sternes's, ‗A Sentimental Journey', and relished its quirky humour and its mildly erotic charm. I thought of his remark that, 'An Englishmen does not travel abroad to meet other Englishmen‘, had worked out well for us on this trip. I called Mr Nagai (KBK agent in Beijing) and asked him to confirm our return flight. He was very helpful and so I asked a further favour could he possibly get tickets to the traditional Beijing opera the following evening. He called round later (he has an apartment within the Friendship Hotel complex) and presented us with three tickets (one for Richter), and said he would send his car to take us there, and also, to bring us back. The following morning we took a taxi and set off to visit the Great Wall. Our first visit was made 4 years ago but I was in fact feeling quite ill then and I didn't particularly enjoy it. The ride there was interesting, especially as we left the city and went up into the mountains. The road looked fairly new and parts of it were dual carriageway. The taxi waited for two hours or so whilst we walked along the top for a distance of 4 towers (to the right this time). It was quite steep in places with stone steps and of course very crowded. The weather was beautiful and not too windy either, and the views of the hills, green clad for the most part with some rock exposed, were delightful. As you move along the top, which is a broad highway, you are constantly bumping into people of many races from all parts of the globe—the world and his wife in fact. As at the terra-cotta warrior tombs, the holiday spirit was much in evidence, tour groups, soldiers on leave, school children, academics and parties of elderly people from Melbourne, Upstate New York, Frankfurt, Yorkshire and goodness knows where else; one has a vision of swarms of aging ladies, twentieth century survivors, moving from one 'wonder of the world' to another. After visiting nearly every souvenir shop at the site, the taxi took us back to Beijing. In the evening we went with Kurt to the Beijing Opera. The theatre was just off Wangfujing Street and the driver told us where to meet him afterwards. We had seen a performance here on our last trip and had enjoyed it very much. Unfortunately there were many badly behaved tourists in the audience whose main aim was to take flashlight photographs by crawling up to the front and blocking the view for the 286 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
rest of us. They also made a lot of noise and were very distracting. The show consisted of three operas, the first two only involving few characters with strong elements of comedy. The older Chinese watched and listened with obvious pleasure as the old tales unfolded. The programmes were of no help to us of course, but with some imagination a crude outline of the plot could be discerned. The third opera was a more elaborate affair with many characters consisting of a mixture of acrobatics and juggling as well as music and dance. The story line, though obscure, seemed to concern a quarrel between the forces of good and evil enacted by princes and warriors on the one hand, with low life characters providing comic relief on the other – like a kind of Chinese version of The Magic Flute, or even an English pantomime. The style imposed by the vocal extravagances of the principals and the on-stage band is strange, and, though hard for our untutored ears to take, the overall effect is magical. This was our last night in Beijing The next day, early in the morning, Professor Tang came to say good bye before he returned to Harbin. He was to go by train – the temperature there was already below zero. We gave him a bottle of whisky to keep him warm! We said our farewells and thanked him for his fine hospitality. He said we could keep the room until it was time to go to the airport at 5.00 pm. when two associate professors from Academica Sinica would come to help us with our luggage and get us a taxi. We had lunch with Kurt, who gave me a wooden abacus (The oldest computer in the world); he knew I was trying to buy one as a souvenir so this was very good of him. We said good bye to him (he was returning to Europe on Monday). After lunch I went down to the Beijing Book store by taxi to see if I could purchase a book in English on the Chinese Opera plots. In this I was successful but unfortunately the plot of the previous night‘s productions were not included. The taxi driver on the way back asked me where I came from. I said,' England ", he then said in surprisingly clear English, ' You know England is in Australia isn't it?', 'No', I said firmly. At 5.0 pm (Saturday 29 October) we left in a taxi for the airport. The Bisef88 secretary and a colleague came to help us and bid us a safe journey, they also made me return the special foreigners expert card. Our flight was delayed and didn't leave until 9.30 pm (2 hours late). The in- flight movie was 'Back to the Future', but I slept through it. We had another delay at Delhi and had to wait 3 hours in the plane on the run- way whist engine repairs were done. The waiting was tedious but we were grateful for the extra care on safety being shown. The second film (The Untouchables) was more to my taste and I did manage to watch most of it. At Paris, the following morning, Sunday, we missed our connecting flight and had to wait for the 12.30 one. The taxi meeting us at Heathrow Vector Fields Ltd 287 arrived 3 hrs or so earlier and went away again, despite my frantic messages from Paris. So our son Simon met us and drove us home and we finally arrived there at 2.30pm. Altogether door to door 28 hours travelling. Mind you it took Marco Polo several years! Another memorable trip to China safely completed. We met some lovely people and had a stimulating two weeks. We were well looked after and very well treated. What are the business possibilities in China for the future? We saw many signs of a great resurgence of trade at all levels; after all the years of hardship the people are eager to move toward a freer economy. I fear that if these latent forces are not controlled chaos might ensue. Nevertheless, the chain of their extraordinary long history is unbroken and their spirit indomitable. For Vector Fields there is no immediate prospect of business but this could change rapidly as free trade grows. Mr Nagai of KBK told me that there was now a significant interest in software in the CAD area and a growing realisation of the im- portance of analysis. There are number of more or less autonomous companies in China which are beginning to respect copyright agreements.
Formation of Vector Fields Inc On my return I was pleased to find that Cris Emson had joined us as a support and development engineer. I recruited Cris to RAL some six years ago and we had worked together on several projects as earlier pages in these memoirs have reported. He also had worked with John Simkin on the development of the CARMEN the 3D eddy current solver. It was in connection with this work that he and I attended the Eddy Current Workshop arranged by the University of Naples in October on the lovely Island of Capri. An important event for VF was announced in the Autumn News Letter211 : Continuing the policy of constant improvement of software and service, the directors of Vector Fields have formed a new company, the first subsidiary of Vector Fields outside the UK. The new subsidiary is based in the USA, a market very important to Vector Fields, with over 40 existing users, including some of the world's largest corporations. In July the company Vector Fields Incorporated was officially registered in the state of Delaware for legal reasons although the company will operate in the Chicago area. The choice of Chicago as the base was influenced by a number of factors, including the location of a number of our users in the area, the availability of suitable staff, and the excellent communications with the whole of the USA. Vector Fields Inc will be managed by Robert
211 Vector, Vol 4, No.2, Autumn 1988 288 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
J Lari (see page 125) who has been appointed Vice President. Bob Lari is well known in the field of electromagnetic computation and was formerly on the staff of the Argonne National Laboratory for 28 years. He knows our software very well and has been an expert user of PE2D and TOSCA for many years. He is also very experienced in the wider application of electromagnetic computation to electrical engineering products and has acted as a consultant to many companies and research organisations in the USA. He is the author of many scientific papers and is a respected authority on the subject. Indeed, Bob quickly set the new company up in Aurora some 35 miles to the west of Chicago and recruited Betty Stoub as an executive assistant. The new office was opened for business on January 16th 1989. One last event for me in 1988 was to go to Munich for the next in our series of Short Courses organised by John Miller212, the lecturing team again was to be Giorgio Molinari, Kurt Richter and myself. John Miller chose the famous Four Seasons Hotel as he believed in doing things with some style and in parallel with our course on electromagnetics he was running another on Information Technology. John Whitney decided to attend as well, to present a VF exhibition and to discuss with the UK consular office in Munich for information on a possible agent to represent us in Germany. The year ended with a terrible disaster as on 21 December PAM- AM flight 103 exploded in midair over Lockerbie in Scotland as the result of a terrorist bomb which sent shivers of fear down all our spines, particular those who were frequent fliers as we were at VF.
1989 to 1990 Throughout 1989 I had to attend many meetings with our partners in the ACCORD project but the main events were trips to USA to attend Intermag in Washington with John Whitney. Then on to Japan with Chris Riley to attend Compumag Planning meetings and participate in the joint KBK/Tokyo University Course to help finance the participants to the meetings as we did last year. During the US leg of this trip I also attended the TEAM workshop organised by Nathan Ida at Baltimore and helped to run a training course at our new offices in Chicago. It was good spending time with Larry & Donna Turner in Washington and Baltimore, Larry also participated in the training course in Chicago and later joined us in Tokyo. The Compumag conference itself was held in September closely followed by a special symposium organised by Professor Nakata in Okayama which he called 3D MAG. Thus I had to return to Japan in the
212 Two previous short courses arranged by John Miller had been in London, 1986/87 Vector Fields Ltd 289 autumn. The VF team also included John Whitney and our associate from RAL, Jim Diserens. Prior to Compumag John and Cris Emson attended the MT 11 conference at Tsukuba City. John and Cris moved to Tokyo for the seventh COMPUMAG conference, held at the KEIO Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. I joined them on the Saturday and we were immediately involved in preparations and the pleasing experience of meeting old friends. The software exhibition, which has now become an established event at COMPUMAG, was fully manned by vendors and university research teams alike. This gave us an excellent opportunity to measure our performance against competitors and academics in a constructive and cordial manner. The meeting was attended by over three hundred delegates from all over the world with over half from outside Japan — thus Compumag Tokyo was the largest in the series so far The Vector Fields stand proved a popular meeting point for existing customers. as well as many new prospects. The usual requests for ad- hoc problem solving were again a feature of the exhibition which we found challenging and satisfying. The good work by Professor Kenzo Miya of Tokyo University, the conference chairman, and his many colleagues organising the meeting was much appreciated, as was the party afterwards, organised by KBK. The next Compumag will be held in Italy in 1991, hosted by Naples University under the chairmanship of Professor Guilliamo Rubinacci.
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Plate 120: Compumag Tokyo Poster
The following week Cris Emson and I journeyed to Okayama to attend the International Symposium and Team Field Analysis (3DMAG). This meeting, also, was a great success (over 200 delegates) under the able and genial chairmanship of Professor T.Nakata of Okayama University. The latest Eddy Current workshop (TEAM) was integrated into the symposium which allowed an exhaustive (... and exhausting!) appraisal of results. The Symposium generated a lot of interest and there was much enthusiasm for continuing the workshops. The next TEAM workshop will be held in Oxford (April 1990) immediately after Vector Fields Ltd 291
INTERMAG Brighton and is to be hosted jointly by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, University of Bath and Vector Fields.
Plate 121: After 3DMAG in Okayama visiting the new bridge connecting Honshu to Shikoku
I presented a paper at 3DMAG on the results of our Esprit APPEAL project213. Two major events occurred in 1989 which affected us all in one way or another; first the Berlin Wall came down in November and second Tim Berners Lee at CERN invented the World Wide Web (WWW). I am not sure that this Internet invention was unique as someone soon would have proposed something similar anyway; but he was first and British! I had gone to Berlin a few months before to present a paper at the 12th Cyclotron Conference and even by then it was easy to cross into East Berlin. Finally I must mention my growing friendship with Prof. Ted Deeley of Kings College London. I had known Ted since 1976 when he attended the first Compumag in Oxford and in fact he has attended every one since. Ted had introduced me to the William Siemens Professor of Electromagnetics, Charles Turner, and they both asked me if I could organise lectures and a short course on the use of software in electromagnetics. This proved to be a very fruitful collaboration and one
213 Parallel Processing and the Integration of Analysis and Design in Electromagnetic Computation, C.W. Trowbridge et al, COMPEL Vol 9, Supp A, 1990 292 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
outcome was that Kings invited me to be a visiting Professor at the University; I was pleased to accept this as my appointment at Imperial College had now come to an end.
Plate 122: Lakes & Skye July 1989
Rita and I had a two week break in July to the Lakes, Scotland and Northumberland, we apparently drove 1,960 miles. I made rough notes in my diary which I can no longer read but I remember this tour as one of the best we ever did together. It started at Skelwith Bridge hotel which Vector Fields Ltd 293 was a firm favourite place for us by now and for six gloriously sunny days we walk for miles and miles over the fells and even had to buy new boots (Brashers214) at Wasdale. Our next stop was on the Isle of Skye where we stayed at the climbers hotel at Sligachan in order to explore the Cuillans which we did with great purpose but seldom reached 3000 ft as the weather had turned for the worse. But never mind, the atmosphere in the hills was marvellous. We returned via Hexham in order to explore Hadrian ‘s Wall which we did and had great fun, but the town of Hexham was full of noisy youths and much urinating in the street. The hotel was poor also, as our room had not been cleaned and the drawers were full of pornographic literature. Never mind we felt thoroughly rested after our holiday.
1990 The year 1990 saw the completion of the book I was co-authoring with Ken Binns and Peter Lawrenson to be published by Wiley‘s in 1992 but I got their permission to use my portion of the books as text for VF courses which we brought out in 1990215. In 1991 I also joined the IEEE as senior member; long overdue as certain good friends in the US had proposed me for fellowship of the IEEE only to discover I wasn‘t actually a member. Early in January I went to Genoa and Naples to begin the cycle of planning meetings for Compumag Naples in 1991. The main event of the year was a long trip Rita and I made to USA and Canada in September lasting nearly two months. Toward the end of January I travelled to Naples for the ISC meeting. Rubinacci told us of a terrible experience he had with Professor Nakata, his car had been attacked whilst waiting for the lights to change216. He decided that the Compumag venue should be changed to Sorrento, which was much safer. So we all went to Sorrento by bus to visit the proposed venue and found that the resort hotel (Sorrento Palace) was excellent. At the meeting we discussed the refereeing procedures which needed to be modernised with the outcome that there should be a papers chairman and for Compumag Sorrento Professor Martone was appointed. JCS217 and I were appointed to draw up the reviewing rules. CEFC218 was discussed and it was agreed that Compumag would cooperate if practical. We resolved that Compumag should continue, essentially as an international
214 Chris Brasher the Olympic gold medallists and hill walker who was involved in the design and testing of these lightweight boots 215 An Introduction to Computer Aided Electromagnetic Analysis , C W Trowbridge, Vector Fields, 1990 216 That explains why traffic lights are optional in Naples ! 217 Jean Claude Sabonnadiere 218 The US conference spin off from the GFUN and MAG-U-COMP meetings 294 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
conference. Back at Vector Fields the Board met with Bryan Colyer219 to discuss his employment by VF, we agreed his salary and John Simkin would write him an offer letter. In February we received draft article from Paul Gregg of Electronics Weekly—this should give VF some good publicity as it writes up our history and products very well, including some graphics illustrating the software. In February we received a letter from BTG raising the issue of Royalty payments, they are insisting that VF software belongs to BTG. I contacted Peter Tanner about the royalty problem with respect to the new packages written entirely by VF and he appeared sympathetic. We made a simple definition, namely, if a new package works independently of old, i.e. does not require the old in order to execute it is entirely a VF product and does not attract royalty to BTG. Jim Diserens called me to say he had been offered a job at Chalk River Canada and had accepted and would be leave RAL in September. In March I had to go to Leuven (Institute of Microelectroics, IMEC) with the Rutherford Team to discuss the Everest Club220 situation. John Miller insisted that Trinity College Dublin (TCD) ideally should have a share in the income. However, only two companies are in so far so and they are demanding that money has to be spent at RAL. I needed all my tact to get this resolved. I advised John Miller not to precipitate a confrontation that would exclude him from future participation. We all agreed that if some new industrial partners can be found then TCD will have a much stronger case. At the full Board meeting they insisted I remain in the chair but I am now anxious to stand down, but I agreed to see it through, including the last review in June. We amended the minutes to allow free distribution of the current object version of Everest to be distributed by any partner provided it is unsupported and that agreements are signed to prevent further exploitation by the recipients and that EEC interests are protected. Mike Newman has no objection to this. The ownership of Everest was defined as the five partners involved: TCD, RAL, Swansea University, Philips, plus IMEC. The next day I had a confidential meeting with Simon at his request. He asked me to send him my CV and notes on our collaboration over the years. I also agreed to help him in his new role with Philips Medical Systems to arrange contacts, e.g. Ian MacDougal (Oxford Instruments) plus others in medical area.
219 Bryan our former colleague from RAL was negotiating a job with us 220 The group of users associated with the electronic device modelling software that was developed, see page 181. Vector Fields Ltd 295
Back home in time for the weekend I spent looking at some genealogy material that had arrived. I received back issues of WFHS221 journal. I also started to read ‗Bowerchalk Parish Papers‘222 and found many references to my ancestors, especially the Vincents, including a family photo of my paternal Grandmother. On Monday at VF, Paul Dann, the Teaching Company consultant came to discuss a new VF- Oxford Poly proposal223. This proposal had been suggested to me by John Long who was a numerical mathematics lecturer at the Oxford Polytechnic (Later to become Oxford Brookes University). The consultant asked a lot of questions, he has some difficulties in appreciating our aims. He required us to write a short summary for him, so that he could sell the idea. A significant rewrite had to be completed by March 20.We had a growing impression that the scheme might not be worth it for us, too much interference for very little financial inducement. We agreed to pursue it however but we may withdraw later if the preparation became too time consuming. In any case we would proceed only if a suitable person could be recruited, indeed a researcher who would be suitable to Vector Fields. On March 14th we attended a special meeting with BTG to clear up the royalty issues. BTG raised three points on which they required clarification a) What proportion of software is owned by BTG and has the royalty been correctly attributed? b) New works: are they enhancements and so still royalty bearing. c) Royalty on support and maintenance
(a) We confirmed that TOSCA, CARMEN, PE2D and GFUN were owned by BTG. But since Oct 88, the pre and post processors for TOSCA and CARMEN i.e. OPERA were entirely new and owned by VF with no IPR or code from the old versions. However up to the end of 1989 the OPERA system was bundled into TOSCA or CARMEN for marketing purposes. From Jan 1990 OPERA has been invoiced separately. BTG accepted that OPERA was not their property and would not be claiming a royalty payment on this package. The same principle was accepted on other new works, e.g. ELEKTRA and the new 2d environment for PE2D.These new works would come into the VF portfolio this year. The period between the first release of OPERA (Oct
221 Wiltshire Family History Magazine 222 Rex L Sawyer, ‗The Bowerchalke Parish Papers, Colletts‘s village Newspaper, 1874 to 1924, Alan Sutton 1989 223 This is a DTI scheme to assist small companies by ‗half funding‘ the costs for a young researcher working on a project in the company which can then be used as work towards achieving a higher degree at a university. 296 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
88) and Dec 90 is under negotiation but BTG would not be unreasonable about this. (b) As agreed above the new works OPERA and ELEKTRA are not enhancements. (c) The contract literally implies that only 12% of M/S fees are exempt was that this should be an annual allowance. BTG would assess the situation in-light of the spirit of the contract to see if further claims on us can be made since the last audit. I was reasonably pleased about the outcome, which was within the spirit of my unofficial conversations with Peter Tanner earlier. The best thing was that BTG seem to accept our rights to new works. We hope that they will agree to the spirit of the contract with regard to M and S, i.e. 12% per year royalty free, and not make a retrospective claim. The next day I was due to give a lecture at Kings College London arranged by my old friend Ted Deeley who was professor there. This proved to be an excellent visit and I enjoyed meeting Charles Turner head of department who is a very distinguished scholar. The following month I attended the INTERMAG conference in Brighton to be held at the Metropole Hotel. After installing the VF stand with Cris Emson we met with a whole raft of friends including T. Homna, D Rodger, Paul Leonard. We also met Larry in foyer at the reception and registration. I had dinner with Larry, Lauri Kettunen, Doug Lavers, John Whitney and Cris. During the conference I met up with J C Sabonnadiere to discuss Compumag refereeing rules. We agreed that the standards of Compumag should be improved. We felt that this could be achieved by limiting the number of papers accepted for Compumag. We propose a limit of 100. We recognise that this may mean a reduction in the number of delegates in the short term but in the long run this is a healthier situation if our standards are maintained, or improved. Compumag must be recognised as a premier conference in its field.. Also the referees should have sufficient time to referee properly, we proposed that one month after the end of the conference should be allowed, we recognise that this implies a months delay in publication. It is 6 months now, anyhow, so one more will make little difference. However we recognise that the ISC chairman and editorial board chairman must have discretion. A single referee should not see more than 10 papers. This means at least 20 reviewers will be needed (assuming 100 papers in the conference).We suggested a first division of 30 reviewers be appointed to allow for discretion and distribution. A second division should also be listed as a reserve. We recommend that the traditional rule that each paper is reviewed by two referees from countries other than the authors be maintained. Some discretion maybe needed here in the case of joint papers. Reviewers should be asked to give their reasons for both accept Vector Fields Ltd 297 and reject. The criterion for accept must be based on originality, either in method, problem area or application. The ‗Short Summary‘, this should be changed for the next conference after Sorrento to be a fuller paper, a preliminary version of the final paper. It may not necessarily contain results but should give a full description of the ideas and procedures. On Thursday, at the afternoon session, Cris gave a good presentation of our paper and at the banquet that evening, we endured a ‗plastic‘ pheasant followed by Morris Dancing, so finally the ‗Oxford Compumag Duck‘ has been laid to rest. The next day was the last day of the conference and after the end we had a meeting of the ISC to discuss the refereeing rules which were accepted. In the week beginning April 23 the TEAM workshop was held at the Cotswold Lodge Hotel Oxford. This was a well attended event with 65 attendees (13 UK, 12 Japan, 9 Italy, 8 France, 7 USA, 4 Germany, 4 Austria, 2 Finland, Holland and Romania). The second day of the meeting culminated with the TEAM dinner which Rita attended; we had very good food and company. This entire week was very full as on Wednesday I had to give a VF promotional lecture at the ALCAN Company224 in Banbury, Vinko Potecnik from the parent company in Canada was present who had been a GFUN user and was very supportive. Later, I went back to the Cotswold Lodge for the TEAM closing session and afterwards took Arnulf Kost (Technical University of Berlin) and others to VF for a brief visit, then the next day to Brunel University to give a lecture at the Finite Element Conference; I had lunch with Olek Zienkiewicz and Tinsley Oden (Texas University); my lecture went quite well with many kind remarks, I also spoke to Bill Morton and John Whiteman (conference chairman) then we had a group photograph. I was home by eight o‘clock and found Larry already installed. On Friday, the last day of this most busy week, I collected Giorgio, Paolo et al at Cotswold Lodge, in time for the scheduled meeting with the VF board to discuss our mutual collaboration. The meeting went very well with most things agreeably settled. I later took the Italians home for a party that Rita had organised and prepared. Present were Bryan Colyer, Jim & Helen Diserens, John & Anne Collie, Alan & Brenda Armstrong, Cris and Janet (Cris Emson‘s housemate) plus G Molinari, and P Molfino. Others present were Chris & Margaret Biddlecombe, Chris & Ramona Riley, Ted Deeley and T Nakata, John & Linda Whitney, John & Sue Simkin, Pam & John Peisley. 28 including Rita, Dinah, Larry and me, ‗Went the day well‘. Nakata insisted on seeing the house; after examining downstairs he said to Rita, ‗Now upstairs‘.
224 The Giant Aluminium manufacturing company 298 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
On May 5th we had a well deserved break by visiting Malvern to stay at the Foley Arms a fine atmospheric hotel for the weekend. After dinner we strolled by the Priory and heard ‗As Torrents in Summer‘ it was just like at St Brelades in Jersey three years ago (page 256), a happy coincidence as I was thinking of the piece just before we arrived. On May the 19th I returned to Malvern with Simon for a walk along the line of hills. We parked at North Malvern quarry at 10 AM and began by climbing the North Hill, weather steadily improved to become quite marvellous. Next we walked on to the West Beacon with views superb. There were many people on the hills including The Lions Club, fortunately going the other way; they were well organized with first aid refreshments etc. at points along the route. Shortly after noon we reached West Beacon, and then on to Wyche, with the sun well up and quite warm. At 1.30 PM we had our lunch picnic on Black Hill; it was lovely lying in the grass gazing toward Hereford. We could see clearly Black mountains and beyond. The spirit of EE felt very close with sky larks particularly high and in good voice. We stopped at the Hereford Beacon Car Park for Ice cream and reached the Summit of British Camp at 2.30 PM, thoughts of Caractacus and Langland, 'Meatless and Munless on Malvern‘. Then on to Hangman‘s Hill, Swinyard and down into woods toward the Eastnor obelisk. It is such a varied walk with constant changes of vista. Finally a steep pull up Midsummer Hill reaching the top at 3.30 PM and 4.0 PM at the A434 'The Tewkesbury Road' (Masefield) our walks end and lucky to find Telephone box to call for a Taxi. He said 'be there in ten minutes', but he took 25, never mind. We were tired, foot sore but happy. A mad drive back to the car, some ten miles. At 5.15 PM we left for home, arriving at 7.00PM thirsty and hungry, and after dinner we dozed through the 8 symphonies of Dr Boyce. A few days later I awoke with slight headache. Rita said I had been overdoing things of late. I decided to stay home. I lay in bed watching TV and watched a Peter Sellars film, a fine performance modelled on Stan Laurel. He plays an innocent in Washington; a man suddenly released into the world after spending all his life as a gardener to a recluse— his only experience of the world came from TV. When his wealthy benefactor dies he is evicted from his enclosed world and by chance accident is adopted by a very wealthy millionaire. His naive and simple remarks on all issues, drawn from gardening and TV, persuade the worldly people, the great and the good, including the President and Shirley Maclane as the aging dying millionaire‘s bored wife, to soon rocket him to supreme heights, a very clever satire. I watched Denis Healey propound the 'garden' analogy in politics as his peroration at the end of a TV interview but there the resemblance to Peter Sellars ends— or does it? I felt a little better the next day after Paracetamol and listened Vector Fields Ltd 299 to Boyce followed by Dvorak splendid trio (F Minor). I particularly like Boyce No 4; Handel is there, yes, but something native as well. Mike called from Wessex press with the proof of front cover for my book, looks good. I awoke still with bit of a headache the following day, but better than yesterday, though I immediately aggravated it by doing a crossword. Felt very much better after lunch. Rita and I had a lovely walk. The weather, though overcast, was ideal with pleasant still air and not too warm—balmy. We went to Marcham and then on the Ark path and back via the garage. Simon had his interview today for a job at the LSE; we do hope he made a good impression since he appears very keen on this job. I watched a bit of the world cup from Milan, Germany versus United Arab Republic. It was good to see the spirited fight by the Arabs which lasted for 30 minutes, but predictably the German team overwhelmed them in the end. Feeling much better the next day and went into Oxford for a quick visit. Card from Salt Lake City (LDS) confirming my Family History data has been accepted and included in their files. Record review featured new opera disks, a fine Gluck (Iphigenia) and a new Attila (Verdi) complete with a 'Hermit's Chorus', that is a lovely conceit, only possible in opera. I got very annoyed when leaving the car park at the station. They had taken the coin pay box away, so you have to go into station and queue for a token. The miserable man informed me, ―If I couldn‘t see the notice then I shouldn't be driving", I suppose then, along with many other frustrated drivers, I should stop. Further advice along those lines came from an ignorant driver whom I temporarily blocked as I turned right into the Botley Rd. He shouted " You f.k.g daft old bastard...‖, and when I didn't reply he continued "Hey deaf aid..." etc. The impatient young man apparently objected to me creating an opportunity in a busy traffic flow, i.e. doing what he would do I, suspect, all the time. Is it discrimination on the basis of age? Rita went to hear Dinah's choir at the town hall I stayed home, read and watched the England-Holland game from Sardinia, a good game with England playing well (0-0), a draw but they deserved to win. Back at work feeling refreshed, met John Lawson at the office to talk about space charge, he is such a pleasant man and it was good to see him again, without doubt the most distinguished scientist at RAL Next week it is July and we have to go to Brussels for the ACCORD project review. The actual review passed off reasonable well as all the partners gave a good account of themselves. Even the weak areas appear to have escaped criticism. Clive did well; Giorgio was very strong and convincing. In fact APPEAL subproject survived easily, even my exploitation plans were well received. Privately I do not think the project 300 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
can be rated as a total success, it lacks integration between the components and we have fallen short of our dream. Nevertheless we were warmly congratulated. Some final deliverables have to be completed and these will be needed by the end of August. The following Tuesday July 10 was my birthday, a milestone as I am now 60. I received lots of cards also Pam and Jim called. I had lunch at Wise Alderman with the VF people. My book arrived from printers, good to see it in print. The following weekend I accompanied Simon to the lakes, he had to collect some prints belonging to New College Oxford, where he now works, from the Wordsworth museum. We stayed at the Skelwith Bridge Hotel and planned to do some walking. The first day was lovely with near perfect weather and we had Kippers for breakfast. Car to Elterwater and bought a snack lunch then on to the Dungeon Ghill Hotel car park. We then walked up the Mill Ghyll stream to Stickle tarn (1 hour). Then on to Pavey Arc, climbing up Jack's Rake, quite exhilarating, we met a man near the top who wanted to chat, he was friendly, too friendly perhaps so after some small talk about our years of fell walking and how beautiful and life enhancing everything seemed we parted, Simon was quite thrilled by the climb. We went on to the summit, unfortunately followed by our persistent friend, he said it was time for lunch and we beat a hasty retreat, claiming we had already eaten? Our next objective was Harrison‘s Stickle, but we first hid behind some rocks for our lunch—the views were breathtaking and we felt at ease. Our peace was disturbed by the sudden re-appearance of our boring Lancastrian friend," Lunch number two‖ he shouted‖, when you going to have number three?" — truth will out. He finally disappeared over toward Pike o' Stickle and we scrambled to the top of Harrison‘s Stickle. I have never seen the area looking so benevolent; we would surely pay for this later. After admiring the splendid profile of Bow Fell and Crinkle crags we descended to the Col separating Harrison‘s from Pike o' Stickle, we still felt fit so we decided to visit the Pike and Loft Crag before returning to Dungeon Ghyll. The round trip took us 5hrs, slow but very enjoyable. We sampled the plastic "tea" in the cafe, revolting. There was time to go shopping, so we went to Grasmere over the top from Chapel Style, and then on to Ambleside to look at books. The following day we went to Wasdale, via Wrynose and Hardknott passes. Simon appreciated the 1:3 gradients. The climb up to Scafell, via Brown Tongue and Lords Rake was a long hard pull all the way, weather overcast but pleasant. We found the stones below Lords Rake tough, but Lords Rake is a splendid scramble; 3 hrs to summit. We enjoyed our lunch at the cairn, quite a lot of people about. We were joined by a married couple with two noisy dogs, I am no longer a dog person. The man was determined to descend to Mickledore and hence to Scafell Pike, Vector Fields Ltd 301 which as everyone should know is not for walkers, and is positively dangerous. However he was determined to try despite my warning, I showed him the guide book to no avail. It was with some glee that we saw him return much later having to retrace his steps. By then we were starting our descent after spending the best part of one hour exploring the rocks on Scafell crag. It was now raining and though we decided to return via Green How, we took a stupid short cut over steep scree and had a very miserable, wet and painful completion, 5 hours. I have a habit of not getting off hills cleanly! Because of the weather we returned via Cockermouth and Keswick, a very long drive round. We enjoyed a very good dinner then went to bed. Hotel, bath and booze, bliss. The following day we checked out after breakfast, packed, and on to Dove Cottage. Simon has to collect the New College 'Gilray' prints. He met the director and carried out his business. I was given a complimentary ticket for the museum. I joined a conducted tour, but I escaped after the first two rooms. Simon and I later went round the museum on our own, which was new to me and a model of its kind. Very interesting, gave a clear and vivid picture of Wordsworth's life and society. I learnt the origin of the phrase 'Daylight Robbery', in the cottage the windows are small, the guide told how there was a window tax225 and if you didn‘t pay then the authorities would come and brick-up the windows! We arrived back at New College after a very tiring journey. I met Sandra, the Librarian; Simon showed me some of the treasures in the library. I handled a first edition of the Principia, a great thrill. Also he showed me a book (16C) of original county maps, Saxton, marvellous colours, worth over a million. Back in the office the following day I called Jim MacElroy to discuss the BTG royalties226. He said he would need to speak to Ian Robertson then contact us again to arrange a meeting. He appears to agree with me that the audit would show the base line and we could negotiate from there. That evening we listened to the Prom broadcast and heard Tony Payne‘s new work 'Time‘s Arrow', intriguing association with entropy, Arthur Eddington and the cosmos— a very exciting piece. This was followed by a superb performance of the Elgar concerto played by the Russian Violinist, Dmitri Statovesky, quite marvellous. Tony Payne must have been pleased to share the program with the Elgar, I once heard him give a lecture on the concerto in which he demonstrated his debt to this music227.
225 Jim Diserens told me later, after kindly proof reading this text, that he heard somewhere that people would ‗brick up‘ some of their own windows to avoid paying the tax. 226 BTG had recently claimed £120K in back royalties 227 He was a few years later to complete Elgar‘s Third Symphony to great acclaim 302 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
The following weekend we went to Brenda's. I went into Lymington for a nostalgic trip, parking at the Sports field where I watched some cricket then walked through churchyard. In the church I picked up copies of the Parish magazine, and spotted an article by Lewis Gregory on the old church recreation ground, how it all evoke memories when he and I were boys sharing scouting and camping. Earlier I drove down Ellery Grove and saw number 42 where Fred Webster now lives, I was reluctant to disturb them unannounced. I walked down to Kings, bought some books of post- cards and another history of Lymington sports club, this one was on football, by Norman Gannaway another old school friend. I recall the day when he persuaded me to join the cubs! I next did a tour to Woodside Gardens and the Banks. Finally I went along St Thomas St. and saw that No 46 (where I lived as a child) is up for sale. Somehow unsettling, I must write to Fred, vivid in my mind's eye remains the image of the Troopship pulling away from the dockside to take him to war in Korea; I don‘t believe I have seen him since. Brenda also gave me Dad's ‗Owl‘ picture which he painted many years ago and had adorned the wall of his room. In the morning I explored Totton but couldn‘t identify 'Woodside' in Water Lane where I was born. The following week we went to London to meet the BTG people to discuss the royalty situation. We argued very strongly over our interpretation of the BTG-VF contract. The BTG audit suggests that we owe £120k in back royalties if a severe non fair interpretation is used. They accepted that this is against common industrial practice. We said we would not continue with the BTG software if this was insisted on. After some discussion we agreed to examine the audit afresh for consistency, we have to explain any departures from our ‗own algorithm', I felt our interpretation would be accepted if it can be shown to be consistent. i.e. SERC Support and Maintenance is not royalty bearing and if a SM allowance of 12% pa should be allowed. It was felt that this should reduce the bill to an irreducible minimum of £40k. We would negotiate a new contract, a simple document based on price list without SM which would be free of royalty. The levy would remain at 25% for time being on BTG elements, but will be reviewed periodically. We agreed to examine audit for consistency and supply a range of price lists. We left after a pleasant lunch, and felt somewhat better and hope we can sort things out. On August 2nd Saddam Hussein‘s Iraqis invade Kuwait. This coincided with the Queen Mother‘s 90 birthday celebrations, strange juxtaposition of news, and happy crowds in London and war in Kuwait. There are 5000 UK people in Kuwait who are surely at risk from Saddam Hussein. I watched the birthday parade in horse guards, splendid show by the people of all sorts. It was a genuine expression of national love given Vector Fields Ltd 303 to a lady who seems to embody so many good things. Even some members of the Royal Society marched by in their academic robes. Olek called (FRS) I chided him for not being there! He asked me to be the external examiner of his chap working on Quench228; also he wants me to call Roger Hancox (Culham Lab) about an extension to his EURATOM grant. On Friday 10 August I went to Trowbridge with Simon (his car). to visit the Wiltshire County record Office. We looked at the Salisbury Journal for 1860 for more details of Execution of Serafin Manzano and ordered copies of the trial documents we also read the Bowerchalk School Log book229. The next day we went to Broadwindsor collect Rita, via the Chalks, very interesting day, showed Simon the family heritage sites, Bowerchalke (met the present owner of Pixie Cottage, where Elisha Trowbridge once lived, he confirmed that the deeds said it was Harry Trowbridge's cottage and said he would send me a copy. He also said he would pass on my congratulations to Rex Sawyer the author of the Bowerchalk book). Then to Misselfore, Woodminton, and Ebbesbourne, we had a good lunch at Ebbesbourne pub. Then we went on to Berwick St. John, Ashcombe, and Donhead. Back at VF next day we met Jan Sykulski and Keith Camden, we agreed to remarket TAS230 but at a lower price and supported by a teaching course booklet to be prepared by Jan. We also agreed to consider including a more general TAS as part of PE2D. I was impressed with Keith, and Jan, as usual, is a good friend of VF, he has recommended us to several firms. The next day I went to RAL for Jim Diseren‘s leaving presentation. I gave a short talk summarizing Jim's career, 40 people were there and Jim made a good reply. He was given Vol 1 of Zienkiewicz‘s new book, inscribed and a canteen of cutlery. .Jim had been an outstanding colleague of mine for over thirty years as well as a close friend and he will be greatly missed at RAL and by his many friends at VF. Clive Bryant is also leaving VF to devote all his energies to his pastoral work in Pershore. The next day we had his leaving ceremony at VF and we bought him two Lexicons, Greek NT and Hebrew OT. We also gave him a clock. I said my appreciation for both Clive who has been a super help to me over the last four years and also to Jim in the Newsletter. Now follows excerpts from my diary of an extended trip Rita and I did to USA and Canada which also involved Dinah.
228 Thermal propagation analysis of superconducting coils in failure mode 229 See ‗Trowbridge Family History, 1690-1990, C.W. Trowbridge, Second Edition, 2007, D‘Arcy‘s Publications 230 Tubes and Slices program for teaching and low level design program for electromagnetic fields 304 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
A Journey to the United States and Canada August 31, Friday At Terminal 4 there were no porters plus a large crowd at the check- in and it took half hour to get rid of our baggage. We have 7 pieces in all, two large cases and my large brief case in the hold and 4 pieces of hand luggage—my Toshiba bag, Rita‘s hold-all and our two small hand bags. Bought books and other goods at departure lounge and had ample time for coffee and sandwiches. We arrived at O‘Hare Chicago at 5:00 PM where the immigration queue was modest with only one joker in ours, an Italian who hadn‘t filled his forms in; the lady official was very kind to him, Italian charm I suppose, and kept us all waiting. I couldn‘t help noticing an unfortunate fellow from the Far East being sent to the back of the queue to fill his in again! By six thirty our baggage was safely gathered and we were soon out to the taxi point. We waited our turn patiently only to be robbed as we were about to get in the car by the taxi ‗Gestapo‘ lady, who suddenly appeared (she had been conspicuously absent up to then) and stopped us boarding and sent the driver packing accusing him of breaking some petty rule of procedure. It was frustrating to listen to the two of them slanging each other, though we would have needed an interpreter to understand what was actually said. We were very tired and I was getting a little annoyed. Rita saved the situation by insisting on rejoining the queue and we eventually got away. Our driver made good time to the Congress Hotel, often overtaking on the inside.
September 1, Sunday I awoke often in the night; Jet Lag or prostate? Finally got up and exercised and we went to Breakfast at 6:45 AM; we had tickets entitling us to a 2-2-2. I had 1-1-1 which was plenty—cereal, bacon, egg (easy over) and hash browns, and toast. We had to re-learn the culture differences. There was curiously little on TV about the Gulf crisis. Shopping was high on the agenda; we need an adapter for our appliances, the one I bought at HR did not handle 13 Amp plug devices; my portable machine (Toshiba) and R‘s tea maker. Also Rita needed a hardback note book. We set out with high hopes but we failed to make a purchase. No adapters or note books! We went as far as the Sears Tower and gave up. Later I realized I could solve the Tosh problem by buying a purpose lead from radio shack, which I did. At Lunch in the Gazebo (where we had breakfast) Rita got quite cross with me over my annoyance about everything. Nevertheless we had an interesting afternoon at the Art institute. We have visited this splendid gallery many times before but the Vector Fields Ltd 305 joy of looking at the impressionist pictures here was as intense as ever. They surely have more than their fair share. Rita particularly loves the Pissarros. We also enjoyed the US school; Grant Richards, ‗American Gothic‘ I‘ve always found moving and this time we saw the collection of Wild West pictures and bronzes of Frederick Remington which surely give at least an ambience (if somewhat over coloured) of those days which were to be lovingly re-created in the cinema by John Ford.
Plate 123: ...view of the city skyline
September 2, Sunday 0900. Taxi to Hyde Park, Museum of Science and Industry. Larry took me here some years ago and I particularly remember the model railway. Rita and I enjoyed the exhibits immensely. It was a short walk to the campus book district. We ate lunch at the Swedish diner, clean and nice. To O‘Gara‘s bookstore, but we found nothing of interest. Then on to 57St. Bookstore, the new books etc, lovely atmosphere (they claim it‘s the largest book shop west of Blackwell‘s). Bought paperback edition of E T Bell‘s Men of Mathematics to replace my copy lost by lending. This marvellous book created my lifelong love of Mathematics over 40 years ago. I devoured it during a long sea voyage from Buenos Aires. Bell, now considered to be too romantic and possibly lax with historic truth, conveys the essence of the subject like no one else I have ever read. After dinner we walked along Michigan to the Wrigley building. I like this old building, one can understand why it retains the affection of Chicago people; we stood and listened to a scratch Jazz band playing in 306 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
the street on the way. The Chicago jazz-fest is on in town and this group was part of the fringe—trombones, soprano sax, drums and bongos. An earthy sound, they were playing a blues number full of soul; the corner beggar exploiting the situation by waiving his plastic cup beneath our noses.
September 3, Monday In the forenoon we took a Taxi to Shedd aquarium. From there we took some photographs of the splendid view of the city skyline,. The Coral Reef tank at the hub of the fine building is very impressive. Rita enjoyed the beautiful fish, I liked watching for a while but my boredom threshold then takes over. We saw sharks and a large Turtle with another large fish riding on his back. In the side galleries they had tanks with fish from all parts of the world in many types of water. I liked the sturgeons from Lake Michigan. We also saw Piranha fish. There was a curious lung fish from Australia, the aquariums oldest inhabitant (∼ 57 years), which every five minutes or so comes to the surface to gulp air. We waited patiently for this happen, eventually he obliged. We also saw the daily feeding of the fish in the main tank (Coral reef); a man with diving mask and flippers attempted to donate dead fish to the sharks but they were not very hungry. We walked back to the hotel along the shore; it was interesting to see the local aquatic garbage boat in action. An amphibious vacuum cleaner sucks the rubbish on the water surface onto a moving belt. He collected bottles, apples, boxes of all shapes and materials, scum, weeds, balks of timber, coke and seven up cans, and all kinds of human debris. I have never seen this before; every British beach should have one? After lunch we went to the Art Institute for another look at the Monets, Pissarros etc. I like Gustave Caillebotte‘s Paris: a rainy day better every time I see it—Mathematics and art, tremendous. We also looked at Turner‘s Dutch Fishing Boats and were delighted to see this British masterpiece in such distinguished company. In the shop I bought an Encyclopaedia of Impressionism and six Gauguin prints. A tall, ill- mannered lout tried to push in front of us in the queue. I said, Do you mind, I have been waiting a long time, since the assistant had already started dealing with my purchase and after trying to intimidate me with a cold stare which I returned with interest, he said, attempting to bully me further, ‗been waiting a long time have you?‘. The girl went on wrapping my prints and he backed off, and but we left feeling assaulted.
September 4, Tuesday The next morning we were collected by Bob, he settled the bill using VF Corporate card. On our arrival at the VF Inc Offices in the town of Vector Fields Ltd 307
Aurora (35 miles west of Chicago) Rita met Betty Stoub for the first time and we enjoyed a nice welcome. After settling in, I discussed with Bob his retirement plans, he wants three fifths employment only in the New Year. Another factor is that he wants to be away on vacation trips more so his time in the office will be in lumps. Later I collected a rental car from Fox Valley Ford, a Ford Tempo. After a thorough briefing as to the route by Bob we went to Larry‘s house in Naperville and found the way easily, just 12 miles. On arrival we found a note on the door from Donna, it said ‗go on in‘, the doors were open, and so we did. A neighbour dropped by but we reassured her that we were legitimate; the neighbourhood watch scheme advertised here seems to work. At Six PM Larry and Donna arrived—Donna‘s appearance showed some of the effects of her Lupus syndrome condition, she is very flushed in the face and has become plumper, nevertheless her spirits are high and we had a jolly evening catching up on news etc.
September 5, Wednesday 1200. Lunch with Betty, Bob, Marylyn and Ken (Betty‘s husband) at the Highway Lounge (New York St.). Ken seemed a lively, strong character, with firm opinions about most things. He liked Rita‘s use of words. He has a senior position in a company dealing with waste disposal. That evening at Larry‘s Gail Pewitt and his wife Lynn came to dinner—Gail was Larry‘s group leader at Argonne at the time of Compumag Chicago. We had an enjoyable evening of good food and talk but I had to leave the table several times to relieve myself; this prostate condition was getting embarrassing. Later, after they had left a neighbour called Marsha, Larry‘s former piano teacher, came for some eggs, she stayed late, an amusing lady full of woe, going through the trauma of divorce and living on the edge of despair.
September 6, Thursday 0900. Lauri Kettunen231 came to see me from Argonne and we discussed his extensions to GFUN and Eddy Net. Marylyn collected Rita to go to Cantigny. This is the country house of the famous Chicago baron, Stanley McCormick, newspaper magnate, patriot—he has tanks (military) in his garden. I remember going there with Larry some years ago to hear chamber music on a Sunday afternoon. Later Larry and I discussed Lauri Kettunen‘s ideas to merge GFUN and EDDY Net. We both agreed that his approach was not optimal; at that time we favoured loop currents along edges.
231 Our friend from Finland who spending two years at Argonne working with Larry 308 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
September 7, Friday Dinah called me to discuss a fax from Sendai, and to tell me that Mann Seigbahn have paid, good news! Also spoke to JS, all things seem well. After lunch Rita helped Betty and Bob to do the course mail-shot. In fact Rita has worked very hard all week in the office. At the end of the day Bob returned us to Naperville; we would see him again in Aspen in two weeks. After a quiet dinner with Larry and Donna we went to bed, Rita and I go to Colorado in the morning.
September 8, Saturday Everything went well at the airport, our bags were whisked away by the skycap who was able to carry on two conversations at the same time—making social arrangements with a mate while noting our luggage details—Rita wondered whether our things would end up at the right place. At 9:49. AM our plane departed, it was full but apart from a spot of turbulence during our descent it was uneventful. We soon were flying over both arms of the great river, Mississippi and Missouri, followed the South Platte and once again I was intrigued by the mighty landscape of the plains discretised by man into a grid with one mile mesh size, clearly seen from the air. Time shift of one hour to Mountain Standard Time, we arrived at Stapleton 20 minutes early, but there was a very long queue at the Hertz desk. I had to wait 45 minutes despite there being four tellers. This was annoying but Rita encouraged me to be patient. Finally we were clear and on our way to the car lot. There was some trouble over finding the courtesy bus. A miserable woman who had quarrelled at the desk and was in a temper misled us by insisting that the bus would stop where we were waiting, ‗Even if I have to lie down in the road to make it stop‘, she said. Of course it didn‘t and she didn‘t. Eventually we caught a bus by moving very fast someway to our left. The driver was very polite and helped us with our luggage. A surprise awaited us at the car lot, our car turned out to be very large sedan with classic lines, white and smart with blue leather trim. The gadgets on board included a computer that gives all the information you could need, temperature outside, miles to go , fuel status and much more, a Lincoln Town Car no less. We were soon under-way but lost our way driving right past the turnings for routes 270, 70 and 25N. We found ourselves in Quebec Av. rapidly heading out of town. Just short of divorce proceedings we turned and back tracked and found our way. The car purred its way north and after a few miles we turned off the highway and had lunch in a Burger King. The fries were magnificent. The weather Vector Fields Ltd 309 also lovely and we enjoyed the run through Loveland and up through Big Thompson Canyon. We arrived at the Estes Lake Motel mid afternoon and were soon ensconced in our room—a large twinned bedded (Queen sized) room complete with fire place if we get cold. It is a pleasant 70 degrees F during the day here at 7000 ft. The motel has many facilities and we like the look of every thing so I extended our stay to 6 nights.
September 9, Sunday To Estes Park then on to Bear Lake, superb sky and mountain colours in all directions. The great lateral moraine covered with dark evergreens. We walked around the lake as I first did in 1970 with Martin Wilson and Ron Newport. It was an old fashioned nature walk with Rita stopping at every station following the guide. We saw blue jays, marmots, squirrels various, aspen, and fir trees and learnt about the human desecration by fire in 1900 which all but destroyed the flora. I spotted a water snake swimming in the lake, in close up it could be the Loch Ness monster! This was very pleasant indeed, the weather almost ideal and not too many people about either. We returned to the Moraine museum and learnt much more about the geological history. I bought a map. The lady at the desk had been to England and was pleased to speak with us. We next visited the river in the moraine park a tranquil spot at the centre of the great meadow bordering the lateral moraine with mighty frontal mountain range behind. I wish I was young enough or fit enough to tackle Longs Peak? We returned to Estes park in time for lunch which we had at the same restaurant the RAL/VF Argonne gang went to in 1985. I drank a foot of beer from a long necked flask and we both had salad and soup. After lunch we toured the town shops, the place was quite busy. I enjoyed seeing the Stanley Steamer touring the streets. We bought hats and sun glasses. We were back at the motel for a rest before dinner. A program about Robert Frost on TV was very interesting; I didn‘t know that he spent a crucial period in England and was a friend of Edward Thomas. 1930. Dinner; large whisky then Brenda, our waitress, served us a small steak after a blue cheese salad. Rita said the steak was a little over- cooked. We learnt that Brenda had a BS degree in English and Psychology—an interesting combination—and she hopes to do a post- grad course at Colorado University; she needs Colorado residence qualifications in order to get a grant or place, she also needs money so that accounts for the waiting at table.
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Plate 124 : Bear Lake and Longs Peak
September 10, Monday Our next stop was at the Alpine visitor centre where we were pleased to see some elk grazing in the far distance down in the Fall River valley. There is a shop here with over-priced goods, some small Indian rugs, superbly crafted by modern day Navaho with very attractive abstract designs, which were selling for about $2000 per square metre. After enjoying the salubrious rest rooms we journeyed on to Milner pass which is exactly on the Great divide, the US water shed, the streams flowing out of the Cache Poudre lake going east, eventually to join the North Platte and Missouri rivers to flow in to the Gulf of Mexico, and the little Beaver creek going west to form the mighty Colorado river. We stopped for lunch at a pull-off facing the Never Summer Mountains, today looking arid. The sandwich was huge and filling, though I hate the canned diet lemon flavoured muck we bought to drink.. Next we moved on to the end of the park at the Grand Lake entrance and ended up at the City of Grand Lake itself, a one horse town on the shores of the lake, where else? We first passed Sombreros Stables, then a main street still with hitching posts, finally coming to rest at the shore by the town rest rooms. By this time the threatening clouds had descended upon us and, as I was about to get out of the car to relieve myself, there was a flash of lightning instantaneously followed by a thunder crack, so I hastily shut the door. The stench from the stables was now filling the car, helped by the heavy wet atmosphere (it now was raining)—did I say one horse town? In order to minimize the risk of (a) being struck by lightening (b) wetting my pants, I edged the car right to the loo door and Vector Fields Ltd 311 dashed in. Feeling better we left Grand Lake. We drove a few more miles south to claim, at least, that we had seen Granby Lake then turned around and headed back to make the 48 mile return trip to Estes Park. The return trip was equally interesting as now the storm had cleared and we had good views. Particularly fine was the frontal range culminating in Longs Peak, the view across Forest Canyon (Big Thompson) to the great range with many glacial lakes deep green against the dark purple. Back at the hotel after collecting our laundry, over dinner I enjoyed my whisky and recollected a fine day retracing the trip I had done with my colleagues some years ago. The trail ridge road is the highest highway in USA, over 12000ft. I had long wanted to do this trip with Rita. We did 111 miles, all told, today but it seemed much further.
September 11, Tuesday 1030. To Estes Park to buy packed lunches. Today we decided to walk the lake trail, Nymph, Dream and Emerald Lakes. The weather was perfect, no clouds in the sky at all! The climbing was gentle and the way wonderful, each lake surpassing the other in tranquillity and the fine view of Flat Top Mountain (or is it Hallet‘s peak?). We passed fellow walkers with kind greetings and feelings of well being, everyone at peace. The final destination at Emerald Lake, just beneath the high peaks, is a picnic spot sine qua non and here we had our lunch sheltering from the hot sun and deep blue sky under the shade of western pine. There were Ducks on the lake as well as the cheeky Stellar-Jay, and the camp robber himself, the Grey-Jay, competing for crumbs from the trippers galore, also the largest Jay, known as Clark‘s nutcracker, reminding Rita of a woodpecker. We had our photograph taken by a young man who admired Rita‘s royal seat below a canopy of dead timber. We retraced our steps slowly, lingering awhile just below Dream lake at a special place beside a small brown stream where all was peace, perfect peace. Back at Bear Lake; this walk of only 1.8 miles each way with a mere 700 ft. of climbing is of rare quality. Thinking back to a previous visit I recall two of my colleagues playing ‗silly buggers‘ on Dream Lake when it was frozen over, performing pretend cricket with fir cones and a lump of dead wood. I was concerned at the time that they might crack the ice and fall in the water below. Today, though, it was warm and benign. We were now very tired but glad to have had such a pleasant time so we returned to the motel, 30 miles.
September 12, Wednesday We went to Central City today. Left Estes by highway 7 and passed Longs Peak, named after Major Long of US army who surveyed the region but didn‘t get closer than 40 miles to his peak. Longs Peak at 312 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
approx 14200 ft. is the highest in the region and no higher peak is found further north in US and Canada until the Yukon-Alaskan border. It has a shapely profile and demands that you climb to its summit but alas, I was not fit enough. The English traveller Isabella Bird climbed it in 1873, a remarkable lady who came and saw the valleys here in their magnificent wild state, lived rough, made friends with the locals and wrote it down for us to read. We eventually arrived at Central City at about noon. The roads were mostly quiet and beautifully engineered passing through small towns like Nederland where evidence of the great American railway can be seen. In Eighteen Hundred and fifty-one The American railway was begun But these days it is only used for freight. Most of the summer visitors have departed so we found parking easy. We bought some gifts, mostly jewellery at reasonable prices, we toured the fun places, even went in the Teller House to see the famed ‗The face on the Bar-Room floor‘, we also had a good salad and soup lunch there. It was a pity that the Central City Opera House was closed as I would have liked to have looked around the place where Patti, Melba, Caruso and Oscar Wilde performed. I have now been here three times and it‘s always closed. The house is now restored and this season‘s performances ended a few weeks ago; they had La Traviata, Cosi and The Merry Widow in this year‘s season. The nice lady in the Indian craft shop told us about a used book stall to raise money for a decent library here. We went and, though mostly ex library stock and in poor condition we did manage to find a book each. I bought a late collection of pieces by James M Cain which, amongst several shorter items, includes the amusing ‗Career in C Major‘ which I have long wanted to re-read. I came across it first on the hospital book trolley in Buenos Aires during my enforced sojourn there in 1949. We enjoyed our visit despite the over commercialisation and the gimmicks, shoot outs in the saloons etc. We returned the way we came with the magnificent mountain views seen in perfect conditions against the setting sun.
September 13, Thursday We spent a quiet day in Estes before our journey to Rock Springs on the morrow. We wrote post cards to Brenda, Pam, VF, Eve, and Aunt Freda. Then we enjoyed a pleasant picnic in the park near Mill Creek. Returned to the motel for a sleep and to pack, then took an early evening trip along Fall River then on into the park and watched for elk at their crossing point. There were crowds of people there, a man lent us his binoculars, he had spotted two in the far distance, and he was quite Vector Fields Ltd 313 excited; I could persuade myself that I saw something? We had dinner in the town, a pleasant meal of pork slices—best potato yet.
Plate 125: ...this is the kingdom of the trucker
September 14, Friday We have enjoyed our stay in Estes and I have now fulfilled my ambition to show Rita this lovely place. Our six days cost us $650 approx. The journey began well and continued well in good weather and mostly quiet roads. At Loveland we missed the 287 to cut off the corner to Laramie. We ended up on the Interstate 25N and I think this was better, no hassle whatsoever, good rest areas and plenty of stopping places. We changed to Interstate 80 at Cheyenne. The scenery through Wyoming is very different from Colorado; for the most part the route follows over a vast plateau around 7000ft.This time of year quite arid, though we passed several large herds of cattle grazing on poor vegetation. We noted that the car was recording outside temperatures up to 85 Though less spectacular than the RMNP area it gave us a splendid contrast, huge vistas stretching out before us, the divided highway converging at infinity. The association of Westerns with Wyoming in my mind was at least partly confirmed though I‘d expected a greener backdrop; remembering the fine pictures of Fred Remington to be seen in the Chicago Art Institute— wrong time of year and probably the wrong place. Our comfort stops were interesting, this is the kingdom of the trucker, massive great vehicles congregating in the parking lots of the transport cafes US style. These places are comprehensive, the facilities 314 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
excellent. We had our best coffee so far this trip at the Rodeo Pit Stop, some twenty miles west of Laramie. At another near Rawlings, called Gay Johnsons, the friendly rest room attendant was whistling the first subject of the Brahms violin concerto as he cleaned out the urinals. We arrived tired but pleased at Rock Springs at 16:15 after clocking 334 miles, the car having performed superbly. We easily found the Best Western Outlaw Inn and to our surprise drank a nice cup of Tea in the motel coffee shop. At dinner at the motel the lady in reception says ‗You betcha to all requests‘, Can I have this paper, I said, ‗You betcha, twenty five cents, nothin init though, I threw it on the floor this morning after five minutes‘, which was two minutes longer than when I looked at it later in the Rocky Miner, despite an article on a Mrs Sophie Trowbridge lecturing on good behaviour to a local church club. I asked the lady if the town of Rock Springs was worth visiting, Nope, ‗I‘d sure like to get out—you betcha‘
September 15, Saturday After breakfast we took the car to route 119 S. to see the Flaming Gorge area. The road passed through high desert country, dried up gulches and broad valleys, but full of flora actually creating contrast against the multi brown colour aspect of the landscape. I am sure there was sage bush there but I can‘t name the deep purple and yellow shrubs that are very prolific. Of wildlife we saw little except occasional birds, rabbits, and squirrels, but what can you expect from a moving car? Eventually we arrived at the Flaming Gorge itself which has a large reservoir created by an impressive dam and hydro electric power station producing 134 M-Watts. The lake is in a narrow declivity banked by cliffs of red with yellow strata sandwiched between, very impressive. The dam itself is in Utah and is yet another scheme affecting the head waters of the Colorado, this time the Green River tributary, but the civil engineering has been beautifully blended into the terrain. We returned, after a light lunch at a small town called Manila (a diner called Grubs), by the highway to the west of the area to the city of Green River and thence back to Rock Springs, a round trip distance of 160 miles. Back in our room we managed to call Dinah and Simon, they were at Frilford and they were both well. Today is the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain; the kids had been to the Abingdon Air Show.
September 16, Sunday The next morning we drove along the I80, the sky was overcast but fine with some sun as we approached Salt Lake City. In the vicinity of Green River the landscape becomes more colourful with increasing green Vector Fields Ltd 315 enclaves with ranches. We stopped just short of the Utah border at the Wyoming visitor centre, some interesting information on the State with a show-case containing stuffed grizzly bear. The approach to SLC is interesting; one descends down from the high country along a spacious road through quite colourful country, pretty shrubs and small trees dotted all over the brown- green hills. We followed a river part of the way, the Chalk Creek, I think, and we must have passed near the site where Brigham Young said, ‗this is the place‘ in 1847. We were soon in the city and found the Olympus Hotel easily on 6th and West Temple, a distance of 180 miles and just over three hours. After a lunch in the Hotel coffee shop we began our exploration of the city as everyone does by walking to Temple Square, the centre of the Mormon Church. Visitors are received with great courtesy and charm by the missionaries of all ages from many nationalities. These people are all well dressed but, I must say somewhat theatrical, since they appear to be giving a performance. We were urged to take the tour, every 15 minutes, to be properly introduced to the history and the Mormon beliefs. We resisted this and attempted to wander around by ourselves. The Temple, which only Mormons of good standing are allowed to enter, dominates this 10 acre square which is completely surrounded by a 5 ft. wall reminding me of the palace in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. I asked a middle aged well groomed lady how I might get a copy of the Book of Mormon. This Rita said was a mistake, and she is probably right. The lady said I would have a copy delivered personally to me and she extracted my address by persuading me to fill in a green form—so I am on their list232 We toured the square, looked at the statues representing the founding of his quasi Christian cult, the noble pioneers shown life size with scenes of their great trek from the east and the founder himself Joseph Smith with his older brother Hyram, both murdered by a mob in Missouri. Joseph, who received his first revelation at the tender age of 15, must have been a formidable man with an enormous ego. I must learn more about him and his beliefs. We saw some of the murals in the visitor centre representing scenes from the Bible and the book of Mormon, these were executed relatively recently and the style reminded me of my Sunday school days; vividly coloured pictures of good looking people living in a well laundered world. Were there no black people in Israel in those days? We returned to the hotel feeling slightly unsettled. On the way we saw the other side of Salt Lake City and indeed most places these days, dropouts and winos on the sidewalks.
232 They called a few weeks after our return, fortunately Rita answered the phone 316 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
September 17, Monday A much better night, Rita says it‘s because I had no whisky last night! I had my hair cut by the hotel barber. His name is Armsworth and he claimed English descent. He said he was Mormon, he certainly gave me a Mormon Cut, and we discussed LDS233 matters a little. Last year he and his wife went to Europe, to Finland, where his son is a Mormon missionary and a general tour of Western Europe. After breakfast we went to the Family History Library. This was the main reason for my wanting to come to Salt Lake. I was not disappointed. The rooms are open to all and cover different world regions on separate floors. However all floors have the catalogue both on microfiche and computer. The computer terminal areas are in themselves very impressive with all the data stored on CD ROM. The system is incredibly easy to use and you can book a time slot of 30 minutes standing or 1 hour sitting; we had no trouble in getting immediate access. Also on the computer is the IGI234 for 1988 as well as the consolidated PAF235 for all those who have made submissions; unfortunately these are only updated annually so my submissions made in January are not there yet. Using the system in the British Isles room Basement 2, we quickly found Bowerchalk parish register copies on microfilm and were able to use one of the 50 or so readers in this room! Tremendous service, everything superbly laid out, easy to follow instructions and, as ever with the LDS people, an army of eager helpers to guide you if you need it. Though I didn‘t expect to discover anything, since I was looking at material I had already seen in the UK, it was a joy to use this magnificent library. It was also a thrill to discover in the book section under Wiltshire a copy of The Bowerchalk Parish Paper by R Sawyer which contains a photograph of my Grandmother. We decided to come back after lunch and maybe tomorrow to spend more time.
233 Latter Day Saints 234 International Genealogy Index (A transcript of Parish Records from all over the world, incomplete and often unreliable but can be helpful) 235 Personal Ancestral File Vector Fields Ltd 317
Plate 126: Temple Square-Salt Lake City
1200. To the Tabernacle to hear the daily organ recital. The organist was Clay Christiansen who first gave a demonstration of this fine hall‘s acoustics by dropping a pin onto a table—the sound of which was clearly audible. He then played a short program on the great organ which included Mendelssohn‘s sonata number 3, a work which has embedded in the first movement a chorale melody which occurs in the pedal, deep and splendidly sonorous. It was thrilling to hear the climax and long held final chord with its implied dissonance. He followed this with Sullivan‘s Lost Chord, sentimental, and a Scandinavian piece which was pretty. Next came the Mormon Hymn Come, Come, Ye Saints followed by an old melody which turns out to be All through the Night, the hymn tune is based on an old English folk song too but I couldn‘t identify it. This recital ended with the Toccata from the Suite Gothique by Léon Boëllmann, a splendid show piece with a solid base tune which drives the music along to a rousing finish. Rita and I enjoyed this and much admired the hall which from the outside looks like a huge tin can with hemispherical ends but inside is wonderful and vast and seats 6000. We had lunch in the Cross shopping mall nearby and then explored the shops. This is a nice mall with shops and restaurants on three floors. Rita bought a shopping bag, but time was pressing so we returned to the library for an hour and checked out some of the Bowerchalke entries. Rita helped by writing down the information. We also looked at a copy of the Baptist church records which I had never seen before, strange to come so far to see this. My great grandfather Elisha is on the list of 318 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
church members. We left the library at 1730 and decided to go back to the shopping mall to buy books about the Mormons, both for and against. We found ‗God Makers‘ which looks like an exposé. On the way back to the Hotel I bought a biography of Joseph Smith at an LDS book shop.
September 18, Tuesday Up after a reasonably good night—only up twice. We ordered a taxi to take us to the Family History Library and we spent the entire day there. It was most interesting to use the powerful indexing to get at the micro film copies of documents. We checked several parish registers and were able to verify once again many entries for Ebbesbourne and Berwick St John. No new facts but exciting to find information so efficiently. We also were able to look at some more non-conformist records for Donhead St. Mary containing many Trowbridge entries. Apart for a small break for lunch we spent the whole day here, I would like to have a month? I spotted a copy of The Book of Mormon in the genealogy supply area and was able to buy it for $1.5!, so much for the sagacity of the unctuous lady who conned me into filling in the green form on Sunday, so deceitful since she assured me that this was the only way to obtain a copy. It was raining heavily outside so we called for the hotel bus to collect us at six to go back to the hotel for supper. We had supper in the Golden Spike, an inclusive dinner for $14 for both of us, an amazing bargain; we had soup, salad, fish and a sweet and then back to our room to pack and to read. Our reading about the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints is widening our perceptions. It would appear that the contemporary beliefs of the Mormon Church have caused much heartbreak as the true nature of their purpose is disguised by layers of half truth. I am enjoying the reading.
September 19, Wednesday We packed and were on our way at 0905. We crossed desert and passed high mesas, glowing red in Technicolor skies and high mountains in the distance, topped by last night‘s precipitation of snow. We had lunch at Green river and soon after crossed over the Colorado River near Moab itself, 235 miles and under 4 hours. The motel is fine and the town, which we explored after a rest interesting. A long main street very much as I‘d imagined this home of Zane Grey to be like, dusty side streets, a town in the desert. Today there are souvenir shops of course but not intrusive. Many old style western wooden buildings from the old days still exist. Many of the motels and places advertise river rafting, hiking and biking. We found a splendid book shop too, T.S Eliot, Joyce and Kafka cheek by jowl with travel and canyon guides. I bought a large scale map. The town itself is lined by the bare red rocky edge of mesas Vector Fields Ltd 319 on both sides which plunge into the Colorado valley. After dinner in the Creek Restaurant we retired to read and to watch TV.
September 20, Thursday Today we went to the Arches National park and then on to the Dead Horse State Park. A dull day for weather mostly overcast but very enjoyable. We ate a tasty lunch facing Landscape arch. I saw a Navajo Chough, Rita said it was a Crow! Later we saw the Colorado at Dead Horse Bend, an impressive spot you see on the postcards. For a short day we still managed to clock up 100 miles.
Plate 127: Monument Valley
September 21, Friday Three weeks out now, today we go to Monument Valley on the Utah Arizona border. I have long wanted to visit this region which was used so often in the Western Films of my youth, one thinks of Stage Coach and other John Ford Classics like My Darling Clementine, The Searchers etc. and more, many of them with John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Ward Bond...etc. The journey is about 150 miles each way so Rita took some persuading! We left around ten and found the highway reasonably clear after leaving Moab, which from the outskirts appears deep green in between the red mesas on either side. We had good views of the Lasal mountains as the weather was fine with plenty of blue sky and brilliant light, the humidity was low and the temperature near perfect 75 degrees. Our first town was Monticello (7000 ft) after passing the Wilson Arch another spectacular rock formation. We were now on a high plateau and soon reached Blanding a quiet and attractive small town in a relatively 320 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
fertile area with ranches, farms and even some ploughing!, but the semi desert is not far away. We stopped for gas and coffee at The Pronto Deli at Blanding and also had some lunch made up for us to our specification, ham and cheese sandwich without the toppings so beloved of the Americans. After Blanding we descended into the San Juan valley to reach Bluff, a real Wild West town near a fantastic rock sculpture called Twin Towers. We were now back in red canyon country and admired the brilliant red hills spotted with green bushes, altogether a pointillist effect. Next place was Mexican Hat, so called from the balanced very flat rock on top of a smaller squat block looking like a Mexican squatting on the loo. At the nearby village of Mexican Hat we crossed the San Juan river, here a muddy brown colour as usual but flowing gently over slabs downhill. From here on in we could see the giant thrusting mesas of the Monument valley in the distance. The panorama is magnificent and fulfilled my expectations. We stopped at a view point near the start of the Navajo State park which includes the whole of Monument Valley, and looked at the Indian jewellery on sale. Rita is fond of this style and bought some pieces on a visit to Grand Canyon, Arizona some years ago. Today she bought Dinah a ring. We proceeded to the park, just inside Arizona. After our picnic lunch we took several photos. I persuaded Rita that we should sample the rough road and venture down into the Valley. It is no longer a canyon but a broad expanse with the giant pillar mesas scattered over the landscape. This rough trail wanders around the mesas for a distance of 17 miles. We got as far as the floor of the valley and parked. The views were wonderful, the light rather too strong since it was now high noon, but marvellous for all that. It would be tremendous to journey on horse back here and stay for days. Too bad we were slaves to our Lincoln car and I was getting worried about its suspension so we decided to return to the top, in any case Rita was not too happy about the rough ride.
September 22, Saturday Since we had a long way to go home to Moab, we left after purchasing some more jewellery. The return journey in the setting sun was also unforgettable, the road was very quiet and the views of the Abajo and Lasal mountains showed us the way home. We stopped briefly at Blanding for a coffee and we were back at the hotel by 6.40pm. We had a great day out, 297 miles on the dial. Woke up to clear blue sky, Rita decreed an easier day to day. After shopping for some essentials and leaving our laundry and films for developing we drove up the Colorado River. At a point near a place called big bend (there must be a hundred such called this) we stopped and walked down to the waters edge, I dipped my hand into the river. We Vector Fields Ltd 321 heard a howl, a dog I suppose, though to me it sounded like the call of the wild. We picked up our photos, I was a little disappointed, they are rather small, 3.5 x 5.0 in., and not many good pictures, Rita‘s always looked better. In the afternoon we visited Canyon Lands, the Island of Sky region, some 40 miles away. This mesa is connected to the mainland by a very narrow neck with deep canyons on either side. From the air it would look rather like some ectoplasm, or a Julia set, with a highly convoluted coast-line. In fact it overlooks the confluence of the Colorado and Green rivers. The weather to day was exceptional, the best yet, and great views to match. The area as a whole has 3 regions apart from the rivers themselves, Pinnacles, Maze and the Island. We could see the other two but to explore them would require weeks of strenuous effort. Contrast the route just to go down to the Colorado from here, 9 miles and 2000 ft. down, then back with this morning‘s stroll of a few yards to the river above Moab. In the evening after dinner we read and discussed Joseph Smith and the Mormons. I am confused at the moment, people soon become polarized, I guess the romantic in me wants to believe in it a little whereas realistic, sceptic Rita finds it abhorrent—interesting.
Plate 128: ...purchasing some more jewellery
September 23, Sunday Late breakfast after a disturbed night with moments of doubt creeping in between prostate perambulations, Rita recalled my brother Peter saying ...it got really bad after I had to stop 9 times on the M4 322 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
going to a shoot.... Day-time brings encouragement, the weather today is almost overcast and much rain in the mountains, so we go to the mountains! We choose the Lasal loop, a 62 mile trip over the western end of the range. We set off South and soon found ourselves in rain and enclosed views, such a contrast of recent days. After many hairpin bends the way deteriorated to an unpaved road which worried us because of the wet conditions. Rita suggested we try it the other way round, to see if we could get higher. This we did after buying some simple snacks at a shop on the outskirts of Moab. This route follows the Colorado River and turns off at Castleton, a remote ranching and mining area of the 1880s. The valley is dominated by a magnificent red needle rock. The road winds up into the Lasal hills, and the redness is replaced by green flora, birch, aspen trees and browner rock. We had our frugal lunch at a high point overlooking Castle Valley. Several cars passed us by so we concluded that the road was safe. Indeed the unpaved portion proved to be short and quite firm. We saw three deer and a fox, and a blue bird with orange wings! So we completed the round and were back at the motel by 2.30 pm to rest and pack for our move to Aspen tomorrow. After dinner we watched an evangelist preacher, Charles Stanley, selling Jesus like any other marketable product
September 24, Monday 0830. Departure for Aspen, via Crescent Junction, I70, and Glendale Springs. Weather good, very pleasant trip but we were thoughtful since our holiday was coming to an end. 1300. Arrived at Snowmass, Silver Tree Hotel to find conference in full swing. Bob and Marilyn arrived shortly after. Talked with Bob after a late lunch followed by an early dinner to suit Bob! 1830. Spent evening building the stand, very late in receiving our kit, last off the lorry. We had to improvise a little but computer works OK (there was no mains lead but fortunately my Toshiba lead is same type). We need better stand facilities.
September 25, Tuesday 0830. Called John Simkin at VF, asked him to send a fax of a PE2D example problem. Fax arrived at 9.30, very helpful. We spent the morning running problems on the IBM with Bob, whilst Rita and Marilyn went on the conference Brunch on Aspen Mountain. 1300. Exhibition opens, we were very busy all afternoon but the traffic intensified further, after five pm, when crowds were milling round enjoying the free food! Many of US customers came by, but we made many new contacts and one or two of them stand out in my mind, a Dutchman from Twente, already known to us when he worked at CERN. I spoke with Muller from Brucker who are considering Tosca, he is keen Vector Fields Ltd 323 on our integrated environment project involving stress and thermal. He also requires optimisation software. Another from San Diego (Consultancy firm), Walter Podney (SQM Tech. La Jolla CA) for whom I ran a problem (Electrostatic Cone above a ground plane), Bob‘s clip gifts were eagerly snapped up, over 500 today, this brought people to the stand. Jarl Eriksson from Tampere gave me a letter from Lauri Kettunen, and invited me to be his external examiner; he also invited me to Tampere next year. Luca Bottura introduced himself, he was the chap involved with Quench with Olek236. Old friends from UK, Tony Appleton, now at RAL, Bill Timms (OI), Dave Orrell, SSC, H Schneider (Triumph). Also Alan Crapo (Emerson Electric Co.) an INFO user.
Plate 129: At our stand...
At dinner Bob said, did we know how to tell the difference between a Black Bear and a Brown Bear?, we said, no, how do you tell.....?, Bob replied, Well, the black bear follows you up the tree whereas the brown bear (Grizzly) just knocks the tree down.
September 26, Wednesday Called JSW at VF, all well there, he said, we have two new orders, EE Valves and MOD Aquila and some others pending, he also said that
236 I am to be his external examiner 324 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Brucker had asked for a quote for TOSCA. I saw Muller later again and cross checked; he was not so sure since he quite liked the Ansoft approach, but I was able to reassure him and also engage his interest over our future plans. At our stand, much quieter today, but we had a steady stream of people stop by to ask for information and many enquiries concerning computing Superconductivity phenomena, microwave strips and Josephson Junctions. Jerry Selvaggi came up to me and said, ‗are you the Trowbridge who wrote all those papers‘, I didn‘t know whether to feel flattered or what. We later spoke some more and I discovered he is an anglophile, at least a Winston Churchill fan. He is from Eriez Magnetics in Erie PA, and was very amusing about the climate there. During lunch with Rita unfortunately I was stung by a wasp (Bob said later that they call them Hornets here!) on my left elbow, Rita whipped out some anti-wasp cream from nowhere, a modest swelling and some acute pain was soon dispelled, bless her. 1800 We drove to Snowmass for the ASC Rodeo, first a barbecue, the steak was large and unbelievably tasty, the plastic knife supplied severed the flesh as if it were butter. We seemed to meet people who knew about us wherever we went, very gratifying. At the show we climbed to the back tier of a three storied wooden bench to watch the show. Next to me were two lively young Texans from SSC, who knew about TOSCA; they entertained us marvellously with their wit—both ironic and scurrilous. They drank beer, ate pop corn and cheered mightily at every event; the finer points of rodeo were explained to us in detail. The show began with the US anthem, one of them said, we all stand for this and that includes you two as well. This was followed by the ASC sports, carefully selected conference delegates were invited to compete in the ancient game of throwing the cow paddy. Skill in Frisbee throwing was what was required. Most throws were pathetic, however a Korean chap out did everyone by launching it optimally so that it flew the length of the pitch. The SSC representative, one Al Capone, sliced his, much to the amusement of our two Texans. Other events followed and some silly interludes from clowns, these chaps however had the most dangerous job of protecting riders from the hooves when they were unhorsed, un-bulled, etc. There was a clover-leaf shalom ridden by some lively ladies on fine fast horses, bucking bronco and bulls, and roping calves etc. The riding of the bucking animals seem to require great tenacity and guts. As the evening wore on and got colder ASC delegates got noisier and some got drunk, others went home; we stayed nearly to the end. I am glad we went, but one time is probably enough—it was very interesting to realize how the sport evolved from the real working skills of cowboys.
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September 27, Thursday Last session of exhibition, Podney came and was pleased with the solution I obtained using PE2D. Eriksson also said he was on the IS Committee of MT12 in Leningrad and had suggested that I do a talk on field computation. Spoke with Barbara Weintrieb, she is quite interested in joining VF but does not want to leave Santa Fe. Bob will talk to her again. Met a chap from Munich and gave him a demo, he is also keen on the Munich Course, also Tony Appleton introduced a chap from ICI who woulf come and see us in Oxford about a consultancy job. Tony asked about Fred Eastham, are they collaborating I wondered, and what is Tony doing at RAL?
Plate 130...Maroon lake, a superb morning,...
After lunch we packed up the stand Bob and Marylyn left and Rita and I saw the equipment off on Federal Express Van. Afterwards we drove to Aspen and spent time in the Explorer Book- shop, nice atmosphere but books laid out in a haphazard way also I don‘t much like the use of recycled paper in books these days in the US.
September 28, Friday Late breakfast then by car to Maroon lake, a superb morning, there had been snow overnight, 1 inch reported in Leadville, the Aspen trees were beautiful, shades of yellow, brown and green against the snowy peaks of the Maroon Bells; we took a short trail along the lake and 326 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
beyond, watched dippers and saw much evidence of beaver dam building. Back in Snowmass there was a tremendous thunder-storm followed by heavy rain. Later into Aspen to look at books— bought some Robert Frost.
September 29, Saturday 0900. Departed for Denver, via Independence Pass (12,095ft), interesting road the high peaks freshly covered with snow. I came the other way last time, it was in June and the weather was clear, unlike today which was misty at the top. The weather improved as we descended to twin lakes, following the trail of Arkansas River near its source. By the time we reached Leadville the weather was fine and the old mining town (10000 ft) looked clean and tidy in the sun. We walked up one side of the main street and down the other, buying a plate for our collection in the Sears Roebuck store (used to be the assay office). Unfortunately the Tabor Opera house was shut (only on Saturdays) so we couldn‘t do the tour I did five years ago (June 9, 1985). Then, the owner, Mrs Evelyn Furman, showed me around and I purchased a copy of her book on the history of the house which she signed for me. I still marvel at the thought of Oscar Wilde addressing a packed house of miners on aestheticism and style. Next to the Tabor we found a really nice shop full of books, rugs and things—we bought a Tree of Life rug, not woven by the Navaho, these are far too expensive, but imported from Mexico, for $50 5x3 ft approx. We had a snack lunch and prepared to leave but, as we tried to pull out into the street, a noisy procession of cars, horns tooting, young women in bright dresses decked with flowers and young men dressed in black tail suits yelling greetings to all and sundry, came noisily by and then continued to circulate the street up and down—it was a local wedding. We eventually were able to pull away and get on our way. We climbed up over Fremont pass to cross the great divide for the second time today, passing the giant Climax Molybdenum workings, a whole mountain brutally scarred. We were now descending by the South Platte River and soon were on the I70 again, passing Dillon where I once spent the night overlooking a beautiful lake, but today the views were closed in because of cloud and some rain. We stopped at Georgetown and watched the loop railway hooting and puffing its way up the valley (though now a tourist attraction it was once a mining train); this brought back memories of Bob, Larry, Chris Riley etc. riding the train on my first visit here. Rita spotted a bird of prey, brown and quite large, hovering above the track below which she found far more interesting. We didn‘t linger long and before we quite Vector Fields Ltd 327 realized it we were in Denver and at the airport and safely at the Ramada Inn to spend the night.
September 30, Sunday Up at seven, breakfasted, and at the Airport at 8.45. Leaving Rita there I returned the car to Hertz. All went very smoothly, a man received the car, he had an online computer terminal in his hand, worked out my charges, inspected the car and all was done, the cost for three weeks superb motoring was $872. I then returned to the airport and found Rita. A good flight, pleasant lunch and we were soon in Chicago (1430), with 1 hour lost. Luggage and comfort van soon found and with some half a dozen others we were on our way to Naperville and Aurora. After dropping people off at Lisle, Naperville we arrived at the Fox Valley Best Western. I left two cassette tapes and a pair of Polaroid spectacles in the car. Hertz kindly posted them to Oxford, and they arrived shortly after our return We were shown into the Bridal Suite, so called, in fact it was a dirty room with hideous furnishings, no drawers for clothes etc, champagne corks still littering the floor, and a balcony. I suppose the epithet suite was justified because of the balcony—who wants a balcony, I can‘t work on a draughty balcony, which incidentally had a sliding door to the room without a lock. I returned to the desk and inquired to see if we had been allocated the wrong room by mistake. The pleasant blonde lady in reception nervously informed me that our booking for the executive suite had been cancelled by the owner. I was very annoyed. I asked to see the owner, who turned out to be Chinese. She was away for the day but I could see her husband. He came and told me that there was to be a family wedding and the suite was required. It was explained to him by the receptionist that we had the prior booking made two months ago for an uninterrupted stay of three weeks. In fact she said she made the booking herself. Mr Wang was not impressed, he said to me, ‗we can do business, yes?‘, he offered me a reduced rate for the bridal suite, I said, ‗no‘. I am not prepared to do business; I refused to pay less for something I don‘t want, and I would rather pay more for something I did, I pointed out to him that in my business the customer is always respected and we had a contract. He appeared upset that I wouldn‘t do business, as if we were bartering for chickens in Beijing. I refused to budge, either we got the suite as booked or we leave. The lady pointed out that I was the President of Vector Fields, a local company, suggesting their business might suffer if we did! Rita came down to add her weight to the discussion and we began to collect our belongings as if to leave, Mr Wang (His wife runs the hotel and he is a realtor) said he would sort something out, so you need a desk, 328 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
then I will put a desk in the room, I shook my head, I said I needed a separate room, he then tried to move people around to see if he could find two rooms with a connecting door, but he failed. He was playing Hilbert‘s Hotel. I recalled that the mathematical genius, David Hilbert, once explained the idea of infinite sets by telling the story of the hotel manager who was able to accommodate each new arrival in room one by moving its occupant to room two and the guest in room two to room three and so on..., unfortunately in Mr Wang‘s case, for this to work, you need an infinite hotel. At this point I said we were very tired and I would have to leave since he was not prepared to honour the contract. The girl said, they‘re going to leave you know, you had better do something; he then suddenly capitulated and gave us the suite we had booked. I took the key and went to the suite which turned out to be quite good though rather grubby. We accepted it. I said to the girl I was sorry to have embarrassed her but I had to be firm with the owner, she said, revealingly, you have to be firm with people like him. We assumed he would sort out his wife‘s problem later, about the wedding. I suppose she thought we would accept her high handed treatment of us, the colossal nerve to just instruct the receptionist to give us the dirty bridal suite without even telling us.
October 1, Monday A good night, the bed is comfortable, exercises then a good breakfast, there seems to be no animosity from the hotel staff. Bob came at nine and we told him the tale, we said we would discuss it with Betty at the office to see if we should do anything. It turned out that Betty tried to confirm our booking on Friday and was told that the owner said we were let the suite in error as it had already been booked by someone else for three months! So we were told lies, more damned lies. Betty called the catering manager Linda, who had confirmed the original arrangement, and said we were perfectly right to object and said she would undertake to see we were not bothered further. In fact, when we got back to the hotel later, we found that the suite had been carefully cleaned and there was a gift of fruit, sweets etc. and a nice note from Linda, apologising on behalf of Best Western. At the office I got organized, collected the car, a red ford Tempo, set up my TEX files and filed away my ASC papers, then called VF and spoke with JS who said all things were well. I needed to talk to D Lavers about the Alcan bench marks.
October 2, Tuesday Another good night, only awoke once. After exercises, we breakfasted then went into VFI, continued with my mail, wrote to Vector Fields Ltd 329
Dinah(fax) actions from ASC, called VF, spoke to JSW, CPR, CSB and BFC. JSW said that Fujitsu had signed and that 3 UK firms had made good enquiries. It was agreed that JS should come out to do the west coast user group meeting and hold the course for Western Atlas. I called Larry, agreed to go to ANL tomorrow. Rita made some nice rolls for lunch. I wrote recommendation for Mohammed for a chair at Florida and looked over the benchmarks for Alcan, I am worried about the style and the substance of the problems posed—is Lavers setting us an exam paper? Back to Fox Valley Best Western for dinner, drinks and music, we listened to Berlioz (Nuits d´ete) and later Dvorak (American Quintet)237—his longing for Europe from 19 C. Iowa, struck a chord with me in late 20 C. Illinois.
October 3, Wednesday To VFI to review the PE2D course material. There were some problems with DEC VT340 terminals but we can cope. To Argonne after lunch to meet Larry and Lauri Kettunen, I drove there via 75th and Cass. Eventually I found the old building, Bldg 362, with the rock outside that I remembered from previous visits. We discussed EDDYNET and GFUN. I was now happier about the proposed work.
October 4, Thursday 9.15. Finished preparing for PE2D course. After a Pizza lunch I took Rita to Geneva to the hairdressers. We looked round the town, not too interesting, weather showery, felt generally low. Back at VFI, completed my practising on PE2D, and must begin OPERA tomorrow. I am worried about the Toronto paper, unless JS sends me some further material I cannot possibly complete. We went back to hotel feeling very tired, had some dinner then music—Elgar 2 restored my equilibrium.
October 5, Friday Five weeks out today, the radio, as usual, was outputting bleeding chunks from classical works238; they do like to do this even on the prestigious public service stations. I had lunch with Sandra Risvold our US accountant, she said US taxation rules will only allow the work proportion of expenses in a combined holiday/work trip, i.e. for our three weeks only 1/3 is tax deductable. This only affects the air fares which were common to both, so only 1/3 of air fare is deductable. Privately I doubted this. After lunch Bob took us on a trip round Aurora in order to
237 The one in E flat composed just days after the more famous American Quartet in F Major 238 Just like Classics FM today in the UK 330 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
fix the geography. Back to the office, I finished verifying TOSCA course problem.
October 6, Saturday Breakfast late, a gathering of Chinese for the Wang wedding, we wondered how they were coping without the use of room? Afterwards we went to Aurora, looked at shops in North Gate Mall but were disappointed. We then went on to Fox Valley again, I looked at the Egg Head software shop while Rita bought some clothes, and I later bought her a hand bag for her birthday. We returned to VF office for lunch and some work. We decided to try yellow pages to find a decent record store. Rose Records in Naperville seemed likely, I called them and surprise, I found that they were just next to the Fox Valley! We went there a back way, over the tracks by Eola, seeing the people at their yard work, as Bob describes it— Saturday morning outdoor chores. At Roses they have a fine Classical department. I bought a new Chabrier disk, at last the Overture to his opera Gwendolyn — the result of his flirtation with Bayreuth, Rita wanted some Vivaldi concerti, which we also bought. After resting and listening to some of our new CD‘s we found Papa Bears full so went to Geneva for dinner, most places there were crowded too. We had earlier tried to book a table at the Mill Race by phone (only parties greater than six and a two hour wait), but we ended up at the most expensive place in town, 302 Restaurant, and we had an excellent lamb in the cocktail bar, very pleasant waitress and altogether a meal appropriate for Rita‘s birthday.
October 7, Sunday Happy Birthday Rita! I gave her my card at midnight, late breakfast 10.30, called Larry, we have to be at his house at 1.30 pm, we are going to see a musical show. 1315 Arrived at Larry‘s house then on to Oakbrook with them to see a show at the Drury Lane Theatre. The show was a Broadway musical called On the Twentieth Century, based on a play about a fading theatrical actor and his now famous leading lady, who meet on the train from Chicago to New York (The Twentieth Century). The plot concerns the antics of these two plus a religious nut and others to put on a new show. I remembered the old film version with John Barrymore and Carol Lombard (lovely lady). The staging was fast and delightful, despite unmemorable tunes, and we all enjoyed it immensely. In the cast was the lady who sang at the Compumag Chicago banquet, she was very good playing a number of small character parts. We afterwards had dinner at the theatre which was also good and then went back to Larry‘s house for a special birthday cake for Rita. Vector Fields Ltd 331
Altogether a fine day which Donna and Larry provided, they are very kind to us.
October 8, Monday I went to VFI to prepare for the course also Rita came and spent the day helping Betty in the office—they say she is proving to be very useful. It rained all day.
October 9, Tuesday First day of PE2D course, we were up at seven and at VFI by 08:30. There were five attendees; Bob Frierson and Joshua Kolawole from Eglin (SAIC) Florida are prospective customers; the others are all existing customers. Josh and Bob were very friendly and anxious to establish good rapport; they were very frank about our competition and said that Dave Rodgers (University of Bath UK) had offered to sell the MEGA system for $30k. We paired off Stuarte Stampke (SSC Lab Texas) with Mike Barnes (TRIUMPH Canada) and they performed slowly but were very careful and—they identified a bug in the course problem I liked their approach which was thoughtful and constructive. The Eglin pair worked fast and able to tolerate the inconsistencies and appeared less critical, certainly less vocal, but they seemed equally bright though. Ed Tipton (David Taylor Research centre, MD), who was assigned the DEC terminal, with all its problems, was also very capable and in fact covered the work the fastest. Altogether a hard but stimulating day and it was still raining!
Plate 131: ...Josh and Bob were very friendly 332 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
October 10, Wednesday Second day of PE2D course, and all went quite well, with the good friendly atmosphere maintained. VFI hosted a nice dinner at Tollgate Inn for overlap students. It is still raining.
October 11, Thursday The First day of the TOSCA course and the attendees were: Bob Frierson and Joshua Kolawole (SAIC), Michael Barnes (TRIUMPH), Michael Vella (LBNL), Philip Jonas and H B Zou (Intermagnetics General Corp), Kumar Dharmasena (University of Virginia) and V. Thiagara-Jan (SSC). It proved a very hard day, I had private reservations about the code pre-processor, but somehow we got through. I returned to the Hotel 19:00 very, very tired. At least it has stopped raining.
October 12, Friday Dinah arrives today, weather much better. Second day of the course and Bob and I did sterling work, some of the problems in the software are now at least understood. Michael Vella appeared pleased with the outcome and thought he could make good use of the software. The Eglin pair continued to gain confidence and told us they had got a lot from the course. They were recommending us as opposed to Bath partly because of our support organization. However no decision would be taken until further funding is secure, but the low Bath price is a problem. Kumar Dharmasena (Univ. Virginia) is a prospect but has a difficult coil modelling problem. The Indian, Ra-Jan from SSC became demanding, but he liked the course, I showed him BIM2D which may be useful for shim design. The two from Intermagnetics General were pleased also but needed more guidance with ELEKTRA. Rita and Betty went off to O‘Hare to meet Dinah at 3.30. I think Rita has enjoyed working in the office which she has done every day. Bob, Marilyn and I went to our Lawyers‘ office party; we met Wayne Wyler and his crew, also other owner of the building, Bill Trumper. There is a notice outside that says our building is for sale; apparently one of the partner‘s wishes to sell out but Bob is not worried. Soon after, Dinah arrived safe and well, if a little tired. We went home, had a light meal at Papa Bears.
October 13, Saturday Vector Fields Ltd 333
After breakfast we took Dinah to Fox Valley. At 6.0 pm. we went to Bob‘s for dinner. A lovely evening; we enjoyed a very tasty meal. Bob is a good host and Marilyn a good cook. We saw their video of Aspen.
October 14, Sunday We spent the day with the Turners in Chicago. The girls went to the water tower, Sears Tower and the Art Institute, while Larry and I went to 57 St. for books. The day was spoilt a little because of the heavy rain, and Dinah didn‘t get very good views from the tower. We met Scott and Valerie for dinner at a Siamese restaurant. Scott Turner, Larry‘s second son, writes plays and is an actor but in order to live he worked as a carpenter. We knew him as a child in England years ago. They are a nice couple and we enjoyed the meal.
October 15, Monday I had a hard day writing my Toronto paper but I was very glad to receive some information from JS. Bob and Dinah went to Fermi lab after lunch.
October 16, Tuesday I received faxes from John Simkin on the Alcan tests. He would send me more information for the Toronto paper. I sent him my draft version for his comments. We went to Betty‘s for dinner and were made to feel very welcome. We enjoyed the meal and talk, Ken is very direct in the US manner and has some odd opinions (to us) about Europe. He knows good scotch and wine and they have a fine house and a horse!
October 17, Wednesday 10.30 To the Morton Arboretum to see the superb Autumn Colours. I hosted Lunch; Marilyn, Betty, Dinah, Rita, Bob and me. Bob presented me with the VF Inc. lecture pointer which pleased me, also they gave Rita a pretty necklace to say thank you for her assistance in the office. 1430. Dinah and I to Argonne to see Lauri, Larry and John Hull. We were in a fierce thunderstorm on the way back, how fast the weather changes here.
October 18, Thursday 1700. With Betty and Ken to Chicago to attend Solti at Orchestra Hall, Solti‘s 21st and last year here, I came here in 1970 at the beginning of his reign (see page 70). Tonight we had Shostakovich No 10, Bartok Dance suite and Debussy‘s A l‘Apres midi... a very fine concert. We had dinner earlier at Berghofs. 334 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
October 19, Friday Last day here, we have been seven weeks away now. Spent the day putting the finishing touches to the Toronto paper, it‘s been a hard day‘s week. At six we went to the Macues banquet hall with Bob and Marilyn for dinner. We had to wait some while but it was not too bad, there were several elderly people enjoying dancing. In fact the place appears to be a geriatric club. There were some Anglophiles there, at one stage Rita and Dinah went to photograph the lady organist, who had electric earrings, and caused a patriotic outburst—the lady played God Save the Queen. One old chap came up to me and put his arm around me and whispered a tale of frantic romance in Bournemouth during World War II, he was stationed there in the US Air force.
Plate 132: Dinah at the Morton Arboretum
October 20, Saturday Bob came and saw us off, and we were soon on our way to O‘Hare. All went well and we were soon in Toronto, at the Westbury Hotel. The first thing I did was to try and buy a new razor, I found a discount shop in Yonge St., pronounced Yung, where they had the Remington which I wanted, I bargained with the Indian lady and she agreed a good price but I discovered later that it didn‘t work so I had to take it back, it was the Vector Fields Ltd 335 only one they had and it was too late to get another until Monday. Larry called. They had arrived but were seeing friends that night. We went to Sam‘s later, the largest record shop in the world. Toronto seems to go in for this sort of hyperbole, e.g. largest book- shop, tallest building and certainly the seediest street (Yonge St.).
October 21, Sunday ISC meeting all day, many problems were resolved. We met Simon Polak in the lift. Jean Claude Sabonnadiere didn‘t turn up but most of the others were there, Richter, Miya, Barran. We adopted the rule of six, six members to resign by rotation at each conference, the total number of members not to exceed 18. In fact five will retire at Sorrento since we are under manned at present. These will be me, J C Sabonnadiere, Larry Turner, David Lowther and Simon Polak. At 4PM we were joined by three members of the CEFC committee, Lavers, Salon and Konrad. It was a constructive meeting with mutual cooperation the keynote, we even decided to merge the refereeing committee. The conferences would coexist for the time being.
October 22, Monday The Conference started today. I met PPS who greeted me, shook hands but was quite cool, he was far more affable with Brian Davis. I suppose I was unbending too. His lecture was well delivered but nothing new, I told him my feeling of déjà vu about his suggestions and reminded him of our discussions at RAL years ago. He said that I wouldn‘t do it then (the use of Green‘s functions to recover fields), but this was not true. I said to him, we had always used Green‘s functions and still do; but in our own way — so sad. The day‘s doings were not too interesting to me after that. I had lunch with Polak; he bent my ear about space charge. Afterwards I went into town to buy a razor, I found another Remington. We had dinner at the Hop and Grape with the Turners, Sabbaghs, LK, and Giorgio. Dinah felt ill and went home with Rita soon after we had finished.
October 23, Tuesday I was a little concerned about Dinah today. I also tried to prepare my presentation but did very little because I do not have much faith in the material. I got advice from Doug Lavers about a Doctor for Dinah, since when she awoke she said she couldn‘t breathe properly. I made an appointment for her at 1.30. The afternoon session I attended and gave my paper at 1545, a terrible performance! Dinah saw a Dr Coutts who was very kind and considerate, he thought she was probably suffering from an allergy; he was thorough, 336 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
testing the usual things, he thought she would be alright in a few days. He prescribed some pills. In the evening Rita and I went with Giorgio to the Hotel for dinner. What a charming man he is. The Poster session was good. We met many old friends including people from China whom we last saw in Harbin. Also I had good friendly exchanges with CEFC committee people, Lavers, Konrad etc. Talking with Isaac Mayergoyz it appeared that he was under the impression that I had rejected one of his papers for Compumag—a scurrilous suggestion since he is not supposed to know who the referees were; I certainly could not recall having done so and I denied any knowledge of it, vehemently! Someone is making mischief, I wonder who? He seemed to believe me and we had a good chat about English and Russian literature
October 24, Wednesday The Last day of CEFC and I played an active part in the morning session on Optimization. We went to the CN tower (tallest building in the world), went to the top and enjoyed the view, Dinah was a little better but still suffering somewhat, staying in her room. In the evening to the Czardas, Hungarian restaurant, with the Sabbaghs, David Stein (Editor of ACES) his wife Joanne, Giorgio, Larry, Donna, Lauri Kettunen, and Alain Bossavit.
October 25, Thursday First day of the TEAM workshop; Jim and Helen arrived from Chalk River. Nearly 50 people, I should think came. It was an excellent meeting. Particularly interesting was the discussion on problem 13, our results are not too good but some understanding emerged, Bossavit gave an impromptu analysis of B methods versus H methods. 1900. No-host dinner at Czardas, we sat with the Diserens and the Turners, it was fine fun, I got the Gypsy violinist to play Dvorak (Humoresque) and Brahms (Hungarian Dances), great stuff. I nearly forgot to tip the musicians however I was gently prompted by a sideways glance from the maestro and cheerfully paid up!
October 26, Friday Called VF, discussed with JSW the request from Graz for OPERA, he agreed to send me a quote by fax, also had a long discussion with JS about our problem 13 results. He is somewhat concerned but I am not too bothered, we have shown our honest results and I believe understand why scalar potentials in this case give inferior results. We know that B(A) formulation works better for transformer type problems (see RCA problem). It was the second day of TEAM, morning only, at Ontario Vector Fields Ltd 337
Hydro. I gave a final summary. An excellent meeting over all, Aces group gave solutions to NDT problems 1a and 8T, which showed the two groups interacting. I particularly liked the moment method solutions of Harold Sabbagh. I made some general comments on the need for measurement errors and a rationale for CPU timings. The meeting also had interesting reports from a lady from Los Alamos, on their software compendium. and from a lady (Eva) from Ontario Hydro giving their circuit method for the electrical utilities. She wanted to meet me and made some nice remarks about our work. We said our farewells then Giorgio and I had a lengthy discussion about VF/Genoa collaborations.
Plate 133...they had a splendid day at Niagara..
Lunch at Frans with Giorgio, Lauri and Larry, then the four of us went to Queen St. to the bookshops. I had been told their whereabouts by Elizabeth Silvester (she has been in Toronto all week and met me briefly and was very, very friendly) and it proved a rich environment for second hand books. In one shop I was shown a Canadian first of Conrad‘s ‗The Secret Agent‘, priced at $1250, a nice copy though. I did buy, however, Jessie Conrad‘s Cook Book and a first edition of Olivia Manning‘s second book in her Balkan Trilogy. Later we found a music specialist shop. Here we said goodbye to Lauri Kettunen who was returning to Chicago in the evening, an engaging lad who holds his own very well in the community. He will be working with Larry for another year and should do well. Quiet dinner with R and D in the Hotel, they had a 338 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
splendid day with Donna at Niagara, and even flew over the falls in a helicopter! I don‘t believe Rita would have done this if I had been there.
October 27, Saturday 0800. Awake and got ready for our departure to Boston, Breakfasted with Larry and Donna. Paid bill $2100 or so, used up all my Canadian TC plus $300 from Visa. Said our farewells, Giorgio, and the Turners, and the Steins and we were off. We experienced a messy unfriendly procedure at Toronto airport in baggage and lack of trolleys. We said our goodbyes to Rubinacci and Albanese who are on the same flight. We experienced a very smooth arrival at Logan (airport) and a fast taxi to the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. Found Bob and Marilyn in the check-in queue, they were about to go off on a sight seeing tour, but we agreed to meet up later. The weather is brisk and sunny here and the city looks very interesting. After a very late lunch I explored Newbury Street district where there are many book shops and art galleries. We had a late dinner, Rita and I, but sadly Dinah is still feeling rotten. The clocks go back tonight.
October 28, Sunday Trolley trip with Bob and Marilyn, we saw the Tea Party place and many other historic sites. We got off the trolley at the water front and walked to see part of the freedom trail including Independence hall and the famous corner book store. Then on to Quincy market where we left Bob and M. R and I returned to the wharf to rejoin the tour. It was windy-cold and we were kept waiting some while (I paid for this later!). The trolley driver turned out to be a brash young man anxious to tell tales of Boston; he was mildly amusing about Paul Revere— ‗his bells, his ride and his 16 kids‘. We saw the USS Constitution, Bunker Hill the churches and the burial grounds of the founding fathers. After a late lunch I visited some more Bookstores. In the evening we met up with Bob and Marilyn for dinner in Legal Sea Foods.
October 29, Monday Bose Corp user meeting, we had to drive 25 miles west in our rental car to Framingham, the weather was fine and sunny, altogether a beautiful autumn day. The company is in Framingham and Bob came off the Mass Pike too soon so I had to navigate the back roads. The offices turned out to be on the top of a hill with gorgeous fall scenery all around, the lovely woods glowing yellow and red set against blue lakes. There were 8 users at the meeting, two from GE(Knowles) a hush-hush lab, Mike Perry a colourful, excitable big man who is quite enthusiastic about TOSCA and a younger colleague who has been using PE2D. Also three Vector Fields Ltd 339 from BLNL, including our old friend Pat Thomson and three from Bose, beside Rakesh Pandey there was Rick Carreras and one other. Bob gave the VF preamble and I followed with a presentation on the software updates. The meeting went well with plenty of feed-back and constructive, friendly criticism. There is no doubt that the users want a book of sample problems. Dinner in Cambridge at a restaurant called Bel Canto with Rakesh Pandey, his pretty wife Jugnu, Rick, Bob and Marilyn.
October 30 Tuesday Up early and off to Canada to visit Alcan (Via Montreal to Saguenay). A Tedious journey, it was well below freezing when I arrived at Jonquiere (Arvida) and snowing. Arvida is named for the founder of Alcan up here, one Englishman or was he Welsh, by name ARthur VIning DAvis a nice conceit, though the French nationalism has caused this lovely name to be dropped in favour of Jonquiere! Vinko Potecnik and his wife met me for dinner at the hotel Rousillon, she is a charming French lady who works in the travel business. By bedtime I had developed a severe head-cold and sore throat. I endured a very uncomfortable night with no medication. I felt very low.
October 31 Wednesday I went to Alcan for my visit and to give my Lecture. We started with a discussion with the magnetostatic group, Vinko is not really in charge of this any more, and, as well as Vinko, there were three other people present, Leblanc who is in charge and two others including a FE expert, who maybe wants to use ANSYS since they already use it for other things. Nevertheless I defended our corner and in the lecture that followed I spoke for nearly two hours about VF and our developments. The head of the lab was there and he congratulated me, also Mark Read, the UK guy who also works for the Magnetostatic group and was missing earlier, appeared, it was he who has made the arrangements with Lavers at Toronto for the bench marking and was a little embarrassed to meet me. I made our points about the actual problems to him and he defended the choice by saying it was only a preliminary screening exercise? I was questioned about the multi- valued potentials; they seemed to have got a false idea of TOSCA from Toronto. I also met Claude Lorenson from Alcan (Hamilton, Ontario) who had come up specially to talk about HF problems in microwave ovens. Vink, Claud and Mark took me to lunch, which was really good but my cold limited my enjoyment. We spoke more about the possibly of VF winning the Alcan contract, they all appeared to be encouraging, but I don‘t completely trust Mark, though Lorenson was very positive. After 340 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
lunch we had a meeting about eddy currents and high frequency problems. I promised to look into Lorenson‘s microwave modelling. Vinko made me sign a confidentiality document then took me on a trip to see the smelters, very impressive, bubbling electrolyte, large bus-bars carry kilo-amps and glowing bauxite; hard hats, heat, and industry. He then drove me to the airport. I liked Vinko.
November 1, Thursday Our last day in USA, going home, quiet day in Boston, went to top of Hancock Building and found some more book shops. I liked one antiquarian shop off Boylston, Anne and David Bromer‘s, the lady showed me a mint first edition of Almayer‘s Folly priced $1500, this was very tempting indeed. They also had a second impression of Shakespeare 1832(Second Folio), a snip at $65000—and much more beside e.g. Ulysses, first UK edition, and Oscar Wilde (Dorian Gray). 20:41 Take off, but after 7 minutes we had an alarm sounding off, the bleating lasted a few minutes whilst stewards rushed around with fire extinguishers. It turned out to be some oil in air-conditioning packs? Rita thought that the pilot said it was a short circuit; the public address system is so poor. The flight was not too long this time, just six hours, but I was uncomfortable with my cold and sore throat. The film was a bore and the meals tedious. We arrived just before eight and were soon on our way home, the taxi was waiting. We dropped Dinah off in Oxford and proceeded to Frilford where all appeared well with lots of lovely magazines, news etc. to read before collapsing into bed. Nine weeks away and it is already feeling like a dream.
The Rest of the year 1990 Dinah saw her Doctor, he found nothing obviously wrong but gave her some medicine—poor girl was still suffering from breathing problems intermittently. The following Monday I had to go to Italy to give a lecture at ISPRA (Italian National Laboratory). They had organised a course on CEM and several of us from the Compumag community were making presentations. I was met at Milan airport and driven to a hotel called Re at a place near Lake Maggiori by name Sestre Callende. The next day after breakfast we went by Bus to ISPRA and were given a good reception by Eves Creutzen. The weather was superb, alps and lakes all around dressed in lovely autumn colours. My lecture went quite well, about 20 persons there. A introduction was given by Prof. Volta, head of the unit, I was followed by Kurt who gave an outline of their work on the Boundary Element method followed by a good lunch with tasty rolls and some superb Chianti—quite a merry affair. Afterwards Dave Rodgers presented his Mega program with excellent Vector Fields Ltd 341 visuals showing advanced computation involving moving systems. Eves Creutzen presented us with a small gift, a Euro tie and badge, very thoughtful of him. I returned to Milan airport in time for the 2030 flight. On the following Monday I had to go to Brussels to attend the Esprit conference to give a lecture on the ACCORD project. I spent the day preparing at VF and departed for Brussels in the evening. The next morning I took a taxi to Palais de Congress for Esprit conference. They wouldn't let me in without a badge! I nearly came home, but Trostmann (our project reviewer) persuaded me to go to main reception and get one, there they tried to get me to register for the conference. I explained that I was only here for the beer (lecture) then I was off, I didn‘t see why I should pay? After all I was there at their invitation. Finally they reluctantly gave me a badge, Brussels Bureaucracy. I eventually got to the lecture hall late, but since I was on second it didn‘t matter too much. The talk went quite well, with some interesting questions. J P Pattereau chaired the session well and there were over 60 people there. After Coffee and a quick tour round the exhibits I went back to the airport and a smooth flight home. That evening we listened to Sir Geoffrey Howe‘s resignation speech on TV. It was an impressive performance, showing the deep rift between himself, Nigel Lawson and others with Margaret Thatcher over Europe. A leadership contest is now likely, will Michael Heseltine win? We certainly need a positive attitude to Europe. Many of us have been working in Europe for years and the current negative feelings of Margaret Thatcher was undermining our efforts and ultimately would leave us as outsiders. I am not too keen on single currency or federalism per se but we must find a positive solution with the other states and we can only do that as a fully committed member. I agree with Howe there is a middle way and that can only be the view of Germany and France too, they will not want to lose their identities either. The expected leadership contest took place the following Tuesday. We heard the results of the first round on TV, Thatcher 204, Heseltine 174— a terrible result for Maggie, she spoke from Paris and said she would fight on into the second ballot. Then on Thursday Rita rang me at the office and told us the news, Margaret Thatcher has resigned. The now has to be a leadership election with new candidates, Douglas Hurd & John Major. The following week I went to Munich for the short course with Richter and Molinari. The BA pilot announced election results, Major 185 votes. Heseltine 154, Hurd 57, Heseltine and Hurd conceded hence no third ballot with John Major now PM. Snowing in Munich, Taxi to Vier Jahresziten, met Giorgio and Kurt and we prepared the course material. The next day was the first day of the course with seven delegates, plus one freebie. Hans Steinbigler from University of Munich 342 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
chaired with the lectures that were split between, Kurt, Giorgio and me. JSW arrived later but I was not involved with his Munich contacts. I later asked the hotel concierge to get me Opera tickets for Friday. On the course second day I gave the opening lecture. One delegate didn't turn up. The attendees were very appreciative of our efforts and I had some discussion with Andy Slade from Racal Redac who would like to cooperate with Vector Fields. My second lecture was enhanced by the use my APPLE program on the RS6000 to demonstrate some of the techniques of electromagnetic field computation described in the lectures.. That evening I went to the opera, as the concierge had a obtained a ticket for to night‘s performance of Danton's Tod by Von Einem. The Stats opera is only two blocks from the hotel, a most beautiful house. My seat was in the centre of the fifth row, the arrangements in the theatre leave nothing to be desired, in the stalls anyhow, your coat is stowed in a cloak room on a peg labelled with your row and seat number. The house is bright in red and gold, lined to the roof high above with tiers of boxes and balconies. Danton's Tod turned out to be quite short, just under 90 minutes; the music to my surprise was easy on the ear, quite late romantic in fact with brilliant orchestration. The staging of this version of George Buchner's play was fast paced and evocative with plenty of visual excitement and excellent singing both by the many soloists and large chorus. I could not follow the story line very well but I got the general drift and found it moving, especially the plight of the Lucille, the wife of Camille Desmoulins who is left stranded by the Guillotine after the execution of Danton, Camille and their friends. I bumped into a course attendee on the way out he said he enjoyed it very much. On returning to the hotel I met Giorgio and the others for a bedtime drink in the bar. The last day of our course but I had a free morning so I walked around Munich. I bought CDs of Danton's Tod and Elektra at a splendid shop called Die Zauberflote. The wall of the main room was covered with signed photographs of the famous in music from Klemperer to Barenboim, Schwarzkopf to Thomas Allen and not forgetting Wolfgang Swalvalisch the guiding spirit of Munich music. It was very cold and snowing with a keen edged wind. Everywhere the preparations for Christmas are in evidence. The Stalls for the colourful Xmas markets are in preparation. A large brilliantly decorated tree adorns the hotel foyer. Munich is a solid city, with wealth it seems to me, much of the fittings and fixtures in shops and restaurants are well made with quality wood. The Bavarian national colours of blue and white are in evidence and there is no litter. Vector Fields Ltd 343
After lunch I spoke with Giorgio about futures. The last lecture of the course was given by me and we had a nice discussion after. Later in the evening I entertained Hans, Kurt and Mila, and Giorgio to dinner. We went to a typical Bavarian restaurant, nice soup, egg and bread followed by huge slabs of Pork, tasty but far too much, I insisted on a topless glass for my beer as the metal lids get in the way! We discussed, as older German and Austrians eventually do as the evening progresses, WW2, they seem to want to explain things and, understandably, to distance themselves from those responsible. Kurt is very sensitive to Waldheim. We also had a muddled discussion on Iraq. Giorgio surprised me somewhat, he felt the world should destroy Saddam Hussein whether they leave Kuwait or not, but none of us is good at suggesting real solutions for the situation as we only make comments based on hindsight. Back at the hotel we had a brief meeting to discuss future courses and agreed to run it next year here in Munich sponsored by VF. Back at VF the following Monday I heard that Prof. de Hoop is recommending me for membership of the Royal Netherlands Academy honour and has asked for an up date of my CV. Then early in December Bruce Charles came with a representative from General Accident to discuss our application for huge insurances against our lives to give us share protection. It means medical examinations and a general facing to things not at all pleasant. For the first time I wonder whether I should retire? I cancelled going to RAL Christmas party tomorrow. I also confirmed a visit on Monday of two Soviets, a legacy from K S Demirchian. We had snow in the night the following Saturday and it continued snowing during the day, our first white landscape for some years here. I finished reading the latest and last collection of letters of EE edited by Jerold Northrop Moore. It was interesting and moving to have a glimpse of the late Delius correspondence, it shows them both to be generous spirits, also the loving care to EE of GBS in that sad, very sad, attempt to revise the aging composer‘s will to compose. On the following Monday I met the two Russians at Oxford station, Yuri Kizimovitch and Eugene Mazin. They demonstrated their PC package, ELCUT to us, making a good impression. Statics only at this stage but has good ergonomic features and a mesh generator, Post- Processor only displays field maps. The next day we had a scientific discussion about their methods and we heard about their company (TOR). These young men clearly understand the theoretical basis of FE, Functional Analysis and error estimates. Also they have done good work on Linear Algebra. Later John Whitney and I had marketing and exploitation discussions with our visitors; but they were somewhat inconclusive. However we decided to explore various options. (a) We 344 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
would recommend ELCUT for PC if no conflict with VF products and (b) They will make soundings on marketing VF in USSR and report to us. I took them home for dinner. A pleasant dinner with our young soviet entrepreneurs, we learnt something of their life and families. They are both half Jewish and most of their colleagues are Jewish. They believe that management skills is what their country needs not an excess of material aid. Yuri was born in the Gulag, his father an imprisoned dissident. In fact Demirchian managed to get the KBG off his back when his career was stuck. Next day I heard that Yuri was unable to pay his bill at Bowood House Hotel, this was embarrassing but we paid. It is a great pity that I didn‘t establish this before hand, never mind it‘s our little bit for Glasnost! On the last day of the year: Brenda rang to tell us that David has been awarded the OBE in the New Year honours list. I telephoned him at his office (Conservative Party HQ) to congratulate him.
Excerpts from my Diary 1991
The main events in 1990 were the publication of my book on the history of the Trowbridge Family, VF turn-over exceed £1M, attend Compumag Sorrento and the submission of VF for the Queen‘s Award for Technology Innovation.
January 8, Wednesday Today we listened to the 'gulf' news of the ‗last ditch‘ talks between US and Iraq taking place in Geneva. Stalemate, and war now looks on, the UN deadline is next Tuesday. Pleasanter things from CD, we listened to Le Compte Ory (Rossini) after supper. A fine performance directed by John Eliot Gardener in fine fettle with his French forces from Lyon. The French performance in diplomacy in the gulf crisis is not so fine?
January 12, Sunday Home all day, Simon and Dinah came to lunch. The news from the Gulf dominates. The last attempt at diplomacy now seems to have failed. The UN secretary general's visit to see Saddam in Baghdad has ended in humiliation for him and I suppose by association the rest of us? The Iraqi supremo will not climb down; he will not and never intends to withdraw from Kuwait. So what happens now?
January 13, Monday I heard from Cambridge, Dr Evetts, that my article for the Pergamon encyclopaedia was quite satisfactory, he said it reads well and that he was pleased. Vector Fields Ltd 345
The evening was dominated by the news from the Gulf. Last minute creepy negotiations from the French, no-one minds them trying but why, oh why are they so underhanded, selfish and opportunist? We also had paraded on the box rival pressure groups of doves and hawks. Some of the doves could only make their points by shouting, particularly the politically motivated loud-mouths like Tam Dalyel, however one understood the passion of parents with kids in the forces. I find it hard to ignore the cool experience of General Farrar Hockley and others who are prepared to state unequivocally that the time has come to act. Other people I have admired don't agree though, Ted Heath is one, after all we have stopped Saddam's expansion plans in the middle east by the united nations force in the Gulf, so why not let sanctions run their course. On the other hand, a few moments ago, that admirable man, Sir Crispin Tickell, our former ambassador to the UN, quoted Saddam as saying, ‗I am smelling the perfume of paradise‘.
January 15, Tuesday Drove home at 1830, heard war debate from the commons on the car radio on the way home. I tuned in as Wedgewood Benn began to hold forth: he spoke well as usual with passion and guile. Apart from his peace at any price prose he drew attention to the shaky constitutional position with threats of closed government, censorship, and dictatorship—all so predictably political but I give him five for consistency. He was followed by that other great demigod of our age Ian Paisley, arch orange bigot but today also passionate and on this occasion wholeheartedly behind the need for action but stressing the blood letting to come, which he deplores, will be a torrent compared to the thin dribble of Ulster. I felt he was sincere in his compassion and in his exultation for the house and the nation to pray. Next was Sir Ian Gilmore former Ambassador to the UN at the time of the Falklands, he supported the view that sanctions should be given more time. .
January 17, Thursday We awoke to the news that it has started. Around Midnight the allied air forces began the first strikes of military targets all over Iraq and Kuwait. No casualties on the Allied side and they seem pleased with their efforts so far. I have very mixed feelings, from our cosy standpoint rhetoric is now irrelevant but a feeling of excitement certainly exists. Everyone will be thinking foremost about those actually doing the fighting, on both sides and indeed the innocent parties all around. Diplomacy has failed and we lose our rights as civilised people? However our clergy tell us that there is such a thing as a just war—when it is the lesser evil. What are the evils in question in this case; on the one 346 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
hand whereby a ruthless dictator is rewarded and continues to encourage and actively participate, by all accounts, in the callous disregard of the rights of his victims; and on the other hand the sickening violence done to both combatants and civilians alike in a devastating war. So if the lesser evil is short lived, confined to the stated aims and casualties minimal the action may be justified but there too many ifs about for comfort at this stage.
January 18, Friday After a restless night we woke to hear the latest news from the Gulf. Iraqis attack Israel by scud rockets! No major casualties; the US will be able to persuade them not to join in but what if further rockets cause deaths? It then would be doubtful if the Israelis would keep stand clear.
January 19, Saturday News reported that there had been another Scud raid on Israel, again with very low casualties. There is mounting pressure for Israelis to enter the war. But US still manages to persuade them to keep out. Sadly another RAF plane reported missing. Went to Oxford with Rita after lunch; I watched the peace demo, there were two ‗Corn Market Street‘ lengths of marchers, an untidy throng of protesting people totally convinced by the rightness of their cause. The press has now been ordered out of Baghdad, John Simpson‘s accurate and articulate dispatches will be missed.
January 20 Sunday Further RAF losses, they have now sustained the most casualties of any group. The news unfolds giving the world front line seats in the theatre of war. The scale of the allied attacks growing, Naval and air born sorties from ships in the North of the gulf, succeed in taking AA batteries on Kuwait oil rigs, 15 prisoners taken. In the evening another Scud raid on Riyadh, all three shot down by Patriot. Several prisoners (7) of war paraded in Baghdad. Two were RAF officers, they were described as in poor shape and some, it appears, made anti war remarks, however editing may have been used for propaganda. Two more Scuds landing just reported from Arabia. One good thing about this war is that it has banished "Cell Block H from the TV". Losses reported: 16 Iraqi planes, 16 Allied, 6 RAF missing.
January 21 Monday News dominated by the display of allied pilots on Iraqi TV, including 2 RAF officers. These prisoners looked as if they had been subjected to some extreme discomfort. Vector Fields Ltd 347
At VF I received a fax from William Beeckman, ADB-Belgium, listing many errors he had found in my book; one of these is quite substantive, not just typographic! I shall now refer to the Beeckman test! I began to insert the corrections. Did my first lunch time walk; went along the canal south, passing VF and Bankside on the other side of the water. Muddy, but I wore my trainers and made good progress, passing just two groups of people. I came to a lock and bridge which I crossed. A gate allowed access to the railway which I also crossed and entered a housing estate. I then returned to the office through the estate to the main road. The round trip took just over half hour. In the evening we listened to the TV debate between the linguistic philosopher Niam Chomsky and Lord Jenkins. The academic regurgitated unrealistic cant attacking the US and England, why not UK? Is he going to drag in the Irish question to boost his cyclopean view? Jenkins was superb, wise and relevant. He was well able to squash the catalogue of evil listed by Chomsky. Even if true, which is highly questionable, it is history and no reason not to do the right thing now.
January 22, Tuesday Papers full of the allied airmen exhibited in Baghdad. The headlines varied from calling the Iraqi authorities 'The Bastards of Baghdad' in the Star to 'War Crimes threat over Airmen' in the Daily Telegraph. There is considerable outrage expressed by nearly everybody.
January 23, Wednesday I walked this lunch time along the tow path toward Thrupp. This time of year the Oxford canal is deserted. The holiday and house barges are moored alongside the path waiting patiently for the coming for the season. They reminded me of travelling fair vehicles, same style of multi- colour decoration. The names of the barges included 'Old Bolingbroke', 'Rudyard Kipling', 'Hilda Ogden', 'Sir Reginald', and one with a local reference 'The Thrupp'ny Peace'(sic). At Thrupp I crossed the canal and followed a path across the meadows following the river Cherwell down stream toward Kidlington. The weather was calm and quite balmy, the mild winter countryside comforting and inviting, today at least no-one in sight. Time overtook me so I decided not to go on to Kidlington village, the church steeple was enticing but I will go there another day. I returned the way I came, just under 1 hour.
January 25, Friday 348 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Home at 1700, CPR called from VFI to tell us that he had heard that Jim Diserens had had a stroke. Poor Jim, just as he was settling into his new job. I got their Chalk River home phone number from their son Tony, who had heard the news on Wednesday, and called Helen. She told us that Jim had suddenly lost the sight in one eye at work; he was taken to hospital where a thrombosis in a vein on the retina was diagnosed. He was put on a drip to thin the blood but it is feared that he will lose his sight in his right eye. He should be home in a day or so and will after a while be able to return to work. Helen said he is in good spirits but is of course worried about how he will cope.
January 26, Saturday War news dominated by the giant oil slick, the wretched Saddam has opened the taps at Kuwaiti oil terminals and is polluting the Gulf. We saw desolate pictures of cormorants dying on TV.
January 29, Tuesday I went to London for the Kings Lecture. I met with Ted Deeley who told me that he would be semi retiring in July and would be able to devote more time to research and less to teaching. Lecture at 1100, I met Bill Chambers, the lecturer in charge, who turned out to be a voluble but very nice man. My two hours went well; there were at least 40 students in the class. I seemed to communicate with them well enough; some were lively and made good comments. War news a naval attack on Iraqi patrol boats. The latest from Baghdad states that an allied POW killed in an air raid, so they have carried out their threat to place POW's in dangerous areas, what low mean way to behave.
January 30, Wednesday 1250 To Thrupp by car for my mid-day walk. I went along the tow path to Shipton-on Cherwell, the banks crowded with barges just here, the canal is wider and Thrupp appears to be a haven for barges. The names colourful as ever one called 'Sweaty Betty' took my fancy. Near Shipton-on-Cherwell I took the footpath to Hampton Gay first crossing the river over a wooden bridge and then the railway at a 'stop and look' place. To the left of the meadow stretched out before me stand the deserted village of Hampton Gay consisting of a small church (appears to be intact) with a delightful squat tower and some ruined buildings. I walked on across the meadow and on to Hampton Poyle which is decidedly not deserted. Manor Farm there is well stocked with horses. The path wanders behind the little chapel and then across the river where it divides. Straight on to Kidlington church with its tall slender steeple or Vector Fields Ltd 349 sharp right alongside the river leading back to Thrupp. All told I only saw a lone fisherman and a man with his dog. The round trip of about three miles took me 65 minutes.
January 31, Thursday Weather dry after some snow during the night, my car is well covered. The war on the land has broken out. The Iraqis have invaded Saudi Arabia taking the allies somewhat by surprise by occupying the seaside town of Al Hafji (This place is 12 miles from the border and had been abandoned and is of no strategic importance). However the battle of battalion size was bloody but soon under control, the Iraqis were soon driven back with heavy losses. Some eleven US marines reported killed, but there is a rumour that over half were caused by a mistake (friendly fire)
February 1, Friday Allies now claiming to have regained Al Hafji and have driven the Iraqis out of Saudi Arabia, it appears that this was an attempt by Saddam to persuade the allies into a land battle before they were ready, this strategy has failed. They lost some 40 Tanks and 400 prisoners were taken. Casualties unclear
February 4, Monday I worked on tomorrow's lecture for Kings. I walked from Thrupp, to Hampton Poyle alongside Cherwell then back across the fields to Hampton Gay. I had a good look around the lost village. Manor house in ruins and then at the church, St Giles, I read about the history, once a flourishing village in medieval times up to late nineteenth century. The suffix "Gay" is apparently a perversion of the name "Gait", the manor being held in 1138 by Sir Robert Gait. This place was the scene of the largest GWR train crash (1887), 37 people killed on the Birmingham train from Oxford. Derailed near Kidlington and finally crashed into the bridge near St Giles. Caused a great rescue at the time, the injured conveyed by the Duke of Marlborough to the Radcliffe infirmary at Oxford. The manor house was used as a temporary hospital. This house was destroyed by fire soon after, never to be restored. The notice gave information about restoration and protection of the site, the largest and most important site in Oxfordshire it said. Indeed the church has been restored and offers fortnightly Sunday services in the summer. The tombstones in the yard bear local names, like ‗Bartlett‘, I returned via Shipton-on-Cherwell along the canal. It was a beautiful walk in the weak winter sun.
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February 5, Tuesday Rita took me to Oxford station to catch the train to Paddington. Kings lecture was well attended but I found it hard going. I hope I managed to convey the information. I had discussions with Thomas Koch, who agreed to arrange the computer for my demo next week. I returned to Didcot in the afternoon where Rita met me.
February 6, Wednesday Very cold, we are promised snow from Siberia by the end of the week and temperatures around -12 deg. C. At VF to finish my lectures for Kings and start preparing my seminar presentation in Oxford at the DTI seminar on European funded projects.
February 8, Friday Heavy snow overnight, Siberia is here! But we had only 2 inches locally. Nevertheless I decided to work at home. Why add to the troubles on the road, especially now as I can access all my systems at VF over the telephone network. Walked with Rita to Marcham PO to post letters, we returned via the village and then across the fields towards the Ark then right to the Garage. A walk in the cold, driving wind very invigorating! .
February 13, Wednesday Heard the war news, allies bombed an air-raid shelter killing several hundred woman and children in Baghdad. Later, the US authorities said it was a military target, clearly identified as a camouflaged command bunker and they did not expect civilians to be inside it. Terrible news: unspeakable injuries to innocent people, and so it raises again the moral basis of the war. The allies are convinced that Saddam deliberately allowed his people to be in the bunker to provoke propaganda. I must say that on his record he would be capable of such evil, but is it true? Or is this merely an example one of the cock-ups of war?
February 15, Friday To The Moat House, Oxford where I met Michael Barratt239; he calls himself Businessman and Broadcaster. The seminar was well attended and my piece went well. I fear I said too much about Esprit bureaucratic difficulties but I hope I stressed my enthusiasm. Several people congratulated me; ―the highlight of morning...‖ one of them said. Barratt gave me a splendid introduction and chaired the meeting with
239 Ex TV News Reader & Journalist Vector Fields Ltd 351 expertise; I think he wants to sell us some of expertise? On the way home I heard the announcement from Baghdad, Saddam will withdraw!, great initial excitement but it soon became apparent that the side conditions were no improvement on the pre-war stance of Iraq, i.e. Linkage with Israel, a major say in so called democratic elections in Kuwait, allies to pay for Iraqi war damage etc. Hopeless it appears, the attitude in the west must be that they are playing for time. The man is a terrorist, sadist and total opportunist he must be removed somehow. Nevertheless the media, the peace movement and over anxious meddlers will have their say.
February 17, Sunday Dinah and Simon came to lunch. We walked after lunch to Garford then back to Marcham via Ark. I wore my gum boots which proved to be a sad mistake since I now have a painful blister. Interesting Alan Bennett play on the TV; concerning an event from the life of Marcel Proust. How he becomes infatuated by a viola player of a string quartet and persuades the young man, a soldier wounded at the front in 1915 on convalescent leave, to bring his colleagues to play the Franck quartet for him at his home—in the middle of the night. The piece has many overtones of ambiguous sex and decaying romanticism. I particularly liked the housekeeper, an attractive mature woman, who is a kind of protector and guardian angel.
February 18, Monday Terrorist bombs explode at Paddington (no casualties since it occurred at 4.00 am) and Victoria. The bomb at Victoria was much later during the rush-hour and there were some casualties reported. News from Victoria, one person killed but many injured, IRA suspected. War news; the Iraqi's offer to withdraw taken seriously by the Soviet Union, Tariq Azis now in Moscow, returning later today to discuss the Gorbachev plan. How the US etc will view it remains to be see. I am sure there will be no cease fire until Iraq withdraws unconditionally from Kuwait.
February 19, Tuesday Saw Dr Kirshaw at Marcham. Blood pressure up a little. He showed me his report to ‗Legal and General‘, he has played things down. He also suggested that to-days reading maybe reaction and he would like to see me in two weeks before having the insurance medical! We discussed my prostate problem. He examined me and confirmed that the gland is indeed enlarged. He will arrange for me to see a urologist privately. I was quite impressed with him; he appears to be genuinely sympathetic. At VF a letter from Michael Barratt, suggesting a meet about the video, also a flattering letter from TNT. I suppose its to be expected that the only 352 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
people to write me after Friday's presentation are those who have something to sell? Lunch time I drove to Yarnton, walked up Dolton lane, a sunken track—very muddy, to the side of Begbroke. Weather was calm but misty and very pleasant for walking. I passed by Hall's farm taking the path through a fine wood gently up hill to Bladon. Saw one other walker, a lady in light blue with a small whippet. At Bladon the sun came out and I stood over Sir Winston's grave among all the Churchills. St Martin's church is a fitting place for the great man's end. I wondered what he would think of the current war in the Gulf, how would he have dealt with Saddam Hussein? I returned across field to the A34 near Campsfield and thence back along the cycle track to my car, 4.5 miles, 90 minutes, splendid.
February 21, Thursday At VF, spoke to Beeckmann who is on the TOSCA course here; he gave me some more corrections for the book. On the way home I heard the latest news. Saddam just gave out a speech, rejecting everything so that appears to be that and a land war is now certain. Iraqi's et al are then to die on the whim of a truculent, megalomaniac.
February 24, Sunday Invasion began at dawn in Iraq; 48 hours news blackout. At 1030 we all, plus Brenda, depart for London to visit my brother David for his OBE celebratory lunch, M4, and South Circular. Good journey to Dulwich all things considered. We had a very enjoyable lunch and family reunion. Peter was there and Simon and Dinah came as well. War news good so far; 5000 Iraqi prisoners and there has been little front line opposition. No hard news yet but they are attacking on all sides and are deep inside Kuwait already. It was good to see David; he has done well at the Tory central office. He feels proud to have been honoured and so are we all for him.
February 25, Monday Saddam announces that he is now prepared to withdraw from Kuwait. This is clearly too late. The allies will want to defeat his army decisively to prevent a future resurgence of Saddamism. The soviets are still meddling and muddying the waters.
February 26, Tuesday 0900 Saw the Doctor at Marcham and was given new pills for prostate trouble also my Blood pressure is up, 160/100. War news: allies Vector Fields Ltd 353 refuse to let Saddam Hussein off. They must concede all the UN demands and give up their arms. News of Kuwait, allies in the city, great news pictures.
February 27, Wednesday At VF, found the people next door building a wall pinching 9" of our space. Do we tell them to take it down? We decided to check up with the plans; infernal cheek—why did they not consult us first, the arrogance of some folks. Later Michael Barratt came to see me about making a video. I was quite impressed but I need to talk to JSW. War news, dreadful self inflicted incident with the Brits, 9 of our men killed by US plane. The Iraqis are now in full flight. It looks as if the war will soon be over. Kuwait liberated. To Eva's after lunch, Rita is going to help them move from Wild West to a bungalow in the village. War news on route, Baghdad announces that they will now accept other UN resolutions but I think Bush will now decide when there should be a cease fire. I spent evening with Bill taking down a mirror then putting it back up because of the gaping holes behind.
February 28, Thursday We awoke to the news of the cease fire, so it is all over. Bush offered this a few hours ago and the Iraqis accepted. Several conditions of course— and it remain to be seen if they will abide. It‘s clear war will restart if they do not accept all of the conditions. Reports of the terrible atrocities in Kuwait continue to come in. The latest figures of deaths on the allied side are approx. 100. Sixteen Brits, 9 killed by the Americans by accident. 500000 Iraqis taken prisoner or eliminated, I think their death toll is enormous approximately 100,000, what price the 'mother of battles' now? I returned home next day on my own.
March 1, Friday I saw the doctor and he found my blood pressure up again, 165/95. Stephen decided to change me to Kalten240 to fine tune for my insurance medical.
March 3, Sunday Cease fire agreement in the Gulf, we should now get back to normal. Civil war was breaking out in Iraq. Does this mean the end of Saddam? Dinah and Simon came to lunch. Afterwards Simon and I walked six miles. First we went to Garford; via path by Millets, crossing the river Ock and fields. Then to Venn on the Wantage Rd; on this stretch we were
240 Cocktail of Atenolol & a diuretic 354 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
quietly shadowed by a herd of Friesians! The next stretch took us along the Drayton bridle path passing the model aircraft flying ground. The weather was most beautiful, sunny and balmy. Simon held forth at length about the Godwin-Shelley ménage, he has been reading them up and this period of English letters has captivated him. We left the bridle path a mile before Drayton and headed north across ploughed fields to the river Ock again at Marcham Mill and thence along the lane to the village and home. Most enjoyable, two hours.
March 6, Wednesday I drove to Broadwindsor for Rita, A303 all the way. Found Bill and Eva nicely ensconced in their new bungalow.
March 8, Friday VF Teaching Company Interviews today (John Long, JSW and me): we saw three candidates, two men and a lady. We preferred the lady, an Algerian lass just completing a PhD at Nottingham. The two men were essentially post grads with very little experience.
March 11, Monday I had received a quite encouraging reply from ANSYS, a visit there to be arranged when a director is conveniently near. Two firm orders just in, 80k for Labein and 10k Zagreb University. At VF Inc. Brent Anderson has accepted our job offer, he starts next Monday. We also appointed Rachida Ait-Sadi as the ‗Teaching Company‘ associate.
March 14, Thursday We heard the news that the ‗Birmingham Six‘ were released. A very distressing affair which has discredited British justice---how many more will there be I wonder? We must get at the truth, after all someone killed 21 people 14 years ago. To what extent are all IRA sympathisers guilty of crimes done in their names? This is beside the point but the victims will need answers and so do we all. How could we allow our standards of policing fall so low?
March 15, Friday 0900 Marcham surgery, my BP 135/75! Well under control now.
March 18, Monday I called Martone to confirm my visit to Rome on Wednesday for ISC; he said he had received my two reports of last week. I had a call from a Rita Johnson of DTI saying I was being considered for an invitation to attend the Royal Garden Party in July. Was this a Vector Fields Ltd 355 consolation prize for not being awarded the Queens Award for Industry last year241. I may not be invited if certain conditions pertain perhaps discovered after they run me through the computer!
March 29, Wednesday To Rome: fine sunny weather to see the Pines of Rome—Respighi is ‗this week‘s composer‘. I enjoyed a lovely long walk to see the sights, Via Cavour, Via Dei Forli Imperial, and Piazza Venetia and in the Ricordi shop I bought a recording of Gluck‘s Iphigenie en Tauride. I then went to the Trevi fountain, now covered over so I was not able to throw a coin as I did in 1974. I remembered the old tale in which a coin thrower is assured of a return visit to the eternal city. Back to Hotel very hot and pleased with my walking exertions. I met Giorgio for dinner.
Plate 134: ISC Meeting in Rome March 1991 Members of ISC L to R: Molinari, Martone, Albanese, Sabonnadiere, Richter, Tortschanoff, Polak, Lowther & Rubinacci, Old Friends, Polak and Trowbridge
March 21, Thursday Breakfast at 0830 with Kurt, Giorgio, Theo, and Dave Lowther arrived having spent most of the night in busses etc. because of foggy weather. He finally arrived at dawn very cross to find his room not available. Simon Polak was also similarly deranged, he found another hotel somewhere. We walked to the University, stopping for sight-seeing on the way. We visited St Maria Maggiori and later St Peter Invicoli to see Michelangelo's Moses. Our Italian hosts already installed —
241 Our earlier attempts for the Export Award had now failed but we were planning to re- submit for the Technology Achievement Award in October 356 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Rubinacci, Martone, Cocoresi and Albanese. Meeting began at 10.30 when Sabbo (J C Sabonnadiere) and Polak arrived. It was an excellent meeting and delightful lunch, down by the Coliseum. I Took some photos of the group. On the way back we were attacked by female gypsy bandits blatantly trying to rob us. Giorgio held one off of me, she only looked about thirteen years old, and he sternly rebuked them and she vanished at once on being released. The Sorrento conference will have some 269 papers there were 88 rejections. Meeting finished at 6.00 pm. And afterwards we had a fine dinner at the Flavia Trattoria with Giorgio, Dave Lowther, Jean Claude Sabonnadiere, Simon Polak, and Kurt Richter.
March 23, Saturday I worked on my Family History book all weekend. We went to the Sheldonian Theatre to hear Gerontius, Dinah was singing in the choir. Semi professional performance by Oxford Harmonic and SO conducted by Robert Secret. A tribute was paid to Sydney Watson recently died, complete with a short appreciation delivered by one of his former pupils and a minute‘s silence. This performance of ‗The Dream‘ was dedicated to his memory. The performance was moving if not perfect, but the choir sang with considerable spirit and were particularly fine in the big moments. The soloist were generally good, Rita thought the tenor expressive, I thought he was a little hard edged but very committed. The angel was sung with a fine sense of style and power. The bass in the Agony music also involved me much. The orchestra was good, but some minor blemishes here and there I thought. The work, as always, was profoundly moving. The hall is diabolical, the seats penitential—it will take a week to recover. An enjoyable evening except for some crass comments from a the group sitting behind...'.I quite like the loud bits'...., and earlier the same man said to his lady companion,'....its not often done these days you know..', his lady friend, an opinionated culture vulture, then remarked,' I suppose the hall is full of relatives'.
March 25, Monday Walk from Thrupp, Shipton-on-Cherwell, Hampton Gay, Hampton Poyle etc., lovely sunny day, took some photographs. Saw a fine grey heron fishing and a small hovering bird; it was stationary some ten feet above the River Cherwell bank, wings beating fast, reminded me in this respect of a humming bird, its head and upper side was sky blue with a read breast, Rita said later only Kestrels hover and it was probably a 'Little Kestrel', though the colours were wrong. Is she right? What species was Hopkins bird in the 'Wind Hover'?
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March 26, Tuesday I went to see Doctor Martin to day for Insurance medical. I walked round Blenheim Palace Park, two miles. I saw the Doctor in Woodstock at 2:00 PM. A pleasant man around 40, he had studied at Kings, he said. He then gave me a thorough examination with lots of questions on my medical history. I did my best as memory allowed. He took my BP four times! (Because it was confrontational situation!), said it was around 160/80, it does vary doesn‘t It. He looked everywhere, even at my feet? And finally he asked for a water sample. His parting words were, 'I hope they don't demand a too high a premium. I spent a pleasant half hour after in the village second hand book shop. That evening Simon and I went to the Welsh Opera in Oxford (Apollo theatre) to see and hear Rossini‘s Count Ory. The music was fine, the parts well sung but the designs? Words fail me, a dreadful miss- match of trendy ideas with no sense of style or appreciation of tradition. Even on its own slender terms it was so poorly executed, scenery, dress—a ‗parish hall‘ production of the Gondoliers would normally be better done. The chorus dress in Act 1 reminded me of a production I once endured. It was wide brimmed hats that did it—the use of an excruciating, nay nauseating English version of the libretto didn't help. As for the interior costumes for Act 2, well the ladies of the castle were dressed in brothel garb. The producer was deceived into making explicit the old joke of the 'chastity belt' which dominated his thinking. I wish these idiots would go in for a bit of under-statement and more irony. Afterwards I had nice dinner with Simon in the bistro opposite.
March 28, Thursday Dr at Marcham—Stephen is 40 to day and I congratulated him. My BP still good, 135/75 fabulous! The higher reading on Tuesday must be due to the confrontational situation.
April 3, Wednesday Rita came up and we ate our sandwiches in the office. Then drove to Thrupp and did the Cherwell, Hampton Gay, Poyle, etc round. Good conditions, sunny, a little cooling breeze. First class walk and I think Rita enjoyed it very much; she spotted a swan‘s nest and a brown trout in the river.
April 4, Thursday I went to Oxford to see Mr Joe Smith the Urologist. A charming man, medium height, dark receding hair, late fifties (Initially one felt at a disadvantage with him because of his status as a person who deals with the most basic inner parts of ones psyche, that this description is probably 358 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
way off the mark!) The service in the consulting room was first class and very efficient, I was ushered in on time, ahead of many others waiting, such are the benefits of 'going private', a first for me. Smith asked me lots of questions and then examined my inner (lower) parts most efficiently. He then outlined two choices, (a) the standard procedure, five days in hospital, then three weeks to recuperate, he could do this for me on his return from Australia in three weeks time, or (b) a new French technique, he was learning, which would involve some microwave probe. With this method the whole beastly business could be done in one day with little after effects. However he was not yet ready for this but he said he thought I could wait a few months until he was ready, October, in fact he said I was good subject for this. His examination revealed no problems and the drugs I was on would allow me to wait with reasonable comfort. So it was down to me to decide. I shall now talk it over with my doctor, Stephen Kirshaw. At noon met Simon and got enrolled at the Bodleian Library. The admittance 'ceremony' was fun, I had a readers ticket in the early 1960's but it had relapsed so I had to get a new pass with photo and then read out loud the ancient promise, ' not to bring kindling wood into the library...'. Had lunch with Simon, we talked most about the death of Graham Greene, just announced, aged 86. A writer we both admired and have collected for many years. He was a dominant figure in English letters. It was sad to listen to Anthony Burgess's comments on TV last night when he seemed to damn him with faint praise. Back to the Bodley to look at the Bowerchalke Parish News, copies held in the library — over twenty years missing, including the crucial years 1885-1900, very disappointing. I am sure it was more complete in 1962 when a first looked at them here. Later Dinah rang with the news that Bob Lari is upset over the short article I got Larry Turner to write about him receiving a Patent award. Incredible response I thought he would be delighted. I called him and he insists on the issue being withdrawn. Ridiculous!, I informed him that Dinah was not in any way to blame and that he should not have assumed she was, she was very upset with his attitude. The responsibility was mine and I object to a perfectly friendly gesture being rebuffed. He said we should have respected his privacy and implied that Larry was acting in less than good faith. It‘s beyond me. I reluctantly agreed to replace the article with something else for the US issue. Despite this he may reach for his pen and resign!
April 6, Saturday We went to Sandleheath to Brenda's for the weekend. Good journey via Salisbury and Rockbourne. Brenda gave us a good welcoming lunch. Vector Fields Ltd 359
Afterwards I visited Rockbourne to see St Andrews church, I found two MI242 in the churchyard; one was Charles Vincent, Frank's younger brother. Then on to Salisbury, very wet afternoon, I got thoroughly soaked visiting Milton St. and my grandfather‘s chapel, now abandoned, and the Churchill Way Bye-pass has removed all trace of his former dwelling,
April 7, Saturday Brenda went to early service and returned with a pile of papers on the people and the area, lots of photographs. Excerpts from old Parish Magazines etc., all this was the property of Betty Waterman a friend of Brenda's. I found some interesting information concerning a fire at Damerham in 1864. I went to Rockbourne and Witham. Then did a drive round Bowerchalke, I walked from Misselfore back into the village and looked at the two chapels. Which one did they use, Baptist or Wesleyan Methodists? Could be either, Charles was with the Wesleyan Methodists in Salisbury and Baptist in Lymington. Weather much better, I drove on to Ebbesbourne, Berwick St John and then returned via Tollard Royal. Back for lunch, Dinah and Simon arrived and we had a jolly time. Simon and I went to Damerham church yard and found several ‗Percy‘ MI's. 1430. Early evening we departed for home, after a very enjoyable visit.
April 9, Tuesday The Kurds are in terrible situation in Iraq, Oh why did we not take that evil Saddamite out when we had the chance. Bush was indeed only interested in his oil! I had a bad night. I still have not made up my mind about the prostate, should I allow Joe Smith experiment on me?
April 11, Thursday I spent the morning working on lecture for tomorrow‘s conference in Oxford on Electrostatics. Yuri Kizimovitch came after lunch, he is a pleasant man, I agreed to be a sponsor for him as a scientific emigrant to the US.
April 12, Friday I attend to day the Electrostatics'91 conference in Oxford at the Examination Halls in the High. My talk was the opening invited Keynote paper. A lot of interest was shown by the questions after and we had a good lunch in Teddy Hall. However, I don‘t think our software stand had much business, still it only takes one new customer to make that part a
242 Monumental Inscriptions 360 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
success. After lunch I spent a happy two hours in the Duke Humphrey reading room.
April 15, Monday 0915 To see Doctor, Stephen had heard from the GA Insurance, the query was about the prostate problem. He said he had written back and had reassured them about this. Also he had heard from Joe Smith and thought I should wait and have the new treatment. My blood pressure is an astonishing 135/80. Lauri Kettunen has come to implement with his new version of GFUN (BARITONE)243 in OPERA .
April 16, Tuesday Lauri to dinner, we had a pleasant evening listening to Sydney Bechet and Sibelius. We also listened to Lauri‘s Jazz group CD, a bit derivative but a fine effort with an outstanding soprano sax player
April 18, Thursday Rita came to VF to help Dinah send out the latest software release. Doug Allen came to VF, John Simkin and I took him to lunch at the Boat Inn in Thrupp. He was in good form and appears to be having a busy retirement. I would like to be as active at his age.
April 21, Sunday Census day, it would have been helpful to have had the information required on today‘s census in 1841. Knowing George Trowbridge's244 intimate details would have helped a lot? I don't suppose they had a bath or even two horses.
April 26 Friday To Kings for the Open Day: an interesting day with Ted taking me round the department. I enjoyed being the visiting professor. At lunch we sat with an academic lawyer (criminal law) an Australian who has a nice hobby-Uranium prospecting!
May 9 Thursday Cris Emson and I drove up see Clive at his home in Pershore to discuss ELEKTRA. We had a very constructive meeting and made plans to try and pin down the DC limit case. Clive made us welcome and Helen gave us lunch. I was very sorry to lose Clive last year, his contributions were very effective but any hope I have of getting him back are receding;
243 Using Edge Elements and other improvements 244 I discovered later that George was transported to Australia for killing a fallow deer in 1813. Vector Fields Ltd 361 he is totally immersed in his church work and fully intends to expand his church. Our journey back to VF through the Cotswolds was enjoyable; Cris gave me his humanist creed which makes an interesting contrast with Clive's. Interesting, isn't it, that highly intelligent minds often lead to different conclusions; it is a matter of faith —thank the lord! We stopped at Burford to allow me to relieve myself, I found a shop selling reproductions of maps by Speed, 1610, and I acquired Devon and Wilts, to my delight I found "Trowbridge" at Crediton marked.
May 17, Friday Today we go to our beloved Wales for a week. I had booked a room in the Royal Goat Hotel in Beddgelert. The room is on the third floor, with old beams and I soon bumped my head, but the views from two windows are fine and so was the weather now, blue sky in all directions with all the peaks clear—on the way we had a fine sightings of Cnicht, Moelwyns, and Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) himself.
18 May, Saturday Not so fine to day, sky overcast. A pretty fair breakfast and then off out to our first walk. We chose route 1, from Showell Styles "Hill Walks from Beddgelert", this turned out to be a great success, the way alongside the Glaslyn down stream along the old embankment of the former Welsh Highland railway was interesting, very few people about and that usual feeling of well being at the start of an excursion because of much optimism about its future development. After traversing a dark tunnel through the rock, some 300 yards, we found our selves in a fine glade of Oak, Birch and Chestnut, here we ascended up the Sygun Bwlch to the old Copper mine. The valley is quite narrow but it has the look of a typical welsh Cwm and it really is an attractive place with good views behind, south to Tremadoc bay and the lower Glaslyn valley. To the east the Moelwyn hills stand out and Cnicht from here begins to show its ridge like character rather than the shapely peak viewed from Portmadoc. All around are the debris of the old mine, it had a 200 year life from 1720 to 1924, rusty gear strewn all over the place, the first three stanchions for the hanging bucket cable system still in place—the ore was loaded into buckets and descended by gravity suspended from a cable in a continuous line with the empty buckets returning for more. Above the works the way led further up to the Bwlch from which we had superb views of the upper Gwynant valley and the Snowdon group. From this vantage point we could see a clear view of Moel Siabod as well. We then descended toward the shore of Lynn Dinas stopping for our picnic at a point high enough to get the best possible view of Snowdon.
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19 May, Sunday Walked to Lynn Glaslyn under the lee of Snowdon, 4 hours return trip. Clouds cover above 3000ft. but dry and warm with occasional shafts of weak, watery sun. Though not as busy as high summer there were many walkers and trippers about. We got back about 4.00 PM meeting the usual hopefuls, this time a young couple plus a tiny infant wearing light clothes, bootless and naive, " how far to the top", she said; we told her at least three hours and more and then about the same to return, we also said it would be nearly dark before they got there. They had the misplaced confidence of youth and after inquiring whether they could take their car nearer the top!, they walked on up the track. One presumes that after a while they would have the sense to return and be wiser next time.
21 May, Tuesday Trouble at breakfast, they didn‘t tell us they had changed the dining room! We had an exchange of words. The hotel is not of the best. To Ogwen, we walked to Idwal and then around the lake counter clockwise the weather now lovely. To Bangor; we walked the pier — rich with memories for me of my "Conway" days (1946-48) I swear I heard the ghosts of voices as we reached the end —the kiosk where we waited for a boat to take us off. On one occasion we sang songs of rebellion returning from having the "term photo" and were subsequently subjected to an emotional outburst from Captain Goddard, he thought our generation was suspect because of war deprivations, I suppose he meant lack of parental control and poor food, nonsense of course we were naturally bolshie. After this sentimental journey we went on to Beaumaris for Tea, we bought two brass artefacts from an antique shop, also a Dutch jug and a Welsh dinner gong, neither antique but nice pieces, £40 the two. We then enjoyed a nostalgic trip round this attractive town; we had our playing fields here and used to march behind our band to church on Sundays. I even played the base-drum.
22 May, Wednesday Kipper, Llanberis then back to Pen y pass. Weather overcast with drizzle, Pyg Track to above Glaslyn, had picnic in cold wind. We returned to base (3 1/2 hours) and the weather got lovely. Beautiful afternoon, we went to Portmadoc, looked over the Welsh Highland railway now under rebuilding; one day they hope to run the 23 miles up to Dinas near Carnarvon. To Criccieth for dinner, back via "The Rivals", Penygroes and over the Nantle pass to Rhydd-du.
23 May, Thursday Vector Fields Ltd 363
We endured a poor breakfast; revolting scrambled eggs. We decided on ‗Styles‘ second route today to Pen-y-gaer; this turned out to be a good choice, weather fine and clear all the way. The route gave us some minor problems but we found our way round more or less cleanly. The climax was at the ―step" where the lively Afon tumbles from the upper glen Cwm Cyd. Here we had our lunch as recommended. This is near the deserted house of the farmer poet Will Oerddwr, which is in a remote but lovely setting just by the prehistoric fort of Pen-Y-Gaer. We admired the view from the top of this hill; we could see virtually all of southern Snowdonia from Y Wyddfa and the ‗horse shoe‘ as well as Moel Siabod, Cnicht, Moelwyns and the Rhinogs. The way back was a hard descent through the woods at Aber Glaslyn to the main road, then an enjoyable scramble along the Fisherman's path by the Glaslyn river. The walk took us 4hrs 15 minutes.
Plate 135: Cwm Idwal looking East, May 1991
24 May, Friday Our last day; we awoke to bright sunshine. We decided to have a lazy day. First we went to Llanberis via Rhdd, following the way of the WHR then to Waenfawr. At Llanberis we parked and walked the town, saw part of the "Power of Wales" exhibition and then had some coffee in the old jail, now a restaurant. On the wall there were photo-copies of the jail admission sheets, vital local history documents for the town, one recorded a man accused of poultry larceny in 1947 just about the time I 364 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
stayed in Llanberis during my Conway days; also another accused of drunkenness on Sunday! How times have changed. We followed a sentimental journey to the waterfalls. We took the path up past the church and vicarage where I used to stay. Memories of a very cold house, 1947 was the coldest winter for years, we slept on the floor in the attic and laughed ourselves to sleep telling carnal stories; earlier in the evening I remember listening to the Rev J H Williams (Vicar and Scoutmaster) practising the piano, he could just manage the first two movements of the Moonlight Sonata. It all looked just the same. In fact Llanberis remains the same; we desperately needed the toilet but no facilities to be seen. The man in the sports shop said he had never seen one but recommended "Petes Eats" to which we rushed. We felt we had to pay for the service so we ordered cheese on toast for me and R had a sandwich. Petes turned out to be famous; the hard man's paradise, the rock climbers watering hole. The walls are plastered with the lads in action, including great photos of some of the best in the business hanging on by the skin of their teeth. The cafe has received a lot of publicity; a montage of adverts from magazines and even the Guardian also adorn the walls. The menu features such gastronomic delights as "Big Jim", enough food for four days and the "Grease Bomb" a delicate hamburger. After lunch we visited the Dinorwic Slate Theme Park where we bought a map showing wrecks along the welsh coast including HMS Conway. We also admired the lake-side steam railway. I have been thinking of the Welsh narrow gauge railways a lot this trip. Later, after dinner at the King Arthur, we explored the site of Beddgelert station and once more I recall during my visits here in the late 1940's how intrigued I was by the line that appeared to bore through the mountain side and connect the Menai Straits with the Cardigan bay; the maps of the day showed the railway and I really believed it would start up in the post war period. But sadly it had stopped actually in 1937. Now plans are afoot to rebuild!
30 May Thursday Jim and Helen arrive, Jim looks OK considering his recent minor stroke, and he is still blind in one eye. I took him into VF to have discussions with JS, BFC, CRIE and JSW. David Thomas rang to discuss Eric Munro, he said Eric was causing some problems but matters would be settled shortly. In the evening we all went to "The Cherry Tree" for a get together with the old RAL group. Present were John and Ann Collie, Brenda and Alan Armstrong, Pam and John Peisley, Jim and Helen, Rita and me, also Chris Harold, Morgan Chow and Julian and Margaret Gallop came; a very enjoyable evening. . Vector Fields Ltd 365
7 June, Friday To Wales with Simon, we stayed at the Victoria Arms, Llanberis. After checking in we went to Joe Brown‘s and bought Simon a pair of boots. The weather was fine and the area looked enchanting so we went exploring to test the new boots. We drove up behind Padarn lake and walked up into the old Dinorwic quarry, now a fine nature reserve. Alas this fine weather was the last we had this weekend!
8 June, Saturday Overcast next morning with rain promised later. We decided to walk the Snowdon Horse Shoe. We set out at 9.00 AM from Pen-y-Pass reaching Bwlch Moch in forty-five minutes. There were crowds of people, and a tail-back on Crib Goch but we were on the Summit by 10.45. Weather closing in, no visibility. The scramble along the knife edge was enjoyable. Strong wind at Bwlch Goch and drizzle by time we reached Crib-y-Dysgl. Crowds thinning and we reached Carnedd Ugain at noon and Snowden by 1230. There were crowds on the top, the train bringing them up by the hundreds as well as sponsored walks, several groups carrying people up to the top in wheel chairs. The noise of people singing and shouting in the ever increasing rain and gloom was depressing. The cafe was packed to bursting but we squeezed in and ate some of the food we were carrying. After all the rain was tipping down and so we decided not to do the second part of the Horse Shoe and return via the PYG track. We arrived back at Pen-y-Pass at 1615 very tired but pleased to have achieved what we did. After bath, whisky we had a steak, the food is good in the Victoria, then we drove to Bangor and Plas Newydd to show Simon some of my "Conway" past.
9 June, Sunday We had a day sight-seeing because of the bad weather. We went to the Welsh Highland Railway, actually rode the mile to Pen-y-Mount, the train was pulled by "Russell" a splendid loco.
11 June, Tuesday Olek telephoned, arranged Bottura's thesis exam Aug 8th. Julie Shepherd joined Vector Fields this month as an administration assistant; her role is to support Dinah in all aspects of administration and the smooth running of the office.
30 June, Sunday Rita and I set off to Italy today via Alitalia. Unfortunately the French Air Traffic controllers were on strike again so the flight was 366 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
delayed 40 minutes but we arrived at Pisa in time for the 14:40 train to Florence. Train was quite full but the weather fine, warm and wonderful. At one point a morose young man (from the South) came in and sat next to Rita puffing smoke; I pointed out the no-smoking sign and he proceeded to verbalize me, probably abuse. After a while he took himself off. At Florence we had to struggle with our luggage, a long, long platform without a luggage trolley. Eventually Rita found one but by then we had humped our bags with increasing pain at least 300 yards. Now we were mobile, found a taxi and soon found ourselves in Fiesole. The Aurora hotel people welcomed us and proudly showed us the view of Florence from our room. After a brief unpack we broke off to have a snack in the Blue Bar. Later we strolled round the village, climbed up to the Monastery and admired the lovely view of Florence. Dinner at Mario's across the square,
1 July, Monday To Florence by bus, we did the Viecho Palace, admired the room of the 500 but the Michelangelo statue was missing. A long pleasant light lunch in the Piaza della Signoria. After a fruitless search for the book area, we popped in San Croce church but we didn't realise that here are interred the greatest of Italy, an impressive role-call of bones: Michelangelo himself, the amazing Galileo, the crafty Machiavelli, and that marvellous mad organiser of music himself Rossini. What a collection! and Dante buried nearby as well. We returned tired and looking forward to our dinner again at Mario's, I had the splendid Tuscany Soup (three soups in separate bowls) and Rita had the lamb chops. Rita had a bad night because of the hard pillow.
2 July, Tuesday We went into Florence by bus to tour the Uffizi. We joined the queue which snaked well out into the Piaza della signoria, but it moved along quite fast. We had ample opportunity to study all aspects of the statues, I particularly liked the ruffled stockings of Piccolini and Lorenzo (Il Magnifico) with young boy. We were in the gallery in 40 minutes and soon admiring the Giotto virgin. For me as last time the things we enjoyed most were room 7 with the Uccello (The Battle of San Romano), tremendous and unforgiving, the Piero della Francesca portrait of the Duke of Urbino (the scale of the head, clothed in red against the landscape of blue is riveting), and the Fra Angelico (Coronation of the Virgin). This latter I discovered was originally painted for the Church in Fiesole. I also lingered over and enjoyed the several pictures by Cranach (Martin Luther portraits). We also admired the Antonio Polliao portrait of a lady and of course many others. I must say the Botticellis, the Vector Fields Ltd 367
Michelangelos and even the Leonardos made little impression this time, perhaps because of the large tour groups receiving pedantic instruction in front of these pictures—it was like the tower of Babel. We spent a good two hours there and were pleased to sit in the Piazza for lunch to rest. Afterwards we walked across the Ponte Vecchio to visit the Pitti palace galleries only to find them shut. The Boblio gardens were open though, so we had a stroll round but the heat was tiring. We returned by bus after visiting the shopping street Tornabuoni, not to be compared with Bond St. in any way, drab and dull. Rita was robbed on the bus returning to Fiesole, her purse was removed from her hand bag! She didn't feel the zip being opened so skilful was the thief, fortunately it just contained her driving license and some address labels245.
3 July, Wednesday We went to Arezzo today to follow the Piero trail and the legend of the holy cross. 11 am. Train, good journey, sat with two charming US students on the mini grand tour. Arezzo turned out to be a delight, not at all crowded; we went straight to the old town where we enjoyed an omelette and salad. The church of San Fresca was near and we were soon gazing at the famous fresco. Only half are visible owing to the restoration (they are hoping for completion by 1992, the 500 anniversary of Piero della Francesca's death). The right hand side we could see though appreciation of the upper panels was difficult because we were unable to stand back. But we could see the wonderful "Constantine's dream" with its amazing night light on the tent. Also, the lower right panel depicting the processional battle scene with the morning light that so impressed Sir Kenneth Clark. I loved the riders with their head gear, helmets and hats of all shapes and sizes, and the horses quite static but with tremendous potential for action if necessary. There was so much to think about. We bought a reproduction mounted on wood from the Francescan Monk in the little shop, he wrapped it most carefully, and the scene we chose was part of a panel we couldn't see, the geometric city representing Jerusalem (Arezzo); this forms part of the big panel on the left currently under restoration depicting "The discovery and proof of the true cross". After visiting a bank to pay the Friar I had another long look at the frescos. Later we explored more of the old city and climbed up to the old piazza where they hold the Sarcen's festival, this is most beautiful a large expanse surrounded by renaissance buildings and almost empty of people. The return journey took longer as we selected a slow train. Back in Fiesole we had dinner in Mario's. Afterwards we visited the cathedral
245 Her purse and driving license were later found and returned by the good offices of Paolo Molfino. 368 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
where some kind of service was underway, they were holding it in the crypt and appeared to be blessing something, and several men were unpacking some object from a box. The organ sounded superb.
Plate 136: Compumag Sorrento Poster
6 July, Saturday Vector Fields Ltd 369
We journeyed to Naples via Rome, snack lunch, changed money at a good rate. Naples train was delayed 40 minutes and we met Osama Mohammed on the platform who is hoping to host the next Compumag. We found our coach and loaded the luggage. I had an altercation with an ignorant young American woman who was occupying our seats, travelling with a quieter older woman (mother?). After some tiresome exchanges it was discovered that they were in the wrong coach (compare the two students we travelled with to Arezzo). Rita was not impressed with my lack of self control. The wait in the train was exceedingly painful, no air conditioning. At Naples we took a taxi to Sorrento with Mohammed, cost 120,000 Lire but worth it as we were now exceedingly tired. After checking in we explored the facilities which appear to be first class We began meeting people, first Steve Williamson and his wife Zita a very pleasant lady from Wiltshire, Steve was full of himself and Cambridge and soon giving me advice on the politics of Compumag. Plenty of that to come I am sure but for the moment we just wanted to relax. Chris Emson arrived during dinner. The organisers arrived in force, Rubinacci, Martone, Albanese, Cocorese all with there families a very congenial bunch. Japanese also arriving in strength, Miya, Takahagi, Homna and the Okayama group, Taka, Norio Takahashi (smiling) and Fujiwarra.
7 July, Sunday At breakfast we met EMF and Dave plus their ladies, and our Chinese friends also arrived, Tang, Fan Ming Wu and Yan Weili and many others. I had a brief discussion with Tang, he appears to have a problem, he said he will retire soon and wanted to propose Fan to the ISC, I said I would support him, I also told him that I wanted John Simkin to join the committee, he urged me to attend his ISEF conference in Hanchow next year. We had lunch in town with Ted Deeley, Cris, Jan Sykulski. Then the ISC meeting in the afternoon was held at the hotel for the committee election. The results for the first vote were: Simkin 10; Konrad 10; Mayergoyz 9. After the reception at the hotel we then had had dinner in town with Ted, Larry, Donna, Shirley246 and Lauri Kettunen.
8 July, Monday First day of Compumag, over 330 delegates, a great turnout, everyone pleased. The big theatre looked very fine with the huge Compumag logo in Oxford blue with the 'C' magnet, it made me feel
246 Donna‘s sister 370 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
proud and memories flooded back to the time some 17 years ago when John and I first designed it. It appears to be a tradition that I chair the first session but I think that this will be the last time. A new order is coming, as I retire now from the ISC so it was with some emotion to me that the first session got underway. So much so that I could not concentrate to manipulate the speaker timing system, my fellow chairman was the nice Prof. Bobbio from Napoli. However we managed with old fashioned 'wrist watch' method to control the speakers quite effectively. We had lunch in the garden, our stand now up and running with Rita and Cris. DEC computer arrived late as they were involved in an accident on the way. To Pompeii by train for a chamber concert in the amphitheatre, sadly Rita couldn't come as she had developed a migraine. We heard the amazing viola and violin duo (Mozart) and framed by some splendid Italian music by Mozart‘s contemporaries, Cimarosa etc. the atmosphere and playing was marvellous. The audience became somewhat restless and not very informed as they wanted to clap every movement. We began by sitting next to Fan Ming Wu who soon got fed up and cleared off somewhere behind. I remember him going to sleep in Bejing once during the Peking opera—he told me he preferred hard rock! Ted was able to collect lots of cushions for us in the interval from the absconders so we had considerable comfort in the second half. The journey home in the Cicumvesuviana railway was unpleasant.
9 July, Tuesday Busy talking most of the day both inside the lecture theatre and at our stand. Rita was feeling better today so was able to come to the second concert in the evening. We walked down to Sorrento in a huge crowd, again supervised by the local gendarmerie, I found I was walking next to Doug Lavers and we talked over the Alcan affair. The performance, which was given by an aging singer of Neapolitan songs — A Morro, accompanying himself on the guitar, was delightful. The setting was superb again, a cloister of an old church down by the sea shore. He sang all the old favourites and the audience were suitable enraptured. There were budding Paverottis there who joined in at the climatic moments, two in particular were persuaded up onto the platform to sing along with Morro who was very kind to them. He himself though with plenty of old fire to entertain was really past his sell by date in voice, an amplified baritone. Nevertheless, the large crowd were delightfully entertained. Come back to Sorrento...
10 July, Wednesday Vector Fields Ltd 371
My birthday and I got rather tipsy at the banquet—Rita very displeased. I feel keenly that this is my last fling at the centre of Compumag247 and I ended the day feeling upset.
11 July, Thursday Today was the last day of the conference and the day of my Lecture. There are nine of us that have attended every Compumag conference. Members of the Compumag 9 club: Ted Deeley, Kings, UK, Larry Turner, Argonne, USA, Alain Bossavit, EDF, France, Bill Trowbridge, VF, UK, J C Verite, EDF, France, Simon Polak, Philips, Holland, Dave Rodger, Bath, UK, Zoltan Cendes, CMU, USA, Theo Torschanoff, CERN, Switzerland
Plate 137: VF Stand at Compumag Sorrento L to R: Cris Emson, Rita, Bill and Dr Schneider (ISEI Inst.)
18 July, Thursday Very busy day today Rita and I go to the Queen's garden party at the palace; first I took Larry, Donna and Shirley to Didcot station to catch the 9.32. I gave them a good send off, seven items of luggage in heavy
247 In which I was quite mistaken as later events would prove. 372 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
rain; I must say I was not sorry to see them go, friendly as they are and very old friends too but we have other things to think of today. There had been a serious road accident on the southbound A34 near RAL causing a long tailback. This affected us slightly as our taxi to Didcot had to go the long way round. It didn‘t delay us much and we caught the train at 1108. On the train there was another couple on the same business as ourselves, already dressed for the occasion and not minding travelling like a 'dog‘s dinner'. We were safely ensconced in the Cumberland by 1230 and pleased with the room. After lunch we got ourselves ready, Rita looked lovely in her new hat. I decided to leave the topper behind as I thought it would be a nuisance. We departed in taxi at 3.15 our driver, a young black Londoner, was much amused, and this was a first for him too. He read carefully the instructions for drivers as he meandered down park- lane and thought he should display the card as instructed, he also spotted others on the same mission. In fact people were converging on all sides, on foot, in cars, all sizes and taxis like us. I told our driver I wanted the back entrance (you can enter the palace for the event in three places) but he would have none of this and drove us to the grand front door at the top of the Mall. Police directed us to a place to stop near the main gates. By this time there was a torrent of people streaming in and we were soon carried along by the crowd—not a very exclusive affair. However we felt very grand in ‗full fig‘ as we mounted the steps up to the palace entrance, passing the palace guard, and had our blue invitation card collected by a flunkey. There must have been three thousand or more gathering, we walked through a courtyard and then entered the grand entrance hall, portraits of the royal family adorning the walls; I particularly liked the one of Prince Albert. Still, we were not allowed to linger. So in the company of Admirals, Generals, Bishops, Captains of Industry, Scientists,....Public Servants, Major and Minor Officials, Social workers and political party workers etc. we were ushered out onto the terrace thence down on the huge lawn. The scene which greeted us was most colourful, the crowd was very diverse and in holiday mood, though morning suits for the men were much in evidence in several styles. People in uniforms from all countries and services gave variety and as for the ladies! Well they were much dolled up. My eye and ears were drawn to the two bands playing in two separate pavilions spaced diametrically far apart on the circumference of the lawn. The bands were both from the services and played suitable music alternatively; light classics, show tunes and traditional songs. On the two sides of the area, which was placed between the terrace and a lake, were the tea enclosures large enough to feed the five thousand! These were already supplying tea and food to some of the multitude but most people were standing in lines ten or more deep to wait for the Queen. We joined this throng but we didn‘t Vector Fields Ltd 373 think we would see much. At 4.00pm there was a hushed silence and the royal party arrived on the terrace. The diminutive form of the Queen stood still and the band struck up the national anthem. The uniformed officers stood smartly to attention and saluted. The Queen was accompanied by the Queen mother, sprightly as ever in her ninetieth year, and by Prince Philip (morning suit without the hat!). Next began her slow progress down the centre of the line of people. Stopping every so often to speak with someone, either in the line or someone special, who was with the small group or brought there by the army of stewards, household chiefs etc. We waited patiently for nearly half an hour for her to work her way down to where we were standing, we could see little until then but finally we did get a good view as she stood in the centre chatting to an important looking cleric. She is no taller than Dinah (5ft 2in) and has a plain face until she smiles and then it lights up her beautiful complexion. She was dressed in a red short silky coat and blue dress with a very smart small brimmed blue hat, three ropes of pearls and huge drop earrings. After she moved by we went to the tea pavilion and had tea, this was excellent with plenty to eat, served without fuss by an army of ladies, there was considerable choice of delicious snacks and a good cup of tea in chinaware (they needed thousands of cups!). I ate egg, cress, potted meat sandwiches, pastries, cakes etc, we sat and ate gazing at the lake and listening to the band. After this we went back and watched the royal party continuing their progress along the line. By this time the action had reached near the end where there were many rows of chairs, we stood behind the crowd. There was a short Canadian woman who got very excited as the Queen approached, she even stood on a chair to get a better view. Rita said it would be better if the Queen mum stood on a chair then we would all see her, laughter all round. She proceeded to show us a photo of the Queen mother with King George VI taken by her in 1939 during the state visit to US and Canada. This reminded me that I was also taken in that year to Southampton by my mother to see the royal couple arrive on RMS Queen Mary on their return from USA. I recalled seeing the two princesses with their parents in the car as it proceeded from the docks. The Canadian lady wanted to show the Queen her picture and asked one of the officials where she could stand to see the Queen leave; I think she thought she might be able to make contact—no chance. By this time the QM had tired and was escorted to the royal tea enclosure where she was served by a red coated footman, she sat quite alone at the end away from the crowd of special guests. Soon after the Queen herself left the line and went to join her mother. My most precious memory of the day was seeing the two of them chatting over a cup of tea, I found the ordinariness quite moving, I don‘t know why. I caught sight of Peter 374 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Tanner (BTG) in the crowd but saw no one else I knew personally. We decided to walk round the garden and leave, this we did by the constitution hill gate where we had our photograph taken. We walked up Park Lane back to the hotel. It had been a most interesting and enjoyable afternoon. In the evening we went to see CATS, very noisy and banal music, though dancing was exciting and the T S Eliot‘s verse does come through occasionally. We had a late dinner in ―El Paradiso et Inferno" in the Strand and collapsed into our beds at the Cumberland at around 1.00am very tired.
19 July, Friday We did the national gallery after breakfast, the new Sainsbury wing with the early Italian pictures. Splendid layout with the collection superbly displayed. It was especially interesting to see the Piero Della Francesca‘s', the Baptism of Christ and the Nativity scene, the latter with its wonderful pop group of angels without halos and the former with the orthogonal lines of the white dove above the Christ‘s head intersecting the line of his hands and much more besides. We returned home at lunch time, after an eventful two days feeling exhausted. I slept in the afternoon only to be awakened by Brian bringing the Math Co-processor for my Viglen.
23 July, Tuesday I went on a day trip to Dublin to attend IMACS 91. Rita took me to Oxford; I caught bus to HR and flight to Dublin at 10.00 I was at Trinity College by 1130. I had lunch with Giorgio, Cris, and Nathan Ida. My session went very well with eight papers, a good discussion, and well attended (60 or so). Also met Adel Razek, the Graz group, Nakata, Takahashi, Paul Lenard and many Compumagers! A very eventful day; back at home by 10.00pm.
7 August, Wednesday Train to Swansea for Bottura's PhD exam. We began at 1330 and it lasted two hours. He did well, with Olek in good form. We had afternoon tea in the Osbourne then a pleasant walk along the beach. In the evening we had a celebratory dinner. Helen and Ken Morgan's wife joined us and it was a jolly affair. We also talked a lot about Europe and the future and later got onto Genealogy. Olek‘s mother was a Penny and I told him about the Dorset branch of that family. Helen said she was pure Scottish with both sides coming from farming backgrounds. Lucca Bottura is a very pleasant young man who knows how to charm. He is gifted technically and will do well..
Vector Fields Ltd 375
14 August, Wednesday I went by car to Litchfield to meet Peter Lawrenson and Ken Binns to discuss the final matters of our book. Wiley‘s promise 15% in royalties and maybe an advance. We agreed to do final revision at proof stage unless Wiley‘s decide to go out to a reader again. We agreed to complete the Authors questionnaire ASAP.
18 August, Sunday I finished my Family History book which was to be printed by Wessex Press in Wantage. Mike Coleman ,the proprietor of Wessex Press, who had worked with Dinah on most of the promotional publications on behalf of Vector Fields was also helping me with the printing of my technical book, ‗An Introduction to Computer Aided Analysis‘, see page 293.
19 August, Monday The hard liner Coup in USSR is announced on the news today with Gorbachev under house arrest in the Crimea—the end of the Soviet Union? We witnessed on TV the great drama in the streets of Moscow with Boris Yeltsin emerging as the man of the moment defending both Gorbi and democracy. We also went to Wantage to discuss printing of Family History book with Mike Coleman; Rita came too to discuss the cover colours.
21 August, Wednesday The coup fails in Moscow and Gorbi returns and with the plotters under arrest, the breakup of Soviet Union now seems inevitable.
23 August, Friday Boris Yeltsin is now firmly under control, statues of the Communists are being pulled down— the KBG and Communist Party suppressed.
30 August, Friday I met Bela Konrad at Oxford and brought him to VF for a visit. We had some discussions on High Frequency Field computation; he appears to have some odd ideas about us and our approach. There is a culture difference. I expressed some concern about CEFC conferences but Bela assured me he would be a good Compumag supporter. We sent a joint card to Chari and we agreed to contribute to his article on PC compilers.
2 September, Monday 376 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Rita goes to Broadwindsor with Simon but I am off again, this time to Bilbao with Bryan Colyer for an IDAM project meeting.
3 September, Tuesday Meeting all day at Labein during which we planned the new proposal as well as having a useful update on the status of IDAM. There was a protracted lunch on top of a nearby hill with splendid views of the city. We were entertained by the head of Labein, a sociable and amiable character, Jose Mendia Urkiola, whom I liked as he promised to sort out our payment! Lunch lasted from 1400 to 1615. Later we had a midnight dinner by the sea proceeded by whisky, walking and rain.
4 September, Wednesday Meeting continues, good plans made for IDAM2 (MIDAS, my suggestion for a new name was adopted). We have framed the project in- line with the VF forward strategy. I was told that the Labien accounts department were processing our account. They owe us £80,000. After the meeting we were shown around the labs. At noon we visited the Electrical Engineering department where our software is used. The group leader, Santiago Arrien, showed us around with pride and fully justified too. He gave us a brochure which contains several good TOSCA and PE2D pictures. It was good to see TOSCA being used; the demo was done by Mikel Echavarren Serrano who had been to VF for a course.
6 September, Friday With Simon to Wales, 6hrs to Peny-Gwrd hotel, 30 min stop for dinner. I have never stayed at this famous hotel of mountaineering lore before. The rooms are Spartan but the atmosphere, people and food excellent. The bar, surrounded by mementos of Everest 1953, is pleasant indeed. It is a place full of character where the guest can sit and chat for hours into the night surrounded by photographs from past Himalayan expeditions. The land-lady Mrs Biggs is a bit of a card, rather camp and friendly, certainly encouraging the imbibing. Our rooms were very small and no bath.
7 September, Saturday Very good breakfast, we decided on the Carnedds to day and went immediately to Aber. Leaving the car in the forestry car park we set off up to the falls climbing up the eastern side to the lovely valley above. The weather was fine and warm (quite hot actually), we were aiming to explore the central hills of the range starting with Llwtmor. On the steep hillside we came across a wrecked airplane, I thought it was a British plane and what we found was I think part of the cockpit of a small plane, Vector Fields Ltd 377 possibly a WW2 fighter, and the debris was mostly Aluminium and wood. All went well with me at first but inexorably the going began to bite and I was finding it hard to keep up with Simon. I did make it to the summit but with much pain and decided that this was far enough for the day. We returned more or less the way we came and, despite the shortened route, we were walking for five hours. I was tired and jolly pleased to get back to the hotel for a hot bath, whisky and dinner, and a good dinner too. Before dinner we chatted in the Bar, an odd mixture of people were staying here including a salesman for a molecular modelling computer company, the chief fire officer and his wife from Surrey, a Physicist from Munich and a London photographer and his theatrical boy friend. After dinner we went straight to bed.
8 September, Sunday After a good breakfast we drove to Ogwen and did the north ridge of Tryfan, much better performance today. It was a splendid climb scrambling on rock all the way. At the summit we watched young men jumping from Adam to Eve with casual ease. We descended down to 'Australia', Lake Bochlwydd where we joined a party of Lancastrian fell walkers paddling in the lake, bliss and delightful chat, mostly reminiscences of climbs past. Excellent day, but I am not fit enough to really enjoy it. A toe nail on my right foot has been severely damaged, despite my Brasher Boots and my experience.
9 September, Monday We returned to Frilford via, it seemed, the whole of Wales, including bookshops at Machynlleth and Hay on Wye, it took twelve hours. Rita returned from Dorset and said she had enjoyed her visit to see her sister.
378 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Plate 138: ISEF Conference, Southampton 1991
17 September, Tuesday To Southampton today for the ISEF248 conference with Rita
18 September, Wednesday Conference first day, my talk appeared to go well; Martyn Harris was the chairman and was very good and the VF stand looked very professional. The conference dinner was held on a boat and was a fine affair. I sat at a table with Percy Hammond, Martyn Harris and Professor Turowski (the conference chairman).
19 September, Thursday The Conference second day with the VF hosted dinner at Bucklers Hard on the Beaulieu River at the ‗Master Builder‘, the famous hotel celebrating the ship building from former times using the new forest timber. We also toured the museum showing artefacts and models of the great wooden ships of Nelson‘s time.
20 September, Friday Dinah goes to Bonn with the Oxford Choral Society for a joint performance Gerontius with the local choirs at the Bonn Festival.249
248 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Fields Vector Fields Ltd 379
29 September, Sunday To Genoa from Gatwick, I was met by Mauritsio Repetto and Silvia (his lovely wife), Dreadful weather, torrential rain and gales. I was lucky to land more or less on time as later the airport was closed. Silvia and Mauritsio took me to their apartment facing the raging sea and we had lunch overlooking the Genoa Gulf. Later they dropped me off at the hotel only to be whisked off again for dinner at Paolo Molfino‘s—Great music and company.
1 October, Tuesday Kurt Richter came and we discussed plans for the next CEM short course to be held in Berlin. Giorgio and I were guests of Richter and Mila for dinner.
23 October, Wednesday To Barcelona with Rita: checked in Hotel Arenas, 1600. First session of the Zienkiewicz birthday conference. About 50 people present. Everyone who spoke made generous and sincere tributes to Olek. We all had dinner at the Seven Doors restaurant which was enjoyable, Geoff Hollister made a fine speech, quoting Longfellow —'footprints in the snow' etc.
24 October, Thursday Second day of seminar; my little tribute250 went well enough judging by comments received. Eddie Dillon (A civil engineering Prof from Cork, actually older than Olek and was his best man at his wedding with Helen) turned out to be a most interesting and likeable man. He and I got on well. His Irish accent is charming—he always refers to OCZ as 'himself' or 'your only man', his talk followed mine and was on the subject of explosions---I nearly collapsed with delight. Ken Morgan's paper presented by one of his co-authors was very interesting and may be useful to us. I was also congratulated by another old friend of Olek (the senior man present in age), one Prof. George Herrman from Stanford. The Official dinner for Olek was held at the 'Jockey Club' down town and turned out to be a fine affair. Roger Owen and I talked over old adventures on ESPRIT, specially in Eindhoven. Rita and I sat with Roger and Eddie Dillon also Dr Gupta, head engineer at Nasa Ames, who
249 Dinah later co-authored a piece describing this historic performance in the Elgar Society News letter. 250 ‗Finite elements and magnetic scalar potentials‘, J Simkin & C W Trowbridge, In ‗The finite element method in the 1990‘s‘ dedicated to O.C.Zienkiewicz, Springer-Verlag, CIMNE Barcelona, page 509. 380 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
showed considerable interest in VF products. The meal was capped by speeches and a presentation to Olek of a silver tray with all our names engraved. Afterward M.Ohayon played Mussorgski (Pictures at an Exhibition—The Great Gate at Keiv and some Rachmaninov).
24 October, Friday Free day: Rita and I toured the town, looked at the Cathedral, Picasso museum, and the Gaudi. We had lunch in La Ramblas and booked tickets for a concert. We ran into George Herrman at most of these places! The concert started at 2100 just like the old days in Buenos Aires. The OCB (Orchestra of the City of Barcelona) played Berlioz (Fantastic Sym) preceded by the harp concerto of Ginastera played by Zincarra and Don Quixote by Roberto Gerard. We enjoyed it all and had a late dinner nearby after.
29 October, Tuesday My History of The Trowbridge Family (100 copies) arrives from Mile Coleman of Wessex Press. I am very please with the result. Today I submitted our case to the Queen‘s Award Office for Technology Achievement for 1992. We had been working on preparing this for some time and we felt confident as the case for our Technical Innovations was a strong one with good export figures to match.
31 October, Thursday To Pam's leaving presentation at RAL Cris and I collected the VF present, a cut glass bowl with her name engraved. A huge crowd there, David Boyd made an affecting speech and after that I said a few words too. Pam had marshalled her sisters and husband to provide a mammoth feast which we all enjoyed---just like Pam, generous and gregarious right to the last but much appreciated.
2 November, Saturday We went to the Ark for Pam's retirement dinner. All the old core group were there, Alan and Brenda Armstrong, John and Ann Collie, and John and Sue, also Cris and Janet. Brenda full of Somerville, she is the secretary there and is run ragged by all those females dons. About 35 folk present and the meal was quite good and Pam was pleased. She astounded me and everyone else by announcing she had accepted a temporary job from? Who else but RAL and is starting next week.
5 November, Tuesday Captain Bob drowned, announced on the News. Robert Maxwell the Czech Jew adopted English Tycoon, Citizen Bob. Founder of Pergamon Vector Fields Ltd 381 press etc; Doug Allen said many years ago that he was an interesting man, like Enoch Powell in reverse, Socialist Billionaire. Was he pushed or what?
25 November, Monday Up early to catch a train from Didcot with Cris, for London, to attend the CEM conference at the IEE HQ, Savoy Place. The next three days were very hectic apart from chairing three sessions. We had our VF stand in the exhibition and many people to meet. My memory of it all is quite blurred. PPS gave the invited talk on Mathematics CAD type packages, rather dull and irrelevant I thought, though he speaks well as always. Aptaker's presentation went well enough, only a minor hiccup, he had too much time—which seem to confuse him. The message was well delivered though and I think he should be pleased. We stayed at the Strand Palace Hotel. In the evening Dave Rodger and I entertained some people at the Inferno, one was a charming lady from Poland who gave an excellent talk, Małgorzata Celuch by name, flaming red dress and blonde. She was keen to meet people and get her work published. I agreed to help a little.
26 November, Tuesday Second day, I had to attend a meeting of the Wiley Journal editorial board. Before this I handed over to the Wiley Ladies, Mari Ann Franks and Laura Deny the latest version of my part of the BLT book. Polak and PPS were both at the meeting which was a pep talk by the publishers to us sluggards on the board to promote the journal. Brother David came and met my colleagues then he took me to lunch at his club. We had good food and wine and it was very pleasant to have a good chat with David whom I don‘t see very often. Afterwards I saw his office in Smiths Square and met his team of ladies. On the way there I bought a suit at his Tailor's nearby. The man in the shop, a Mr Nicholls, is an excellent salesman! I was lucky to get out with one suit but I fear he will sell me a second when I return to collect it.
17 December, Tuesday Visit from Martyn Harris and the Southampton group, Richard Stoll and Jan Sykulski. It was a useful meeting to set the scene for a new Teaching company scheme. We decided on an applications shell and Martyn will write us a proposal.
19 December, Thursday 382 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
To Brussels with Bryan and Jan Van Maanen for the IDAM review; the plane delayed 90 minutes. We arrive at Metropole hotel at 1400 in tine for the first meeting. The rehearsal proceeded reasonably well and all seemed well, the whole team were there, Giorgio and Paolo from UGDIE, Pico, Barrabochi, Donatella, Vivaldi and a new researcher from Ansaldo. Alonzo and Emaldi came later from Labein. We all had a jolly dinner in the Grand Platz before retiring. Giorgio told me all about the ISC meeting in Miami. My statistics report was helpful he said and the new democracy is underway. He also said my society proposal251 would be adopted and a committee will be set up with me and some of the old hands.
20 December, Friday Review day. We met the reviewers two from UK and one Spaniard plus the Brussels bureaucrat a Dutchman by name of Furth. After a good set of presentations we were amazed that the reviewers rejected some of our deliverables. They were implying that our oral presentations were possibly faked and they now had to insist on a live demo of everything. This is unfair because we had offered this in the first place. Giorgio was incensed and everyone felt let down. I saw Furth after and he did concede that IDAM was good project better than most. Why he didn‘t say so to us formally I don‘t know. We have to accept things though we have no choice. I have a dim view of the referees; they asked no real pertinent questions, a possible exception was the Spaniard who did seem to know something about FE and incidentally appeared to dissociate himself from the results of the review! I later had the childish pleasure of ‗cutting‘ the British reviewer who made ill-informed comments during the review and I suspect he may have been our main problem. Brussels should get better people for their assessments, but maybe cash is the problem. People like the above, are called independent consultants and make a living out of EEC projects. The other Brit was such a non-entity that I cannot even remember his name. I purchased a bottle of Bowmore for Simon—as it was his birthday. This year has been momentous both generally and specific. The soviet empire has collapsed and my family history book was brought out! The beginning saw the gulf war but Saddam is still there torturing and people are still starving. Terrorism is rampant but Terry Waite is home. It was announced later that Gorbachev has resigned, there is now no such thing as the USSR
251 We had been talking for some time about starting a CEM society; this was to gel over the next two years. Vector Fields Ltd 383
1992 Queen’s Award Year
Towards the end of January I made a trip to Japan. The main purpose of the visit was to make personal contact with KBK and to assist them maintain our contacts with existing customers and to generate new business. We had been concerned, for sometime, that our business in Japan had been declining, despite assurances from KBK last year that a substantial growth this year would take place, and it was now time to assess the situation. There had not been a visit to Japan by a VF director since September 1989 and the opportunity arose when we were asked to participate in the ISEM conference at Nagoya, to combine a technical and business trip. KBK agreed to exhibit at the ISEM conference. The evening before departure (24 January, 1992) I had been working late at the office and Rita collected me at 7.00 pm. Her car hit a curb on way home, blew out both near-side tyres, the car had to be rescued by the AA, and Simon came and rescued us. He had dinner with us. I had a restless night anticipating the trip to Japan to come. I was met by Shingu-san at Narita who took me by train to Tokyo central (JR). I was far too tired to talk or discuss things with him seriously. He got me on the 1.00PM Shinkansen to Nagoya. I arrived at Meitetsu Grand Hotel, very near the station at 3.0PM and checked in my room, rang Rita, and collapsed into bed for the restless and slow business of fighting the jet lag; a noisy room with a large, very large family next door whose social life spilled out into the corridor? I forced myself to stay in bed until 0630. The next day was Sunday and after a shower I had breakfast in the restaurant on the 18 floor, top of the building, with a good view over the city of Nagoya. Food was excellent, English style eggs and bacon. I now felt very much better. Next I did some shopping in the nearby mall; I bought a leather hand bag and had a haircut. Feeling even better I decided to visit Nagoya castle. I admired the Don-Jon, completely restored after the war during which the whole building was raised to the ground. Inside there is a fine portrait of the Shogun Tokagawa who founded modern Japan. Late in the afternoon I went to the Nagoya conference centre to register for ISEM. I was greeted at the door by Morisue, now a professor here but today responsible for registration. He took me to meet the conference chairman, Prof. Uchikawa who was very welcoming. Unfortunately there was no computer available; he had sent me a fax to say time was too short to get one. Morisue was not invited into the inner sanctum of the chairman. Even he, a very distinguished scientist, is part of the hierarchy and must know his place 384 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
At the reception that evening I met some old friends, Tony Moses from Cardiff, Oscar Biro from Graz and Prof. Honma from Sapporo. Harold Sabbagh also came late as did the Silvesters, Peter and Elizabeth. The reception was a stand-up buffet with plenty to drink. There were several Russians present. I was now very tired so I returned to the hotel to enjoy another restless night with frequent disturbance from the shrill voices of children and social chatter next door. Monday was the first day of the conference and I sat with PPS for the opening session. We heard a good lecture on the Aharonov-Bohm effect by an outstanding scientist from Hitachi, A Tonomura. He described his experimental work in which the effect is now finally established after decades of controversy and also some applications in Holography and Microscopy. The bottom line is that in QED (Quantum Electro Dynamics) vector potential exists even in flux free regions. I then attended the parallel session on cold fusion a current talking point as most scientists believe this to be spurious with misleading results generated by poor experimental technique. Although the new papers do not, in any way, resolve the situation, neutrons have been observed etc., but at a very low level suggesting, perhaps, some interesting physical chemistry252. Some experiments are reproducible but most are not it seems, and it may be a case of the philosopher‘s stone! It is interesting that the Japanese like to be topical and be seen to be promoting forums for discussing these controversial matters. The posters looked good, laid out on flat tables, there is to be a competition for the two best posters in each session. At the end of the hall, on the 4th floor of this very large and new congress centre, the three trade exhibits are situated. I met some new KBK people, Mr Eiichi Shinohara (his maternal grandfather was the first president of KBK) who will be involved with the promotion of VF software in the future, and Mr Shinichi Tachibana, a jolly, well meaning chap with an appealing manner, who is on the marketing and sales team. Also a young lady, Sayoko Kobayashi (Sally) Mr Nomura's secretary, joined us and for this show is to be the smiling face of KBK. I will return to the new KBK organisation later, however Nomura heads up the marketing side under Inakatsu, whom I will meet tomorrow. Lunch with Shingu at the sandwich bar in the centre, this centre is huge and somewhat vulgar. A large, very large Samurai warrior astride a huge white horse stands guard outside the building. It must be at least 20 feet high and very white, smooth and ugly. I tried hard to get Shingu to get me a Personal Computer (PC) so that I can demonstrate PCOPERA.
252 Even this is now believed to be spurious Vector Fields Ltd 385
He claimed that such machines were not widely available in Japan but I was not convinced. That evening there was a reception at the hotel for the foreign guests. Karaoke singing was the entertainment. The Silvesters and I declined but Biro sang (slightly off key) a German drinking song but two Russians were marvellous, a soulful ballad from the Caucasus sung with panache and sentiment. I stayed to hear the conference chairman sing, pace Sinatra, ‗I did it my way‘; I decide that Uchikawa is rather pompous in the Japanese way, fully conscience of his position and quite keen to keep his underlings under control. It was a pity that the outstanding, Morisue, was not invited! The next morning at the conference I attended the optimisation session, Sabbagh was good, full of the ‗moment method‘ as usual, but I hated the Gottvald presentation, no mention of electromagnetics; PPS thought he could have been optimising flies! Miya arrived and we had a good talk agreeing to meet next week in Tokyo. Inakatsu and Nomura also came during this talk and I joined them for coffee immediately after the session, hoping for a good briefing. Yoshitaka Nomura is the marketing manager of SDI (Systems Development & Integration Operations) business Dev. Dept. and Shosaku Inakatsu is the general manager of SDI so I suppose Nomura and Shingu both report to him but more of this later. They told me about the new organisation and promised substantial improvement in performance. He appeared constructive about the PC versions. He said there were good prospects from Sumitomo HI (Shikoku Island, inland sea) 90%, and Kawasaki HI (Tokyo) also 90%,.They would know by April, he also said, from now on, two persons will be involved on VF business! Is all this smoke screen? He promised an in-depth discussion in Tokyo next week. I had lunch with Shingu and Sally at a local cafe, very tasty fried rice; I told them the story of Madame Butterfly which seemed to enchant Sally who comes from Yokohama. Shingu still not convinced about PC software in Japan. At the banquet that evening to my delight I found Nakata there who had specially travelled up to Nagoya to see me (or so he said). We had a good discussion and made arrangements to meet in Germany in April. The banquet began with speeches, a long winded one from Uchikawa, but good natured and friendly, followed by a toast to the committee by PPS, also long, a little laboured as is his style but well received . Not much food but good convivial company. Miya and I had a good talk about KBK politics. He suggested that he send a student to VF. Later Inakatsu, Nomura, Tachibana and I went out on the town at a Karaoke bar and they all sang songs. I liked the Japanese songs best, soulful and dramatic. We were hosted by a charming young lady, Aya, 386 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
delightful manners and pretty face. On Wednesday there was a poster session on Advanced Computation, I thought Takagi's was excellent, good technical content and attractively displayed. PPS had a rather dull poster visually but rather a neat technical nuance on curvature of finite elements. The KBK stand is adequate but lacks variety in the examples displayed. We must send them more. They do their best but our system could be more eye-catching. Met several engineers from Toshiba who expressed a strong interest in our, MRI and HF work. Many companies showed interest. In the afternoon I chaired the session on Advanced Computation. Three papers, both Biro and PPS repeated earlier papers. PPS talked about symbolic algebra programs and repeated word for word his IEE talk. The best was Kameari who introduced a new algorithm for force calculation, his rough style of delivery is quite interesting and made us laugh, e.g. ‗I no like‘, ‗again no like‘, but finally, ‗this I like‘. He was referring to Maxwell Stress, Coulomb's method, and lastly to his own method. At the wrap up session the poster prizes were distributed by Uchikawa. Surprise-surprise PPS got one, but so did Takagi. Some of the authors had earlier lobbied me for their votes, including the abrasive Dr Saito from Tokyo University. It was sad that Kioshi Yoda, a very intelligent and charming, fluent English speaking researcher from Mitsubishi, was not given a prize, I thought his effort was of the best. PPS said that the common denominator was McGill253. Nevertheless we got on quite well together and he agreed to support the formation of a CE Soc. Weather was good so far, sunny days and not too cold, quite a surprise for me, for once in Japan I was getting good views. I go to Osaka today with Shingu-san. He collected me from the hotel at 10.00. We caught the 10.20 Shinkansen to Sin-Osaka. It is a trial travelling with him, he insists on smoking! I am too soft to stop him. On arrival we checked in to the Seibu Members hotel, a good quality hotel, quite cheap at KBK rate (Y5000), and better than Nagoya! We had a light lunch near the hotel and caught local train to Tsukaguchi to visit MELCO. On arrival we had a long walk from station, very vexing, we crossed over railways, very dubious level crossing with no protection, I was also gassed by the waste effluent from the local sweet factory, Shingu said proudly; the largest sweet manufacturers in Japan—a subsidiary of Mitsubishi. I had to address seminar of Mitsubishi people from all parts of the company. This was 19th Seminar on Field
253 Uchikawa had been at McGill it was said. Vector Fields Ltd 387
Computation and was attended by 11 people, including the pleasant Mr Kiyoshi Yoda who impressed me at Nagoya. Another nice surprise was the presence of Shiro Nakamura who came to RAL in 1980 and used TOSCA—he remembered JS and me well and was very appreciative of our help. He is probably the first TOSCA user in Japan. The seminar was chaired by Dr-Ing. Shigekazu Sakabe the Electromechanics Group manager, he was agreeable and helpful throughout. He thanked us for looking after the four delegates to the TOSCA course last December at VF. Three of them were present, including the delectable Mrs Toshie Takeuchi (Shingu fancies this lady I think, but she is already spoken for) who is to teach the Mitsubishi TOSCA course, Tetsuro Miura a theorist and algorithm engineer, and Kimikazu Hazumi, a TOSCA user . The meeting raised many important questions which I, for the most part, was able to answer. Meeting went very well, there was interest in High Frequency Magnetic Field effects (HF) from a Y Sato and the prospects are good for VF business in the future. However their budget is tight at the moment but they are hopeful to place orders for Elektra etc. next year. They also want to discuss the PC products in more detail. Afterwards we were entertained at the Mitsubishi social club for dinner by Dr Sakabe, Mrs Takeuchi (who brought some special soup), Tesuro Miura and others. Tesuro told me his other hobby was German wine. The meal was thin strips of high quality beef, fried in an open earthenware pot on a hot plate, which we dipped into raw egg. The beef was interleaved with fried fresh vegetables. The dish is known as Suki Yaki. Tasuei Nomura joined us later. I have known him since 1983 when he visited RAL. I visited him here in 1987. We also met in Graz. He has been a good supporter of our software from the beginning. He now works at Osaka University but still collaborates with Mitsubishi and hopes to use TOSCA again. The next day we went by train to Sanda to visit MELCO Institute of Technology where the TOSCA course will be given. This is a new institute where they are going to educate their staff in all branches of Engineering Science. The journey was typical of travel in Japan, trains, nearly always full, a great deal of standing but the timings are accurate and the service efficient. A day trip normally involves several changes on to local lines, some of them private. Shingu always needs a smoking section, again much to my discomfort. To day we changed once at Osaka central and then went on quite a long journey to Sanda which is near the mountains. In fact the scenery was interesting for a change, since most routes I have been on to companies in the past are through densely populated areas. Today we followed the course of wild rivers and attractive foot hills. At Sanda, a new development, we were ringed, in the distance, by snow capped mountains. The weather is still fine and sunny. 388 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
We took a taxi to the Institute which was situated far from town on a hill, a splendid location. We were met by Dr Eiichi Hirasawa, a senior staff member of the electrical engineering department. He gave us a presentation of the work at the institute; He then gave us a tour of the building, a complicated new building of only 4 floors but with several wings set in spacious grounds that are being landscaped. It is a Mitsubishi show place, but only for MELCO, not M-HI, M-Motors or M-Atomic Power. There is residential accommodation for the visiting students, up to good hotel standard. The education facilities here are state of the art. Lecture rooms of varying sizes, from class-room to lecture theatre. All equipped with advanced visual aids, full colour on-line projection from the formidable array of networked computers, including satellite links to all parts of the Mitsubishi company, eventually to be global. In one of the TV studios, I was placed at the lecturing position and could then see myself on multiple TV screens, and presumably in any part of the building. My lecture material could be my notes, computer output, slides, O/H's all capable of being zoomed, etc. Mrs Takeuchi joined us and she showed me TOSCA in a large class room full of work stations. She is to teach the first TOSCA course here in April. She needs more examples, could we send them some? I agreed to help. We then went by Mitsubishi car to have lunch in Sanda at a famous Japanese steak restaurant which entertains the diners by showing live performances of Noh plays. Unfortunately, today there was no show but the open country surroundings, no industry, and fine mountains in the distance lent enchantment. The meal was excellent. The steak, I had a fillet, was tender to a degree I have never experienced before. The staff wore very traditional costumes and kept us supplied with good things. Dr Hirasawa was a good host and told us more about MELCO, he said that perhaps MELCO + MHI = Hitachi. Train back to Osaka, weather changing, rain, or snow on the way. We caught the 3:30 PM Shinkansen for Tokyo. Heavy snow developed on the way and when we arrived in Tokyo there was chaos! Huge queues for taxis so we decided to get the JR rail to Shinagawa to get to my hotel. I finally checked in the Pacific Hotel at seven PM. I was really tired so had a snack meal and went to bed. End of first week here, and first month of 1992. The following day was Saturday but heavy snow seems to have stopped the traffic. I tried to get money on my Access card using my pin number for UK, no luck, the wretched machine kept my card! I complained to the management and they promised to sort it out. It meant calling out an engineer but the snow would prevent an early arrival. I decided to call the AMEX office in Ginza and they said I could get money direct from them. Vector Fields Ltd 389
KBK had appointed MR Tachibana to take me out to see some sights today but Shinohara-san called to say that he would come instead as Tachibana was caught in the snow somewhere. Shinohara arrived mid morning. He spoke with the management but the engineer had not yet come. So we went to Ginza by train and I got some money. Next we went to Akihabara to look at PC's, 386 equivalents, and at the LAOS store we found that indeed they are available here, from Toshiba and Mitsubishi etc. but at a significantly higher cost, I collected several brochures. We returned in the slush to the hotel, I gave him lunch and then sent him home; He lives at Yokohama, not too far away. Spent rest of the day in and near the hotel, I looked around Wing, a department store and rested in my room. I had supper in the sky lounge on the 31 floor. Heard a girl singing with a good rock band, noisy but lively, the weather had cleared and the view of Tokyo at night is quite something. I could see the Towers at Shinjuku and The red Tokyo tower nearby. During the night I awoke suddenly, thrown on to floor, earthquake! The shaking lasted for nearly a minute and was quite frightening, I was on the 21st. floor so the effect was quite dramatic, the building rocked several times but the shock waves decayed rapidly. I opened the door and people were doing the same as me, staring up and down the corridor, but there was no panic—all part of the scene here! A message came over the telephone, the voice said, ‗this is the manager speaking, do not worry this hotel is designed to stand earthquake, all lifts have been stopped, if you want to come down to the lobby please use stairs‘—and so on, a recorded message, and one could imagine the manager to be miles away! I looked out of the window and there was no activity at the vast Shinagawa station, I then looked across the densely packed houses of the suburbs and could see no signs of damage. So I went back to bed, there were occasional tremors I thought, and later the TV reported that the quake had been measured 5.7 on the Richter scale with only minor damage and that only 30 people injured so far, people falling out of bed I suppose! Rita and I were once in California when there was quake measuring 5.7 and several people were killed and extensive damage done. On that occasion we had just taken off from San Francisco airport after visiting Olek Zeinkeiwicz in Monterey who was there analysing earthquakes by the finite element method. The next day, Monday, Shingusan collected me to travel by train to Chiba to visit Furikawa (Existing TOSCA and PE2D Customer). This involved the usual tortuous journey by train across Tokyo, this time toward Narita. We changed trains at Chiba a huge dormitory town and took a local line to Ichihara. We had lunch near the station then we endured a long wait for a taxi, lunch-time break for taxi men, and so we eventually arrived late at Furikawa at 13:30. I visited this place once 390 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
before with JSW and CRIE in 1986, at that time Furikawa Oxford was part of the group but now the Oxford Company is quite separate and has moved to a different location together with Antony Ford. We were met by Koji Mogami, Deputy Manager, whom I don't think we met last time, he was very welcoming and quite lively. He was joined by Akio Kimura, senior engineer, who we did meet in 1986; he was, at that time, a Quality Assurance Engineer. They both had had contact with Alan Armstrong but not since the OMT-Siemens merger. Koji Mogami made several good remarks about TOSCA and PE2D and they both expressed a strong interest in ELEKTRA. I was asked to explain the functionality and algorithms used. They hope to include ELEKTRA in their next year‘s budget, March 92/93. They would like to see more examples in our documentation, etc. like ANSYS (this comes up again and again). They have been looking at the ANSYS documentation and feel that VF could do better. A training course in Japan for Furikawa is a possibility that they are keen on, say five persons. We returned to Tokyo, to KBK offices. I insisted on going there to try and motivate them about PC OPERA. Nomura tried to find me a machine. We tried two, a Toshiba lap top but this machine didn't have a VGA screen. Then a desktop 386 but there was no mouse available— very unsatisfactory. Brief meeting with Inakatsu, his attitude annoyed me as he appears not to grasp the significance of our new policy and kept distancing himself. He started cancelling meetings for me that had been scheduled for later in the week. I want to meet his in-line managers! On my way out I told Shingusan that he should impress upon Inakatsu that I want to speak with him seriously about VF/KBK relationship and that he should contact me by telephone at my hotel to make an appointment. I was feeling very annoyed and was debating whether to contact Rikei Corp to explore other arrangements. I returned to the hotel. I called JSW to talk things over with him. I took a bath and during this the phone rang, it was Nomura. He said that Inakatsu would come and see me now at the hotel! So my displeasure must have registered. In the event I failed to have a quiet conversation with Inakatsu on my own, as both Nomura and Tachibana came too, safety in numbers I suppose. We had dinner at the hotel but the noise of the band prevented decent conversation, but they assured me they would do what they could to promote VF business. At least I may have cleared the air a little for better discussions later on in the week. The next day I took a Taxi to Tokyo station to meet Shingusan. We were to take the Joetsu-Shinkansen to Kumagaya to visit Hitachi Metals (Existing TOSCA Customer). We failed to meet, I was told to be at the Shinkansen ticket office which was outside the inner station system (Tokyo station is really huge), but Shingu was inside at some other ticket Vector Fields Ltd 391 office. Eventually we met after frantic telephone calls to KBK office. We missed the train but caught a later one. We bought nice box lunches to eat on the train. The cut sandwiches here are tasty and quite like our style in UK. Kumagaya is beyond the Tokyo conurbation and is a middle size city near the mountains. A lengthy taxi journey through very narrow streets finally took us to HML. I had come here before, 13 April, 1988, and according to Shingu that first visit led to them signing for TOSCA and subsequently CSB visited Kumagaya to install it. It was a very large factory and research complex. We had to go to the lab where TOSCA is used and this necessitated the changing of shoes etc. and then a long uncomfortable walk through many huge open offices. Finally we reached the traditional eastern conference room with those very large covered arm chairs and green tea. Our host was Takuzo Shiba, last time it was N. Goushi who was very receptive then and I was disappointed not to see him to day. However Mr Oda was also present and he remembered me and said he was an enthusiastic TOSCA user. They were interested in ELEKTRA which I described. They want more information on Voltage driven problems, motion term and non- linearity. We should write to them stating the current position. They will try and include ELEKTRA in next year‘s budget but Hitachi is a very slow company in purchase matters. Shingu rates it as 60%. We saw a good demo of TOSCA on the IBM power station very impressive with an elaborate model. We returned to Tokyo on the Shinkansen. A horrible journey as we had to stand most of the way. Then we had another nasty local rail trip to Kawasaki to visit Toshiba (New prospect). I gave Shingu a hard time; there was much walking in the heavy rain. We arrived late. Shinohara was already there. We were received by Toshiyuki Taniguchi, deputy manager, scientific applications. He was accompanied by Atsuko Baba a young lady. This is a first contact so they wanted detailed information on all our products. They asked many questions and Taniguchi proved to be very knowledgeable. He asked detailed questions about the need for two potentials, etc. in TOSCA, also he knew well the ANSYS code. His questions were shrewd and he explained they were doing a intensive code evaluation for Toshiba requirements, both on work stations and Cray, they would provide bench mark problems. The main application areas are very broad but include MRI. They are aware of our good reputation in this area and he said that he had received good reports from Toshiba people, who attended the Nagoya conference, about our software. Other applications are High frequency, EMC etc., Eddy currents, motion, the complete system in fact! He was also very positive about our integrated systems, PCOPERA, OPERA2D with the stress and thermal solvers. 392 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
They showed a strong interest in VF and made copies of several reports and inspected the colour pictures very carefully. They also asked for a copy of my book. I felt we had made a good impression and I am sure we will be assessed very carefully by the experts here who I think are of top quality. Our edge in MRI and 3D solutions will, I think, eventually secure this business. On Wednesday we visited IHI (an existing customer, TOSCA and Elektra) this morning at Otemachi. Shingu collected me at 10.00 and we were in the building next to the Maranouchi Hotel opposite the KBK main offices by 1100. Shinohara came too. I first visited IHI April 18, 1988, and I remember being entertained well on that occasion by Mr Kohno and Mr Ueseka (an old friend). These two have now both left so today we met new people, Hiroshi Ukikusa, Manager Advanced Technology Development Dept, Masayuki Takabe, particle accelerator group, and Mizuho Ida, advanced technical department. IHI now have several new users to train since Ueseka has left (he is now with Miya at Tokyo university, I will see them both tomorrow) and they made a strong request for Japanese version of the manuals. They also would like to see more data input checks to trap user errors. They are interested in courses in Japan also. They were encouraging about maintaining the links with VF and showed some interest in PC-OPERA. The meeting was concluded with an excellent lunch in their executive restaurant, I once again admired the scope of IHI activities from ship building to table top cyclotrons. In the afternoon we went to KBK at SDI, NF Park Building, for a meeting. This is what I had been waiting for; to judge just how positive they intend to be in the future. Present at the meeting were the following: Inakatsu, Nomura, Shinohara, Shingu, and Tachibana (later). I was annoyed that Yamada was not present but I decided to hear what they had to say. I requested that a record of the meeting be made and Shinohara was appointed to write minutes, but they turned out be little more than an Agenda. Inakatsusan described the SDI set-up, Systems Development and Integration Operations. The role of the Engineering department is not clear. What is clear, however, is that Shingusan will not be involved too much in marketing and that Mr Nomura is now a key figure. I also got the impression that in April he will be in overall charge of Business Dev. But where does that leave Inakatsu? I asked for their opinion on the marketability of the products. They agreed with our price order of Y2M for PC-OPERA, but were concerned about detracting from the existing market for work-stations. They are in favour of limited functionality. But could see the advantage in portable use for pre and post processing for full sized problems and transferring data to larger machines for solutions. I had shown them that suitable m/c Vector Fields Ltd 393 e.g. 386/486 etc. are available in Japan. Both Toshiba and MELCO make them, and that there is interest by the customer community. KBK agree to prepare a detailed strategy in a few weeks. I was impressed by Nomurasan's attitude throughout this discussion. The Japanising of manuals was discussed at great length. It was said that it would cost Y5M to do it by a professional company and a poor result was probable. It would far better to use Takagi (Sendai U.) or Uesaka (Tokyo U.). Nomura said the cost should be recovered from 10% of software cost. KBK will consult with these groups as a matter of urgency. They requested a copy of the VF Japanese Mail Shot list. Another course on the lines of the one CSB and I did at Ikebukuro should be repeated and June or July this year was suggested. I emphasised the need for another technical back-up person in Japan, someone fully trained at VF for an extended period. Maybe a specialist person from one of leading universities in the EM area, Tokyo, Okayama, Sendai, Sapporo, Nagoya etc. could work 1 year at VF then join KBK. Shingusan asked for an example set for all the VF software to be sent. I agreed that this was a common request from all the companies we visited and that I would try and arrange this when I return to Oxford. Market research was not carried out in Japan in a systematic way; I was assured that the new SDI organisation will change this. I asked if the VF business was cost effective for KBK. They said yes! They are promising 5/6 new licenses in 92/93. I reminded Inakatsu of his promise to us in Oxford last year. He gave me a wry smile. We then reviewed the PC product again. They would like a demo disk as soon as possible and also they asked if it is possible to make a version that runs on the near compatible Japan machine e.g. NEC. Tachibana had arrived late, out of breath; he had legged to Toshiba and Canon to see the Munro Electron Optics contacts. He really exceeded his brief! I had only asked him to call them on the telephone to arrange an appointment for me to call them. He actually visited both places today; I think this may well embarrass me. Anyhow, he spoke with Dr Yamazaki at Toshiba who said that in Japan the Munro software is well established and marketed by JEOL NIPON DENSHI, no surprises there. Toshiba bought it, last year, for a Sun W/S. He said it is good product and he has made a modification for his own application. Tachibana then went to NEC to see Dr Ishida, he found out that the software was installed on a PC by Eric and he paid $50,000. He said the software is very good. The following day I telephoned NEC and Toshiba to make my peace for Tachibana's visit. They must have thought I was trying to get the VF agents to sell them VF products. Both thought the software good but could be extended. I said I would send a questionnaire to them both by Fax. Shingu and I are to visit TOKO today (New 394 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Prospect). We first went by Taxi to Ikebukero and then caught a local train to Tsurugashimashi, about 50Km from Tokyo in a NW direction. Here we found a compact company specialising in small electrical devices downsizing to components for electronic circuits, transformers, inductors etc. Our two hosts, H Fujisawa and Mr Aida had very little English. They let us tell them about the VF products in detail. They would like to do Hysteresis one day but at the present time are concerned with basics. They are new, new to FE computations and wish to get started. The bench marks we did were very satisfactory giving good results. After a two hour session they then announced that their company only wanted one system to do all, so they have decided to buy ANSYS. They had also looked at Magnet but thought VF was the best in EM. I have a feeling they will be back to us later on though when the going gets tough. We then returned to Tokyo, all day I had been insisting on meeting Yamada since he didn't come to the meeting yesterday. I felt aggrieved that they, and I believe Inakatsu, was trying to prevent the meeting. I was now told that he would not be joining us for the final dinner tonight. But I might be able to see him later in the afternoon at Otemachi. I suspected that Inakatsu had primed Shingu not to bring me to the KBK offices until the last minute and in any case to keep me down stairs until he, Inakatsu, arrived. I was furious, so I ignored all this and went straight up to Yamada's office leaving Shingu stranded. He immediately agreed to see me. We had met some years ago when he was the KBK manager in London. We talked over coffee in his conference room. He is certainly several cuts above Inakatsu; we had a frank exchange of views. I didn't complain directly about Inakatsusan but welcomed the positive points about Nomura and the new organisation. I also took the opportunity to praise Shingu, who really does his level best. It was agreed that VF should relate directly to Yamadasan in future if necessary. He assured me that he would make sure that KBK will promote the PC product but he didn't want to reduce the work station sales, of course we agree about this. He also listened very keenly to me and was concerned that we have not done too well in Japan of late. He assured me that the new business development group would be more active on our behalf and that he will be supervising things personally. Inakatsusan arrived, very flustered, with Shingu, and there was much bowing and scraping to the top dog. Yamadasan then spoke quietly but severely to them both for several minutes and they sat quietly heads bowed. He then apologised for not being able to join us tonight and we said our farewells. I like him, he appears sincere and of course his command of English is better than the others by far. Vector Fields Ltd 395
We went to the Maranouchi hotel for dinner. Miya came and we had a quiet drink together with Inakatsu in the bar. We discussed our new 2D integrated system, Miya made many suggestions to Inakatsu, in Japanese, about possible future customers. We then went on to the translation issue, Miya said he would give this serious thought; he is a consultant to KBK after all. Mrs Miya then arrived, she greeted me warmly and we discussed what had happened to us since we last met at her house 1989. Uesaka then came and also Nomura and we went in to dinner. There was a very bad moment when Uesaka asked me about VF selling his software. This led Miya to a long outburst of venom. He rated his man, Uesaka, in the most comprehensive manner. Of course I couldn't' understand a word but Miya made himself clear nonetheless. Uesaka had committed a major gaff in discussing such things at dinner and without prior consultation with his superior. It is indeed remarkable how hierarchical pecking order still works in Japan. Uesaka sat in humble silence, head bowed, as he was soundly ticked off. I excused myself and went to the loo. When I returned all was well, the bad moment had past. Uesaka had taken his admonishment well and they were all chatting happily once again. I enjoyed Mrs Miya conversation, we discussed Japanese writers a little, I only know about three, in particular, the book she gave me at the time of Compumag Tokyo, called Silence, which I liked a lot, it was concerned the life of the Japanese Jesuits in sixteenth century. I was asked at one stage if I could explain Japanese success in the modern world. I uttered the usual platitudes. I said I thought it was a combination of their amazing ability to copy and improve, together with their strong feeling for a hierarchical work ethic, coupled with their custom of not taking that much out of the system for themselves. Enough, we said our good byes until next time and I went back to the hotel, I walked with Nomura and Uesaka to Tokyo station. On the way I commiserated with Uesaka but he said, ‗Bill you shouldn't worry‘. Today is Friday and I go home. To my surprise I was upgraded to Club class at Narita so the return flight was more comfortable than I had expected and I arrived safely, DG. Arigato Gozaimas (Thank-you). My conclusions on this very hard trip were as follows. I came here expecting to have some problems with KBK, but in the end I am somewhat reassured by their new management structure. On the positive side I welcome the personal influence of Mr Yamada. He has chosen a good team on the business development side. Mr Nomura and Mr Shinohara are both energetic and appear to be well motivated. Mr Shingu will continue on technical support and will be less involved in business development. On a personal level I found Shingusan most agreeable and co-operative at all times. 396 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
I made good contact with our existing customers who I think will continue to do business with us. There are several new prospects; most exciting is Toshiba, but also Kawasaki Heavy Industry who are interested in velocity effects. My bottom line recommendation was that we persevere with KBK but we must keep matters under review. Longer term considerations must include more courses and Japanese manuals, and possibly of training a Japanese expert here to join KBK later. They are promising substantial business growth for 92/93.
A Winter Journey to Finland
The next event for me was to travel to Finland for Lauri Kettunen‘s thesis examination. I set out on February 12th for Tampere via Helsinki and was met at Tampere airport by Lauri at five pm. He took me to the Hotel Cumulus in centre of town adjacent the fast flowing river that connects two lakes. Very cold here, -12 degrees Centigrade maybe, with deep snow and very wintery. The experience is like a time warp for me, last time I experienced such weather was in Canada many years ago. In England the coldest had been 1947 but not like this. The lakes here are frozen solid and to say the least it is fresh! Lauri took me to a good restaurant for dinner and we chatted about his ordeal to come but he is a much organised young man and does not show any sign of worry. The readiness is all. He left me at the hotel together with a tailed suit that he had hired for me. The room is sparse but has everything that one needs. I began the next day shopping for warmer clothes, scarf, gloves etc at the superbly stocked ‗Stockmans‘ department store. At eleven I met Lauri and Larry Turner who had arrived earlier. We went to the Technical University to meet Profs. Erikson and Pohjavirta; after lunch with Erikson I gave my lecture on the History of the RAL group. The lecture appeared to go well and there was a good discussion afterwards. In the evening we went to Erikson‘s house for dinner— a large bungalow on the outskirts of town; all wooden floors in the Scandinavian Style. Other guests were Lauri‘s father and mother and Dr Pohjavirta. Mrs Erikson was charming and had prepared a somewhat formal meal but really nice. Erikson and I discussed the format for the thesis exam; we had to send Lauri away! The following day, Friday 14th was St Valentine‘s Day and also Lauri‘s big day. We began by dressing up; Tail-Coat and White Tie— putting on the style. We took a Taxi to the University and found a crowd of people all ready seated in the hall, Lauri‘s Mum and Dad, his jazz band, two brothers, faculty members, Students, girl friends et al. Then the Candidate, the Chairman and I (The examiner) processed formally to the Vector Fields Ltd 397 platform and Lauri‘s ordeal began. After Erikson introduced us it seemed it was pretty well up to me so I invited Lauri to summarise his thesis project which he did most precisely in English (thank goodness). It was very appropriate that Larry Turner should be present as the work was largely carried out during Lauri‘s time at Argonne National Lab when he was closely associated with Larry and the use of Integral Methods. Larry and I had pioneered Integral Methods many years ago (1970) which resulted in the GFUN code and to a small degree this is how Lauri‘s work began, as he says in his thesis,
‘ The incentive for this work arose in a discussion I had with L. Turner and C.W. Trowbridge in which we decided that it is worthwhile to check if there is something to do for integral methods with the knowledge of finite elements we have nowadays’.
The title of the Thesis ‗Volume Integral Formulations for Three Dimensional Electromagnetic Field Computation‘ is innocent enough but, as Lauri soon demonstrated in his introduction his work involved applying the so called Whitney Forms254 (or edge elements as they are often called), to the electromagnetic problem formulated by integral equations. As Alan Bossavit255 had already shown these forms were very effective in finite element formulations of the standard differential equations and Albanese & Rubinacci256 had applied them to the problem of Eddy Currents in non-magnetic materials using current flow integral equations for a number of special cases. He stressed that his guiding principle was to construct ‗well posed‘ problems, i.e. problems which have the correct physical continuity conditions and the right number of unknowns and equations. After he had outlined the work I asked him to tell us what the new contributions to the subject he had made. This is always very difficult question to answer in areas of front-line research, as overall progress is not smooth and the best ideas nearly always have more than one originator— there is nothing new under the sun principle.
254 First proposed by H Whitney: Geometric Integration Theory, Princeton Univ. Press, 1957. This class of mathematical objects originally had nothing to do with finite elements; it is an example of lateral thinking. 255 A Bossavit,‘ Whitney Forms: a class of finite elements for three dimensional computations in electromagnetism, IEE Proc.,Vol.135, Pt.A, No.8, November 1988, pp. 493- 507 and many earlier papers 256 R Albanese, G Rubinacci: Integral formulation for 3D eddy-current computation using edge-elements, IEE Proc., Vol 135, Pt.A, No. 7, September 1988 398 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Plate 139 : Lauri defends his Thesis
Lauri believed, and I was convinced of this, that he had devised a procedure (A Graph Tree) which led to a reduced number of unknowns and to a simpler numerical algorithm for practical implementation on the computer without violating the strict rules of continuity. This was a major advance for solving problems with non-linear magnetic materials over that originally developed in the GFUN code for example. I managed to keep the show running for two hours by which time everyone was exhausted and in need of refreshment. Lauri did very well and I had no hesitation in awarding him a ‗pass with commendation‘ which pleased everyone concerned. Over lunch I spoke with Lauri‘s mentor Armo Pohjavirta, who started Lauri out on his quest years ago as young student, who seemed delighted by the outcome, as were his colleagues in general, in fact everyone seemed pleased. We then returned to the hotel for a rest before going to a dinner apparently in my honour at a nearby hotel. At the dinner were Lauri‘s father and two brothers (one a Lutheran Minister, the other a male nurse), Pohjavirta and Erikson, Lauri, Larry and me. It was a convivial evening at which I was told it was the Vector Fields Ltd 399 usual practice to throw the examiner into the river afterwards but as I was a foreigner I was exempt. The next day Armo collected Larry and me and took us on a trip to see the winter sights of the forests, lakes and rivers; Armo an inspiring teacher with a deep knowledge of theory of Electromagnetism told us how proud he was of Lauri. We also learnt a little about Tampere: it is the third largest city in Finland and the largest inland city in Scandinavia, it lies on an isthmus situated between Lake Näsijärvi, which reaches far to the north, and Lake Pyhäjärvi in the south. The Tammerkoski rapids that run through Tampere connect the two lakes with a fall of 18 metres. The rapids became important as a way of making hydropower. During the 19th century Tampere grew rapidly to be an industrial centre, and in the latter part of the century the town had almost half of Finland's industrial labour, earning it the nickname Manchester of the North, founded by Scottish immigrant James Finlayson in 1820, helped Tampere grow into thriving industrial city. Nowadays central Tampere is characterized by old red-brick industrial buildings, most of them housing offices, restaurants, and cultural activities. Armo also took us to see the landmark Näsinneula tower, topped by the inevitable revolving restaurant, however terrific views of the surrounding country were to be seen from the top. That evening we went to see Lauri‘s parents and enjoyed a Kettunen family dinner and discovered that Lauri‘s father was not only a distinguished Chemical Engineer but a keen amateur genealogist and he gave me a small book he had written about his family history with an unbroken line stretch back into the sixteenth century. We also learnt a little about the mythology of the Finnish nation and the Kalevaia a collection of 32 cantos that had been compiled from the oral poetry surviving from the peoples that lived in the North Eastern part of Finland. Not only did these stories inspire the great Finnish composer Sibelius but also at about the same time the late romantic painter Akseli Gallen- Kallelea. Lauri showed us a print of the painting depicting a young man blowing a huge reindeer horn which looked remarkably like a younger Lauri himself, indeed a copy of this picture adorned the dedication page of his thesis. The next day, Sunday, Lauri drove us to Helsinki, on the way he stopped at Sibelius house at Ainola but found it closed for the winter. ‗You must come back in the summer‘, Lauri said and we both said we would try to, one day. He took us to the airport and we said our farewells, I to London and Larry to Chicago. It had been an enjoyable experience. 400 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Back to earth at Kidlington to write Lauri‘s thesis report, and to plan software course using PC-OPERA at Kings with Charles Turner and Ted Deeley. At long last we had a product that ran on a personal computer— a great step forward. There were also the frequent meetings to progress the IDAM & MIDAS projects with our European partners and at the end of the month the short course on CEM, this time organised by Dinah under the VF umbrella, was to be held in Berlin. The particle physics conference (EPAC) was also being held in Berlin the week before and David Carpenter would be attending to manage the VF exhibition. Thomotronic our agents in Germany were sending a graduate student from Aachen, Klaus Hoeffer, to help David and he would also be attending our course the following week so was able to install the software for the course demonstrations. Accordingly Molinari, Richter and I met up with Arnulf Kost from Technical University of Berlin at the Kempinski Hotel on Sunday 29th March. I had been met at the airport by Klaus, who had all the equipment for the computer demonstrations in the back of his van, and he rapidly transferred me to the hotel. The course was a lively affair with some tough questions from the attendees but on the whole was stimulating; Arnulf was an excellent chairman as well as a great host; he organised a trip to the opera to hear Aida and also to quiet bar where we were entertained by ‗Weimar-Republic‘ cabaret style singer who was marvellous. I enjoyed the company of Giorgio, Kurt and Arnulf, as we all seem to share similar views; we discussed again the idea of forming a society for CEM researchers and I received enthusiastic support for the meeting I was convening to discuss this in Vienna in May. All of this however was overshadowed by the news I received on the Friday before leaving for Berlin, which had informed me that VF is to be to be awarded a Queen‘s Award for Technological Achievement for 1992. This was very heartening news, we all felt honoured and it gave us publicity and pleasure; we agreed to have the ceremony at the office so all concerned could be involved. To make the occasion special we decided to erect a temporary marquee attached to the offices to allow our many guests to enjoy a buffet lunch. Apart from the prestige of this award, which lasts for five years, the company is allowed to display the distinctive Queens Award Logo on its products, publications and documentation, in addition to exhibition displays, ties and flags. The occasion passed off very smoothly and I believe was enjoyed by everyone present. It was especially pleasing to welcome David Thomas (ICST, formerly RAL) who had been the guiding spirit at RAL for CAG for many years.
Vector Fields Ltd 401
Plate 140: Presentation of the Queens Award
VECTOR FIELDS257 is honoured to be chosen to receive the 1992 Queen's Award for Technological Achievement. The award was announced on April 21st, the Queen's Birthday. The Queen's Awards have been in existence since 1965 and are awarded annually for Technological and Export Achievement. To receive the award a Company has to meet stringent criteria which not only demonstrate an advance in technology, but also evidence of commercial success. The actual presentation ceremony was at the VF offices at Kidlington, Oxford on June 16th. After an introduction by Marketing Director John Whitney, the Queen's representative in the county of Oxfordshire Sir Ashley Ponsonby, the Lord Lieutenant, presented the award to Vector Fields Chairman Bill Trowbridge on behalf of the company. In his presentation speech Sir Ashley praised the company in its achievement particularly considering its size. Out of the 37 companies to receive the award this year Vector Fields is one of the smallest, a considerable accomplishment which reflects the excellence of the technical team. The citation of the award specifically mentions the ELEKTRA and OPERA packages which are also receiving tremendous commercial success in world markets.
257 From the Vector Fields Newsletter, Vol 10., No. 1, 1994 402 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
Plate 141: The VF Staff with Sir Ashley Ponsonby L to R Standing: David Carpenter, Chris Biddlecombe, Cris Emson, Sir Ashley, Chris Riley, Bryan Colyer; Seated: Rachida, John Whitney, Bill, John Simkin, Julie, Dinah
In my acceptance speech I traced the history of the company from its roots at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and thanked the many collaborators, suppliers and customers for their support and paid tribute to the dedication of the staff. After the ceremony Sir Ashley, Lady Martha and the guests, consisting of technical collaborators, suppliers, staff members and families and local customers, saw a demonstration of the software by our Managing Director John Simkin and inspected a display of photographs of products designed using VF software kindly donated by customers from all over the world. Finally the buffet lunch was served in the Marquee, giving the event something of the atmosphere of a garden party. One of our guests was Charles Turner, the William Siemens Professor of Electrical Engineering at Kings College who contributed a short account of the work we had been doing with his students in my role as a visiting professor at Kings; Charles wrote in the Vector Newsletter258 the following:
258 PC-OPERA at Kings College, Charles Turner, VECTOR Vol. 8, No. 2, 1992 Vector Fields Ltd 403
Plate 142: PC-OPERA at Kings College
Earlier this year Vector Fields latest product PC-OPERA was used as a teaching tool by Bill Trowbridge at Kings College during his short course on numerical methods for our second year students in electromagnetics. The climax of the course was a session when all 32 students were able to have hands on use of PC-OPERA using our network of PC (386) machines to solve an electrostatic problem by the finite element method. This is the first time that an industry-standard software package has been used at Kings for whole-class teaching. The students were given a strip-line capacitor problem to solve. They were able to create the model, generate the finite element mesh, and apply the boundary conditions. Models created were of the order 1000 quadratic elements and were then solved using PC-Opera’s static analysis program. Post-processing of the results then followed in which the students generated field maps and line plots using the software. In particular they were able to note the electric field discontinuities at the dielectric surfaces and verify the capacitance per unit length of the device. The practical session has given our students additional insights into numerical methods and illustrated many of the points covered in Bill's lecture as well as my course as a whole. Two of my research students 404 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
also joined in the session and will be using the software on more advanced problems associated with our collaboration with Vector Fields.
On the 6th of July I had a call from Adrian de Hoop to tell me that I had been elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences I was completely surprised at this great honour. I immediately detected Simon Polak‘s hand in this as he had asked for my CV a year ago and Dinah told me later that Adrian had contacted her for the latest CV as well. Adrian said he had be asked to present the official letter to me personally and as he would be in Oxford on July 29th with his partner Analise, who was working on a research project at the Bodleian library, for a brief visit. I said that Rita and I would be honoured if they could be our guests. We arranged a small lunch party at the Woodstock Arms on 29 July. We had an excellent lunch and Adrian presented me with the official letter and also said I should arrange to visit the Academy in Amsterdam and present my work at some future date; this I agreed readily to do. My brother Peter came for the weekend of August 15th; it was good to have him on his own this time as I wanted to talk to him about his memories of our old family life in Lymington in the 1930‘s, to aid me in my projected auto-biography. He had recently sold his business in Parkstone and was now living quietly in Poole with his wife Hilda, who being several years older did not wish to travel far these days. Rita liked Peter and they always got on; I always thought that Peter had a special talent when it came to the ladies. Our daughter Dinah was singing regularly for Choirs in Oxford and, during the summer of recent years, had performed with Stowe Opera (a country house season at Stowe School) this year they were doing Don Giovanni in which she sang in the chorus; the musicians involved were amateur and semi-professional from the Oxford Area and Rita and I liked to go, we would dress up ‗Glyndebourne Style‘ and picnic in the grounds during the long interval. Rita and I had a lovely break in North Wales in September, staying at the little climber‘s hotel at Pen-y-Gwryd, primitive but bracing with good food and many fine walks. Later in the month Simon and I escaped to the lakes for two days intense climbing. Also in September Giorgio‘s group came en masse for detailed discussions on the IDAM project and we had a party for them all at D‘Arcy‘s Field where they presented me with a set of CDs of the music of Paganini, Genoa‘s own composer. One member of their team, Piergiorgio Alotto, was about to join VF staff as a software development engineer, a welcome addition. Earlier in the year I was told that the IEE were going to award me the 1992 Achievement Medal and, as the following piece from the IEE Vector Fields Ltd 405
News makes clear, this was in recognition of the work of my colleagues as well.
Achievement Award 1992 Science, Education& Technology259
The Science, Education & Technology Division Achievement Award for 1992 has been awarded to Prof. Charles William Trowbridge in recognition of his and his colleagues' outstanding contributions to electromagnetic computation, for their help in providing computing services to others, and for their efforts in promoting and supporting IEE activities. Prof. Trowbridge's group has won worldwide recognition for its major contributions to the numerical solution of electromagnetic fields, starting more than 20 years ago and retaining a leadership position as the needs and interest in the area have expanded. Original work at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, where he was appointed group leader of computer applications in 1971, followed by his chairmanship of Vector Fields Ltd. from 1984 has provided sustained and effective leadership in developing some of the best known of the large variety of magnetic-field computer packages which are now available. The value of the early software in solving problems in the technology of large magnets used in particle physics, and the like, rapidly established Prof. Trowbridge’s reputation, and by 1970 he was being invited to give lectures internationally: His personal initiative in the organisation of the first Compumag conference in 1976 was reflected in his position as chairman, and his drive and enthusiasm did much to ensure its continuing success and its international role. The group was very active in making the Rutherford laboratory computing services and software available to academic institutions in the UK, and this did much to help foster a wider interest and capability in electromagnetics computation. It also led to much used computer links, and user group meetings played an important part in the exchange of information among a large body of academics and others. When changes at the Rutherford Laboratory forced a reduction in activity there in 1984, Prof. Trowbridge and his colleagues took a major risk in setting the group up as an independent commercial venture, Vector Fields Ltd This has continued the software support and development programme with great national and international success. One of the ways in which the importance of the group has been recognised is by requests to serve on the Committee of IEE Professional Group S8 (Electromagnetics), which Prof. Trowbridge has strongly
259 IEE News 7 January 1993 406 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
supported both as a member and as chairman. Other members of his group have provided continuing representation on the Committee over many years, despite the cost which this represents to a small company, and all have been very active as Committee members.
Plate 143: IEE Achievement Award 199, 22 November 1992
There was good progress on the proposed Southampton Teaching Company project which was approved for funding. This was timely as the Oxford Brookes scheme with John Long had now successfully completed and indeed we had recruited the Teaching Company associate Rachida to join VF as a development engineer. We interviewed candidates for the associate on Nov 6th and selected Simon Taylor an Oxford graduate engineer. On November 6th I made a sentimental journey to Lymington to see Fred Webster, see Volume 1, page 66, Fred and I had been close friends as youngsters and I had been the best man at his wedding. He served in Korea and stayed on in the army for 12 years but we had not met for over thirty years. I found him much the same; settled in a house in Buckland— quite near the site of my Grandfather‘s little farm. He and his wife Joyce were very welcoming and we reminisced about the old days for hours. Fred was a plumber in the town for most of his working life but now had a part time job with the local undertaker. He proudly showed me his small electric organ and played it for me, he was always musical and as kids we explored classical music together. On the 18th of November I received a letter from the Prime Ministers office informing me I was being considered for an OBE in the New Year Honours list; this was indeed the climax of a remarkable year. Vector Fields Ltd 407
1993 The announcement in the New Years Honours list duly appeared and the many letters of congratulations I received gave me much pleasure; even my dear Rita was impressed but in truth the gong was just as much for her as she had guided me so well for more than 40 years. Turning up for work at Vector Fields on Monday 4th of January I found that John and Sue had prepared a huge banner of congratulations which adorned the front of the building, which made reflect on the help my closest colleagues had give me. I heard somewhere, ―OBE that means ‗Other Buggers Efforts, doesn‘t it‘ — too true‖. One of my main activities for VF had been in the promotion and managing our external projects and I wrote the following short article in our Newsletter summarising their status:
The next three years will see several major enhancements to our suite of electromagnetics design software based on the results from three new joint projects with end-user companies and academic institutions. Two of these new initiatives are sponsored by the European ESPRIT and EUREKA programmes respectively and the third is a new UK Teaching Company scheme. Vector Fields has been involved in several collaborative ventures since 1986, for example the three Esprit projects ACCORD, BECAUSE and lDAM which have now been successfully completed. Regular progress reports on these have appeared in previous issues of VECTOR260. The new ESPRIT project is to be known as MIDAS and is an acronym for Magnetic Integrated Design Analysis System. The main objective of this project as far as VF is concerned is to develop and then to exploit an advanced prototype pre-and-post-processing environment for three dimensional analysis (e.g. TOSCA, ELEKTRA etc.). This system will include a new 3-D geometric modeller and automatic mesh generator and will be interfaced to a data base management system that uses the emerging STEP (STandard for Exchange of Product data) standard. The other partners of MIDAS are Ansaldo Ricerche of Genoa, LABEIN of Bilbao, University of Genoa, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Cranfield Innstitute of Technology. The Vector Fields component of the work will be under the general management of Bryan Colyer and will involve several members of the R&D team. The Eureka project is under the JESSI (Joint European Sub-micron Silicon Initiative) sub-programme on applications and is the second phase in the development of an EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility)
260 Accord Project, VECTOR Volume 5, No 1 and Volume 6, No 1. lDAM Project, VECTOR Volume 7, No 3. Project Update Reports, VECTOR Volume 8 No 1. 408 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
work-bench already started. Our partners in this project are Philips Eindhoven and Redhill as well as Kings College London and others in Europe. This contract is concerned with the development of algorithms to compute high frequency radiation effects and will extend the range of applicability of ELEKTRA. The work will be directed by Cris Emson and will involve Professor Ted Deeley's team at Kings College London. The new Teaching Company (TC) is with the University of Southampton and is also for three years. We were encouraged to apply for this project following the success of our first Teaching Company with Oxford Brookes University (Formerly Oxford Polytechnic)261The basic idea of these projects, jointly funded by the DTI and SERC together with a company, is to provide a two way interchange of expertise between industry and a teaching establishment. The central objective of the work is to create application-specific program modules to interface with our existing finite element software packages. These will establish strongly supportive user environments for performing design studies of selected generic classes of electromechanical devices. The principal investigator on behalf of the university is Dr Jan Sykulski and a new graduate from Oxford University, Simon Taylor, has been appointed as the TC Associate to carry out the work under the direction of Chris Biddlecombe. Vector Fields is very proud to be associated with these projects which should play a crucial role in getting state-the-art software in place rapidly to benefit our end-users. It is expected that some of the ideas will be translated into action well before the projects complete.
On the 16th of March I was commanded to attend the investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace; we decided to make the occasion even more memorable by booking into a hotel the night before and have a celebratory dinner at Simpson‘s in the Strand, accordingly then the four of us drove to London and booked into the Strand Palace Hotel. The great day dawned and I was quite nervous and somewhat bewildered and hoped I would get through it without mishap. I had visions of tripping and falling down in the middle of the investiture but from the moment we arrived at the Palace the system took over and I was quickly guided to the ante-room with dozens of other awardees to receive a short course from the courtier, an extremely upright military type, of how to conduct ourselves in the throne room. It really was a case of follow my leader. The family had been directed there earlier and were being entertained by the ‗palace orchestra‘ playing from a balcony whilst they waited for the entrance of the Queen.
261 Teaching Company with Oxford Brookes University, VECTOR Volume 7, No 1. Vector Fields Ltd 409
Plate 144: At the Palace with the Family, 16 March 1993
We were segregated into two rooms, CBE‘s & OBE‘s in one and the Knighthoods in another. After what appeared to be a very long wait we were called in alphabetical order to file through the long corridor to the throne room and I found myself next to Richard Todd (Toddy) the film actor, much admired in the days of my youth. In the throne room the band were playing pleasant music, suitable to the occasion, I could hear strains of Elgar at one time which gave me a lift. Our names were called in turn by a RAF officer who acted as a kind of master of ceremony. I remember standing behind Richard Todd as his name was called and he strode forward, turned left bowed forward again and received his medal. Then it was my turn, ‗Professor William Trowbridge, for services to science and exports‘, and somehow I found myself before the Queen, she hung the medal on the lapel clip provided and said a few words of congratulations and I muttered something about Rutherford Lab, then she shook my hand and firmly pushed me back, so that was it, all done with such gentle skill. As we filed off to the right the medal was taken from me to be packed in its box and later handed back, and I soon found myself sitting 410 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
next to Toddy in the main body of the room where we watched the rest of the proceedings. I could see now the Royal Party standing on the dais, with her guard of honour, including a Ghurkha, soldier a reminder of our imperial past. Where my family were sitting I have no idea and as we waited for the rest to be invested I chatted to Toddy who was very friendly and talked about the films he made and his career as paratrooper on D Day. It was soon all over: the press grabbed Toddy and other real celebrities, like Jimmy Savile (Jim will fix it) who had just been knighted and was in deep conversation with a journalist. I found my family and we went outside to enjoy the almost carnival atmosphere. We lined up with the others and had our photograph taken, Dinah noticed Gordon Strachan (a famous footballer) being photographed with his family with the kids dressed in morning suits like their Dad. By then people were beginning to drift away and we grabbed a taxi and returned to our hotel for lunch and later we all drove home; a great day. A day or so later the scroll of the award came, signed by Her Majesty and Prince Philip (The Grand Master of the Order of the British Empire) which we proudly framed and displayed. We also received a documentary video about the awards system in general with clips from my investiture spliced in, plus some hard copy stills. Earlier in the year I had a letter and phone call from Lewis Gregory, see Volume 1, page 67, my old friend from Lymington; we had been in the Scouts together and shared many experiences during the war years. He said he would like to visit and on Sunday 18th of February he came with his wife Mary. He was arranging a 50 year re-union in the New Forest for members of the Scout Troop and hoped we could come. It was very pleasant meeting up with Lew again after all these years and I looked forward to the reunion which was arranged for Sunday April 18th. We had a lovely day for it and I was wondering how they would look after 50 years. Though I had already met Fred Webster and Lew of course and they had both worn pretty well. We met for lunch near Lyndhurst and then went to the camp site at Holidays Hill Enclosure where we camped in 1943; it was a memorable occasion and I kidded myself that I could still hear our camp fire singing on the breeze in the trees.
Vector Fields Ltd 411
Plate 145: Scout Reunion on 18 April 1993 L to R: Bob Cook, Fred Webster, Harry Veal, Bill, Harry Bradley, Denis Phillips, Lewis Gregory, Eric Smith
The last few months had seen a number of new appointments at Vector Fields both in the UK and USA. At Vector Fields Inc Chris Riley was been appointed Vice President and from January 1st had been running the company in the USA. Chris took over from Bob Lari who had been in charge of the US office since its foundation in 1988. Bob remains a Vice President until his and his wife Marilyn's retirement at the end of April. Also at VF Inc in December we were sad to see the departure of Betty Stoub to pastures new with husband Ken who has secured a new senior appointment in California. In Betty's place we were pleased to welcomed Lois Lee who will be involved in market communications and administration with VF Inc. In the UK Cris Emson was appointed Software Development Manager looking after the many fundamental research projects we are involved in, both in-house and in collaboration with other organisations. Also in the UK, Chris Biddlecombe had been appointed Product Manager. His responsibilities are for the support, maintenance, updating and documentation of existing products. 412 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
I went to the US on 14 May with Rita to attend the Particle Accelerator Conference in Washington DC; at the conference we met up with Larry & Donna Turner as well as Chris Riley who was now running VF Inc. I remember his remark to someone who said to me, ‗so we have to call you Sir Bill now?‘, No I am only an OBE not a KBE and Chris said, ‗he is one up on the Beatles who got MBEs‘. Whilst in Washington Rita and I managed over the weekend to visit George Washington‘s House on the Potomac as well as exploring the Capitol and looking through the railings of the White House. From Washington we went to Chicago and stayed a few days with Larry and Donna in Naperville. We also had a chance to visit Bob & Marilyn and wish him well for his retirement and to thank him personally on behalf of the directors of VF for all he had done for the company; we gave him a personal computer as a leaving present. Chris and Ramona invited us to their new house in Batavia and we arranged to meet later in the Yellowstone Natational Park as our forthcoming vacations intersected there. We left on the 30th of May to fly to Denver where we hired a Lincoln Town Car and drove to the Grand Teton National Park to the city of Jackson and then to a Cabin we had reserved at Coulter Bay; here the views were superb but the cabins primitive. We endured this for five days before moving on to Yellowstone Hotel which was rather special, situated on the edge of a glacial lake high up. We awoke to find ourselves snowed in but it is amazing how quickly the weather changes and for the next few days the weather was fine and the roads miraculously cleared. After three days we moved to Grant Village and met up with Chris Riley and his family by Old Faithful, the never ceasing geyser. A further three days saw us on the way to Salt Lake City via Idaho Springs where I ate the largest potato I have ever seen. In SLC we stayed at the Olympic Best Western, within easy reach of the Mormon Family History Library, for further research but we discovered nothing new. The final leg of this trip was to San Francisco, a one night stop over before returning to the UK on 16th June. It was time for Compumag again, this time in Miami, organised by Osama Mohammed of Florida International University and to be held at the Hotel Inter-Continental. I was no longer on the International Steering Committee for Compumag, as several of us had stood down at Sorrento to make way for ‗new blood‘ but I was now active in the formation of the Compumag Society which will covered in the next chapter. Jan Sykulski wanted very much to have the next Compumag in the UK at Southampton. He had prepared a strong case and would be making a bid in Miami— he even arranged for a representative from a professional conference organiser company to travel out to Miami to present the facilities available. Unfortunately for Jan the committee preferred Rio de Vector Fields Ltd 413
Janeiro and the conference was awarded to Brazil under the chairmanship of Professor Roberto Cardoso (University of Sao Paulo) with Joao Pedro Bastos (University of Santa Catarina) as Secretary262.
Plate 146: Compumag Miami Poster
Osama‘s organisation for the meeting was excellent and Rita and I enjoyed meeting up with so many old friends. Rita managed a trip to see
262 . JP Bastos had been a regular antendee at Compumag since Chicago in 1981 and in fact Brazil had rapidly come to the fore in CEM with several prominent groups collaborating particularly with France and USA. In recent years they had held series of regional conferences known as CBMAG which had attracted many attendees from outside Brazil. 414 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
the Everglades National Park and do some Alligator spotting whilst I was involved in planning meetings for the new society. It was to be only a short visit as other matters were pressing back at home and in India.
Plate 147: a. Qutb Minar Complex near Delhi, b. The Iron PillarTest c. Mashal Hotel and an Elephant
Earlier in the year I had agreed to join the faculty of the CERN Accelerator School for a week long course to be held at Indore, India from 7th to 16th of November this year. I knew the time table was tight with only a few days after returning from Miami but we considered it important for VF to try and capture business in the subcontinent, so I Vector Fields Ltd 415 agreed. I flew to Delhi from Gatwick late Friday evening, arriving midday the next day. I was met by a tourist agent who said there were no flights going to Indore that day but arranged for me to fly to Bombay that evening stay one night there then fly to Indore on Sunday. He then said we had time for a tour of Delhi as the rest of the day was free; I was still double jet lagged from Miami but I agreed as there seemed nothing else I could do. I hardly noticed where we went as he drove me round Connaught Place, The New City of Edward Lutyens, and then south some miles to the Qutb Minar complex with its many beautiful monuments. I did wake up a little here and admired the great watch tower and the enigmatic Iron Pillar (4th C); some 7 m in height and no one has been able to explain how it has remained free of rust. My guide told me that the person who can encircle it with his hands held behind his back will have his wish granted. Needless to say I failed. I was whisked back to the airport to catch a flight to Bombay, and then on arrival to a hotel near the airport. The next day I flew to Indore in the state of Madhya Pradesh which is right in the centre of the country. I was met there by a Sikh in a bright red turban (a young scientist from CAT-The Centre for Advanced Technology who were hosting the CERN course) who conveyed me to the Mashal Hotel which was situated out in the country and seemed a very pleasant area. On booking in I found I had a room next to Neil Marks (Daresbury Lab and VF-Opera user), I found him suffering from Delhi Tummy but he groaned he was slowly recovering— so be careful what you touch and eat. The course had already been on for some days and on this day, a holiday, the lecturers (the fit ones) had been on an excursion which, according to, Thomas Weiland (someone I knew quite well from Darmstadt) had been really interesting. Ted Wilson the course director greeted me and thanked me warmly for coming so soon after Miami. The next day we were conveyed to the CAT laboratory in a mini-bus which went like the clappers through the narrow dusty streets scattering livestock of all species from left to right in clouds of dust. A terrifying ride, you‘ll soon get use to it, said someone. My two lectures were scheduled for the first hour of today and tomorrow, from 9 to 10 AM, the first one on static fields and the second on Eddy Current effects.. There were about 70 students and they listened very intensely. I was able to demonstrate the use of software for magnet design as Neil Marks had already installed our software on to the network at CAT. After the lectures I was approached by several people to run their particular geometry which was a stimulating experience as they were all so very keen. SS Ramamurthi, the project manager for the INDUS-I accelerator was keen for me to show some of his design engineers our TOSCA program for 3-D magnet design and this led eventually to the institute 416 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
becoming a customer. These two days were very intense for me and I was glad to get back to the hotel to rest in the evening. On the Tuesday evening, the last day of the course, we all went to a dinner where I have to say the food and drink were very plentiful; I probably imbibed too much whisky which was flowing like a river and so I had to make an early exit to bed. The following day was free so I did some local sightseeing; in the morning I took a taxi to see the Lal Bagh Palace, saw the ‗Buckingham Palace Gates‘, several statues from the British Raj and some stuffed Tigers. Indore itself is teaming city of more than a million inhabitants and is the garment making capital of India. Later that day Ted Wilson and I, the only two of us left as the other lecturers had all departed, had a long chat in the bar; he told me about his long collaboration with John Adams the ‗founder of CERN‘. We also discussed the upcoming accelerator conference to be held in London next year and said he hoped that VF would be exhibiting. In the evening we were both invited to a garden party hosted by the hotel owner for his family and friends. This was an interesting side of life in India as all the guests were well heeled; in stark contrast to the street life I had witnessed in travelling around. Even an elephant turned up. The next day I flew to Delhi and checked into the Taj Mahal Hotel, a genuine 5 star establishment; the travel agent had arranged for me to go to Agra the next day to see the real Taj Mahal. This meant an early start on the special tourist train at 6AM; the journey took about 2 hours and we were taken straight away to a hotel for breakfast. Travelling in the same carriage were the board of directors for the Tetly Tea company and, would you believe it, they were on a sales drive to India— talk about ‗coals to Newcastle‘. In the dining room of the hotel they all gave a cheer when they noticed that the tea they were drinking with their bacon and eggs was indeed theirs. My tour guide then whisked me away to the shops, jewellery shops and persuaded me to buy a sapphire ring. I don‘t believe they would have let me continue with the tour until I had bought something, also in the shop was another of the CERN School lecturers and his wife who had been similarly trapped. We next went to see the Taj Mahal, and I was suitably impressed — almost too perfect; I liked its position near the great river. Next back to the hotel for lunch then off for the afternoon to Fatepur Sikri. A City perched on the top of a rocky ridge, 23 miles west of Agra; we drove along a dusty road passing two or three ‗dancing bears‘ on the way. These pitiful captive animals chained to their keepers were out to waylay any tourist who would stop, to be entertained for money. My driver hated the practice and drove swiftly by to my relief. The great palace of Vector Fields Ltd 417
Fatehpur Sikri or Akbar‘s 263City of Victory is a marvel of red sandstone with many surprises to enchant the visitor, but on a two hour visit one can only gaze and marvel and learn little but of this fantastic place. Back to Agra for dinner then the train back to Delhi in time to check in at the airport at midnight for the 0200 departure for Gatwick.
Plate 148: The Taj Mahal & Fatepur Sikri
263 16th C Mughal Emperor. Muhammed Jalal-ud-din Akbar 418 Expansion of Vector Fields 1988-1993
I returned to face a series of meetings on the MIDAS project that lasted most of the last week in November to be followed in December by a week in the Ackland Hospital in Oxford for the prostate operation. Joe Smith had wanted to do it earlier but he said I shouldn‘t miss the opportunity of visiting Agra and Fatehpur Sikri so we delayed it few weeks. Joe said if gets bad in India just call me and I‘ll arrange a catheter to be inserted and you can fly back! He has been in India himself only a short time before lecturing to Urologists in Delhi and had visited the sights of Agra but I fancy he was able to spend far more time on it than me. I went in on December 6th and all went well and nothing malignant was found. Rita visited me every day and both Simon and Dinah came too plus, one day, John Simkin. The treatment in this small private hospital was first class and after a week I was home to convalesce. So the year ended in some discomfort but it had been, for me at least, a kind of ‗annis mirabilis‘.
Creation of a Society 419
5. International Compumag Society (1994-1997) This chapter concentrates mainly on the final phase of my career, both with Vector Fields and the emerging Compumag Society. In 1995 I became semi-retired but continued to remain as Chairman and worked part-time for a further ten years. However 1997, for many reasons seems an appropriate point, to halt these memoirs.
The Creation of a Society 1994
The origins of the International Compumag Society took place in 1992 so it is necessary to backtrack a little. I had been discussing the need for an international association of CEM specialists for some time and in 1993 the Compumag Steering Committee agreed to the formation of a working party to examine the idea and make recommendations. The full working group was as follows: A. Konrad (University of Toronto), D A Lowther (Mc Gill University, Montreal), T Nakata (Okayama University), S Polak (Philips Medical Systems, Eindhoven), K R Richter (IGTE, Graz), C W Trowbridge (Vector Fields, Oxford), L R Turner (Argonne Nat. Lab, Chicago). The term of reference for the working party was to explore the feasibility of such a society and to report directly to the ISC during its upcoming meetings throughout 1992 and 1993. It was with this time scale in mind that the Vienna meeting was convened, however in the event only three members of the WP were able to attend and therefore the opinions and suggestions were very tentative and are not at that stage fully representative. The first meeting of this working party took place on June 1st 1992 and was attended by Kurt Richter, Simon Polak and myself at the Hotel Stefanie. To help us deliberate I prepared a short paper, ‗Towards Forming A Computational Electromagnetics Society‘264. Over two intensive days we came up with a report which I circulated to the members of the working party265. I was pleased with the outcome and the timetable looked realistic. One of the actions was to circulate a questionnaire to members of the CEM community and the results of this indicated strong support for forming a society. My son Simon came with me on this trip and we managed to go to the Opera twice, Tchaikovsky‘s
264 ICS Archive in possession of the author 265 As above 420 International Compumag Society
‗Ace of Spades‘, and Verdi‘s Don Carlos; we also visited many of the Composer Museums. The working party suggested a tentative name, International Compumag Society (ICS)266 and proposed that a founding board should be established. It was recognised that a crucial element was to appoint an effective secretary; this post required unselfish dedication, energy and would be entirely voluntary. ‗Cometh the hour cometh the man‘ and Jan Sykulski stepped into the breach and volunteered and what was crucial he was able to secure the support of his university (Southampton) in the production of a Newsletter. From then on events moved quickly, Jan produced a Newsletter and Kurt Richter reported our findings to the Steering Committee at Compumag Miami (see page 36). The proposal was endorsed, a founding board appointed of which I had the honour of being the president, and the next important task defined i.e. to draft a constitution. The first issue of the Newsletter appeared in time for the conference and Jan created a style which was to set the tone for future issues, see Appendix 3 on page 444. Apart from an article by me on formation of the society there was included a Technical Article by John Carpenter on ‗EM Field Computation without Electric or Magnetic Fluxes‘, a thesis that suggests that potentials are more fundamental than fields; in this he cites advanced Physics and modern computing formulations as evidence — just the sort of article needed to stimulate discussion among the community. Other articles included were by David Lowther (News from the Compumag Editorial Board), T Morisue (A Brief History of EM Workshops in Japan) Nathan Ida (Team Workshops), and Giorgio Molinari (Integration of Engineering Analysis Environments). The second issue of the Newsletter was published on 15th June 1994 and announced that the ICS had taken off and the names of the members of the founding board were listed. These included the 15 members of the current Compumag ISC (International Steering Committee): A Kost, Z Cendes, M Fan, N Ida, A Konrad, O Mohammed, G Molinari, A Nicholas, D Rodger, G Rubinacci, S Russenschuck, J Simkin, T Takagi, and N Takahashi; thus the total membership of the founding board is 23 a large number but felt necessary at this stage to command wide support. A constitution committee was also set up consisting of Larry Turner (Chairman), A Konrad, O Mohammed, G Molinari and the President. It was hoped to have the Constitution in place and ratified by the membership by Compumag Berlin in 1995.
266 Following a suggestion made by Bela Konrad Creation of a Society 421
Plate 149: Founding Board of ICS
422 International Compumag Society
Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 The first part of the year was taken up with attending technical and project work on MIDAS (Esprit) and JESSI (DTI). Good progress had been made with MIDAS which was significant for all users of Vector Fields software since it should ultimately lead to the next generation of software for electromagnetic design. The project started in 1993 and the benefits of the partners‘ contributions were already being realized as the first releases of software components were integrated together. Two particular advances were the new geometric modeler and the new 3D mesh generator. In April I attended the IEE Computation in Electromagnetics Conference in Nottingham and was able to have discussions with Peter Silvester on the new EM society; his first reaction had been rather equivocal but now he was more positive, which was good news to hear as his influence is widespread. I was invited to make the after dinner speech and I used the opportunity to pay a tribute to the late Peter Johns, the originator of the Transmission Line Matrix Method (TLM) and former professor at Nottingham. On May 7 I went to Helsinki to meet up with Lauri Kettunen; he met me at the airport and showed me Helsinki and after staying one night he took me to the Sibelius House, some 45 Km to the north, found it open this time and we were shown round by the curator. The house is very near the shores of Lake Tuusulanjärvic amid wonderful trees and is so peaceful. It was a thrill to be near the spot where such works as Tapiola and the Seventh Symphony were conceived. Once in Tampere I met Prof. Erikson who had invited me to be on the program committee for the upcoming Magnet Technology Conference to be hosted by Tampere University (MT14) next year. I was amused and somewhat taken aback by the casual way the reviewing of papers was done; the members just sat round a table and the program committee chairman read out the names of submitted papers and authors. Then, without much discussion either they were passed (most of them were) if no one objected or rejected (hardly any) if someone had a reason, like wrong topic or wrong conference etc. I attempted to discuss one or two of the papers I had been sent and my objections were rapidly overruled. After the review Lauri grabbed me for some discussion with his group and to meet in particular Kimmo Forsman who was working with TOSCA and developing a version of Lauri‘s integral code to run with OPERA; they were calling this new code BARITONE. After spending three days in Tampere I returned to London via Helsinki It was our 40th Wedding Anniversary in June and we decided to give two parties to celebrate one for the family on the actual day Sunday June 19th and the other for our work colleagues and friends on Saturday 11th of June. On the 11th we had excellent weather so we could entertain our Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 423 friends in the garden as well as the house. It was rare day, when we were at peace with ourselves and everyone; it is surely a blessing that we can‘t see what is waiting for us around the corner. The following week Rita and I went to stay in Wales for a week; this time we went to the Gazelle Hotel overlooking the Menai Straits on Anglesey. This was a perfect week also, as we visited many of our old haunts and both climbed Snowdon along the Rhd-ddu path.
Plate 150: 40th Wedding Anniversary Celebration at D’Arcy’s Field
Back home I had to attend the EPAC conference in London where VF had an exhibition which was very popular. The dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel was fine; the food was at least eatable but the cabaret? Was that the best we could offer— Morris Dancing? On the fifth of July Rita and I attended the CEFC conference at Aix-les-Bains with David Carpenter who was in charge of the VF exhibition. The conference chairman was Jean Claude Sabonnadiere and he decided to hold the poster sessions outside which proved popular as the weather was good; I had not seen Jean Claude recently as our relationship had cooled a little owing to a clash of interests in the commercial area; he was also heavily involved in the French Software Company, CEDRAT, which marketed software developed by his group at Grenoble. During the meeting Doug Lavers (University of Toronto) came to see me to tell me that they were proposing me for fellowship of the IEEE— a prestigious honour, in the US. On our return Dinah took Rita to Woolacombe in 424 International Compumag Society
Devon for a short holiday and the following month Simon & I went to North Wales. We had been recommended the Gogarth Abbey Hotel in Llandudno, the place where Lewis Carroll use to stay in Victorian times. It proved to be a bit of a disaster; a rambling old building by the sea, better suited to Hitchcock‘s Psycho that a quiet retreat for ‗gentlemen‘, apparent it was regularly used for ‗murder‘ weekends but this time it was full of very noisy uncontrollable kids. We sat next to large family who literally ran wild with their father quite oblivious. We fled in horror. However we got one good days climbing, by ascending the Carneddau by way of Foel Goch.
Plate 151: Dinah & Ted Deeley at the party
The annual VF users meeting was held at Blenheim Palace this year on September 15 and, the evening before, we all enjoyed a buffet dinner on a Salters Steamer cruising along the Thames. The Blenheim venue is first class and was much appreciated by our visitors. On the 25th of September I attended IGTE in Graz; I went primarily to present the progress on the emerging new society and it was very satisfactory to Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 425 receive support from the IGTE attendees and to receive many new applications for membership. In October Rita and I departed for Hartford Connecticut to help with an electromagnetics course organized by VF Inc. We checked into the hotel in Windsor Locks, the Holiday Inn, the venue for the course, starting on the following Tuesday, so we had two free days. We arrived on Saturday which was the start of Columbus Week-end and the hotel was full of noisy kids playing in a schools soccer tournament both on the field and in the corridors. We visited the city of Hartford on Sunday and to us if appeared to be a rather depressing place, rather seedy, soulless and tired. Weekdays it would be different I suppose. After an indifferent Lunch in the Sheraton we visited Mark Twain‘s Victorian Mansion and enjoyed a delightful tour led by a passionate female who probably eats, sleeps and has dreams about her hero. We learnt that Clemens‘ life was full of sadness but what an observer of life and resourceful man he was. The next day, Monday, was Columbus day and we decided to go to New Haven by train— I had I hope of spotting some, ‗Trowbridge‘ connections as the prime settler, Thomas Trowbridge, came here from Taunton in 1638, In the event, of course, all places such as Libraries, Museums, Yale University etc were closed for the holiday. New Haven itself, we were told, was unsafe at night and had become the way of many cities, an urban jungle. However Yale is a lovely Campus built on Oxford lines and we much enjoyed the architecture and the autumnal colours—the weather this year was exceedingly pleasant, blue sky and warm sun. A minor mishap befell us on our return caused by extreme overcrowding of the trains. Apparently the entire student population of Harvard, MIT, Brown, Yale and Worcester Polytechnic etc was on the move after visiting their parents on Columbus Day. The train from Washington, New York etc at New Haven that we had to catch in order to return to Hartford, unknown to us, was split and we were forced onto the wrong part and after an extremely unpleasant hour packed in tight like the black-hole of Calcutta we found ourselves, with many other people, nearly in Rhode Island. Despite the truculence of the rail attendant who was aggressively unhelpful we eventually found ourselves back in New Haven, where we caught a much later train. Waiting for us at the Holiday Inn we found Larry and Chris who had arrived from Chicago earlier that day; it was good to chat in the bar with a nice drink— all the kids have gone home.
426 International Compumag Society
Plate 152: Mystic Seaport
Tuesday was the first day of the course and we had 17 attendees and one representative from ANSYS (Competitor). Piergiorgio Alotto (PG) had now arrived and he had been asked to talk about ‗other‘ software, e.g. competitors. On the whole the lectures went well with at least some discussion. The course arrangements were mainly good apart from a lack of marker pens, an additional VG m/c would also have helped. Most of the students were quite expert in EM and many had had numerical experience. CPR thought they were at a higher standard than the previous course he had run in Milwaukie; The ANSYS man made it his business to learn as much as possible about VF software. The second day of the course went mostly as yesterday. PG's lecture on other software gave me some concern, and it prompted me to question why we are we doing this type of course? However, we may get business from an electrical machine company man near Boston. CPR and I will visit them next Monday. Others were interested in our HF software. The final reports from the students on our performance as lecturers were mainly good. We departed the next day for Boston. This was an interesting trip in CPR's hire van. Larry navigating (always problematic!) led us on a grand tour of New England. First we drove south east to Mystic Seaport. A Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 427 splendid museum with three well preserved sailing ships. A fishing schooner (grand banks cod vessel as featured in Kipling's Captains Courageous, an authentic New England whaler and of most interest to me full ship (3 master) "Joseph Conrad". The latter I knew as she was skippered by Alan Villiers as a Training Ship for many years. I had met him during my Conway days. The seaport was a preserved sailing port village with buildings from the period. Then we went to Rhode Island and visited a beach near Newport, weather superb. Finally to Plymouth (MA) where the Mayflower ended up in 1620 with the Pilgrim fathers. The place is too commercialized and they have on show here the Mayflower full scale replica which made the 350th anniversary crossing with the same Alan Villiers in command in 1970. It is now set up as a theme park type museum with actors— tasteless. We arrived in Boston in time for dinner and to meet up with Chris‘ wife Ramona. On Friday (14th October) we attended the VF Users Meeting held at Bose Corporation in Framingham and then on Monday we attended the Applied Superconductivity Conference. I was sufficiently concerned, at the time, with issues of arising from our competition and I wrote the following memo to my co-directors back in Oxford,
Some thoughts from ASC and the VF User's meeting
We have known for a long while that potentially the ANSYS software has a competitive edge over VF because of their broad functionality scope which includes most of the disciplines, i.e. Structures, Fluids and Electromagnetics within an integrated system. Up to now this has not been too serious because in EM, at least, VF has the superior product. How much longer will this state of affairs last? Evidence from our users at ASC has led me to believe that this may not be very far in the future. Chris & I spoke with users from a number of strong supporters of VF, e.g. LBL, BNL,… etc. who all need extensive, advanced structural analysis and many cases thermal analysis as well and, at present, use both TOSCA and ANSYS. Indeed, in some cases they use VF software to optimise the mesh for a given accuracy then resolve using ANSYS with this mesh so that they then have confidence in the EM model plus the important advantage of the structural analysis capability. Of course it is encouraging to see TOSCA being used as the standard in this way but also very irksome at the same time when one realises the trend will eventually be to give up using TOSCA altogether! As we know, it is hard for the technical users to justify to their financial controllers the use of two systems and I believe unless we counter this threat by either having such superior EM system modelling, efficiency, data exchange, optimisation etc. or by extending our 428 International Compumag Society functionality to other disciplines we will ultimately, and I believe sooner than we think, lose out. Now we are working toward the first alternative but this will take time and there may well be conceptual and compatibility problems (see below), as yet unclear, that will prove bothersome and limiting. The second alternative is difficult for us technically, and in any case it would require enormous resource but it is an option. Perhaps a better approach would be to resurrect an older idea we had which was to find a neutral software house specializing in structures and mount a joint operation. The first alternative is necessary but not sufficient in my view. Fortunately, as we know, there are many areas, particularly in cutting edge technologies, where the coupled facilities are not mandatory and there is business to capture. These include high frequency, charged beams, and R&D developments where the EM analysis is paramount. Nevertheless in our traditional market of the design of large scale magnets for accelerators, fusion devices and some aspects of MRI the users require stress analysis and this is often the most critical area for them. I do not believe it would right for VF to ignore this problem, or even defer it as we sometimes do, so a strategy must be worked out as soon as possible.
It wasn‘t all work as Rita, and I managed to attend a concert on the Saturday evening before the conference; this was the first US performance of the newly discovered work by Berlioz, The Messe Solennelle , by the Boston Symphony Orchestra directed by Seiji Ozawa. I enjoyed the piece very much and Rita said it was very rhythmic and entertaining. Also whilst we were in Boston, Rita and I managed to hear and see a semi-professional performance of Rigoletto at the Emerson Majestic Theatre, good soloists but as usual awful design. After Boston we went to Chicago to visit the office, stay with Larry and Donna, have social meetings with the staff and visit Bob and Marilyn. I also had a discussion with Chris about his future and outlined what we would offer him on his return to the UK; we enjoyed a pleasant meal with Chris and Ramona and I hope allayed his worries about returning to Oxford. I had detailed discussion with Larry about the constitution; he had now received comments from the members of the sub-committee and he thought it could be finalised early in 1995, next year, this would leave us enough time to seek approval from the membership in time for Compumag Berlin. I proposed that there could be a board meeting at the ACES meeting in Monterey next March to ratify the constitution. We enjoyed a steak dinner with Bob & Marilyn and I spent hours with him in his basement talking over genealogy which he said I started him on some years ago; he also showed us his huge Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 429
Recreational Vehicle in which he and Marilyn tour the US for at least half the year. He is enjoying his retirement. Rita and I set off for our two week break in the far west, we picked up a rental car in Salt Lake City and drive south to Bryce and Zion Canyon national parks. Then on to Arizona, Grand Canyon, Phoenix and Tucson, I much enjoyed a visit to the Film Studios near Tucson where many of the John Wayne westerns were made. After a detour to have a glimpse of Mexico at Nogales we went to Tombstone to see the sites of the Earp brothers gun fight at the OK Corral. Finally we did a long a trip to Texas to El Passo, where we stayed two nights, and another brief visit to Mexico before returning to Albuquerque to fly home via Chicago. Back home to the office and routine for the build up to Christmas but in late November Simon and I had a treat, we went to Cambridge (26th November) to see Elgar‘s only Opera, The Spanish Lady, reconstructed by Percy M Young. This has been a life-time project for Dr Young, who is now very elderly (>80), and the hall was full to cheer his achievement. Not a great opera but an exceedingly fine Elgarian evening. The 1995 was to be my last year full time with Vector Fields; I had decided to start drawing my pension on September 1st and from then on remain Chairman but only working one day each week. The first event of the year was the news that I had been awarded a DSc by the University of London for my work on Computational Electromagnetics; this was very pleasing to me and also rationalised my title as people had been mistakenly calling me Dr Trowbridge for years, no matter how often one corrected them. In March Rita and I went to California to attend the ACES (Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society) annual meeting in Monterey. The ACES group specialises in High Frequency Applications primarily in the US but for some while they had been wanting our Compumag group to collaborate with them; however it soon became clear that what they wanted was to take us over. We did have a joint meeting between them and those members of our Founding Board that were present at the ACES meeting but it rapidly became clear there would be no merger as we were determined to remain international and cater for the entire frequency range, i.e. from DC to ‗Daylight‘. The ICS founding board met and worked on the draft constitution that Larry and his committee had proposed and after two intensive days of meetings at the hotel we agreed a final draft to put before the membership. After the meeting Rita and I had a short holiday (3 days) exploring the coast, Big Sur, Carmel etc and on the way back to San Francisco we stopped off to visit Wade Cole at San Jose. Wade had formerly worked for IBM and had long been a user of our software and latterly had been a consultant. His wife sadly was severely disabled and Wade was looking after her with great loving care. He had a special ‗van‘ specially equipped so that 430 International Compumag Society she could travel around with him and indeed we all had marvellous lunch together. In June I attended the Magnet Technology Conference in Tampere. I met up with Larry Turner in Stockholm and we journeyed on to Tampere together. The conference was not too interesting for me but it was good meeting up with Lauri again. Larry and I returned to London 19th June where we met Donna who had flown over directly. Donna and Larry were going to stay with us for three weeks up to the time we set out for Berlin to attend Compumag, although Larry had to return briefly to Chicago for a week in between. Donna was suffering from the flight and was very poorly; her Lupis and knee problems were troubling her. However we soon got her home and she began to recover. Donna had asked us to organise a trip to Stratford and I booked tickets for a RSC matinee for ‗Romeo and Juliet‘. The outing was not a complete success as Donna became ill during the performance and I had to get her to a doctor. The doctor was able to help and she needed some medication but I was glad when we got her home. During the time Larry was away in Chicago Rita looked after Donna and we took her with us to Berlin on the 8th of July. As we arrived in Berlin the streets were crowded, 100,000 people turned out for the ‗Love Festival‘; these were ‗Techno‘ music fans winding their way past the hotel. We wondered how they would ever clear up the mess; by nightfall the streets were littered feet high on the side walks. However by the time the next morning came we could see that the streets were spotless— a triumph of German efficiency. Arnulf Kost the conference chairman wrote about the conference in the ICS Newsletter267:
The 10th COMPUMAG conference on the computation of electromagnetic fields was held in Berlin, a town, where some important roots of electrical engineering have grown in its history. The conference took place for the first time in Germany, and the conference venue was the Hotel Berlin from July 10 to 13, 1995. By the number as well as the quality of the contributions it was shown in Berlin again that COMPUMAG has become a more and more important event for engineers and researchers, calculating and applying electromagnetic fields for the design of a large variety of devices in industry and research. Their spectrum is very broad and extends from micro-motors over the localisation of cancer to optical waveguides, to name only three applications.
267 ICS Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 3, November 1995 Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 431
Plate 153: Compumag Berlin Poster
A highlight of the social program was the dinner on July 12, taking place on a small island in the Havel River. On the small ferry boat from the river bank to the island the conference participants and their accompanying persons could enjoy the 'Water Music' by Handel, propagating over the water and surrounding forest in a foggy but warm evening atmosphere, and played by the brass quintet 'Ensemble Cornetto' on the island. Thereafter the attendants enjoyed further music, and organ grinder and a meal in a restaurant's garden, recovering in the open air from the conference work. During the COMPUMAG Berlin meeting Professor Toshihisa Honma from the Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, was elected as the chairman of COMPUMAG 1999 in Sapporo The conference coincided with my 65th birthday on July 10th and we had an enjoyable dinner with close friends. One slightly sour note was that the conference bag donated by Vector Fields caused some irritation among members of the board who objected to the size of the Vector 432 International Compumag Society
Fields Logo on the outside. My feelings were somewhat ruffled by the remarks made by people who, from commercial motives, objected and who did not have the enterprise to offer something to support the conference themselves; firms have to make a small profit at least, or they fold— that‘s life..
Plate 154: Arnulf Kost (standing second from the left) and his team .
Plate 155: With Lewis and Mary Gregory in their back garden Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 433
Plate 156: Weimar and Eisenach, September 1995 Outside Goethe House (Weimar), (b) Outside National Theatre, (c) Luther‘s Bible (Wartburg), (d) Wartburg Castle, (e) Bach House (Eisenach) 434 International Compumag Society
After the conference was over Arnulf entertained Rita and me to dinner with his wife Regine and their daughter; he also took us on a trip Eastern part of Berlin and we visited the Pergamon Museum which we enjoyed seeing. Rita and I also managed to visit Potsdam to see the Schloss Sanssouci, Frederick the Great's summer residence. In August we did a series of visits to Dorset and Lymington; we stayed at the Passford House Hotel268 in Lymington and I managed to meet up with Lewis Gregory and Fred Webster. Lewis took me up the Church Tower so I could survey the haunts of my youth. At the end of the month Simon and I went to the lakes and stayed at the Borrowdale Hotel overlooking the marvellous Derwent Water and with a fine view of Skiddaw. We did several long hill walks together including a fine ascent in near perfect conditions of Skiddaw. September the 1st was the first day of my semi-retirement from Vector Fields but I still had many professional activities to follow. I had been invited to attend the 40th International Science Colloquium at the former East German City of Ilmenau in Thuringia. I had to prepare a talk and I chose to present the Vector Fields Story, ‗CEM in the market place‘. Rita and I went flew to Frankfurt and then by Train to Erfurt and Taxi to Ilmenau, we eventually found ourselves staying in a small hotel on the edge of town. Professor Uhlmann called from a sick bed and said he was so sorry not to have met us at Erfurt as planned. The next day (Saturday) Hartmud Brauer came to collect us, we knew Hartmud well and he had only returned to Ilmenau himself that morning. As this day and the next were free days and he proposed take us on a sightseeing tour of the area. The weather was fine and we enjoyed the drive to Weimar where we saw the Goethe House, the castle and the German National Theatre with the Schiller &Goethe monument outside. Ilmenau itself, a small town among the hills of Thuringia, is full of Goethe associations — Hartmud told us that he often stayed in the town and walked the hills which inspired some of his best poetry. Ilmenau still showed signs of the East German republic era, the cobbled stone roads needing repair and many rundown buildings. The next day Hartmud took us to the birthplace of J S Bach at Eisenach, the museum is a model of its kind which, apart from the rich collection of personal artefacts and memorabilia, there was live music; played beautifully on Bach‘s own instruments, small table organs and the like. We also visited the nearby castle at Wartburg castle the historic home of the Minnesingers from which Wagner drew on for his opera Tanhauser.
268 Passford House is a fine hotel on the edge of the New Forrest some two miles from Lymington. We were to stay here many times over the next ten years enjoying good food and marvellous service. Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 435
The next day the meeting began and my talk was in the afternoon; my friends from Graz, Oszcar Biro and Kurt Preis also gave a presentation; they had driven over night to Ilmenau from Graz. The following day we had to return home—it was a quick visit to a beautiful area and we wished we could have remained longer but other events awaited me at home. Hartmud was a marvellous host who showed us much as possible in the short time allowed.
436 Envoi
Envoi
The year 1996 was as usual a busy year of travel; Japan and Singapore in March, Professor under contract in Genoa for a month in May, Venice in June and Brazil in November. The description of these trips and indeed the many events269 that occurred in the ten years up to 2005 when we finally sold Vector Fields in my 75th year will have to wait for another volume. But there was one event in 1996 which for me, in many ways, was a climax of my career and that was the award of an Honorary Doctorate by the Technical University of Graz. This was a surprise and a real pleasure; Kurt Richter called me during the summer to tell me that the senate of the university would like to make this award and Kurt was keen that it should be done at the IGTE conference in Graz in September. We left for Graz on 21 September and were met by Kurt and Mila who took us to the Park Hotel; we had stayed here so many times now it was like a second home. The next day was Sunday and Kurt and Mila took us on a long trip into the country, to the wine region near the Slovenian border. On Monday, the first day of the Symposium the ceremony was held at 4.00PM at the University Aula and though I felt nervous I was overwhelmed by the number of my colleagues that were assemble there, including the Honoured Guests from Styria (General Commanding Styrian Forces, Mayor of Graz etc). I entered alone to the strains of the Trumpet Tune by John Stanley and sat out front facing the Academic dignitaries of the University. Rita was sitting behind next to Mila. The Rector, Dr Wohinz, opened the proceedings with a speech of welcome in which I remember him saying, ‗I hope this day will live in your memory…‘— it most certainly has. Then Kurt Richter gave the laudation speech in which he pulled together the strands of my career with commendable skill, warmth and good humour in a way which left me with a comfortable feeling without any embarrassment. He gently exaggerated my sea career by suggesting that I had as a youth I had ran away to sea; in a sense that was correct as at the time it was a way of evading responsibility. The after Kurt presented me with scroll the band played Gaudeamus Igitur and then it was my turn to make a speech in which I said:
269 These events included, Compumag RIO (1997), Sapporo (Japan, 1999), Evian (France, 2001), Saratoga Springs (USA, 2003), Shenyang (China, 2005). Especially memorable was my return trips to Argentina in 1997/98, which enable me to show Rita the places I knew there those long years ago in 1949-55, see Volume 1, ‗So Long To Learn‘. Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 437
Plate 157: The Rector guides Rita to sign the register
Members of the Academic Senate of the Technical University Graz, Honoured Guests, Ladies & Gentlemen: I find it very difficult to describe the feelings that came over me when I was told that this university was going award me an honorary doctorate. The initial excitement soon gave way to some self-doubt as to whether I fully deserved such a prestigious distinction as my work has always been a collaboration of one sort or another with others. However, on further reflection I concluded that, although I was lucky to be in at the start of the digital computer revolution and even more lucky to have been dealt a 'good hand' of colleagues over the years, I have always had a strong sense of direction and knew where I was going - this may be due to the navigator within me. It is also a pleasure to be associated with this fine university and garden city. The city of Graz, with its very long tradition in the arts, humanities and science, has had many distinguished residents including Johannes Kepler, E Mach, L Boltzmann and many others down the ages. However, 'The Technical University' itself, among many famous figures, can boast no less a founding father of electromagnetics than Nikola Tesla who studied here in 1880. His work is familiar to all of us who care about generation and transmission of electrical power. Indeed, many of the people in this room today spend their working and even their leisure hours dealing with parts of his legacy. Nowhere is this more true than here in GRAZ . 438 Envoi
Plate 158: Receiving the Honorary Doctorate from Prof Richter
I first came into contact with the IGTE group during the Compumag conference in Genoa in 1983 when they presented a paper on the application of boundary elements for time dependent field problems, then quite new. I actually met Professor Richter for the first time at Fort Collins, Colorado during the next conference there in 1985 when he made his successful bid to host Compumag in Graz. Since that time we have collaborated on projects, courses and indeed on the formation of Vector Fields and Personal Matters 1994-1995 439 the 'International Compumag Society'. The series of short courses I have shared with Kurt Richter and another close friend and colleague, Giorgio Molinari from the University of Genoa has been one of the most stimulating episodes in my career. I think our community has a strong sense of purpose with a well defined program for the years ahead but, in my view, there may be problems in the future of identity. In other parallel 'fields' there are people like us carrying out computer simulations, automated design, knowledge engineering etc. and this sometime leads to a dilemma and so we must be on our guard to avoid insularity and make sure we are part of the broader activity without sacrificing the special skills and enthusiasms that we bring to the creation of electromagnetic devices.
Plate 159: Celebratory Dinner L to R: Bill, Rita, Zol Cendes, Prof. Haznadar, Guiliamo Rubinacci, Alain Nicolas, Tosh Homna, Osama Mohammed, Dave Lowther, Mila and Kurt. Others present were Giorgio Molinarr, and Roberto Cardoso.
Then the band played a piece by Handel which was followed by the exit procession to the strains of the Trumpet Voluntary. My mind was in a whirl as I received congratulations from the members of the academic senate, ‗Compumaggers‘ and friends alike. Kurt introduced me to the senior faculty member aged 92 and also I remember Hartmud Brauer who had showed us Ilmenau last year came up and warmly greeted us. The Rector then presented me with the faculty tie —I was now an honorary member and then asked us to sign the official register. In the 440 Envoi evening we were invited to a special dinner at the Landhaus Keller, a memorable meal with such good friends. After IGTE we returned home via Vienna where we saw a performance of Lehar‘s operetta ‗The Land of Smiles‘ at the Volks Opera. Appendix I 441
Appendix I
The King Roberts’ Version of the Creation of GFUN270
In the beginning there was darkness all over the Isle, for no one could solve a 3-D magneto-static problem. However, the spirit of Lord Bill was stirring in this darkness. On the first day of creation, Lord Bill summoned an assistant and spoke thus: "DISERENS go forth into the forest of magnet design problems and make me a path." And Diserens went forth and did as the good Lord Bill directed. On the second day, Lord Bill summoned COLLIE and said, "Go forth into the region of field calculations of 3-D current elements and bring me back lots of formulas." And Collie went forth and did as the good Lord Bill directed. On the third day, Lord Bill sent forth NEWMAN into the land of graphics and directed him to bring back both preprocessors and postprocessors so all could see the beauty hidden in the land of graphics. And Newman went forth and did as the good Lord Bill directed. Now the fourth day Lord Bill went to a higher authority called banker THOMAS and said "Sir, I beseech thee to continue thy funding of these travels into unchartered lands." And banker Thomas agreed and went forth into his vault as the good Lord Bill requested. Lord Bill was now able to summon an assistant from across the waters. He then spoke thus: TURNER go forth into the forest of steel tetrahedrons and learn how they magnetize." And Turner went forth and did as the good Lord Bill directed. Thus, a tiny light began to shine forth in this land of darkness. On the fifth day Lord Bill asked SIMKIN to check on the formulas brought back by the others and see what improvements could be made. And Simkin went forth and did as the good Lord Bill directed. On the sixth day, Lord Bill said, "ARMSTRONG go forth and try these things we have assembled here." So Armstrong went forth and did as the good Lord Bill directed.
270 Written by Robert J Lari (Bob Lari to his many friends) in September 19, 1981 then at Argonne National Laboratory later the first Vice President of Vector Fields Inc. Aurora IL. 442 The King Roberts’ Version of the Creation of GFUN
On the seventh day, the Lord Bill rested from all his labors! Now it came to pass that GFUN developed and propagated all over the world. However one day Lord Bill said "It is not good for GFUN to be alone." And thus, he gathered his people together to start working on helpmates called BIM2D, PE2D, and TOSCA so GFUN would not be alone in the world. This is the story of the creation of GFUN and companions. Appendix 2 443
Appendix 2 Vector Fields Statistics Table 1 list the most important achievements in out first ten years of trading the most notable being the formation of Vector Fields Inc (see below) in 1988 and the prestigious Queen‘s Technology award in 1992.
January 1984 First business plan for VFL August 1984 Formation of VF Ltd. to market TOSCA (3D Static Fields) and PE2D 2D Static & Eddy Current fields January 1985 Trading at Osney Mead, Oxford June 1986 $1M sales for TOSCA April 1987 KBK appointed distributor in Japan June 1987 Move to Kidlington, Oxford January 1988 World-wide contract with Philips June 1998 $1M sales for PE2D December 1988 Formation of VF Inc. January 1989 Chicago office opened April 1990 OPERA (3D Environment) & ELEKTRA(3D Eddy current fields) introduced April 1992 Queen‘s award for Technology May 1992 PC Opera (PC version of 2D fields) introduced April 1993 Opera 2d (Advanced work station for 2D fields)introduced April 1994 Soprano (3D high frequency fields) introduced August 1994 Tenth Year Anniversary December 1994 SCALA (3D space charge beams) introduced
Table 1: Vector Fields Ltd the first ten years
444 Index
Appendix 3 ICS Newsletter First Issue
Index 445
Index
Adams Gordon, 6, 22, 25, 43 Dr John (CERN Director General), Bastos, Prof. Jaoa Pedro 105, 168, 416 University of Santa Catarina, 413 Aikman, Freda (nee Trowbridge), 250, Biddlecombe 312 Chris, 119, 138, 150, 229, 246, 253, Allen 255, 402, 408, 411 Dr W.D, 3, 19, 34, 41, 47, 50, 133, Joins VF 1985, 233 260, 381 Binns Arranges authors transfer to Ion Professor Ken, 132, 152, 169, 173, Source Group, 25 235, 293, 375 Authors tribute, 50, 259 Birmingham, Boston Wayne Bills lecture series at Reading, 81 Head of Natiobal Bureau of Celebration Lunch for the Oxford Standards Lab at Boulder, Co, 72 project, 48 Biro, Dr Oscar (TU Graz), 384, 385, Cycle accident, 15 386, 435 Encouragement to start degree Board, Prof. Ken course, 12 Swansea University, 175, 379 Formidable reputation, 6 Boot Cottage Getting his staff promoted, 29 East Hagbourne, 11, 14 Harvey Rostens Graduation, 117 Bossavit, Dr Alain, 123, 153, 238, 249, Leads the Oxford Project, 35 336, 371, 397 On accelerator tubes, 9 Boyd, Dr David (RAL), 150, 244, 380 On vaccum guages, 7 Brauer, Dr Hartmud (TU Ilmenau), Organises a group visit to 434, 439 Liverpool University (1964), Brauer, Dr John (AO Smith Inc), 173 41 Britten Pat Stenning MSc Student at Benjamin, 21, 44 Reading, 60 Brookhaven National Laboratory, 54, Project team expanded, 39 62, 68, 81, 98, 100, 117 Recognises the authors strong Brown interest in Computing, 53 Professor John, 120 Support for Tube Building President of IEE (1979), 144 Enterprise, 44 Bryden, Dr Alan (RAL), 151 Welcome to Harwell, 4 BTG (British Technology Group, 228, Frank, 22 230, 232, 233, 246, 247, 294, 295, Nick, 4, 34, 41, 47 296, 301, 302, 374 Thomas, 342 Campbell, Bill (Headmaster of Cholsey Alotto, Piergiorgio School), 58, 79, 266, 267 University of Genoa, 404 Cardoso, Prof. Roberto Vector Fields Ltd, 426 University of Sao Paulo, 413 Armstrong Carter Dr Alan, 64, 90, 96, 125, 133, 150, Charlie, 3, 14 159, 229, 259, 364, 390, 441 Jimmy Atlas Computer, 59, 62 Presidential Candidate, 131 Ayris Cayley Michael (Solicitor), 46, 236 Sir George(d. 1857), 17 Baker 446 Index
Chari, M V (General Electric), 99, 126, J C Sabonnadiere appointed 127, 128, 146, 154, 166, 167, 172, Chairman, 133 195, 196, 375 J C Sabonnadiere offers to Charles, Bruce (W.S Brayshaws organise the next conference, Accountants), 229, 230, 247, 343 128 Chemistry Teacher Olek Zienkiewicz Invited Mrs Hall, 13 speaker, 136 Cholsey School, 76, 79, 103, 266 Miami (1993) Churchill, Sir Winston, 324 Osama Mohammed Chairman, Death 1965, 46 412 Clee, Peter, 61, 67 Oxford Cockcroft Steering Committee convened Sir John, 1 (1974), 119 Cole, Wade (IBM), 429 Oxford (1976) Coleman, Mike (Wessex Press, Attendance, 123 Wantage), 375 Bob Lari, 125 Collie Conceived (1974), 119 John, 55, 62, 90, 96, 99, 124, 125, Contacts with Peter Silvester, 126 132, 145, 150, 154, 259, 364, Name, 119 380, 441 Sorrento (1991) Joins HFBC Group, 55 At the conference, 371 Colonias G. Rubinacci Chairman, 293 John, 141, 159 Tokyo (1989) At MT2, Oxford, 1967, 61 At the conference, 289 Bill‘s visit to Berkeley, 1976, 131 Kenzo Miya Chairman, 264 Compumag Genoa, 166 Computing Applications Group(CAG), Interactive Graphics and TRIM, 91, 101, 111, 117, 125, 138, 139, 60 150, 168, 175, 190, 229, 235, 257, Visit (1970), 73 400 Colyer Formed September 1968, 64 Bryan, 175, 236, 237, 240, 294, 402, Stonehenge-Avebury Walk, 1971, 407 90 Compumag Wye Valley Walk, 117 Berlin (1995) Cornish, Don Arnulf Kost Chaiman, 430 Culham Laboratory, 139, 159 At the conference, 430 Davis, George (British Technology Chicago (1981) Group, 228, 246, 247 At the conference, 149 Dawton Edge Elements introduced, 153 Dr Ralph, 25, 34, 35, 36, 40, 50 Larry Turner Chairman, 148 de Hoop, Adrian (Delft University), Fort Collins (1985) 238, 252, 343, 404 At the conference, 238 Deeley, Prof Ted (Kings College Bill Lord Chairman, 170 London), 123, 162, 291, 296, 297, Planning, 169 348, 369, 371, 400, 408, 424 Genoa (1983) Diserens Planning, 155 Jim, 26, 42, 43, 50, 59, 62, 90, 99, Sandro Viviani Chairman, 155 115, 125, 150, 151, 173, 229, Graz (1987) 257, 259, 348 At the conference, 261 In Hospital, 95 Kurt Richter Chairman, 241 Electrolytic tank, 20, 39 Grenoble (1978) Elgar At the conference, 136 Edward (1857-1834), 12, 21, 28, 93, 106, 107, 111, 178, 206, 209, Index 447
216, 247, 256, 267, 301, 329, Tony & Marcelle, 32 409, 429 Hawkins New Society, 83 Jim, 19 Society-London Branch, 83 Haworth, John Emson Headmaster of Cholsey School, 80, Dr Cris, 174, 233, 287, 290, 296, 240, 266, 267 297, 371, 402, 408, 411 Heighway, Dr Ed (Chalk River Labs), Estes Park, 72, 160, 309, 311 164, 168 Fan, Ming Wu (Beijing Atomic Energy HENRY Computer Program, 102 Lab. PRC), 145, 190, 213, 215, 216, High Field Bubble Chamber, 53, 55, 218, 219, 221, 222, 224, 270, 271, 59, 65, 67, 101 272, 369, 370 HMS Conway, 56, 94, 364 Fell Fight to prevent closure 1974, 110 Lionel, 43, 50 Holloway Fewkes Gerald & Eileen, 32 Dr (Regent St. Polytechnic), 19, 20 Howlett, Jack, 40, 59 Fisher, Colin, 68 HRH Prince Philip Flack, Jill (Murdered), 86 Visit to the Poly 1958, 20 Fox, John, 104 Hyder, Richard McK, 39, 44, 47, 50 colourful character, 62 Ida, Dr Nathan, 159, 170, 245, 273, Dies (1983), 168 288, 374, 392, 420 Static Power Suppply, 62 Inakatsu San (KBK), 250, 253, 272, Freeman 273, 274, 384, 385, 390, 392, 393, Professor Ernie, 123, 126, 132, 133, 394, 395 142, 143, 146, 148, 161, 176, International Compumag Society (ICS), 186, 227, 228, 245, 247, 267 119, 238, 419, 420, 421, 429, 430, Gannaway, Norman, 302 439 GFUN Program, 81, 82, 84, 96, 98, 99, Irons, Bruce, 74 100, 101, 102, 111, 115, 116, 117, John Simpson 119, 121, 125, 130, 131, 139, 141, Journalist, 346 146, 153, 154, 159, 168, 169, 173, Keding, Prof. Zhou, 272 221, 228, 272, 293, 295, 307, 329, Kelvin 360, 397, 398, 441, 442 Lord, 21, 128 Greenhalgh Kennedy, President J F Brian, 32, 33, 109 Assassination (1963), 44 Greenough, Dr Chris (RAL), 244 Kettunen Gregory, Lewis, 302, 410, 411, 434 Dr Lauri, 253, 296, 307, 323, 336, Gulf War 1991, 344 337, 360, 369, 396, 399, 422 Hailsham Konrad, Prof. Bela (University of Lord, 37 Toronto), 195, 335, 336, 369, 375, Halbach, Klaus, 60, 61, 73, 139 419, 420 Hammond, Prof. Percy (Southampton Kost. Prof. Arnulf (TUBerlin), 297, University), 123, 266 400, 432 Hancox, Roger Kyokuto Boeki Kaisha(KBK), 247, Culham Laboratory, 73, 303 250, 253, 254, 255, 264, 272, 273, Handley, Vernon (Musician), 106, 178 274, 285, 287, 288, 289, 383, 384, Harris, Prof. Martyn (Newcastle & 385, 386, 389, 390, 391, 392, 393, Southampton University), 378, 381 394, 395, 396, 443 Harwell Laplace Equation, 42, 129, 130, 131, AERE, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 19, 21, 22, 25, 160 32, 36, 37, 39, 40, 45, 50, 117, Lari, Robert J (Bob), 125, 141, 146, 144, 257, 259 149, 150, 153, 159, 160, 288, 358, Haslett 411, 441 448 Index
Laverick, Charlie, 73 Moulsford, 45, 48, 49, 56, 75, 85, 112, Lavers, Prof Doug (University of 113, 181, 235, 240 Toronto), 296, 328, 329, 335, 336, Mullett 339, 370, 423 Dr L B (Deputy Director of RL), 30 Lawrenson Nakata, Prof. Taka (Okayama), 153, Professor Peter, 123, 127, 128, 132, 155, 163, 241, 242, 255, 272, 288, 152, 235, 293, 375 290, 293, 297, 374, 385, 419 Leake Neave, Airey, MP, 111 Laurie, 19, 29 Newman Life Time of a Negative Helium ion, 41 Mike, 64, 90, 98, 107, 115, 116, Lord, Bill (Fort Collins CSU), 123, 125, 150, 151, 168, 175, 220, 128, 159, 166, 170, 237, 238, 241, 229, 259, 294 245, 272, 273 Camping weekend in North Lowther Wales, 94 Dr David, 123, 126, 148, 161, 162, Newport 163, 170, 191, 195, 196, 228, Ron, 54, 68, 101, 309, 427 237, 238, 245, 335, 355, 356, Nicholas 419, 420, 439 Denys, 29, 39, 41 Lymington (Hampshire), 93, 166, 168, Owen, Prof. Roger 182, 187, 188, 302, 359, 404, 406, Swansea University, 379 410, 434 Oxford Project, 35, 36, 40, 46, 50 Manning Pam Peisley (CAG Secretary), 176, Dr G, 158, 176, 228, 245, 259, 337 229, 248 Opens Compumag Oxford, 123 Partridge Matthews Jack, 6, 12, 19, 22, 25, 31, 43, 50 Professor P.T., 37 PATHFINDER, 42 Maxwell Perring James Clerk, 21 Peter, 101 McLelland, Robin (Headmaster, Pickavance Cholsey School), 266, 267 Dr T G (First Director of Rutherford Medway Laboratory, 63 Ernie, 34 Polak MegaVolt Ltd, 44 Simon (Philips, Einhoven), 116, Mick Montgomery 119, 123, 128, 137, 162, 170, Springer Spaniel, 74, 79 174, 175, 240, 241, 242, 243, Middleton 245, 252, 264, 335, 355, 356, Alan, 54 371, 381, 404, 419 Miller, John (Trinity College Dublin), PR China, 145, 190, 199, 200, 205, 145, 152, 155, 166, 174, 175, 227, 206, 208, 211, 215, 216, 222, 224, 228, 240, 241, 243, 244, 250, 288, 226, 228, 234, 268, 269, 272, 273, 294 274, 275, 276, 277, 279, 281, 283, Miss Booth (Boot Cottage) 284, 287, 336 Local Probation Officer, 11 Preis, Dr Kurt (TU Graz), 241, 242, Mohammed, Prof. Osama (Florida 435 State University), 273, 274, 329, Pyrah 369, 412, 420, 439 Ted, 50, 51 Molinari Quinton Hogg (1845-1903) Professor Giorgio, 123, 155, 163, Founder of the Poly, 17 170, 250, 252, 257, 264, 265, Reichert, Konrad (AG Brown Boverie, 273, 288, 297, 355, 400, 420, 439 Switzerland), 123, 124, 126, 128 Morgan, Prof. Ken Reichert, Prof. Konrad (Swiss Institute Swansea University, 374, 379 of Technology), 149, 242 Richter Index 449
Mila, 263, 343, 379, 436, 439 Managing Director VF January Professor Kurt, 164, 238, 241, 242, 1985, 232 246, 252, 261, 262, 263, 271, VF Company Secretary (1984), 273, 275, 278, 281, 284, 285, 230 288, 335, 355, 379, 389, 400, Smith 419, 420, 436, 438, 439 Dr Peter Riley Rutherford Cable, 65 Chris, 138, 139, 159, 160, 235, 245, Snowden, Mac (RAL), 12 261, 288, 326, 402, 411, 412 Sykulski, Prof. Jan (University of Joins VF (1986), 233 Southampton), 266, 303, 381, 408, Robert Mitchell Medal, 37 412, 420 Robins Takahashi, Prof. Norio (Okayama), Robbie AERE Training School, 2, 3, 369, 374, 420 4 Tang, Prefessor (Harbin IT, PRC), 190, Rosten 201, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208, 209, Harvey, 102, 117, 119 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 218, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 247, 248, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, (RAL), 32, 41, 50, 53, 60, 66, 86, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 92, 101, 102, 116, 117, 119, 120, 281, 284, 286, 369 123, 124, 126, 127, 134, 136, 138, Tanner, Peter (British Technology 139, 153, 200, 230, 231, 238, 257, Group, 229, 230, 246, 247, 294, 296, 268, 291, 402, 405, 407, 409 374 Computing Facilities, 60 Thatcher, Mrs Margaret MP, 101, 111, Merged with Appleton Laboratory 157, 244, 245, 283, 341 (1979), 144 The Polytechnic Walkinshaw, Bill (Head of Regent St, London, 12, 17, 18 Technology), 53, 54, 60, 101 Thomas Rutherford Laboratory, 32, 47, 55, 60, Dr David, 54, 121, 364 62, 84, 123 Appointed Pro Rector for Sabonnadiere, Prof. J C, 127, 128, 133, Research Contracts at Imperial 136, 137, 148, 162, 241, 242, 293, College, 245 296, 335, 355, 356, 423 Consultancy with University of Seacombe, Harry, 74 Swansea, 64 Seybold Elected Fellow IEE, 144 Captain William, 22 Encouragement to start Vector Shepherd, Julie (Vector Fields), 365 Fields, 176 Shingu San (KBK), 253, 255, 383, 384, Head of High Field Bubble 385, 386, 387, 390, 391, 392, 393, Chamber Group, 53 394, 395 HFBC Group in building R50, Silvester 62 Elizabeth, 143, 195, 337 SERC Director of Information Peter, 123, 124, 126, 127, 128, 133, Technology (1981), 151 138, 144, 148, 154, 159, 160, Support for Compumag, 119 161, 167, 196, 227, 228, 422 Technology Division Head Simkin (1972), 101 John, 119, 121, 123, 125, 130, 136, Visit of Engineering Board 138, 139, 142, 144, 146, 150, (1975), 120 160, 161, 167, 176, 228, 229, Visit of Sir Keith Joseph (1982), 237, 241, 244, 246, 250, 252, 158 259, 261, 287, 369, 379, 402, Thomson 418, 420, 441 Paul, 101 CAG, 101 TOPIC Computer program, 55 450 Index
TOSCA, 130, 132, 146, 157, 159, 232, Group Leader of CAG, 246, 248, 255, 257, 272, 273, 288, September 1968, 64 295, 332, 338, 339, 376, 387, 388, Hangar 10, 36 389, 390, 391, 392, 407, 415, 422, Helium Minus Lifetime paper in 427, 442, 443 Physical Review, fn49, 41 Short course at CERN (1980), 144 Infected Thumb, 49 TOSCA code Ion Source Group, 1961, 34 Paper awarded IEE Premium 1981, Jim Diserens transfers to HFBC 144 group , third member of the TRIM Computer Program, 59, 60, 61, section, 59 64, 69, 98, 238 Joined HFBC Group, 1996, 53 Trowbridge Joins Accelerator Tube section, 6 Bill Joins AERE Harwell, 1 Attends Bubble Chamber Joint paper with Middleton Conference in Chicago, 1970, Alan at MT2, 61 68 Mike Newman, Alan Armstrong Attends Cryogenics Conference join CAG, 64 in West Berlin, 1970, 66 Move Office to Keble Awarded DSc by University of Rd.Oxford, 47 London, 429 MT2 at Oxford, 60 Awarded Honorary Doctorate by Oxford Project 1961, 36 the TU Graz, 436 Part 1 BSc, 29 Awarded OBE(1992), 406, 407, Promoted to AEO, 1958, 19 409, 412 Promoted to Pricipal Scientific Began work on new book with Officer, July 1968, 64 Peter Lawrenson & Ken Binns Promoted to Senior Experimental (1981), 152 Officer, 1965, 48 BSc, 1962, 37 Promoted to Senior Principal Calculating Magnetic Field Scientific Officer, 133 Distributions, 53 Reflecting Telescope Mirror, 43 Chemistry at Abingdon, 12 Regent St. Polytechnic, 17 Collaboration with Alan Robert Mitchell Medal, 1962, 37 Middleton, 54 Scientific Assistant 1957, 1 Collaboration with John Collie, To CERN with Jim Diserens, 55 1968, 63 Collaboration with John Fox, 62 Transfer to RL, 1961, 32 Collaboration with Pat Stenning, VF Chairman (1984), 230 60 Visit Lawrence Berkely Computing Applications section Laboratory, 1970, 73 moves to R50, 62 Visit of Sir Keith Joseph (1982), Elected Fellow of IEE (1979), 157 144 Brenda (Wife of Maurice Elected Foreign member of the Trowbridge), 29, 33, 49, 76, 93, Royal Netherlands Academy 180, 183, 187, 188, 251, 268, (1992), 404 302, 312, 344, 352, 358, 359 EO, 1961, 31 David (brother), 42 First Aircraft Flight, 41 Awarded OBE(1990), 344 First Car, A35, 1961, 31 Dinah (daughter), 27, 29, 32, 33, 45, First Internal Publication,fn48, 41 56, 76, 92, 93, 106, 109, 112, First visit to CERN, November 178, 179, 182, 185, 232, 233, 1966, 55 235, 332, 333, 335, 356, 358, GFUN Program, 82 378, 400, 404, 423 First Employee, 229 Index 451
Maurice and Brenda, 15, 90, 96 Turner, Prof. Charles (Kings College Peter (brother), 42, 181, 321, 404 London), 291, 296, 400, 402 Rita Turowski, Prof (Lodz University), 378 Mother dies, 1964, 45 Van de Graaf Part Time Teaching at Electrostatic Generator, 9, 15, 25, Hagbourne, 45 26, 35, 36 Sister Eva marries Bill Boucher, Vaughan Williams May 1962, 33 Ralph d.1958, 21 Starts teaching at Cholsey Junior Veal, Peter (Harry), 411 School, 1967, 58 Vector Fields Ltd, 235, 247, 253, 264, Supply Teaching in Streatley, 56 272, 273, 293, 365, 401, 404, 405, Teaching at East Hagbourne, 11 407, 408, 411, 422, 432, 434, 436, Unstinting support, 259 441, 443 Rita & Bill ACCORD Project, 241 Camping, 92, 94, 104, 105, 107, Agreement with BTG to market the 109, 111, 193, 284 RAL software, 230 New Forest, 1971, 92 At Magnet Technology Conference Daughter Dinah Mary born, in Zurich (1986), 241 March 31 1960, 27, 28 Bill leaves RAL for VF (1987), 258 Extensions at North End, Bob Lari appointed VP of VF Inc, Moulsford, 75 287 Family Holiday at Beddgelert Business Plan (1984), 228 (1971), 86 Choosing the Name, 229 Family Holiday at Gyfyng (North Compubag Affair (Berlin, 1995), Wales) 1969, 78 431 Family Holiday in Ireland, 1968, Conceived (1983), 169 76 Cooperative Ventures, 407 Family holoiday in Zermatt, 78 Directord Pension Plan, 247 Gave up smoking, 1964, 45 First VF Newsletter published, 233 Holiday at Ymlch Bach, 1966, 57 Formation, 6th August 1984, 230 Holiday in Penzance, 1959, 22 Hosting TEAM Workshop in Move to Abbott Rd,Didcot, 14 Oxford, 1990, 291 Move to Boot Cottage, 11 Involvement with Infolytica Inc, 196 Moved to Moulsford, 1965, 48 John Whitney Joins VF as Sales and Son Simon XE Marketing Director January "Trowbridge:Simon (son)" 1985, 233 born 20 December 1961, 32 KBK Agent and Distributor in Simon (son), 32, 33, 56, 58, 76, 80, Japan, 247 81, 85, 89, 92, 109, 111, 112, One Million Dollar Sales Award, 177, 182, 234, 240, 267, 287, 246 299, 300, 301, 303, 353, 357, PC-OPERA used as aTeaching Tool 358, 365, 376, 383, 404, 419, at Kings College, London, 403 424, 434 Prospects in China, 287 Arsenal V. Stoke, 1971, 85 Queen’s Award (1993), 401 Turner Semi-Retirement (1985), 429 Larry, 90, 96, 98, 123, 125, 146, Support for forming FV from Geoff 148, 150, 159, 160, 237, 246, Manning, 245 259, 264, 358, 371, 396, 397, The Vector Fields Story presented in 420, 430 Ilemanau, 434 Elected Chairman of Compumag Trading starts January 1985 at Chicago, 148 Osney Mead Oxford, 232 Larry & Donna, 141, 261, 288, 412 VF Inc formed in Chicago (1988), 287 452 Index
Visit of Professor Tang, 268 Martin, 68, 72, 309 World-wide deal with Philips, 264 Rutherford Cable, 65 Viviani Winslow, Alan Professor Sandro, 123, 128, 155, TRIM Program, 59 156, 163, 170, 241, 242, 243, Wohinz, Dr (Rector of Graz TU), 436 252, 262, 265 Yan , Prof. Weili (Tianjin IT), 269, Webster, Fred, 406, 410, 411, 434 270, 369 Whitney Yarwood John, 138, 146, 151, 154, 169, 232, John (Head of Maths & Physics at 233, 241, 244, 245, 246, 247, Regent St. Polytechnic), 17, 19, 248, 256, 259, 267, 288, 289, 20 397, 401, 402 Zienkiewicz Appointed Marketing and Sales Professor Olek, 64, 74, 99, 126, 139, Director of Vector Fields Ltd, 227, 256, 303 233 Sir Keith Joseph at RAL (1982), Williams 157 Paul, 54, 68, 228, 245, 246, 247, UNESCO Meeting in Turin 257, 259 (1985), 236 Wilson