160 years of innovation Engineering milestones and curiosities from the pages of The Engineer
Going underground Forth wonder War winner
How Bazalgette’s The engineering Looking back at London sewer system story behind the development brought the ‘Great Britain’s most of the Lancaster Stink’ to an end »05 iconic rail bridge »14 bomber »32 »35 Moon shot The technology behind mankind’s biggest leap
TES_011216 1 28/11/2016 17:39 Apex_FP_TES_010916.ps 1 23/08/2016 10:47 editor comment
fromthearchive ouropinion Past performance 1850s–1860s 05 London’s sewer Dealing with the ’Great Stink’ in the capital city
06 SS Great Eastern Scepticism greets s you may have noticed, we have been celebrating a the arrival of the iron-clad warship signifi cant milestone over the past 12 months: The Engineer’s 160th birthday. Earlier this summer, we published a special 160th 1870s–1880s anniversary edition of the publication in which – as well 11 Channel tube Previous proposals as looking at some of the great developments of the past – we gazed into the crystal ball and examined to link Britain and France the technological trends that will shape the world 12 Electric light Scorn greets Edison’s of engineering in the decades to come. latest invention But for this special supplement we’ve put the crystal ball away and looked firmly into the past, directing our gaze towards the dusty leather-bound tomes of our classic archive. 1890s–1900s The stories over the following pages are just a taster of the engineering milestones 18 Panama Canal Slow and sometimes and technical curiosities therein: a fascinating window on the past, and a powerful reminder of the astonishing technological progress that has taken place during The lethal progress towards a 1914 opening Engineer’s lifetime. 19 Channel crossing French aviators Alongside the big stories – we’ve also focused on some of the more esoteric inventions that have caught The Engineer’s eye over the course of the last century tackle sea crossing and a half. An innovations such as the horse tank looks ridiculous but, to The Engineer of the 1850s, it was a perfectly plausible vision of the future of warfare. 1910s–1920s One wonders whether any of today’s much-trumpeted innovations will provoke a similar response from future historians? 23 Gretna rail disaster Counting the cost of a truly disastrous event “The stories are a powerful reminder 1930s–1940s of some astonishing technological 28 Whittle engine Inventor presents his ideas to The Engineer progress that has taken place” Or will future generations regard our current era, with its autonomous cars, new 1950s–1960s forms of power generation and dawning artificial intelligence, as a golden period of innovation every bit as world-changing as the Victorian era? History will be the judge. 35 Apollo 11 Concentrating on technical In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this little romp through Britain’s industrial history. matters, not personalities Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish all of our readers a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year. 38 Lovell Telescope Still one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes Click here for more stories, insights and classic inventions from The Engineer’s archive
Jon Excell Editor Your number-one website for engineering news,views, [email protected] jobs and products theengineer.co.uk
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DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 3
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BAE Systems_FP_TES_Archive_011116.ps 1 17/11/2016 14:53 1850s–1860s Sept 1858 London’s sewer
A bill is rushed through Parliament to initiate the construction of London’s new sewer system
n the summer of 1858, the ‘Great Stink’ The writer lavished almost as many superlatives “ The sewage in these of London had become so overpowering upon the project as there were bacteria in the that it drove members of Parliament from water, explaining that the station’s eight pumping reservoirs should be always the chambers of the House of Commons. engines and double-acting piston pumps would deodorised and they would It’s no surprise then that a bill was rushed lift the sewage by about 36ft into three parallel through Parliament in 18 days to fund sewers, discharging into a 9.5-acre, 16.5ft-deep have no external openings the construction of a new sewer system. reservoir and thence into Barking Creek. To this for the emission of foul air” The Engineer reported on the day, flushing something down the loo in east The Engineer results of the Royal Commission, London is known as ‘sending it to Barking’. which was appointed to investigate The article explains the machinery to be installed the best way of dealing with in the station in great detail, noting that the engines Bazalgette’s projected rise in London’s population. London’s growing waste problem. “will be made according to the most approved “The materials, workmanship and finish of the I“To avoid the exposure of deposited matter and construction and design and will be perfectly said engines and other works will respectively be from the processes necessary for its manufacture balanced both in and out of action”. Even the leather the best of their kind,” it said, “and no part of the into solid manure, the reservoirs are proposed to be for the valve seals comes in for praise, being “of the engines will be of less strength than is equivalent detached lengths of large sewers,” the article said. best description of hide [a quarter of an inch] thick, to at least 10 times the maximum pressure The design was an attempt to replace the which will have laid in the tanpit for two years”. (estimated at 35 tons) of the steam on the piston.” open sewer system where waste was dumped The safety margins for the engines is also The sheer ornateness of the designs also caught in the Thames, resulting in cholera outbreaks described — an important part of the design of the the reporter’s eye. “It would not be easy to do justice and an overwhelming stench. It centred on project, with every part of the system oversized to the elaborately ornate character of the design as detached embankments between Southwark for the scale needed at the time to cope with a whole,” he said. “The design of the engine and and Vauxhall bridges that would boiler, the chimney stalk and, act as reservoirs for waste. in fact, of every portion of the The article continued: “The whole structure, does infinite sewage in these reservoirs should be The 1857–58 plan to deal with the ‘Great Stink’ that was engulfing London credit to Mr Bazalgette and his always deodorised and they would staff; while we are at a loss to have no external openings in the detect a single feature calculated shape of gullies for the emission of to unnecessarily increase the foul air, nor would offensive smells outlay. Until we have placed our be allowed to escape from them.” readers in full possession of the The sewage was proposed to details of this dainty palace of be pumped away through pipes machinery — if we may use the connecting the reservoirs to the words — it would not be well sea. The commission estimated to speak further of its merits.” the total cost of the improvements It says a lot about Victorian to be £3.3m, adding that they engineering that all the fancy would also improve transport curlicues of cast iron weren’t seen and recreational activities. as an unnecessary expense. The Metropolitan Board of The article concludes by Works’ chief engineer, Joseph bemoaning the out-of-the-way Bazalgette, was responsible for location of the station, saying designing and building the huge that it will not get the attention it system of intercepting sewers, deserves, and that North London which is still in use today. will feel its effects on health A few years later, in 1867, much more than appreciating London’s sewer was up and it as an example of “high art in running and The Engineer took engineering”. Both Bazalgette an in-depth look at East London’s and The Engineer’s reporter ornate Abbey Mills pumping station, might be pleased to know that which along with its partner south this isn’t the case. Abbey Mills of the river at Crossness provided is still in service and, although the power to lift the sewage so the steam engines and pumps that it could be pumped into new have been replaced, the amazing outfalls downriver of London. ironwork can still be seen today.
DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 5
TES_011216 5 29/11/2016 10:18 1850s–1860s
as when the horse is required to face It’s not clear whether The horse tank — danger, a sliding piece of blind is Cruickshank’s invention ever provided. This is fitted with rings which made it from the sketchbook to run on guide rods, and by means of the battlefield, but a quick scan a new concept in cords passing upwards and through of the history books suggests guides at the top of the helmet, the that, sadly, the horse tank may cavalry technology soldier is enabled to raise the blind.” have fallen at the first hurdle.
September 1856 September An armoured suit for horses with a rigid adjustable frame
Military minds wondering how attached to this frame was a series to equip the modern soldier with of retractable lever-operated cutting the means to safely travel long implements and weapons with which distances while burdened with the rider could scythe his way through gadgets may like to consider enemy troops. “These cutting edges reviving the idea of the horse tank are capable of being adjusted to act – a startling concept in cavalry as offensive weapons during an attack technology described in the and of being returned to an innocuous first-ever issue of The Engineer. position when not required,” reported The article, drily entitled The Engineer. It would, continued the ‘Cruickshank’s improvements in piece, “render the attack of cavalry cavalry equipments’, described an more formidable by providing horses armoured suit for horses consisting with a means of destroying troops of a rigid adjustable armoured against which the attack is directed”. frame to protect the horse and The armoured suit was designed the lower extremities of the rider. to help even the most nervous war However, any similarities to horse to enter battle, courtesy of the armour-clad chargers of a helmet-mounted blinker system. Arthurian folklore ended here, for “When occasion shall require, such
The Tower Subway Going underground to cross London’s River Thames March 1869 March
Before Tower Bridge took its place dug using a wrought-iron tunnel-boring on the London skyline, people had shield, presumably similar to the one to go underground to cross the developed by Marc Brunel to dig the river. The Engineer described the first Thames tunnel at Rotherhithe in construction of the now-forgotten 1825. “This shield, which has an outer Tower Subway, a forerunner of plate, will overlap the completed work, the modern deep-level Tube. and a smaller heading will be carried installed to take passengers up and walk it wearing a hat “to which you An engineer named Peter forward in front of the work, and the down to the subway. The tunnel was attached any particular value”. Barlow proposed that a subway shield propelled by screws, and as it completed in 14 weeks, and opened in The tunnel remained popular should be built under the river progresses the tunnel segments will August 1870. Unfortunately, Barlow’s until Tower Bridge was completed; bed, as it was the only way that a be bolted on behind,” the article said. system of steam engines and carriage being free to cross, it caused the river crossing could be achieved: The subway itself was 100ft long proved unreliable, and the company subway revenues to collapse. an attempt to bridge the river and 7ft in diameter, lined with cast- running it went bust within a year. had failed in 1863, because of iron segments. Running 22ft below The lifts and rails were removed “the great height required for the the river bed through stiff London and spiral stairways and gas lighting passage of ships” (a problem clay — much easier to tunnel than the installed, and the subway reopened The armoured solved by Tower Bridge, of course, soft river mud that Brunel had dug as a foot tunnel, and 20,000 people a suit was by allowing the roadway to rise). through — it was fitted with steel rails week used it, paying a ha’penny toll. It designed to help Barlow’s son, also called Peter, on a 2ft 6in gauge, and stationary was very popular with working people, even the most oversaw the work, which began steam engines were installed at either although contemporary accounts make nervous war with the sinking of a shaft at Tower end, which pulled a wrought-iron it sound rather unpleasant: Charles horse to enter Hill – 10ft wide and 48ft deep, and carriage along from north to south. Dickens Jr, the novelist’s son, said in battle lined with brickwork and cast-iron Another shaft was dug at the southern a London guide that the headroom cylinders. The subway itself was end, just off Tooley Street, and lifts was so low that you shouldn’t
6 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016
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CRP_FP_TES_010916.ps 1 02/08/2016 12:55 1850s–1860s1850s–1860s Feb 1861 SS Great Eastern
Brunel’s vast iron steamship provoked fierce criticism of the notion of iron-constructed navy warships
ron-clad warships were a new The Engineer’s article (which, in fact, does not “68lb solid shot would pass development that provoked intense mention Brunel at all) focuses on General Sir Howard scepticism in the 19th century. A Douglas: a veteran of the Peninsular War, expert in straight through the Great lengthy article from our archives for military strategy and authority on marine engineering. Eastern with tremendous February 1861 discusses an issue of Gen Douglas, the article said, “has long been great importance to the defence of recognised as the principal literary champion of effect, and this perforation the British Empire, then at its height: wooden ships of war”, and, when anyone dared could not be plugged up” whether the ships of the Royal Navy to suggest that iron could be used instead, he General Sir Howard Douglas should be made primarily of wood or “uniformly exerted his influence, which is by no should be protected by a coat of iron. means inconsiderable, against the project”. Wood had, of course, been the only Gen Douglas had issued a pamphlet stating unimpressed by the vast ship, stating in his pamphlet material used for shipping construction for centuries. that: “Vessels constructed wholly, or nearly so, that 68lb solid shot “would pass straight through IIt had become part of British mythology – ‘Heart of of iron were utterly unfit for all the purposes of war, the Great Eastern with tremendous effect, and this Oak’ is still the official march of the Royal Navy – whether armed or as transports for the conveyance perforation could not be plugged up”. Moreover, the and the need for the emblematic tree to provide the of troops.” He even opposed the cladding of wooden ship was “an awful roller, and has never attained timbers for ships changed the appearance of the ships in iron armour. anything like the calculated speed”, and he claimed English countryside. The nation had fought off both Stepping up to oppose the formidable soldier was that iron of 8in thickness would be needed to proof the Spanish Armada and Napoleon with wooden Scott Russell, whose company had built the all-iron, the hull against shells and solid shot. ships. Why change now? double-skinned SS Great Eastern (and had gone Russell took umbrage. On balance, he said, iron The reason the question was even posed was bankrupt in doing so). Gen Douglas had been performed better than wood; iron ships would be largely down to one man: Isambard Kingdom Brunel. stronger than wooden vessels of equal weight, would Although he is now universally praised as a genius be able to carry heavier loads and would not catch and an iconic figure of British engineering, that wasn’t fire. SS Great Eastern, he insisted, rolled less than true of his own time. The SS Great Eastern iron-clad warship pictured wooden ships and had realised a speed of 14kt on Brunel was an iconoclast whose projects pushed before its launch in 1858 a transatlantic route. at the edges of available technologies, and, as The The article points out also that iron hulls could Engineer’s obituary on him be repaired easily and fairly (see p9) makes clear, to his cheaply; shots striking at an contemporaries he was a angle tended to glance off foolhardy figure more notable and did not shatter into for his failures and the great sharp splinters, which, in cost of his completed projects wooden ships, were a cause than for his successes. of terrible injuries to crew. However, the completion of The argument in favour his final project, the enormous of iron ships was a good iron steamship SS Great one, the article concluded, Eastern, had focused with fire safety being attention on the future particularly powerful. In a of shipping. close engagement between By far the biggest ship two wooden ships of the ever built, SS Great Eastern line, incendiaries could was 692ft long (211m) and destroy both ships in weighed 18,915 tonnes – under five minutes. records that would not be The argument had surpassed until 1899 and been won, in fact, two 1901 respectively. It could years earlier. HMS Victoria, carry 4,000 passengers from launched in 1859, was the England to Australia without Royal Navy’s last wooden refuelling. But it wasn’t an ship of the line, and the unqualified success: an ironclads HMS Warrior and explosion during the maiden HMS Black Prince, both voyage had damaged the launched in 1860, set the ship, and Brunel’s death scene for iron-armoured soon afterwards cast a pall. wooden vessels.
8 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016 8
TES_011216 8 29/11/2016 10:15 1850s–1860s
have to work against the wind. The Westminster Clock will occupy,” wrote The Westminster escapement of the Westminster clock The Engineer. Another key innovation uses an ingenious arrangement of was the clock’s pendulum, which was weighted ‘gravity arms’ to isolate the designed to ensure that the clock is Clock, London pendulum from the outside world. unaffected by changes in temperature. “The gravity escapement is In ordinary pendulums the rod will adopted because it is more expand and contract depending on Considered as one of the finest independent of these peculiar causes temperature, leading to changes in
October 1858 October of vibration which are found to affect the length of the pendulum swing, mechanical clocks ever built clocks in such a position as the and inaccuracies in time keeping.
For almost 160 years the giant gentleman who has devoted very 01 faces of the Westminster Clock considerable time to the study of clock (the most distinctive features of the and watch-making and who has at tower popularly known as Big Ben) various times introduced many have gazed out across London. important improvements in And in 1856, shortly before its their construction.” installation in the Westminster’s At its heart is an innovation iconic tower, The Engineer took that’s been hailed as one of the most a look at a device that’s still significant horological advances of the considered by many to be one 19th century: the double three-legged of the finest and most innovative gravity escapement. mechanical clocks ever to be built. An escapement is the device in a Designed in the 1840s by mechanical clock that transfers energy lawyer and amateur horologist to its time-keeping element. It’s driven Sir Edmund Beckett Denison, by force from a coiled spring or weight the Great Westminster Clock that’s transmitted through the clock’s represented a fundamental gear train. Each swing of the pendulum breakthrough in clock design. releases a tooth of the escapement’s “The merit of the design of gear wheel – allowing the gear train to the Westminster Clock is due to advance by a fixed amount. Edmund Beckett Denison,” Big tower clocks are particularly reported The Engineer, “a challenging, as the large hands often
01 The Great Westminster Clock was a breakthrough in clock design Brunel’s obituary 02 Brunel’s career was described as “unfortunate” by The Engineer
A man now revered was viewed imposing character of his works many The article also contains a valuable of them, often indeed through no fault lesson for politicians and businesses, differently by contemporaries of his own, have proved unsuccessful”. who struggle to justify investment in His celebrated bridge over the projects with little short-term economic Thames at Maidenhead – today in pay-off. “Judged by another standard, More than 150 years after his death the running to be considered a world that of the financial results of the vast September 1859 September Isambard Kingdom Brunel remains one heritage site – is described as “bold, sums of money the expenditure of of the few engineers that most British but unsuccessful”, while the Great which he controlled, Mr Brunel was people can name. Western Railway – routinely held up almost uniformly unsuccessful.” Revered alike by industrialists, as one of the marvels of the Victorian Brunel was reportedly a friend politicians, media and the general age of innovation – is described as of The Engineer’s founder Edward public, he regularly tops lists of ‘Great remarkable for its high cost rather than Charles Healey, so it seems unlikely Britons’; is frequently held up as an “any merits which it may possess as a that the paper would have an axe example of the qualities missing from work of engineering”. to grind. But it’s hard to escape the modern Britain; and even played a Brunel’s efforts in the arena of feeling that the maverick engineer starring role in the London Olympics shipbuilding come in for a bit more had managed to upset someone on opening ceremony in 2012. praise. On his championing of screw the editorial team. “He did not seek, But as the obituary that appeared propulsion for the SS Great Britain, in proportion to his opportunities, in The Engineer following his death in the magazine suggested that “Mr to raise those beneath him, and September 1859 illustrates, a man Brunel never allowed himself to comparatively few men enjoyed his regarded by many today as the overlook any new discovery giving confidence. He often managed to greatest engineer that ever lived promise of value in its application to quarrel with his contractors. He had was viewed very differently by at engineering. Being in a position to little sympathy for struggling genius, least some of his contemporaries. exercise considerable influence he did he seldom lost an opportunity for Dwelling on a number of projects not hesitate to employ it in introducing decrying against inventions and that it asserts were failures, the the new means of propulsion which inventors not withstanding that his article describes Brunel’s career has wrought such a marked change in reputation was largely due to the as “unfortunate”, writing that the construction and working of our applications which he had made 02 “notwithstanding the number and ocean steam marine”. of the ideas of others.’’
DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 9
TES_011216 9 28/11/2016 14:19 GKN_FP_TES_160_010916.ps 1 22/08/2016 16:12 1870s–1880s Mar 1876 Channel tube
Proposals to create a link between Britain and France go as far back as the time of the Napoleonic Wars
his island nation’s Thomé de Gamond died just a month prior to the “ There is now ample relationship with the 1876 article’s publication. He devoted more than continental mainland has 40 years of his engineering career to researching means in the way of always been fraught, a tunnel under the Straits of Dover, his “scientific tunneling machinery and confl ict between attainments” and “irreproachable character” winning the major powers has him “the love of many and the regard of all”. and ample experience punctuated European Throughout the course of his work M. de in its extensive use” history, from the Spanish Gamond made over 1,500 experimental borings in The Engineer Armada and Napoleon France and England to examine the strata, as well to the Great War and as carrying out three dives to the bottom of the the rise of fascism. channel to examine the contents of its bed. The last serious challenge, it was certainly one that was Despite the almost ever-present tension, plans of these dives saw him “attacked by conger eels or technically possible, according to The Engineer. Tto connect the UK to mainland Europe have been dogfish”, resulting in serious injuries. Although he “For the execution of the work, as far as around for centuries. In March 1876, The Engineer didn’t get to witness his vision become reality, M. mechanical aid is concerned, there need be no compiled an extensive round-up of the various de Gamond did live to see his idea for a channel apprehension, there now being ample means in means that could be employed to accomplish tunnel be “adopted by eminent engineers in both the way of tunneling machinery, and ample the task, including tunnels, tubes, and bridges. countries, and supported by financial authorities”. experience in its extensive use. According to that same edition of the Those eminent engineers would include Sir “The tunnel will be a single one of circular or publication, proposals to create a link between John Hawkshaw and Sir James Brunlees, founders of the ordinary tunnel section, the chalk boring Britain and France go as far back as 1802, just of the original Channel Tunnel Company in 1872. being 36ft in diameter at the arch springing, as the Napoleonic Wars were getting underway. They proposed a tunnel of 31 miles between St and when lined with brickwork in cement it “Ever since the commencement of the present Margaret’s Bay in England to a point on the French will have an interior diameter of 30ft.” century there has been evinced a very firmly coast roughly midway between Calais and Sangatte. We, of course, know now that Brunlees and rooted conviction that there ought to be a line of This line was chosen to take the tunnel entirely Hawkshaw’s particular endeavour would never communication established between England and through the lower chalk, assumed at the time be attempted, and the Channel Tunnel would the Continent of Europe other than that afforded to be homogenous. Although undoubtedly a not be completed until over a century later. by the passage of steamships between shore and shore,” our predecessors Looking at some of wrote in 1876. the plans for early “The first proposition ideas to bridge the to unite England and gap between Britain France was made in and mainland Europe 1802, by Monsieur Mathieu, whose plans were laid before the First Napoleon, then First Consul, and were afterwards exhibited at the Luxembourg and public galleries in Paris. They have, however, long since been lost, and with them the proposed method of carrying out the work.” Another Frenchman is singled out for special praise by The Engineer for his lifelong dedication to the project. Known today as the ‘father of the tunnel’, Monsieur
DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 11
TES_011216 11 28/11/2016 14:19 1870s–1880s Jan 1880 Electric light
A substantial dose of finely honed scorn greets the arrival of Edison’s latest electric light
certain formality is rolling between his fingers while contemplating “ Such lamps have been often the hallmark the problem. He tried this in his prototype lamp of articles in the apparatus, and the result, although not completely invented and made already Victorian editions of successful, was better than he expected. This led by the hundred, and they The Engineer; but in him to try other textures of carbon that he had not the case of the US previously tested, and he found that a filament have failed. It is a pretty inventor Thomas made from the charred carbon remnant of a short toy and nothing more” Alva Edison, that length of cotton thread proved to be successful. The Engineer formality gives way The Engineer was sceptical. “It is neither more to a fi nely honed nor less than an incandescent lamp,” it said. “Such scorn. Edison, lamps have been invented and made already by Britain. “Is it credible,” it asks, “that glass globes along with many others, had for some years been the hundred, and they have failed.” The length can be exhausted of air to the millionth of an tryingA to develop a practical electric light, and our would not be able to burn continuously for at atmosphere for one shilling?” Moreover, it noted, predecessors were reacting to a report in The least four or five hours a night for half a year, it the filament was held in place with clamps made New York Herald that he had fi nally succeeded. predicted. “It is a pretty toy and nothing more.” of platinum, and no other metal would do. “How It’s fair to say that they were not persuaded. Some of the claims made for the lamp were much platinum wire do the readers of The New The article is headed “Mr Edison’s latest electric “glaringly absurd”, it added. Particular scorn is York Herald imagine can be got for one shilling? light” and you can almost hear the weariness in poured on the claim the lamp could be made for And what kind of skilled labour will be required to the word “latest”. It starts by recalling a Charles 25 cents, or one shilling as it was at the time in make such a thing? The notion that such a refined Dickens character, who when asked mathematical instrument could be made their opinion of another replies that “I for one shilling is simply preposterous.” don’t believe there is such a person”. With hindsight we can see that the The Engineer said that when it comes journal was quite right to be sceptical. The to the description of Edison by The version of the electric lamp described by New York Herald, it does not believe the Herald was not the final article; Edison that such a person exists, and added eventually settled on carbon derived that it is surprised that Edison allows from bamboo, which again he claimed the claims attributed to him to be to have stumbled upon, this time while published. “We refuse to believe the examining fibres from a bamboo fishing- latter gentleman [Edison] can hold rod. He patented this bulb and marketed it himself responsible for the sayings throughout the US, while Swan retained the and doings of his prototype,” it said. UK rights and it was 1,200 of his bulbs that The difficulty that Edison and all the lit the world’s first public building equipped other electric light pioneers had been with electric light, London’s Savoy Theatre. experiencing was to find a suitable Swan had also tried many different material to form the filament of an substances, including carbonised hairs electric lamp that would glow reliably from his beard. Later, he discovered a when heated by electric current but process for squeezing nitro-cellulose would not disintegrate. The electric through holes to form a conducting lamp described in the Herald article, cellulose filament. When Edison and it seems, used a filament of carbon Swan formed a joint-venture in 1883 to inside an evacuated glass bulb, manufacture and market lightbulbs, it something that had already been tried was this cellulose filament that was used. unsuccessfully. In fact, The Engineer In later years, the ‘Ediswan’ factory at quotes JW (Joseph) Swan, in later Ponders End, North London, became a years co-credited with Edison as the centre for the manufacture of thermionic inventor of incandescent electric light, valves and cathode-ray tubes. who stated in Nature in January 1880 that he had tried a horseshoe-shaped carbon filament 15 years previously, and had failed. The Herald claimed Edison, along with many others, had that Edison had told it he had made a for some years been trying to develop filament from compressed lampblack a practical electrical light mixed with tar, which he had been
12 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016
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JBJTechniques_FP_TES_011116.ps 1 17/11/2016 15:00 1870s–1880s
lives. Many more riveted up by a The Forth became seriously special hydraulic ill after suffering machine. Two the effects of girders are rail bridge ‘Caisson employed, one disease’, today above and one known as the below the bed A structure that has bends, brought plate… on each
October 1885 October on when they left girder slides become shorthand the compressed a hydraulic atmosphere of cylinder, one for a job without end watertight having a more structures, called effective area caissons, used than the other… Almost 130 years after it was to construct the bridge’s foundations. the result is that built it remains one of the UK’s Reporting on the early stages when water is engineering marvels. Stretching of the bridge’s construction, The admitted the just over 2km (1.5 miles) and rising Engineer barely hints at these total pressure 46m above the high tides of the problems, writing, with characteristic on one is greater Firth of Forth, its scale is such a Victorian understatement: “The than on the headache for those charged with difficulties met with in preparing for and other, thereby repainting it that it has become founding the piers of the Forth bridge holding the shorthand for any job without have been neither few nor unimportant, rivet head firmly end. It is, of course, the Forth and it’s patent to even the uninitiated in place.” rail bridge. that causes for anxiety will neither In a later Determined not to see a repeat disappear nor diminish until the steel article, the of the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, superstructure has been completed.” magazine reports no expense was spared in the The article, the first in a number on the numerous construction, which cost around about the design of the bridge, goes other challenges £3m. It’s a chastening reminder on to concern itself primarily with that left us with of the conditions endured by the installation of the first part of this such an enduring Victorian engineers that the project superstructure: the lower bed plates. icon of the carried a high human cost, with “The whole plate is bolted on a number Industrial more than 60 workers losing their of short iron columns in situ and is Revolution. 01
the series of discs, which reduced the the corresponding magnets of the The writing 01 Getting to electrical resistance in the circuit by an receiver, which pulls the receiving rod grips with the amount proportional to how far the to the right in accordance with the details of the stylus had been moved. strength of the current,” The Engineer’s telegraph Forth rail bridge At the other end, the receiver correspondent explained. contained a pair of electromagnets If the movement of the receiving placed in a similar configuration to the stylus was curved, then the up-down Taking a look at one of 02 The writing stacks of carbon discs. “When the and left-right components of the telegraph meant stylus of the transmitter is pulled to movement are automatically picked
November 1887 November the early forerunners a written record the right its pressure point presses on up by the perpendicular carbon disc of conversations the left and right carbon discs, the stacks and transmitted, resulting in of email could be made resistance in the circuits is reduced a similar curved movement of the and an increased current is sent into receiving rod.
A lack of written records from a similar stylus to perform the same telephone calls led to an invention movements. Both styluses were in fact that allowed handwriting to be sent pens, writing onto a paper tape that down the wires. moved underneath them at a steady An early forerunner of email – speed – so a written message at one or perhaps that emblematically end would be reproduced perfectly at defunct piece of office equipment, the other. the fax machine – the ‘writing The inner workings of this device telegraph’ was invented as a were in fact rather ingenious. The response to a perceived problem transmitter pen’s movements were with telephones: the lack of a transmitted via mechanical linkages written record of a conversation. (via a float sitting in a cup of viscous The device worked by encoding glycerine, to damp out any jerkiness of the movement of a stylus at the the user’s hands) to two series of thin transmitting station into electrical carbon discs set at right angles to pulses and sending these pulses each other and housed in a hard via the telegraph cable to the rubber, and placed ‘in circuit’ with the receiving station, where an telegraph wire itself. Moving the stylus arrangement of magnets forces caused ‘pressure points’ to press on 02
14 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016
TES_011216 14 28/11/2016 09:55 1870s–1880s July 1884 Panama Canal
The Engineer reports on some slow and sometimes lethal progress towards the canal’s 1914 opening
ur report on the the side of the trench with buckets on the underside “ There is but too much machines used to of the conveyor arm, simply allowing it to empty create one of the as it turned over the top of the device would just reason to fear that the canal modern engineering have poured the rubble back into the hole. To works are not progressing wonders of the world solve this problem, the buckets were attached in included hints at such a way that once they began turning around as satisfactorily as is some of the terrible the top cam wheel they opened at the bottom desirable” troubles it would into a ‘shoot’ that carried the earth away. The Engineer go on to face. It was estimated that 80 of these kinds of When the Panama excavators could remove around 8m-9m cubic Canal was opened metres of earth per annum (although only 40 undertaken without the assistance of any government in 1914, it revolutionised world trade, allowing ships were operating at the time). However, despite and that up to the present time nothing has occurred Ofor the first time to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to The Engineer’s delight at the engineering of these to justify the assumption that the canal will not the Pacific without making the long and treacherous machines, the report also noted that there were be finished by the anticipated time, viz., 1888.” voyage around Cape Horn. Today, around 13,000 already rumblings of discontent with the canal’s The machines were described as resembling vessels use the 50-mile (80km) passage every progress that hint at the problems it would face. those used to dig the Suez Canal. And de Lesseps’ year, serving 144 maritime routes used by ships “There is but too much reason to fear that the plan was to build a sea-level channel similar from 160 countries and 1,700 ports worldwide. works are not progressing as satisfactorily as is to the one he had created in Egypt. However, But the canal’s genesis was an incredibly slow, desirable,” the report said. “M. de Lesseps states that rather than digging through a flat patch of sand arduous and, for many people, lethal process that the Panama Company will complete the work it has in the desert, the new project involved cutting was nearly never completed. Construction began through much more difficult and varied terrain. in 1881 by a French-led international company, Landslides due to heavy rains proved to be a headed by the former diplomat and developer of the frequent problem and the tropical climate made Suez Canal in Egypt, Ferdinand de Lesseps. Three It was estimated that 80 excavators could remove progress even more difficult for the recruited years later, The Engineer published a report on the around 8m-9m cubic metres of earth per annum labourers and engineers, not least because of the machines being used to dig the channel that gives extensive impact of mosquito-borne diseases that some indication of the killed thousands. scale of the challenge. Those employees that Portions of the survived often didn’t canal works accessible stick around for long. by water were dug The report also gave using steam dredging some hints of these machines, but inland difficulties in a horribly the process relied on racist account of the excavators to open use of black labourers: and then enlarge “The severe climate the trench, the latter has prevented the type of which were employment of as many essentially mechanical men as could be worked systems of buckets on advantageously, and chains. Although these has forced the company appear quite primitive to substitute black for compared to today’s white labour. Although excavation equipment, the sanitary regulations they included what The are enforced as Engineer called at the rigorously as possible, time “a very ingenious it is not in the power of arrangement” for any company to make emptying the buckets a negro — such as are once they reached found upon the isthmus the top of the chain. — obey rules which Because the he will not understand, machine was essentially and which interfere with scraping earth from his present comfort.”
DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 15
TES_011216 15 28/11/2016 17:16 1870s–1880s Sept 1889 World’s largest ship
The Engineer reserves some very special acclaim for RMS Oceanic and the provision it made for smokers
iant ships were a a reef off the coast of Shetland. She was the first “ The presence of Oceanic staple of the late Allied passenger ship to be lost in the war. The last 19th century The remains of the wreck were recovered in 1979. in the Canada graving dock Engineer but it forms a noteworthy and reserved special acclaim for RMS unique circumstance in Oceanic, which The ship’s maiden voyage saw it travel down the the annals of shipping” at 705ft long and coast to Liverpool’s graving dock 17,272 tons, was for The Engineer a time, the largest ship in the world. Built in Glasgow by Harland and Wolf, and Gdesigned by Thomas Ismay – founder of the White Star Line – the ship’s maiden voyage saw it travel down the coast to Liverpool’s Canada graving dock. The Engineer was there to report on its arrival. “The presence of the Oceanic in the Canada graving dock – a view of which we herewith present – forms a noteworthy and unique circumstance in the annals of shipping and docks; being nothing less that the largest vessel in the world within the largest and newest graving dock in the world.” Before describing the ship, The Engineer marvelled briefly at the graving dock itself, which had been built to accommodate the vessel so that its vast hull could be cleaned and painted. “It is 925ft in length, has an entrance width of 94ft and its complement of 80,000 tons of water can be pumped out in one hour and 40 minutes.” The article describes the ship as “a magnificent example of shipping enterprise and acumen – a triumph of shipbuilding powers and skill, and a marvellous advance on all previous ocean, mail and passenger vessels as regards dimensions, tonnage, accommodation and outfit”. Unusually, The Engineer chose to focus on the interior layout of the ship rather than its design and construction (which had been covered in an earlier article) and the title’s lucky reporter was clearly impressed by what he found aboard, writing that “among the first and most striking impressions obtained on going aboard is one of spaciousness and freedom of movement”. The reporter was particularly impressed by the provision made for vessel’s smokers. While today’s tobacco users must skulk and shiver in fenced-off outdoor areas, Oceanic passengers could chuff away in a dedicated suite decorated with mahogany sea-nymphs, embossed leather walls, and oil paintings representing the life of Columbus . RMS Oceanic was commissioned into Royal Navy service as an armed merchant cruiser at the start of the First World War. Following a navigation error, the ship ran aground on the notorious Shaalds of Foula,
16 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016
TES_011216 16 28/11/2016 17:17 The right material for the job…. and the knowledge to use it! Congratulations to The Engineer magazine for reaching another signifi cant milestone.
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Lloyd Thomas_FP_TES_Archive_011216.ps 1 18/11/2016 12:47 1890s–1900s
The car was topped by two the more authoritarian or unstable Self-propelled war quick-firing Maxim guns and a nature of Edwardian Britain, The ‘pom-pom’, an automatic cannon Engineer coolly added that the car named for the sound it made when might be adopted for quelling street car — forerunner fired, and required four people to mobs. Thankfully, it’s a lot more difficult operate it, although several riflemen to imagine the government of today
April 1902 April could also be accommodated. sending something that so resembled of the tank One of the innovations claimed a tank out onto at least the mainland by the car’s inventors was to allow British streets to deal with rioters. the shell a certain amount of The Engineer also described the Designed for defensive work on movement on its frame when struck war car as “a novel appliance, the by projectiles, supposedly increasing scope and utility of which may prove of the coastal roads its impenetrability. far-reaching character”. Unfortunately The Engineer wrote that the car’s the British War Office was less principal purpose was “to act on the enthusiastic and rejected the idea. One of the earliest precursors to in 1899, and its building completed by defensive on the coast roads of this the tank may have resembled an Vickers, Sons and Maxim Limited in country, but if successful in this upturned bathtub but it impressed 1902. It was a development of Simms’ departure there are many other The Engineer nonetheless. earlier design for a ‘motor scout’, a obvious uses in warfare to which The war car was reminiscent of an Author HG Wells had a petrol-powered quadricycle with a the car can be applied”. upturned bathtub particular reputation for predicting machine gun and front iron shield. In what was perhaps a hint of either the future, one that was boosted The war car, however, was a by his 1903 short story ‘The Land more robust vehicle consisting of a Ironclads’, which anticipated the rectangular chassis built by the British First World War by describing the Daimler Motor Company covered by use of armoured vehicles to break a 28ft-long detachable metal shell through fortified trenches. that was somewhat reminiscent of But The Engineer featured an an upturned bathtub. It was powered even earlier precursor to the tank by a 16hp four-cylinder engine 18 months earlier in April 1902. provided by the German Daimler The ‘self-propelled war car’ company, and had a top-speed mode was designed by Frederick of nine miles an hour, although this Richard Simms, inventor and could be increased by 25 per cent founder of the RAC and SMMT, with the accelerator on.
First passenger flight takes off
August 1909 from Aldershot kites, competing with his adopted son worked with Cody on the airship to build bigger and bigger versions. project, and the second Cody’s wife A flamboyant showman from This interest eventually turned to Elizabeth. The Engineer notes that gliders and manned aircraft, and Cody the plane weighed almost a ton, was the UK’s early aviation history managed to convince the War Office powered by an 80hp engine, and was (for whom he had worked designing prone to overheating; Cody made a Britain’s first powered airship, the few adjustments to the design over the Sometimes you have to do a little Franklin Cody, an American who had poetically named Nulli Secondus) to course of the day, shifting the radiator digging to discover the story been living in the UK since 1890. To fund development of an aircraft, the to the back to counterbalance the behind an item in The Engineer. call Cody an interesting chap would be Cody British Army Aeroplane No.1. weight of the passenger. The following Having the benefit of hindsight, we an understatement. Aeronautics was This became the first heavier-than-air month, Cody made the world’s then can appreciate what an important his second profession: his first was machine to fly in Britain, reaching longest flight, lasting an hour and event the world’s first passenger Wild West showman. 1,390ft. The aircraft was damaged on three minutes. flight was: the birth of the whole Growing up in Iowa at the end of landing and, with typical foresight, the Cody continued in the record- commercial aviation industry. But the 19th century, Cody learned to ride, War Office decided there was no future breaking vein, building the world’s to our predecessors in 1909, it shoot, train horses, use a lasso and in aeroplanes and cancelled Cody’s largest aeroplane, the Flying Cathedral, only merited four paragraphs, hunt buffalo, and spent some time contract, without even leaving Cody which finished fourth in a round-Britain and skipped the background of prospecting for gold in Alaska. He then any funds to repair the flyer. air race in 1911. The end of his story is possibly one of the most eccentric turned to showbusiness, changed his As you might expect from an sad but probably inevitable: in 1913 he individuals who has ever graced name (he was born Franklin Cowdery) ex-gold prospector and Wild West built a floatplane, and was flying it in our pages. and toured the US as ‘Captain Cody, stalwart, Cody wasn’t to be dissuaded the company of a footballer called The first passenger flights — King of the Cowboys’, performing feats and repaired the plane at his own WHB Evans when it broke up in two of them — took place at of horsemanship and sharpshooting. expense. On 14 August 1909 he made mid-air. Both Cody and Evans were Aldershot in a large biplane He later took the show to Europe, and two sets of flights carrying passengers, killed. Over 100,000 people turned designed and built by Samuel around this time became interested in the first a Colonel JE Capper, who had out for Cody’s funeral.
18 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016
TES_011216 18 28/11/2016 17:20 1890s–1900s
Aviation tackles 01 Hubert Latham takes off from Sangatte Channel crossing on 23 July 1909 July 1909 Back when aircraft pilots were 02 The aircraft had to be fished referred to as ‘aeroplanists’ out of the water and brought back to land One skill that all reporters on The cylinder petrol motor equipped with a Engineer must quickly develop novel cooling system that used the is an ability to understand radiator as part of the structure of the the unique language of each aircraft. engineering sector: a distinctive “Sangatte, the French terminus of and often impenetrable patois the abandoned Channel Tunnel, was of buzzwords, acronyms and chosen as the starting point, the 01 confusing terminology that aeroplanist intending to land at Dover,” can render the most basic wrote The Engineer. “At a quarter to 02 concepts incomprehensible. seven, having made all the necessary But it’s not always been preparations, Mr Latham ascended this way. The Engineer archive in his machine and, after executing frequently shines a light on these a wide circle round Sangatte, headed sectors before they had a chance for Dover.” to evolve their own vernacular. After travelling around eight miles, At the dawn of the automotive the article reports that the “machine industry, before cars were cars, was seen to be gradually descending reporters marvelled at the in a long straight line to the surface of ‘horseless carriage’. The bicycle the water” where it eventually landed was – and maybe still should be – and was rescued by a torpedo boat the velocipede and, as The that was following Latham’s progress Engineer article reminds us, at the in the air. very beginning of the aviation Although ultimately unsuccessful, sector pilots were aeroplanists. The Engineer wrote that “sufficient was The article in question – from 23 done to demonstrate the possibility July 1909 – was reporting on a of success and the suitability of Mr recent attempt by French aviation Latham’s type of machine for this pioneer Hubert Latham to make particular purpose”. What’s more, the first cross-channel aeroplane Latham did at least earn the distinction crossing. Latham attempted his of becoming the first person to land an must naturally render the condition of Latham made a second crossing in a monoplane dubbed aircraft on a body of water. the problem of flight somewhat more unsuccessful attempt a few days later, Antoinette IV that had been Describing the technical challenges complicated than in their absence”. but had by then been pipped to the designed by French inventor Léon of flying overseas, “there are, more or As for the cause of the accident, post by Louis Blériot, who made the Levavasseur. The aircraft was less always, over any large stretch of Latham put it down to the effect first successful crossing of the channel equipped with a 50hp eight- water vertical currents of air which of salt in the air on the carburettor. just days after Latham’s initial attempt.
shaky start. It was due to run on 2 “ The Duryea is a Horseless carriage November, however, only two entries were ready to compete and a decision four-wheel buggy” was taken to postpone the race The Engineer race and the birth until later that month. Entrants H Mueller and CE Duryea were nevertheless determined to run a four-wheel buggy, seating two of US motor cars on the original date and arrangements persons, and has ball bearings for were made for the two cars to race the axles and rubber tires on the
November 1895 November head to head on the 92-mile road wheel,” according to The Engineer. Competition gets off to shaky track from Chicago city to Waukegan “The gasoline tanks carry a supply and back. sufficient for [a 150-mile] run and beginnings on the starting grid The H Mueller entry was a can be recharged in five minutes.” four-wheel open carriage. It ran on H Mueller made the run in nine a 3hp Benz gas engine, consuming hours, 20 minutes, averaging a speed The great horseless carriage newspaper of Chicago, it was hailed at around one pint of gasoline per hour. of 10mph, with a maximum speed of race of 1895 set the stage for the time as the defining race to prove The rear wheels were driven from the 12mph. The Duryea motor carriage, the introduction of the motor car the viability of mechanical transport. motor shaft by a chain-and-sprocket however, encountered some problems in the US. The competition was But as The Engineer reported, the wheel on the carriage axel. and was finally run off the road by an organised by the Times-Herald competition got off to a decidedly “The Duryea motor carriage is approaching wagon.
DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 19
TES_011216 19 29/11/2016 10:21 Work on a project that will stand the test of time
There is a wealth of opportunities for engineers AEROSPACE looking for a fresh challenge across the infrastructure, aerospace, automotive, maritime The aviation industry is entering an exciting phase. Aircraft are being re-engineered and upgraded and the race is on and energy sectors. Here are just a few of the to produce newer, faster, quieter and more fuel efficient projects you could be working on. aircraft. Aerospace companies across the world are looking for engineers who can drive innovation in the industry. INFRASTRUCTURE With such strong competition, large projects are driving a Some of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects are range of job opportunities across airframe, systems and currently underway in the UK, offering a range of exciting interiors including Design Engineers and Manufacturing opportunities for civil and structural engineers. Engineers. Working on these projects, you will get the chance to shape the use of game changing materials, and 2017 is set to be a landmark year for the rail industry with design and manufacturing methods. significant phase 1 design and construction packages set to gather momentum for HS2. With such a large and complex Contact our aerospace team to find out more about jobs project, there are a range of job opportunities available within the latest aerospace projects. including Design Engineers, BIM/CAD Coordinators, Project [email protected] Managers, Project Planners, Field Engineers, Quantity Surveyors and Commercial Managers. MARITIME
The first new Crossrail passenger train services are There is a strong demand for maritime professionals, not expected to be in operation from 2017 and the project will just in the UK but around the world. continue to need more engineers as it reaches the final stages. Opportunities on this project include Site Managers, There are numerous opportunities available for people Quantity Surveyors, Project Managers, Field Engineers, looking to work at shipyards overseas. In Canada, the Project Planners, Quality Assurance and HSQE. National Shipbuilding Strategy has increased the demand for maritime professionals including Ship Managers If you’d like to find out more about working on the latest rail and Production Supervisors to help build the country’s projects, please contact our rail team. shipbuilding future over the next two decades. [email protected] If you’d like to find out more about opportunities within the AUTOMOTIVE latest maritime projects, please contact our maritime team. [email protected] The UK automotive industry is bucking the trend across Europe by achieving record growth, creating thousands of ENERGY jobs and attracting major inward investment. Companies like Tesla are investing heavily to ramp up production. Hinkley Point C is a flagship Nuclear project in the UK that Recent reports estimate the firm is aiming to make as many is going to kick start a generation of new build nuclear as 1m a year by 2020. The London Taxi Company is set to energy projects. At the peak of its construction, there will launch its first electrically powered black cab in 2017, ahead be 25,000 workers on site. of Transport for London legislation that all new taxis must be ‘zero-emission capable’. As the UK has not built a nuclear power station for over 20 years, the consultancies and contractors responsible for With a booming market there are many opportunities hiring for the project will be looking to attract candidates available for Electrical Leads, Design Engineers and who have worked across other sectors, to make up for a Managers looking to drive through innovation in the shortfall in nuclear talent. Engineers will be required to industry. Whilst these opportunities are predominantly in work across the complete project lifecycle and mechanical, the UK, there are also some available in other European electrical, civil and structural engineers will be particularly locations such as Germany and Slovakia. sought after.
To find out more about working on the latest automotive If you’d like to find out more about working on an energy projects, please contact our automotive team. project like this, please contact our energy team. [email protected] [email protected]
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Matchtech_DPS_TES_011216.ps 21 28/11/2016 15:44 The Future of Automated Manufacturing
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Man and Machines_FP_TES_010916.ps 1 18/08/2016 20:01 1910s–1920s May 1915 Gretna rail disaster
The Engineer counts the cost of one of the most devastating train crashes in the UK’s history
n 22 May 1915, that the majority of deaths occurred not from the “ In conclusion, there is fi ve separate trains initial collision, but when the Glasgow-bound express were involved in a for which the local train had been shunted came a remedy against such devastating crash hurtling into the wreckage just a minute later. oversight as happened at the Quintinshill “The first collision must have killed many in the signal box near troop train,” wrote our predecessors, “but the in this case and that is Gretna Green greater number were, we think, killed by the down to track-circuit the lines” in Dumfriesshire, (northbound) express – not only as a consequence The Engineer Scotland. of its running into the debris, but because those The collisions who alighted from the troop train on the ‘off’ side and subsequent were caught like rats in a trap on the down loop.” circumstances), the signalman who gave the green fire resulted in the loss of at least 226 lives, although Alongside the dead soldiers were three railway light to the troop train had an unobstructed view just Oa definitive number of victims has never been employees and at least nine passengers, including yards away of the stationary local train that occupied subsequently established. four victims believed to be children but whose bodies the tracks. According to this publication, simple “The Gretna disaster establishes a record in that it were never identified or claimed. The cause of the measures could have been taken to avoid this is the greatest railway accident since communication incident was found to be neglect of the rules by fundamental human error. by rail was established,” The Engineer wrote in the the two signalmen, and both were subsequently “We may say, in conclusion, that there is a remedy days following the disaster. “There has never been charged with manslaughter in England, then against such oversight as happened in this case, anything like it as regards numbers of casualties in convicted of the equivalent charge of culpable and that is to track-circuit the lines. Had the up line this country or the United States, the total in this homicide after trial in Scotland. been track-circuited, the signal for the troop train accident alone being as many as those killed in Perhaps the most damning fact to emerge from could not have been lowered. Such safeguards are, the United Kingdom during the last 10 years.” the entire incident was this: despite all the confusion however, only used in places where a signalman’s The Quintinshill signal box overlooked the of the occupied loops, the shunted train, and the view is indifferent. In this case the view could not Caledonian Main Line linking Glasgow and Carlisle, shift change (which were by no means extraordinary be improved.” now part of the West Coast Main Line. As well as northbound and southbound tracks, passing loops for both main lines were also situated at this point. On the morning of the crash, both loops were Events occupied; the southbound loop with an empty coal at Gretna wagon, the northbound with a goods train that had Green left Carlisle at 04.50. led to the Just before 06.30, a local train travelling north loss of at from Carlisle was shunted across to the southbound least 226 line in order to allow a London to Glasgow sleeper lives express to overtake it. Although not an ideal manoeuvre, this wasn’t considered a dangerous thing to do so long as proper procedures were observed. Unfortunately, a personnel change at the signal box – compounded with a litany of rule breaches – led to a southbound troop train being given the all-clear to proceed, despite the section of track being occupied by the stationary local train. The resulting crash officially claimed the lives of 215 soldiers, mainly from the Leith Battalion of the Royal Scots headed for Gallipoli: “Added to the prominence given to this disaster by the number of victims and the manner in which they were killed, there is the pathetic fact of over 200 gallant Scottish Territorials, who were on their way to fight for their King and country, in which work they were willing to lay down their lives.” With the roll-list of the regiment destroyed in the ensuing fire, the precise number of casualties could never be confirmed with confidence. It’s believed
DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 23
TES_011216 23 28/11/2016 10:07 1910s–1920s
the construction project for the new building and then marched in, in Wembley Stadium stadium, is how fast it was. The companies, and led to the banks of ground for the original stadium was seats immediately behind the Royal cleared in February 1922 – a Box… It was quite obvious that the Setting the scene for a host of considerable project in itself, with over majority of these men had seen 120,000 cubic yards of clay removed service in the war, for otherwise we
April 1923 April football and musical triumphs to level the site – and it took less than do not believe it would have been a year to complete the building of the possible for them to act in unison stadium itself: the project was with such wonderful precision,” The building of the original the old Wembley was also a expedited, the feature said, so that the the article said. Wembley Stadium was a feat prodigious feat of engineering, which stadium could host the 1923 FA Cup These workers “were put through of – literally – military precision, The Engineer featured across a final. (Bolton Wanderers beat West a series of movements” by the resident including formation marching. five-page feature in 1923. Ham 2-0, but the final is better architect, Captain FB Ellison (no doubt It was also unthinkably fast by What’s particularly remarkable, remembered for a policeman mounted utilising his own military experience), today’s standards. considering the four-year duration of on a white horse who helped to control including standing up, sitting down, People have many fond a 300,000-strong swaying from side to side and memories of the old Wembley crowd, many backwards and forwards, marking Stadium. As well as being an 01 of whom were time at the double, and jumping up iconic building in and of itself, it standing around and down while shouting and waving was the scene of many football the perimeter their arms. This was repeated at triumphs and celebrations in of the pitch.) various places around the stadium. various cup finals down the years; The feature “Finally, gangs of the men were and has also been the venue for is particularly ordered to run up and down several many famous concerts, including strong on the flights of the steps,” it said. As an epoch-defining Live Aid concert tests the stadium much a test for the builders as for in 1985. was put through. the stadium, we imagine; you’d be The old stadium is gone now, “A body of hard-pressed to find 1,280 builders of course; the iconic Twin Towers labourers… who could do that today. ground into rubble, the gents’ numbering, The article noted that the stadium toilets unlamented by anyone with we are given contained 1,400 tones of structural a sense of smell. The demise of to understand, steel; half-a-million rivets; 600 tons of the burger concessions have 1,280, was first steel rods for reinforcing 25,000 tons probably improved the average of all drawn up of concrete; and 14 miles of concrete cardiac health of the nation. But outside the beams to form the terracing.
Sydney Harbour 02 Bridge Iconic man-made structure gets February 1924 the most cursory of welcomes
Its status as one of the world’s Records, it is the world’s widest most iconic man-made structures long-span bridge and tallest steel is undisputed, but the decision to arch bridge, measuring 134m give the green light to the North from top to water level. Shore Bridge, as it was known, Designed to carry six lanes of warranted the briefest mention road traffic, two railway tracks and on the pages of The Engineer. a footpath on each side, the “We learn that Mr Bradfield, 48.8m-wide structure was indeed engineer to the state of New South designed and built by Dorman, Long Wales, has recommended the and Co. Based in Middlesbrough, Australian government to accept this UK company apparently came the tender of Dorman, Long and up with the most attractive bid for the Co for the construction of the contract: “The total estimated cost of North Shore Bridge at Sydney.” the bridge was approximately Opened in 1932, the steel arch £6,000,000 and it is calculated that bridge carried rail, vehicular and 35,000 tons of steel will be used in pedestrian traffic between the its construction. According to reports Sydney central business district we have received the price tendered and the North Shore. Until 1967 it by Dorman, Long and Co was 01 Wembley Stadium starts to take 02 Until 1967, the Sydney Harbour was the city’s tallest structure and, £4,500,000 and that of William shape during construction Bridge was the city’s tallest structure according to Guinness World Arrol and Co, £5,300,000.”
24 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016
TES_011216 24 28/11/2016 10:10 Nikon Metrology provides optical and mechanical 3D metrology solutions, vision measuring instruments, microscopes, X-ray and CT inspection systems.
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Nikon_FP_TES_Archive_011216.ps 1 14/11/2016 12:02 1910s–1920s Feb 1927 Land speed record
Scepticism was The Engineer’s order of the day as Blue Bird hit Pendine Sands in Wales
loodhound SSC, the positively pales beside Bloodhound’s aero engine, the best stopwatches. “Captain Campbell’s feat latest attempt to break a Rolls-Royce EJ200 turbojet. consists of doing the mile in 0.436 seconds faster” the world land speed The Engineer was surprisingly sniffy about than the previous record holder, John Godfrey record, is regularly Campbell’s achievement. “While we admit that Parry-Thomas, the article said. “That figure speaks featured in The Engineer; the speed achieved is remarkable for a machine for itself, as regards both the achievement and the it’s one of the highest- travelling on wheels, we are not disposed to feel accuracy [that] is required.” profile engineering undue enthusiasm for the fact that it is claimed to be Parry-Thomas tragically died trying to retake the projects in the UK, a record,” the journal said. The uncertainty was due record: a month after Campbell’s run he tried again and its mixture of to a lack of information about the timing method at Pendine, but his car, named ‘Babs’, crashed and high technology and used. No stopwatch could measure to the accuracy caught fire. Campbell himself was a rarity among derring-do makes it claimed, The Engineer added: even the first decimal speed record specialists of the time: he died of fascinating for many people. place was dubious, as stopwatches of the time natural causes, in 1948, after breaking land and The same wasn’t true in 1927, when a brief news measured to a fifth of a second, and only when the water speed records in a succession of Bluebird piece marked the breaking of the land speed record sweeping hand was exactly on a division was the vehicles. His son, Donald, was not so lucky; after a by Malcolm Campbell, then a captain in the Royal time accurate. “A stopwatch capable of being read dazzling record-breaking career on water and land Flying Corps – a parallel with current record holder to the thousandth part of a second would require to he perished in an attempt on the world water speed and Bloodhound driver Andy Green, who is an RAF have a balance wheel making a thousand oscillations record in the jet boat Bluebird K7 on Coniston Water wing commander. per second” rather than the five oscillations made by in 1967. Campbell broke the record in the second car to bear the name Blue Bird at Pendine Sands in Wales, and broke the 150mph barrier, hitting “ While we admit the speed 174.883mph on the Flying Kilometre and Captain Malcolm 174.224 on the Flying Mile. achieved is remarkable we Campbell breaks the In another Bloodhound parallel, this Blue Bird was are not disposed to feel land speed record by driven by an aircraft engine; in this case a Napier Lion breaching the 150mph 12-cylinder, with the cylinders arranged in three undue enthusiasm for the barrier in Blue Bird banks of four in a ‘broad arrow’ configuration: this fact that it is claimed to be on Pendine Sands produced 450bhp, which is 100hp less than the in Wales Jaguar supercharged V8 that Bloodhound is using a record” to pump oxidiser into its hybrid rocket motor; it The Engineer
2 6 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016 26
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Relec_FP_TES_010916.ps 1 15/08/2016 10:46 1930s–1940s Oct 1945 Whittle engine
Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet propulsion gas turbine, presents his ideas to The Engineer
y the age of 21 Sir for jet propulsion. I applied for my first patent in “ I gave up hope of ever Frank Whittle had January 1930.” conceived a technology The idea was submitted to the now defunct Air getting the idea to the that would transform Ministry but turned down due to perceived difficulties practical stage but military and civil aviation surrounding a gas turbine. Similarly, Sir Frank tried in a way that has and failed to attract funding from a number of continued to do the remained largely different sources. paperwork at intervals” unchallenged for “I gave up hope of ever getting the idea to the Sir Frank Whittle 75 years. practical stage, but continued to do paperwork It should go without at intervals, until, in May 1935, when I was at saying that Sir Frank Cambridge as an engineer officer taking the Tripos “We were aiming at a pressure ratio of about 4/1 invented the jet propulsion gas turbine, and, in doing course, I was approached by two ex-RAF officers (Mr in a single-stage centrifugal blower when at the so, created a market that between 2014–2023 alone RD Williams and Mr JCB Tinling), who suggested that time, so far as we knew, a ratio of 2t/1 had not been will require 55,000 new engines. they should try to get something started,” he said. exceeded. We were aiming at a breathing capacity Some of those engines will be on the Airbus “Although I had allowed the original patent to lapse in proportion to size substantially greater than had A350-1000, an aircraft coming into service next through failure to pay the renewal fee, and although I previously been attempted. year with power being delivered by two Rolls-Royce regarded them as extremely optimistic, I agreed to “The combustion intensity we aimed to achieve Trent engines that will each deliver 97,000lb of thrust. co-operate. I thought that there was just a bare was far beyond anything previously attempted. By contrast, Sir Frank’s first jet propulsion gas chance that something might come of it.” Finally, we had to get over 3,000 SHP out of a turbine – the W1 – delivered 1,240lb of thrust, rising With Messrs Williams and Tinling on board, Sir single-stage turbine wheel of about 16lin outside to 1,600lb with the development of the W2. Frank was able to come to an arrangement with diameter, and to do it with high efficiency.” A remarkable element of the jet engine’s story is investment bankers OT Falk and Partners, leading The engine was tested for the first time on 12 April the fact that Sir Frank was rejected twice by the RAF; to the formation of Power Jets in 1936. 1937, with the initial start-up declared a success. an organisation that would ultimately reward him with The engine itself was to be a simple jet “But it [the engine] accelerated out of control up a commission and an education. propulsion gas turbine having a single-stage to about half its designed full speed,” wrote Sir Frank. No less remarkable was the fact that just a few centrifugal compressor with bilateral intakes, “This happened several times, and altogether it was a months after the end of the Second World War, Air driven by a directly coupled single-stage turbine. very alarming business, so much so that in the early Commodore Frank Whittle, CBE, RAF, MA, Hon. MI Combustion was to take place in a single chamber days the individuals in the vicinity did more running Mech E had set about contributing a series of articles through which the working fluid passed from the than the engine.” to The Engineer that would candidly and eloquently compressor to the turbine. Just shy of his 34th birthday, Sir Frank saw his explain how the jet engine came into being. “We were going beyond all previous engineering invention provide power for the new Gloster E.28/39 “I first started thinking about this general experience in each of the major organs,” he said. on its maiden flight from RAF Cranwell in 1941. subject in 1928, in my fourth term as a flight cadet at the RAF. College, Cranwell,” he wrote. “Each term we had to write a science thesis, and in my fourth term I chose for my 02 subject the future development of aircraft. Among other things, I discussed the possibilities of jet propulsion and of gas turbines; but it was not until 18 months later, when on an 03 instructors’ course at the Central Flying School, Wittering, that 01/02/03 The invention provided power for the I conceived the idea new Gloster E.28/39 on its maiden flight of using a gas turbine 01
2 8 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016 28
TES_011216 28 28/11/2016 10:12 1930s–1940s May 1937 The Hindenburg
Dramatic destruction prompts detailed coverage of this fascinating area of transportation
he destruction of the There’s little doubt that the accident contributed Hindenburg brought the to a shattering of public confidence in airships, but age of the airship to a The Engineer, which had recently returned from a trip shocking close. In 1937 to Germany to view the Hindenburg and its sister The Engineer reported ship the LZ-130, clearly felt that the industry would on the design and survive one of aviation’s most infamous accidents. construction techniques “The loss of this fine example of lighter-than-air that went into making construction, at a time when British and American this iconic aircraft. interest was again being aroused in the possibilities of From the ill-fated a commercial North Atlantic airship service, and when British R101, to more the postal advantages of a two-day voyage between recent efforts to develop large airships for military Frankfurt and New York were being recognised by all, reconnaissance, The Engineer has long taken an will retard progress,” wrote The Engineer, “but it will interest in the engineering challenges of developing not stop the further perfecting of the design by Dr lighter-than-air vehicles. Eckener and his trained staff of workers on the But it is the dramatic destruction of the German building and operation of airships.” Hindenburg airship in May 1937 that prompted Rather than speculating on the cause of the perhaps our most detailed coverage of this accident (which today remains something of a fascinating area of transportation. mystery – different theories point to sabotage, a On 6 May 1937, shortly after arriving in Lakehurst, build-up of static electricity and a lightning strike), New Jersey, the Hindenburg caught fire and was The Engineer article instead focuses on the design destroyed while attempting to dock with its mooring and construction of the huge German vessels, mast, with 35 of 97 people on board losing their lives. and is full of praise for the high engineering standards involved. “A few weeks ago, we were afforded an 01 “ The loss will not stop opportunity of inspecting the ‘LZ-130’ in her shed at Friedrichshafen and also paid a visit to the the further perfecting of Hindenburg at the Frankfurt am Main airport. arrangement for the operation and navigation of the the airship design by Dr We were greatly impressed by the thorough ships have been perfected.” way in which the problems of design have been Commenting on some detailed line drawings of Eckener and his staff” worked out and embodied in the construction the Hindenburg, The Engineer wrote: “As our The Engineer of the new ship and the way in which the drawings show… an outstanding feature of the new design was the separation of the control gondola, which was placed below the front of the ship, from the passenger quarters which were arranged on two decks inside the hull of the ship. By this means, more space was made available for the use of the passengers…” In a later issue (21 May), The Engineer turned to the construction techniques used to build the airships, writing that “the new design incorporated the long-established Zeppelin principles of construction, which include a braced light metal girder construction, with the internal space divided by rings, forming compartments in which the cells or bags for the lifting gas are housed”.
01/02 The Engineer felt that the airship would survive and prosper, despite the destruction of the Hindenburg in May 1937
02
DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 29
TES_011216 29 28/11/2016 10:12 1930s–1940s
cameras and six Emitron supply As well as the high order of The dawn of TV and amplification units, which feed definition (405 lines), The Engineer two alternative channels to the report added that one of the key vision transmitter. Signals from the advantages of the Marconi system broadcasting cameras are raised from 0.002V to was a complete absence of flicker. 2,000V. A special unit supplies to the “By the use of interlaced scanning, equipment all the necessary pulses the flicker frequently is raised to 50 for synchronisation. The signals are per second, which is well above August 1936 A visit to Alexandra Palace first amplified in a unit built into the the limit of visual perception. The television station in 1936 camera itself, and the amplified picture vision transmitter and its associated signals then pass by a special cable aerial radiates a linear band width to the amplifiers in the control room.” of zero cycles to 3,000,000 cycles Today, London’s Alexandra The article looks in detail at The mast, which carried aerials per second, which has been made Palace is known around the world the key features of Marconi’s for both the Marconi and Baird possible by the development of as the birthplace of television 405-line system and John Logie systems, was 300ft above the new methods of amplification, broadcasting – arguably one of Baird’s 240-line system. ground at its highest point. modulation, and aerial design.” the most disruptive innovations After a year-long of the 20th century. trial, during which each But, back in 1936, few could system broadcasted have anticipated the way in which on alternate weeks, television would come to dominate Marconi-EMI’s so- public life. And following a visit to called “hi-definition” the London television station in system was chosen. August of that year, The Engineer The system was reported on the technology in a suspended during the characteristically measured tone. Second World War, but “On Sunday last we paid a remained in operation visit to the Alexandra Palace,” in the UK until 1985. it wrote, “where a television Describing the station has been established system’s operation to provide an extended trial of and advantages, The the systems devised by Baird Engineer wrote: “There Television, Ltd, and the Marconi are six Marconi EMI EMI Television Company, Ltd.” Emitron television
The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
November 1940 November An infamous engineering failure in Washington
This year marks the 75th her final gallop. In anniversary of one of engineering’s winds of just 40mph most infamous failures. The – relatively mild for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which Pacific North West briefly spanned the Puget Sound – the bridge began in the US state of Washington, to sway and buckle opened in July 1940. Just dangerously. Aerostatic five months later, the bridge fluttering caused the was to suffer a catastrophic central span to twist collapse, the iconic video and contort, with the footage becoming synonymous amplitude ultimately with engineering disasters. causing the suspension cables to fail. definite insight into one of the of its design considerably higher Christened ‘Galloping Gertie’ Although the dramatic pictures underlying causes of the collapse: than that of any earlier bridge.” by construction workers due to its of the bridge’s collapse were only “The span-to-width ratio of the vertical movement in high winds, to reach these shores a few weeks Tacoma Bridge at 72 may be the 1,800m-long structure had later, the incident still gained several contrasted with the comparable figure Getting to grips with the nascent a main span of 853m. However, column inches in The Engineer. of 42 for the Golden Gate Bridge technology of television broadcasting on 7 November, Gertie went for One part of the report gives a at San Francisco, itself at the time
30 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016
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National Instruments_FP_TE_011216.ps 1 18/11/2016 09:59 1930s–1940s Jan 1941 Lancaster bomber
The Engineer took a detailed look at one of Britain’s most iconic war planes
ike The Engineer, the Lancaster is celebrating a landmark, with this year marking the 75th anniversary of the aircraft’s maiden flight in January 1941. The bomber would not enter active service until the following year, but by August 1942 when The Engineer was invited to see it in action, the Lancaster had already started to make a name for itself. “But a few months after its completion, the ‘Lancaster’ has left its mark on the German landscape and its people,” wrote our predecessors. “It has helped powerfully by night to batter Cologne and Essen, with bombs of the heaviest calibre. By day it carried out the epic raid led by squadron leader JD Nettleton, VC, on Augsburg, and the raids on Danzig and Flensburg. “From the initial flights and the report of the Ministry of Aircraft production testing staff, it was soon obvious that the Allied cause had now what has since been aptly styled by many pilots as a ‘war winner’.” Of course, the Lancaster’s most famous hour was to come in May 1943 with Operation Chastise, better known as the Dam Busters mission. Armed “ It is obvious that the Allied with Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bomb, 19 of the aircraft (slightly modified) were involved in the cause has what has been The Lancaster proved to be the mainstay of attack on the Möhne, Edersee and Sorpe dams in aptly styled by many pilots British heavy bombers following its introduction, Germany’s Ruhr valley. The Möhne and Edersee flying 156,000 sorties between 1942 and 1945 dams were destroyed, but eight of the aircraft would as a ‘war winner’” not return, with 53 aircrew killed during the mission The Engineer and another three taken prisoner. While the story of the Dam Busters certainly added to the Lancaster’s legend, its iconic design our visit is its great ease of control, and this, coupled This flexibility, along with the aircraft’s operational also won it a place in the public consciousness. with its high speed, is of great defensive value.” excellence, would prompt Air Chief Marshal Arthur Despite being “designed and built in record time” It is testament to the Lancaster’s quality that ‘Bomber’ Harris to refer to the Lancaster as RAF in what this magazine referred to as “a triumph variants of the aircraft were still in operation as late Bomber Command’s “shining sword”. It became of aeronautical engineering”, the bomber was as 1963. Central to this longevity was the modular the mainstay of British heavy bombers following its also noted for its “particularly graceful lines and design, which in 1942 was described by The introduction, flying 156,000 sorties between 1942 a pleasing appearance, perhaps rarely seen in Engineer as enabling “ease of production, easy and 1945. During this period, Lancasters would large military aircraft”. transport, and easy maintenance and repair”. drop over 600,000 tonnes of bombs, and 3,249 A more technical description comes later in the The report added: “The design, the makers claim, aircraft would be lost in action. article: “In design it may be described as a mid-wing lends itself to rapid and relatively cheap production Manufactured primarily at Avro’s factory at four-engined all-metal cantilever monoplane, with a as the entire machine is built up of numbers of Chadderton near Oldham, Lancasters were also built retractable undercarriage. In general, it is powered components [that] are manufactured largely as in one of Canada’s largest aircraft factories and flown by four Rolls-Royce ‘Merlin XX’ liquid-cooled engines, separate and self-contained units, and are easy by the Royal Canadian Air Force, as well as the Royal which have given such a good account of themselves to transport and to assemble. Australian Air Force. A true giant of the skies, the in other bombers and fighter aircraft. “Full 100 per cent interchangeability has been Lancaster is among the most fondly remembered of “Other engines, notably the Bristol ‘Hercules,’ are aimed at and achieved, and this, coupled with all British military aircraft, and one that undoubtedly also being fitted to the ‘Lancaster’. An outstanding ease of construction, has contributed largely to played a vital role in turning the tide in favour of the feature which was demonstrated on the occasion of the ease of maintenance and repair.” Allies. The Engineer salutes this incredible aircraft.
3 2 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016
TES_011216 32 28/11/2016 10:13 1930s–1940s
Describing the engine, the report article, had the desired effect. “The The Rolls-Royce claimed that “by using a double-stage results obtained from the improved supercharger with a water-cooled Spitfire have, we learn, more than passage between the first and second fulfilled the hopes and expectations of Merlin 61 engine stages of the supercharger, and a all who have helped in the work. The cooler between the supercharger advent of the new German Focke- outlet and the induction pipe to the Wulf 190 with its 1,600hp air-cooled One of the defining engineering rear cylinder, it is found possible with supercharged engine caused some the new engine to develop double uninformed persons to believe that
December 1942 achievements of the last war the power output. When operating the Germans had stolen a march on at a height of 40,000ft, the charge us in the high-performance fighter of air and fuel is now raised by the class of aircraft. But as enemy In a fascinating example of how aircraft, and particularly that of fighter supercharger to six times the pressure fighter losses continually show, the the Second World War upped the aircraft, shall continually improve. of the surrounding atmosphere”. improved Spitfire with its new Merlin pace of technology development, Ranking above the need This redesign, concluded the 61 engine was there to surpass it.” The Engineer looked at one of the for more and more defining engineering achievements aircraft of all types of the war: Rolls-Royce’s Merlin is the overriding 61 engine, which made its necessity that ours debut on the Mark IX Spitfire. shall have technical Designed in response to the superiority Focke-Wulf 190, the Luftwaffe’s over those of most effective fighter, the huge the enemy.” performance improvements brought about by the Merlin 61 supercharged engine enabled 01 Rolls-Royce’s the RAF’s most iconic aircraft to Merlin 61 engine claw back its aerial superiority. Commenting on the technical oneupmanship that characterised 02 ‘Chicken’ the battle between German and cannons have a Allied engineers, The Engineer long provenance wrote that “the war demands that in engineering the performance of all types of
The chicken cannon June 1944 Protecting windscreens from bird strikes 01
It is one of industry’s enduring of a new high-speed train were tersely aeroplane, may cause serious damage. “The apparatus was mounted on urban myths: UK engineers firing advised to ‘defrost the chicken’ when “It has been recorded in America, an undercarriage carried on rails. dead chickens at the windscreen their tests saw the feathered projectile for instance, that a bird once not It consisted of a motor-drive air crash through the window, only broke through the windscreen compressor supplying a large receiver smash up the driver’s seat of a passenger aeroplane, but at pressures up to 200lbs per sq in 02 and become embedded punched a hole through the metal (nearly 14 bar). The receiver supplied in the wall of the cabin. bulkhead behind the pilot, travelled air to the cannon’s barrel – made from Whatever the provenance the full length of the passenger lengths of ordinary piping – mounted of this tale, protecting compartment and finally came to above it. Windscreen materials were windscreens from bird- rest… among the luggage!” mounted on a sheet steel easel.” strikes has exercised To aid the development of bird- The article said the gun enabled the industry’s finest proof windscreens, The Engineer engineers to formulate a new minds for longer than reported on the development of the bird-strike-resistant windscreen. “A readers might expect. world’s very first ‘chicken cannon’, construction has been developed “There are many minor designed by the Westinghouse that will withstand the impact of a problems of flight about Electric and Manufacturing 15lb bird at speeds up to 200mph. which little is heard,” company, to subject a variety of On the outside there is a layer of full reported The Engineer. windscreen specimens to “such tempered glass. Next, there is an air “One of them is provided by missiles as chickens and turkeys”. space, behind which is a sandwich migratory birds which, when Explaining the operation of of two sheets of glass separated struck by a fast-moving the device, the magazine wrote: by a thick filling of plastic.”
DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 33
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240RS 310 Components_FP_TES_011116.ps i dd 2 1 15/11/201620/10/2016 16:33 17 41 1950s–1960s July 1969 Apollo 11
The Engineer concentrated on technical matters, in vivid contrast to the mainstream media’s output
ow do you mark space programme”. For example, it noted that “ A welter of publicity focused the most signifi cant NASA’s work on space communications systems led achievement in the directly to the establishment of the Communications on the astronauts casts a history of mankind? Satellite Corporation, and to a subsequent “many- long shadow that tends The Apollo landings fold increase in the ability to communicate, a major of the late 1960s and decrease in the cost of communication, and an to obscure the technical early 1970s are still international expansion of communications facilities”. accomplishments” seen as a high water Benefits had included unprecedented televisation of The Engineer mark of humanity the Olympic Games, but even more significant was and, as The Engineer a 25 per cent drop in the cost of a long-distance pointed out, much telephone call: “a permanent benefit to every citizen”. “a 24-ounce battery-operated TV camera the size of the millions of words of press coverage of the The development of precision manufacturing of a packet of cigarettes [not a comparison that we fi rst mission to land, Apollo 11, was concerned techniques was also credited to the rigours of space would use today], bearings coated with a ceramic- with the human stories of the three astronauts on exploration, as was the development of new products banded dry lubricant for use at high temperatures, board. Admirably sticking to its remit, The Engineer and new techniques. It’s now a cliché to mention and the technique for polishing metal masters to decided it would be apt to focus instead upon the non-stick pans in the context of the Apollo missions, shape elliptical glass mirrors”. It also mentions the machinery that will be taking our fi rst extraplanetary but The Engineer avoided this, instead mentioning transfer of successful management techniques from pioneers a quarter-of-a-million miles the industrial side of the programme to from the Earth’s surface to the universities, government agencies and Moon’s, and back again in safety. industrial corporations. The total spin-off In a special issue entitled ‘The from Apollo in economic terms have been Mightiest Machine in the World’, the cautiously estimated to be £1bn a year. magazine explained this decision. The Engineer said: “Their value to a better “Not surprisingly the stage has been environment may be immeasurable”. dominated by the three astronauts who In an optimistic note, the issue even will land on the Moon. We join with suggests (remarkably for 1969), that as all men of goodwill in wishing them astronomy had led to the harnessing success. But the welter of publicity of nuclear energy, space sciences focused on the astronauts casts a were suggesting “regimes of power” long shadow [that] tends to obscure that could free mankind from reliance the extraordinary achievements of on diminishing or expensive fuels. the thousands of specialists whose The issue is lavishly illustrated with technical accomplishments have photos of Saturn 5 and the Apollo vehicles, made the Moon landing feasible.” One and it details the stages in which the notable quirk of the coverage is that, launcher in particular was developed. with typical British formality, the issue This included proving the concept of consistently refuses to use the name clustered rocket engines, development Buzz Aldrin, instead referring to him of the guidance system, and experience always by his given name of Edwin. in handling liquid hydrogen fuel, which Over the subsequent pages, The was used in preference to liquid oxygen Engineer not only went into detail and kerosene for the second and third about the technical specifications states of the rocket because of the of the Saturn 5 launcher, Apollo higher energetic value of oxygen and Command Module, Service Module hydrogen. But, remaining consistent and Lunar Excursion Module, it also with the stated goal, there are absolutely attempted to place the mission in no pictures of Neil Armstrong, Buzz the context of the US economy and Aldrin or Michael Collins to be seen. of its effect on industry. The cost of the Apollo mission exceeded US$15bn, and the greatest economic significance of this was in “the growth The Apollo 11 landing mission contributed of national industrial strength that to a growth in national industrial strength has occurred in response to the in the US opportunity and challenges of the
DECEMBER 2016 | THE ENGINEER 35
TES_011216 35 28/11/2016 10:15 1950s–1960s
an assessment, which yields a cost commercial success, a series of The De Havilland per hour slightly less than that of piston failures caused by metal fatigue led to engines in comparable aircraft.” all Comets being withdrawn. In 1958 a The Engineer claimed that “more redesigned Comet was introduced, but Comet airliner favourable figures will emerge as by this time Boeing had gained the the developments now in hand commercial edge with its 707 and materialise”. These developments orders for the Comet all but dried up.
March 1950 March The optimism surrounding this were expected to yield increases in The Nimrod, a heavily modified version the thrust of the ‘ghost’ engine for of this redesigned Comet, has been in aircraft proves to be shortlived take-off and emergency climb, a military service since 1969. decrease in specific consumption for cruising, an increase in the all-up Six months after it became the at £450,000. As the SBAC formula weight of the aircraft and an increase first commercial jet airliner to does not as yet provide figures for the in the internal fuel capacity. 01 The De Havilland Comet reach production, The Engineer cost of maintenance of turbine engines Sadly, all the optimism was takes to the air in 1950 examined the performance of the De Havilland company has made short-lived, and following early the De Havilland Comet. “These figures bear out predictions made when the 01 ‘comet’ formula was thought of four years ago, namely that its high speed would more than retrieve the cost of the higher fuel consumption inherent in the jet engine. It is considered that compared with the most modern liners of its class at present in world service, the ‘comet’ will be about 20 per cent cheaper per ton-mile of payload and will be able to fly at least 50 per cent more ton-miles in the year.” The article continued: “The first cost of the aircraft is taken
The Engineer’s visit to the production gave it a top speed of 25mph (very The Centurion tank line of Britain’s heaviest tank to date speedy for a tank). marvelled at the process, but had no The Engineer reported on the whole clue as to what a formidable machine production process, including the Britain’s heaviest tank to date it would become. ingenious welding jigs that rotated the In what was clearly a big deal for steel-plate hull so that the joints were rolls onto the production line our predecessors, the press were always presented so that the welders invited, for the first time – all working by hand – could wield since the Second World their welding electrodes downwards
November 1950 November 02 War, to tour a Royal and vertically, which maximised the Ordnance Factory and welding current that could be used and see the assembly of minimised the number of welding runs what was to become an needed. The report also describes how icon of the Cold War: the tank turret was machined out of a the Centurion Tank, single 8.25-ton casting. which saw service in These efforts paid off, as the the Korean War, the Centurion was one tough machine. 1970s Arab-Israeli In a nuclear test in 1953, a Centurion conflicts, the Vietnam built the year after The Engineer’s War and even as late visit was placed 500 yards from the as the 1991 Gulf War. detonation point of a 9.1kt bomb, The Centurion was cleared of crew but fully loaded with a remarkable vehicle. ammunition and with the engine The heaviest armoured running. After the test, it was found vehicle that had ever to have been pushed back about 5ft been produced in Britain, and its engine had stopped – but only it weighed 50 tons, was because it had run out of fuel; the tank built from 3.5in-thick was refuelled and driven away. After (88mm) steel armour- repairs, it re-entered military service plate, carried a 3.7in and stayed in action for 23 years, 02 The Centurion tank was one tough machine – even surviving a nuclear (94mm) calibre gun firing a 20lb including 15 months in operational explosion during testing (9kg) shell and housed a modified service with the Australian army in Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, which the Vietnam War.
36 THE ENGINEER | DECEMBER 2016
TES_011216 36 28/11/2016 10:16 1950s–1960s
Manchester 01 Electronic July 1951 Computer The world’s first commercial general-purpose computer
Today, most of us have become “It can carry out arithmetical fairly blasé about the computing calculations with extreme rapidity, for power of even the tiniest handheld example, it takes only two seconds devices. But a report in The to do 600 multiplications of pairs of Engineer from 1951 on the 10-digit decimal numbers, which so-called Manchester Electronic would require a normal day’s work Computer is a potent reminder of by a girl with a standard desk how far and how fast computer calculation machine.” technology has advanced in a The Engineer also marvelled at the Paying tribute to those who laid relatively short space of time. machine’s ‘capacious memory’, which the groundwork for the modern Delivered to Manchester enabled it to store “16,000 12-digit computer, The Engineer added: “It is 01 The 02 Christopher University at the beginning of 1951 numbers and recall any one of them worth recalling that Charles Babbage room-sized Cockerell, the room-sized machine, which within 1/30th of a second”. anticipated by more than 100 years machine was pictured here was also known as the Ferranti The article added that the system these principles but unfortunately he delivered to with the SR-N1 Mark 1, was the world’s was also able to make decisions, “that could not get the necessary financial Manchester hovercraft, was first commercially available is to say, it can decide which of two or backing and lacked the facilities University at forced to sell general-purpose computer. more contingencies has occurred and provided by electronic devices the beginning personal Running through the machine’s it can determine its future course of upon which modern electronic of 1951 possessions to specifications, The Engineer wrote: operations accordingly”. computers depend.” fund the project
For three decades the hovercraft was the fastest and Privileged to witness this landmark Hovercraft most thrilling way to cross the English channel. event in maritime history, The Engineer And back in 1959 The Engineer was present at the wrote: “The principle of operation is birth of a vehicle so new and hard to categorise that it closely related to that of the jet flap, vehicle was described simply as a “ground-effect aircraft”. a pressure difference being sustained The culmination of six years of work – its inventor, by the change in momentum of the
June 1959 Christopher Cockerell, was forced to sell his personal jet sheet: the product of ‘cushion’ A landmark event in possessions to fund the project – the SR-N1 hovercraft pressure and hovering height has research vehicle was built by Saunders-Roe on the Isle proved to be, as simple theory maritime history of Wight and ‘flew’ for the first time on 11 June 1959. predicts, the change of momentum in deflecting the jet sheet into the horizontal plane.” 02 The article continued: “[On the hovercraft] can be seen one of the four propelling nozzles with the control vanes that allow a transverse or vertical component of thrust to be developed. The yaw vanes at the rear nozzles are extended upward to give directional stability and improved yaw when flying forward.” A couple of months later, on 25 July, the prototype craft, which was capable of carrying four men at a speed of 28mph (45km/h), made a successful crossing of the channel. In the UK, commercial cross- channel hovercraft operations ceased in 2000, although a service still operates across the Solent from Southsea to Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The vehicles are also widely used by the military.
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TES_011216 37 28/11/2016 10:15 1950s–1960s July 1957 Lovell Telescope
Jodrell Bank’s colossal moveable dish is still one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes
ixty years ago this year, telescope of its type, as well as a Grade I-listed The Engineer was invited building. In 2006 it won a BBC competition as the “ This enormous instrument by the Department of UK’s greatest ‘Unsung Landmark’. But what are Scientifi c and Industrial now its storied history and place in the national is of interest because of the Research to visit the consciousness was, of course, unknown to our engineering problems that Jodrell Bank Observatory predecessors all those years ago, whose focus was in Cheshire. The purpose primarily the telescope’s construction and operation. had to be surmounted” of the visit was to get a The article went into detail: “The bowl… is carried The Engineer behind-the-scenes look on two towers by trunnion bearings; it can be turned at the station’s steerable on those bearings through 180 degrees. The towers dish radio telescope that are mounted on bogies on a circular rail track so that Stability in wind was a key consideration and the at the time was the largest in the world. the whole structure can be rotated. Driving and telescope had to be steady enough to maintain the Known today as the Lovell Telescope – in honour control mechanisms are installed in such a manner bowl’s accuracy in moderate winds of 30–40mph. of its chief proponent, the late Sir Bernard Lovell, the that the telescope can be pointed at any given star The first designs of the telescope “allowed deflections construction garnered attention for several reasons. and can be driven to follow the path of the chosen of several inches – say 6in or 7in”. However, the “This enormous instrument is of special interest, star till it disappears below the horizon.” iteration that was ultimately built meant that “any not only for the uniqueness and promise for the Despite aluminium alloy initially being offered deviation of the skin of the paraboloid from its true astronomer but also because of the engineering as a possible construction material, the consultants shape [was] intended to be kept down to about 1in”. problems that had to be surmounted to design ultimately chose to build the entire telescope from The bowl itself was constructed from more than and build it,” wrote The Engineer in 1957. “Civil, steel. Steel provided the highest strength/cost ratio 7,000 stiffened steel plates of 3ft by 3ft, welded mechanical and electrical engineering techniques and had a low coefficient of expansion, meaning to purlins. The purlins were bolted together and are all involved in the successful operation of the that reasonable accuracy of the dish’s shape could attached to the main structure of the telescope, radio telescope, sometimes in an original manner.” be maintained. It was also judged the best material enabling alignment of the shape of the bowl by With a moveable dish 76.2m (250ft) in diameter, to help overcome one of the telescope’s key adjusting the bolted connections. According to The the Lovell telescope is today still the third-largest challenges: the wind. Engineer, detailing of the steelwork was “unusually onerous” due to both the structure’s unusual shape and the high degree of accuracy required. “An idea of the complexity of this aspect of the work may perhaps be given by referring to the purlins. There are 2,200 angle-iron purlins carrying the surface of the bowl. Each had to be curved to different diameters in two planes, so that a purlin lay truly on the surface with one side of the angle iron parallel to it.” If necessary, the bowl could be fully inverted, with the intention that the telescope could be placed in this position whenever the 62.5ft aerial mast needed to be changed. Since 2010, the dish has been protected from pigeons’ and other birds’ foulings by two breeding pairs of peregrine falcons. An indication of the structure’s endurance, however, is the fact that, since 1957, just two of the original 64 drive wheels that help it track stars across the night sky have needed to be replaced. They certainly don’t build ’em like they used to.
With a moveable dish 76.2m in diameter, the Lovell Telescope is today still the third-largest telescope of its type and a Grade-I listed building
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TES_011216 38 29/11/2016 10:23 1950s–1960s
The Triumph Herald A classic car that was loved and derided
April 1959 April in equal measure
Designed by an Italian and the primary objectives in the sections of the body are bolted,” are most likely to suffer damage, are built in Coventry by the Standard- development of the vehicle was the magazine reported. “The cost arranged to be accessible and can if Triumph company, the Triumph “redressing the increase in the cost of accident repairs also should be necessary be removed by drilling out Herald is one of those classic cars of upkeep compared to the cost reduced by the construction of the the spot welds securing them.” that is loved and derided in equal of original manufacture that has body in sections, which are bolted measure. However, the number of occurred in recent years”. to each other and the frame: six vehicles still on the road almost 40 The Triumph Herald had a separate out of seven body sections are years after it rolled off the production chassis as opposed to a monocoque common to both saloon and The Herald had a separate chassis line for the last time is testament to construction. “The new car is not of fixed-head coupé. rather than monocoque construction its enduring appeal, if not its design. integral construction but has a “In addition, those parts of the body The Engineer wrote that one of backbone frame onto which the which, in the absence of bumpers,
The BT Tower Set to become one of London’s landmarks
The Engineer took a look at the designed to replace an 180ft-high horizontal reaction at this point is to building until the Natwest Tower proposed design of a structure steel mast on the nearby Museum be 500 tons, but vertical deformation (now known as Tower 42) was February 1961 that has become one of London’s Exchange building, which was being of the tower will not be restrained”. completed in 1980. best-known landmarks: the building affected by London’s appetite for The report added that “wind-tunnel Today, the building transmits known today as the BT Tower. increasingly tall structures. tests are in progress at the National broadcasts via fibre-optic cables The new tower was required for Reporting on the challenges of Physical Laboratory to ensure that no rather than its distinctive round a variety of reasons, explained The building the tower, The Engineer wrote resonance phenomena will arise due dishes, and is used as a broadcast Engineer. But its main role was to that “the design envisages a structural to steady winds of moderate strength”. transmission centre by ITV, support the microwave aerials that connection with the main building 80ft Opened by Prime Minister Channel 4, BSkyB and CNBC. were used to carry telecoms traffic above the ground, where horizontal Harold Wilson in October 1965, The revolving restaurant at from London to the rest of the UK. loads due to wind will be transmitted the 189m-high tower enjoyed the the top of the tower has been According to the article, it was from the tower. The maximum distinction of being London’s tallest closed since 1980.
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