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The two spanner operatives in your picture might have been tightening a left handed nut, or even untightening a right handed nut...
25/08/2010
Your articles on desert warfare... led me to try to imagine possible solutions engineers might suggest and help to develop...
In reality the output from wind farms are totally unpredictable and fossil fuels and nuclear power are what will be boiling your kettle most times...
The method of using the number of homes a power generating plant can provide power to as a measure of the plant's capacity is confusing...
I would like to bring to readers' attention two websites which I have found variously informative and entertaining...
Construction of a facility in Finland of a similar design to one of the UK candidates has experienced serious problems resulting in significant delays...
In the hysterical rush to judgement over the last four months, nobody has yet proved that BP was running an unsafe operation...
Given that Britain is facing action by the EU over urban air pollution, a big plus for electric vehicles is that they are zero emissions in the streets...
Politicians seldom mention that energy companies charge more for the first block of units and then less if consumption increases beyond this threshold...
What would be the reaction of the Dragons if I went into the Den requesting several million pounds to develop my new marine energy system?
Truth is that EACH home needs the country to provide about 10kw installed capacity from a wind farm...
The peak power divided by the number of homes is 'only' 750W to 1.95kW, 'not enough to boil a kettle'...
I am beginning to wonder whether our political masters understand that there are two different kinds of solar panel...
In the early 1980's the Nigerian Government of the day issued a decree to stop flaring. As part of this initiative I was a member of a team of engineers...
Professional engineers are the best qualified to reach coherent conclusions and guide the rest of the community, but we don't seem to get our voice heard...
20/08/2010
Nuclear, gas, coal NPS hydro stations all generate independently, thus mutually self supporting...
Today's knowledge of the significance of University accreditation is not a recent issue...
Nuts may also need to be loosened... and even tightened as shown if left-handed...
If we are going to outsource everything of value, could someone explain - what IS the point of continuing to promote engineering in this country?
If you want a dishwasher that runs on hot water - try connecting it to the hot water supply. I've been doing it for the last 15 years...
Will we see an ever increasing amount of design and R&D services going to India, China and Brazil?
12/08/2010
France High Speed routes for TGV - 1700 Km built in past 30 years. About time somebody woke up over here...
I'm not looking forward to when the ageing nuclear and coal fired power stations close, and we have to rely on plant that will not let us even boil a kettle...
BP have merely embraced the underlying culture in the largely American controlled oil industry. When it comes to the bottom line, safety is sacrificed for profit...
Although Davenport could not define the exact conditions for unconfined explosions his work might be of some help to current investigators...
Advances in steam technology which make this power achievable are tried & ested. This the first time they have been combined in a single new locomotive...
How is it that, of most major railways in the developed world, ours is the only one with continued use of diesel traction on major intercity services?
What is important is whether the scientific evidence supports the IPCC view or not, and that is not decided by a petition...
Reading the 'Flying hybrid' feature, I was reminded of the Tilling Stevens TS3 horizontally opposed 6 cylinder, 3 a side, diesel engine...
The BR Standard 5 was a simple machine, derived from Stanier’s Black 5 of the 1930s; surely we can improve on a simple expansion, reciprocating design?
Were the spanners that the Aviemore Strathspey Steam Railway got from Dounreay really flogging spanners...
As everyone reading the piece will know, a flogging spanner has only one jaw and a big lump the other end for flogging...
16/07/2010
What voltage would trams use and how would they cope with the 25,000 volts on main lines?
The letters regarding the consumption of the low energy bulbs gave me some concern... I decided to test a bulb of 15W and place it in a circuit...
Nicholson comments that high energy prices have led to industry closures and that downstream businesses will migrate to other countries...
14/07/2010
How is it that a reciprocating engine, unable to efficiently use high steam temperatures and never fully balanced, is proposed rather than using a turbine...
13/07/2010
Are employers justified in specifying that they wish to employ an engineer who is “chartered” or do such employers unlawfully discriminate...
We cannot rely upon natural rainfall for our water... nor the sun for our light... nor the wind for our electricity...
12/07/2010
If corruption played any part in this disaster, these questions may be crucial to discovering where, and by whom, decisions were made, and who was implicated...
I believe BP did the best it could, in extremely difficult and time consuming circumstances, to control the oil spill...
Certainly the most efficient way to use wind turbines is to attach advertisements to the sides of the towers and sponsors' banners can be flown from the tops...
I am at a loss to understand why professional engineering institutions don’t put an end to the insidious erosion of the title “engineer”...
CCS and Nuclear costs must be questionable at this stage but are unlikely to reach anywhere near the cost levels of Renewable power...
Every pound that is cut from government expenditure will be a pound removed from the income of somebody in state employment...
08/07/2010
The theoretical demands of Thermodynamics, Structures, Higher Mathematics Theory of Machines etc, demanded a deeper understanding of the Sciences...
I was however shocked at the number of graduates with "engineering" degree courses which were not accredited by any engineering institution...
24/06/2010
As an electricity supply engineer, I am concerned more about the times of minimum Power, potential blackouts...
I have read the various replies to the question of power measurement using various types of lamps posed...
The traditional electricity meter is the induction meter and mathematics show that it records kWh not kVAh...
22/06/2010
The normal meter has two coils, one taking the whole current, with a very small voltage drop, and the other the supply voltage and negligible current...
If the machine is inefficient it will have to be larger, will cost more to manufacture and will take up more ground...
Domestic meters measure the instantaneous current and voltage and integrate this over time to give the energy consumption...
Engineers like me are working very hard to attract the main offshore wind turbine manufacturers to the UK...to provide jobs we all want to see...
17/06/2010
Yesterday’s failed technology? As engineers we might be able to see the roles that airships could play in our modern life...
A quick thought suggests that more blades would win (up to a point). In some corners of the turbo-machine world, it used to be called "blade density"...
All those taking part in the energy meter debate, by basking in their abilities to explain, are bypassing the real question...
Like Fiona McCue I have also observed energy-monitor power readings above the rated wattage for fluorescent lights, 1.5 x for 80W tubes to 4 x for 8W tubes...
16/06/2010
The debate started by Paul Spare prompts me to complain about the combination boiler, the boiler that does not have a storage cylinder and header tank...
I have conducted tests by directly wiring a bulb holder to a plug and measuring consumption with a meter...
One might argue that climate change and energy security do not matter, that importing 80% of our natural gas by 2012 is not a problem...
New Hybrid and Battery-only cars are being announced weekly. What will be the life and performance of the expensive new batteries?
11/06/2010
There is certainly room for a sensible debate over energy supply priorities but fantasy or misquoted numbers are not a good basis...
The vehicles would actually contribute to the nation's energy reserve... We might be grateful to electric vehicle owners for contributing to our stock of kilowatts!
A windmill in the right place servicing the right load often provides an economic solution to a problem...
Forncett Industrial Steam Museum is another private museum with a superb collection of beautifully restored stationary steam engines...
The type of person I have in mind would need to be able and respected, say like Sir Richard Branson...
I can assure you that having lived by the Olympic Park for the last 3 years there has been an incredible amount of positive regeneration...
As we pension off our ageing nukes, what shall we build to replace them, more windmills?
07/06/2010
The Developers have been subsidised over the capital cost to install thousands of turbines. However, no account was taken about the need for back-up...
My understanding is that washing machines only having a cold fill arrangement as they are often installed a fair distance from the hot water cylinder...
Low energy light bulbs have a capacitative component, and I suspect that the energy monitor is not making an appropriate power factor correction...
The power is proportional to the cross sectional area. Many blades mean that each blade is running in disturbed air reducing the efficiency...
The consumer does not have a choice over how an appliance fills with water: just about all appliances available are cold fill only...
I have been watching the clean energy debate and have two questions which I have not seen answered anywhere...
Studies in Germany, Spain, Denmark and the USA have shown that increased wind power reduces both CO2 emissions and the cost to consumers...
The museum has a control tower packed with interesting engineering exhibits but the 12 or so aircraft in their collection are outside in the elements...
It's annoying that some people amongst the membership believe that erecting a few expensive inefficient wind turbines will somehow stop climate change...
My energy monitor worked well for several weeks. Unfortunately this last week has seen the wattage reading vary in a worrying fashion...
02/06/2010
Why do all the wind turbines have only three blades when much more power could be pushed into the grid by equipping them with more blades?
01/06/2010
At its peak 20 years ago, nuclear energy was supplying 30% of UK-generated MWh... I believe that at maximum, wind power has contributed about 1%...
26/05/2010
I have been trying for the last 12 or so months to gather support for a 'celebrity' to represent engineering and overcome the perceived barriers...
24/05/2010
Major efforts on the development of alternative energy sources are needed, but these are likely to be more expensive than historic energy prices...
There is no data to support the supposed low costs of "augmented" wind towers. Low height wind turbines are less cost effective than tall ones...
Mr Spare invites a reply from a domestic appliance engineer. I am not an engineer with that particular experience, but I think I know the answer...
Wind power is not the answer to the base load requirements of a constant supply of electricity...
People have to travel further to work due to the closure of local industries and the creation of dormitory towns with inadequate public transport...
If refineries are making cost savings then I for one will be buying more shares to reap the bigger dividends...
There is more to consider than basic efficiencies of water heating when answering the question on the phasing out of hot & cold fill washing machines...
Technology uses energy, it does not create it. How much energy goes in to getting a barrel of oil out of the ground today compared to, say, 80 years ago?
it is worth remembering that the bulk of the money in the City is pension fund money...
20/05/2010
The presumption that we either can have, or cannot have growth, is a false choice that stems from how we look at the world...
I can only assume that Lee Hibbert is too young to have flown in anything other than a turbine powered airliner...
An increasing number of people use a solar panel for heating water; for these people such cold fill appliances are a financial and ecological disaster...
In response to Fiona McCue's letter, I too have recently received a power monitor from my electricity supplier, in my case nPower...
However ingenious we Engineers try to be we cannot make the world any larger and we can only use resources that already exist...
19/05/2010
In answer to John Gayfer's letter asking for information on future wonder engines, may I suggest you make a list...
Is it perhaps time, as Engineers in society, to question the effectiveness of some of our safety practices...
The question I have is whether energy saving light bulbs are really doing what it says on the tin...
Can any engineer employed in domestic appliance design help explain a recent change that I believe is a retrograde step...
13/05/2010
Britain might avoid “power cuts” by using more of its coal fired power stations whose emissions are not causing any harmful “Global Warming”...
A better understanding of back-up for wind power is necessary for a proper appreciation of the problem...
The demand for engineers in Britain will not increase if investors do not see the profit in engineering...
It is my opinion that modular steel framed housing should be an alternative system to traditionally built houses and flats...
Why is it the coverage we get for our Engineering Profession in the media, whether on newspapers or TV, is so abysmal...
10/05/2010
The buses may have a struggle to reach the city centre on narrow and crowded rush hour streets...
The price of fuel is now higher than it was at is previous high in July 2008, when the cost of crude oil was twice what it is now...
07/05/2010
Leigh is a little out of date with some of his efficiencies and has missed the point regarding the reduction in emissions from electric vehicles...
As with all forms of new technology it is important to quantify the effects so they are not discounted when they can present viable solutions...
I was shocked to read in the last edition of PE that some fellow subscribers consider ownership of a car to be one of their fundamental human rights...
The increased size of the driving population is more than offset by the increased size of the road network...
In this age of plenty our debts arise from being persuaded to over-consume using money we do not have, buying goods which we do not need...
29/04/2010
A recent report, "Nuclear Subsidies", from the Energy Fair group shows that the real cost of nuclear power is disguised by several subsidies...
Some mains electricity is 'green' because the increased consumption due to the electric vehicles will all be produced using carbon fuels...
It is reasonable to question just how realistic a step improvement in efficiency might be...
28/04/2010
26/04/2010
20/04/2010
14/04/2010
13/04/2010
07/04/2010
01/04/2010
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