Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: Norseman on January 19, 2016, 03:47:29 pm
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Hi Guys
Recently we have been mourning the loss of our musician heroes. It was once said to me that we do not laude and love our Engineers who have done so much for us. I thought I would start a thread in praise of Engineers both old and modern. Any Engineering at all qualifies for this so I'll start with Henry Bessemer of Sheffield. He is of course most famous for the Bessemer process and steel but he had many other and sometimes novel inventions.
I am impressed that after suffering from seasickness in 1868 he designed the SS Bessemer (also called the "Bessemer Saloon"), a passenger steamship with a cabin on gimbals designed to stay level, however rough the sea, to save her passengers from seasickness. The mechanism – hydraulics controlled by a steersman watching a spirit level – worked in model form and in a trial version built in his garden in Denmark Hill, London. However, it never received a proper seagoing test as, when the ship demolished part of the Calais pier on her maiden voyage, investor confidence was lost and the ship was scrapped. http://www.howitworksdaily.com/why-swinging-saloons-failed/ OK it wasnt' a success but hey good try!
Dave
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How about Stephen Payne who was substantially responsible for designing the Queen Mary 2?
Colin
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Stanley Hooker. Designed the two stage supercharger that helped raise the output of the merlin engine from 1000hp to 2000hp. Also a pioneer in the jet engine industry with Rolls Royce and Bristol and post retirement, was called back in and with his team helped save Rolls Royce from bankruptcy in the early '70's.
Good film about him here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by4lH2whhjk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by4lH2whhjk)
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Hi Guys , Could not agree more ( unsung hero,s)
Dave O0 O0 O0 O0 O0 O0
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I was watching the story of the DC-3 ( on Quest ).
Not a story about an engineer as such, but TWA went to Douglas Aircraft and said, ' we want an aircraft better than the Boeing 247!'
Personal favourite engineers: Trevithick , Watt, Stephenson & Westinghouse
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel. 9th April 1806 - 15th September 1859. I will say no more.
John
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You beat me to it NA39 :-))
Ned
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For me the DNCs of the Victorian Royal navy are gentlemen to doff the cap to.
-Sir Edward Reed 1863-1872
-Nathaniel Barnaby 1872-1885
-Sir William White 1885-1902
These engineers and managers of vast amounts of public money and turning them via their departments into many hundreds of warships and equipment, the like of which had not been seen before or since.
From sail to turbine, they either pioneered or enacted swift development of technologies that saw warships progress as 'Steam beings'. While the navy was sometimes seen as conservative, (the retention and development of muzzle loading ordnance for example) they embraced electricity, metallurgy and steam propulsion technologies.
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How about the simple blacksmith who was so important to settlers and the villagers, the most prolific surname there is, QED. Nemesis
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Every village had one. Very true Nemesis.
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We must not forget an engineer who modified a Norton motorcycle and won a Gold Star at Brooklands for lapping at over 100mph in 1934 , the second woman O0 to do so, she refused to marry her fiancé until he did the same (he did). As a Rolls-Royce engineer working on Merlin aero engines Miss Beatrice Shilling solved the problem of fuel starvation while pulling negative G in Spitfires and Hurricanes. The device was referred to as "Miss Shilling`s orifice" for some reason not explained. ;)
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How about
Sir Christopher Cockerell....inventor of the hovercraft...and also Sir Frank whittle jet engine inventor..
Sub
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Alec Issigonis is a favourite of mine.
Jim.
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What about the nameless ones that keep every thing going ,without engineers how would surgeons ,dentist function just to name two professions , a bit like a container ship 98% everything that we use all relying on engineers to keep us doing what we do .
David
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I don't know the name of the engineer who conceived or designed them but for me, one of the greatest engineering feats were the Mulberry harbours used in operation Overlord.
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John Harrison, Yorkshire, 1693-1776. Carpenter and clock maker, Harrison's clocks and watches enabled accurate measurement of Longitude and revolutionised Marine Navigation.
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I don't know the name of the engineer who conceived or designed them but for me,
one of the greatest engineering feats were the Mulberry harbours used in operation Overlord.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_harbour#Design_and_development
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W.G. Armstrong
See Armstrong shipbuilders, ordinance and heavy engineering.
Also pioneer of water turbine generator, fitted at his own designed electrically lit home, Crag side house in Northumberland.
A true genius in my humble opinion!
Ian
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Don't forget the thousands of pattern maker's who formed the original
Items to be cast to build all the fantastic steam engines and pumps.
Many still running today.
Ned
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I would like to add two Canadians, Alexander Graham Bell for the telephone, & Banting & Best, not strictly engineers but has saved Millions of lives with their invention of insulin for diabetics. Of course we can't forget Cornelius Van Horne who built our CP rail line through some of the toughest terrain on the Planet & finished it on time too. AS an after thought how about Marconi that gave us a working radio, just a few that need to be remembered as great men of their time. Mick B.
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I should note that Best was not recognised for his contribution to insulin & the Nobel prize was given to Banting & MacLeod. However Banting shared his prize with his co/ worker Best. There are still some decent people & Banting knew Best should have been rewarded too. Mick B.
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IKB my hero I often wonder what he would have come up with if the was around now can I throw in Thomas Telford too :-))
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Babbage and his number machine.
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Referring to the title of this thread, most of the engineers mentioned here so far have been anything but unappreciated! IMHO %)
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Sir Frank Whittle (jet engines), Barnes Wallis (bouncing bomb), George Stepheson (steam railways), Joseph Bazelgette (London's sewage system), and not forgetting Lilly The Pink (medicinal compound).
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Sir Clive Sinclair, very underappreciated by the press but very appreciated by me.
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Sir Clive Sinclair, very underappreciated by the press but very appreciated by me.
my very first computer was a timex-sinclair 1000 !!!!
wouldn't be where i am, if it weren't for him...
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wouldn't be where i am, if it weren't for him...
You certainly wouldn't have got there in a Sinclair C5 {-) {-)
Ned
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Referring to the title of this thread, most of the engineers mentioned here so far have been anything but unappreciated! IMHO %)
The kids of today probably couldn't string the names of five Engineers together but can name numerous fake celebrities, ball kickers, and media bods. Hence my unapreciated term. Just looking back above I dont see any lady Engineers mentioned either.
Dave
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'I dont see any lady Engineers mentioned either.'
You didn't look hard enough Dave!
Colin
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Here is a lady for you, Victoria Drummond the first female chief engineer in the Merchant Navy.
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Ah yes Colin
I stand corrected Miss Beatrice Shilling has been mentioned in despatches :embarrassed:
Dave
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Thank you mook for adding Thomas Telford, I was about to do that myself. Whilst we're on transport let us add Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker (probably not knights at the time) - The Forth Bridge.
John
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Magnus Volks of the Brighton electric railway and the daddy long-legs (and house lighting!)
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Reginald Mitchell
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Whitehead, (torpedoes)
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Of course, Reginald Mitchell, thank you.
Which brings to mind my own hero of aviation engineering Henri Mignet.
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Miss Beatrice Shilling has a son Phil, who was one of our club members. He also is / was an engineer very clever too.
Roy
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Without a doubt, Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943 a Serbian American physicist, inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system is the most important 'Unappreciated Engineer' ever.
He held over 300 patents worldwide yet never received any official prize or award.
Inventor of alternating current in a practical form with his Tesla (induction) Coil, his work has made almost everything in our modern world possible. Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi used his patents blatantly to achieve fame yet both received Nobel prizes, and Tesla died almost penniless in a hotel room where he lived.
On a topical note he was the designer and inventor of the first radio-controlled boat, so we have so much to appreciate from his genius.
'In 1898, Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat (U.S. Patent 613,809 —Method of an Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vehicle or Vehicles)'
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Ms Cherry Hinds Hill a great engineer and a hero of mine.
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http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/showthread.php?t=19685 re the above
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James Clerk Maxwell was featured on BBC4 on Tuesday 28th Jan . Should be able to catch it on iPlayer etc. Not an engineer but influenced engineering, an unsung genius. On the same day the Google doodle was John Logie baird (TV), coincidence ?
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Beverley Shenstone
Has only just been recognised in a book called Secrets of the Spitfire. He designed the elliptical wing for Mitchell's Spitfire. His designs are still used in delta winged aircraft as the Spitfire wing design has a lot in common with deltas. He worked in Germany in the pre-war years with Prof Lippish who designed some of the early deltas for the Luftwaffe- none entered service- but Shenstone developed the basic design and we have some of the efficient wing designs in the world as a result.