for the study of the history of engineering and technology |
Abstracts of papers presented 2007 - 2008Designing the Alexandria to Cairo Canal (abstract)by Raymond Le Mesurier-Fosterto be presented to the Newcomen Society on 10th October 2007 This presentation with illustrations is about a man hardly anyone has heard of - outside his family - and a canal in Egypt that nobody knows about! The man, Henry Peveril Le Mesurier, grandson of the Governor of the island of Alderney, was an engineer building railways in India 150 years ago. He was Assistant Engineer of the East India Railway Company from 1853 until 1877 when he was a Chief Engineer. In 1877 he was offered an appointment as member of the Board of Administration of Egyptian Railways, Telegraph and Port of Alexandria, becoming its President in 1879. He was in Cairo when the massacre at Alexandria occurred in 1882, his wife (my wife's great-grandmother) fortunately fled the scene. He received the Egyptian Bronze Star and was appointed a 2nd class Officer of the Osmanieh. A notebook in our possession provides evidence that proposals were made to build a canal from Alexandria to Cairo. The notebook contains all the estimates of material, the geology and costs of the project. This detailed information has been virtually unknown for the past 125 years and is only now in the public domain. Evening meetings at the Science Museum
King of the Irish Railways: Sir John Macneill (1793-1880)by Dr Peter Geraghtyto be presented to the Newcomen Society on 14 November 2007 Sir John Macneill was Ireland's foremost engineer of his day. He was one of a group of Victorian engineers who laid the foundation for the railway network throughout the British Isles. He engineered railways in England, Scotland and Wales. In Ireland he was involved with or engineered all the major lines of railway and in recognition of this role he was described as "King of the Irish Railways". During Macneill’s heyday the stature of this role he was possessed on engineering matters was considerable. Macneill was engineer to the Railway Commissioners for Ireland and it was he who effectively settled the railway gauge for Ireland. Nevertheless, Macneill is less well known than his contemporaries such as Robert Stephenson, Isambard Brunel, or Joseph Locke. Macneill was also an expert on road engineering and worked for Thomas Telford on the Holyhead road. Macneill promoted steam carriages as a means of public transport prior to the railway mania. His engineering practice was extensive and included road projects, waterworks, harbours, bridges, and reclamation works. He became Trinity College Dublin's first professor of engineering and dominated engineering in Ireland between 1840 and 1850. Macneill's practice trained many young engineers several of whom such as Joseph Bazalgette and William Rankine went on to became prominent members of the engineering profession. Macneill was inventive and innovative patenting a number of inventions. He was a Victorian gentleman who valued his honour and integrity highly and was prepared to litigate to defend his professional reputation. Macneill lost his eyesight as a result of the rigours of the railway mania and despite his achievements he rapidly passed into obscurity. Nevertheless, his legacy was important and enduring and is worthy of a fuller exploration then has hitherto been attempted. This paper sets out his career and his contribution to Victorian engineering. Evening meetings at the Science Museum
A Floating Factory in the Crimea – the career of Sir John Anderson, superintendent of machinery at the Royal Arsenal, 1842-72 (abstract)by Gwilym Robertsto be presented to the Newcomen Society on 12 December 2007 Sir John Anderson, (1814–86), Knight Bachelor, Commander of the (Austrian) Order of Franz Josef, Officer of the (French) Légion d’Honneur, FRSE, Vice-President IMechE, MICE, was Superintendent of Machinery at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. Born in Aberdeen in 1814, he served a seven-year apprenticeship at the local cotton factory before moving to London where in 1842 he was appointed to take charge of brass gun manufacture at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. The arsenal had been largely ignored since the end of the Napoleonic Wars so he became responsible for the design and installation of many machine tools and the recruitment and training of a large workforce to use them. In 1855, during the Crimean War, he equipped a 600-ton steam ship as a floating factory containing a cupola, forges, twenty-eight heavy machines, a saw-mill, a brass and iron foundry. Based off Balaklava, power for the machines was provided by the ship’s main engines. When William (later Lord) Armstrong developed his rifled cannon in the late 1850s, Anderson was appointed to supervise its production. When he retired in 1872 he was the Arsenal’s Superintendent of Machinery, the de facto Chief (and first) Mechanical Engineer at the War Department, had a staff of over 3,000 and had been responsible for the manufacture of armaments costing over £3,000,000 - equivalent to nearly £100,000,000 at today’s prices He was remarkable for his inventions, and for his ability to achieve the tight deadlines often required to put new armaments into service. In addition, he was responsible for designing the new Small Arms Factory at Enfield, prior to which assignment he visited the USA to inspect the mechanisation of arms manufacture there. He also became involved with the mechanisation of the Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey. In his retirement he became a leading Machinery Juror for international exhibitions, and also funded the building of a public library in his native Aberdeen. Evening meetings at the Science Museum
Control Freaks and how they do it - Programmable Logic Controllers (abstract)by John Pitwoodto be presented to the Newcomen Society on 9th January 2008 This paper describes the development of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) from a General motors requirement in the late 1960’s to today’s ubiquitous control devices. Programmable Logic Controllers are computer based-devices for the control of industrial equipment. The market for PLCs is €8b world wide. The first part of the paper covers the background: what was used before PLCs, what a PLC is and how it is different from a computer system used for commercial applications. This is followed by an overview of the development of both the hardware and software over the last 35 years. The second part describes the application of these products - from the early '70’s when cost led to large centralised systems mainly in the automotive industry, to a range of devices that can control the barrier to a car park or a safety-related system in the nuclear industry. It describes how electrical engineers had to become software designers - how no longer having to hard-wire systems meant that many PLCs arrived on site with no application software. The software was written during commissioning and in some factories every electrician had his own version of the program for each machine. The problems this ad hoc engineering caused are discussed together with the move to more formal methods of program development and change control. Evening meetings at the Science Museum
The Quest for Thermodynamic Efficiency: Atkinson Cycle Machines versus Otto Cycle Machines (abstract)by Dr Ed Marshall, Member of the Societyto be presented to the Newcomen Society on 13th February 2008 The vigorous way in which Nicholas Otto defended the patents on his four-stroke cycle engine acted as a stimulus for the development of ingenious designs to both circumvent, and improve upon, his patent claims. This paper describes the successful attempts to build practical engines based on the Atkinson cycle, a sound theoretical idea first put forward in the 1880’s, which offers an improved thermal efficiency over that of the Otto cycle. After first discussing the theory of the Atkinson cycle, the paper briefly outlines James Atkinson’s early life and patents, leading up to the formation of the British Gas Engine and Engineering Company. The operation of the medal winning ‘Differential’ engine is then examined in some detail. This is followed by a study of the very successful ‘Cycle’ engine, including the comprehensive Society of Arts Trials of 1888, which pitted the engine against three other engine types, one of which was a Crossley Otto cycle machine. Atkinson’s story ends with his final engine, the ‘Utilité’, and the subsequent demise of the Company. The withdrawal of Atkinson from the scene did not signal the end of engines operating on the Atkinson cycle; four more very different machines have been constructed, tested, and sold, over the course of the past one hundred years. These are the Holzwarth Turbine, the Humphrey Pump, the Citroën Andreau Motor and the engine of the Toyota Prius Hybrid motor car. This paper examines the operation and thermal efficiency of these designs. Evening meetings at the Science Museum
Mechanizing English Cotton Textile production in 18th century (abstract)by Patrick O'Briento be presented to the Newcomen Society on 12th March 2008 My paper will address an entirely traditional question, namely why England took the lead in what has always been a quintessentially global industry in mechanizing the major processes involved in the production and finishing of cotton textiles; not merely for its own mercantilist empire but in short compass for the world market as a whole. I propose to degrade as unproven three established Anglocentric Explanations: first that there was anything particular about the propensity of English consumers to allocate expenditures towards this Asian fibre; secondly that high and rising wages on the Island created sufficiently strong incentives for the invention and diffusion of machinery; and thirdly that there is any mileage left in the challenge and response model that has been omnipresent in textbooks for generations now. My story will concentrate instead on the political economy of internal colonization and imperialism overseas. But I will conclude by returning to a reconsideration of the biographies of 5 macro inventors (Kay, Paul, Hargreaves, Cartwright and Roberts) in order to “grasp the individual without disregarding the social nature of every human being.” Evening meetings at the Science Museum
The Quest for Mechanical Power in the 17th Century (abstract)by Peter Stokesto be presented to the Newcomen Society on 9th April 2008 In our interest in History, and in particular that of Technology, a particular fascination attaches to that period of major change in Britain as following the European Renaissance and in consolidating the consequence of the Commonwealth. Overall Social and Political change, and the application of Science, created the conditions for the Industrial Revolution. Its prime requirement was to supplement the provision of natural power furnished by wind and water, as adjunct to that of man and harnessed animals. The burning of fuels in heating, and the development of firearms revealed potential for hastening the quest for power. In Britain our Learned bodies pursuing interest in the field of Applied Science might be considered as evolving from the 1663 foundation of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacture. The Universities continued in the education of youth, and contributed the Research of the mature. The Mechanic and Millwright gained respectability in their support. From the Nineteenth century the Engineering Institutions would evolve at the apogee of the perceived importance of the Power subject. Our Society had its virtual foundation in its enthusiasm for Power. This proposed paper reflects my interest as engineer and mechanic in the field of early power. The subject has been well served in the past through the writing's of Stuart and Ewbank, Smiles and Farey, through to Dickinson and Jenkins, etc. This paralleled by the pages of the 'Mechanics Magazine', and the latter illustrated journals. All of this followed by our later luminaries and emergence of fresh viewpoints. I think the evolution of facilities associated with Church and State paralleled later technological development establishments, State papers provide useful insights. The example of the Tower of London has embodied interesting example. I look again at the emergence of the early internal combustion engine and then the work of the Second Marquis of Worcester, with his practical supporter Gasper Calthoffe. Also to Samuel Morland with his pump technology. Then to Thomas Savery in preamble to Denis Papin and the Thomas Newcomen exploitation. Evening meetings at the Science Museum
Days at the Factories
(abstract)
by Professor David Perrett, President of the Society
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