'The Pentrich Engine' by David Hulse
2023-01-04 19:00 - 22:00 (Europe/London) | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
This event is both an in-person and on-line event. To reserve a spot for either option, please visit the lecture’s Eventbrite page.
The Pentrich engine, designed by Francis Thompson, was constructed in 1791 to pump water out of a coal mine at Pentrich in Derbyshire.
David Hulse will describe its features and tell its history, based on his research while building a detailed 1/16th scale model of the original engine. Pictures of the model will be used to illustrate the talk.
About The Lecturer
In 1970, David Hulse started a project which was to occupy all his spare time for the next 45 years! He has researched and constructed in miniature the important steam engines which were built in the eighteenth century.
These engines paved the way for the industrial revolution in the British Isles and which spread to many other countries throughout the world. These eighteenth century engines are usually grouped together and called steam engines, however, they were not steam engines. Steam was used as a means of creating a vacuum against which the earth’s pressure could act. The correct terminology is that they were atmospheric engines.
Please visit David’s website: davidhulse.co.uk for more info.

POSTPONED - 'The Vierendeel bridge story' by Bernard Espion
2022-12-14 18:00 - 20:00 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
DUE TO INDUSTRIAL ACTION THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED
CHECK BACK LATER FOR RESCHEDULED DATE
The bridge’s origins and fate in the introduction of electrical arc welding in Belgium
This presentation will trace the history of the application of the girder without diagonals to steel bridges from 1895 onwards, when the Belgian engineer Arthur Vierendeel (1852-1940) filed a patent for it. Vierendeel then began a long battle, both in Belgium and abroad, to promote and impose the use of ‘his’ girder, which was not really accepted in Belgium – and still very cautiously – until the 1920s.
The presentation will also trace the circumstances that led to the massive use of this type of beam by the Administration des Ponts et Chaussées for the construction of some fifty bridges to cross Belgium’s Albert Canal in the years 1933-1938. This was the first time that electric arc welding was used on a massive scale, without any real hindsight, to make connections in steel bridges. It led to the collapse without warning of the Hasselt bridge on 13 March 1938, a date that can be considered as the beginning of another story, that of the brittle failure. The presentation will also discuss the aftermath of this resounding accident in its scientific and technical dimensions.
About the Lecturer
Bernard Espion is Professor emeritus from the University of Brussels (ULB) where he has taught structural analysis and design for 40 years, directing the laboratory of civil engineering 2000-2021. He has written numerous construction history papers dealing with heritage structures, bridges, reinforced and prestressed concrete structures, engineers and contractors, especially in Belgium.

'Concorde: An Engineering Failure?' by Dr Fred Starr
2022-12-14 17:30 - 20:00 | This is an Online Event
The challenge of designing a supersonic passenger transport, and the reason why Concorde fell short of the range and passenger capacity.
This is not about the Air France Concorde air crash. It is about the challenge of designing a supersonic passenger transport, and the reasons why Concorde fell short of the range and passenger carrying ability originally expected. As a result, commercial interest in Concorde fell away. Failure to meet targets is a feature of “engineering failures”, which impress the public and politicians, and appear successful, but no one buys them.
Operating very close to the speed of sound, or the Sound Barrier in other words, is extremely costly in terms of fuel consumption. Indeed, once Concorde was through the Sound Barrier, the faster it flew, the more economical was it, and the greater the range. However, high speed subjects an airframe to high temperatures, and given the strength and temperature performance of aluminium alloys, the best that could be hoped for was Mach 2.2, or 1450 mph.
Then there was the power needed to get through the sound barrier…..Approximately twice as much thrust is needed to fly at just above the speed of sound, as is required to fly just below it. And for supersonic flight a rather unusual type of jet engine is needed. All that Britain had was the Bristol Olympus, a really great engine, but dating from the early fifties. By 1960 it had already been “stretched” to meet the needs of the latest Avro Vulcan bombers. It was a huge challenge to produce even more thrust.
Another big issue was the sonic boom. Initially dismissed, when Concorde was first envisaged, it slowly became clear that sonic bangs, scores of times a day, could not be tolerated. Unfortunately, flying at subsonic speeds, over land, cut Concorde’s range.
As the design and construction of Concorde proceeded, weight increased. Afterburning became necessary at take off, and a longer period at afterburning thrust was needed when getting through the transonic range. Impacting on fuel demands and aircraft weight. Increased weight was too much for the aluminium structure at Mach 2.2. Restricting cruising speed to Mach 2.04 or 1345 mph. Range suffered, as at supersonic speed, slower means less economical flight.
A vicious circle had begun, where, in addition, the restriction on supersonic flight over land added to the range challenge. Concorde became good for nothing more than London-Washington and Paris-Washington. In addition, on hot days, out of Washington, passenger numbers were restricted. As were sales to airline companies, other than Air France and British Airways.
The talk ends with a few words about the hopes for “supersonic business jets”. This might interest genuine multi millionaires in the audience.
About the Lecturer
Dr Fred Starr FIMMM, FIE, MIMechE, C. Eng.
Usually, any biography about me has emphasised my British Gas/Metallurgy/Energy background. As the present talk is on Concorde, specifically “Was it an Engineering Failure” I thought it helpful to show, that while I have no formal training in aeronautical engineering, I have enough background to say something useful and different about the subject in point.
My interest in the technical side of aviation began when I was still in the Sixth Form, mainly through the series of articles that the aviation journalist, Roy Braybrook wrote in the magazine, “Flying Review”. Here he endeavoured to estimate the performance of the latest Russian fighters and bombers. He showed me that there was a science behind the design of aircraft. I eventually had the pleasure of meeting Roy in the Woodman, near Leatherhead, where I was able to tell him that his stuff had gone towards saving my career at British Gas. He sniffed, in his curmudgeonly way, until I told him that I had built a closed cycle gas turbine.
There was a long gap between reading Flying Review in the 1960s and the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine Project. When, in the late 1980s, after I had outlined the proposal to Grev Gibson, an Assistant Director at British Gas, London Research Station, in Fulham, I was told to get on with it. Since almost all of my spare time had been spent reading up on aircraft and aircraft engine design, I had enough basic knowledge to take the project forward. Doing the job meant I had to professionalise my hobby.
One of the key parts of the closed cycle is the gas turbine itself. But it has to be of an unusual type. Although having a high inlet temperature, it runs at a very low pressure ratio. For this reason, engine builders in this country couldn’t help. However, the Helicopter Division at Westlands told me that my best option would be a modified diesel truck turbocharger. Try Holset Ltd, in Huddersfield, they said. So a “Closed Cycle Demonstrator” was built on Coleshill Gas works. As well as the truck turbocharger, it incorporated a fired heater, printed circuit recuperator and fin fan cooler. The attached picture shows Grev Gibson and myself overlooking the Demonstrator. As you will see it was not intended to take off!
To register for this lecture (Eventbrite)

'John Smeaton and the Calder Navigation' by Lesley Taylor & Shirley Levons
2022-12-12 19:00 - 20:30 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
This is a joint meeting with South Yorkshire Industrial History Society (SYIHS)
Available both in-person and online.
Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there is no need to register
Joining us ONLINE- please use the Zoom Link below which will be live from about 6:30 pm on the 12th Dec.
If you wish to join us online the Zoom link is:- https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83188182714?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 831 8818 2714
Passcode: [REDACTED]
The meeting will start at a slightly later time of 7:00 pm and tea and coffee will be available from 6:00 pm. We look forward to welcoming you to what will be an interesting talk and discussion.
This talk will explore the background to the factors that lead to the River Calder being made navigable above Wakefield, and will cover the first four years of construction,1760-63, when John Smeaton, the engineer-in-chief wrote a weekly journal. This has been used as the basis of the talk (and our book) in combination with many other source materials such as plans, letters, minutes, accounts, Acts of Parliament and Parliamentary Journals.
It will outline the many years before the scheme gained Parliamentary approval, the people who drove the scheme forward, and the conflicts and disappointments they faced. The practical requirements will be brought into sharp focus: the planning, negotiating and financing, and the sourcing of labour, materials and equipment. As the work gradually progressed the story is often of difficulties faced on this volatile river and the disagreements which these setbacks caused.
About The Lecturers
Lesley Taylor and Shirley Levon are local historians from Wakefield with a shared interest in the eighteenth century. Upon retirement from teaching Lesley studied for an MA in local history at York University focusing on Wakefield in the eighteenth century. Shirley was a teacher who had researched her own family history for many years, but on retirement over twenty years ago became interested in local history, and the collaboration with Lesley developed. In 2014 they published a book based on the letters of two women who lived in Wakefield in the eighteenth century. Involvement in a project about Wakefield Waterfront led to the discovery of Smeatons’ Journal, and after considerable research, they based their recent book on the subject.
About The Venue
Please Note:- The parking arrangements at the Museum have changed and the car park adjacent to the river is now closed and is being used by the Museum Cafe and Bar as an outdoor seating area. Details of the new parking arrangements can be found at http://www.simt.co.uk/kelham-island-museum/plan-your-visit

'Invention & Design; Elkington of Birmingham' by Dr. Jonathan Berg
2022-12-07 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
Dr. Jonathan Berg discusses the invention of electroplating and its commercialisation in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter

'Brickyard Engines that drove Clay Mills in the Early 19th Century' by Elizabeth Thomson
2022-11-02 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
Elizabeth Thomson considers a critical aspect for Britain’s urban growth

'The Newcomen Engine Pumping House at Brislington' by David Hardwick
2022-10-05 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
David Hardwick discusses the historical and archaeological appraisal of the standing building in Brislington
