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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20201215T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20201215T193000
DTSTAMP:20260416T213535
CREATED:20201031T122218Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201031T122833Z
UID:5564-1608057000-1608060600@www.newcomen.com
SUMMARY:The Famous ‘Flying Scotsman’ - Marketing\, Circumstance and Chance
DESCRIPTION:An Online Lecture from Bob GwynneIn the UK approximately 110\,000 steam locomotives were built\, but just one seems to be universally known amongst the British public. Author\, curator and Flying Scotsman expert Bob Gwynne will attempt to answer the question as to why the ‘Flying Scotsman’ is so famous. \nExpect unusual images and ‘people’ stories that cover more than 90 years of ‘marketing\, circumstance and chance’ in a lively presentation that will provide some insight as to why the 3rd ‘A1’ locomotive built by the LNER for a specific job\, became a ‘UK plc’ brand as familiar as HP Sauce and Big Ben. \nAbout the Speaker\nBob Gwynne is an outstanding speaker from the National Railway Museum in York and author of a book on the Flying Scotsman. It is a topic that needs no introduction! \nThe event will be hosted by Jonathan Aylen – President of the Newcomen Society \nQuestions may be submitted via email before the lecture to events@newcomen.com or via Zoom chat during the lecture. \nBooking information:\nTickets are free but subject to availability and are only available in advance through Eventbrite. To secure your place we recommend you book in advance. \nPlease click on the link below to register via Eventbrite\,  who will then email you a confirmation immediately after registration. You will receive a separate email with a link to access the event auditorium on the evening prior to the event itself. This link will be active approximately half an hour before it starts. The event auditorium will also provide access to the other items included in your ticket. \nPlease Note – Each link is unique and should not be shared; also as this is a Zoom Webinar\, whilst you will be able to see and hear the Chairman and Speaker\, they will not be able to see you and you will not be able to see other participants. \nThe Newcomen Society reserves the right to alter the event and its line-up\, or cancel the event. The Newcomen Society will not be liable for any additional expenses incurred by ticket holders in relation to the event. \nYour email address is held by the Newcomen Society to enable it to send you information like this.  Your email address will never be used for other purposes or revealed to third parties.  If you do not wish us to continue holding your address\, please contact us at events@Newcomen.com and we will delete your details from our records. \n\nSign Up For This Event Here
URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/the-famous-flying-scotsman-marketing-circumstance-and-chance/
LOCATION:This is an Online Event
CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online)
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TheFlyingScotsman_668x607.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - North Western Branch":MAILTO:catherine.casson@manchester.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20201117T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20201117T200000
DTSTAMP:20260416T213535
CREATED:20201001T115824Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201031T122946Z
UID:5386-1605637800-1605643200@www.newcomen.com
SUMMARY:Babbage And The Abstraction Of Mechanism
DESCRIPTION:Above image – Detail from Plummer’s Difference Engine Number 3 – Photo credit Adrian Johnstone \nAn Online Lecture from Professor Adrian JohnstoneCharles Babbage has been called the ‘Great-Uncle’ of modern computing\, a claim that rests simultaneously on his demonstrable understanding of most of the architectural principles underlying the modern computer\, and the almost universal ignorance of Babbage’s work before 1970. There has since been an explosion of interest both in Babbage’s devices and the impact they might have had in some parallel history\, and in Babbage himself as a man of great originality who had essentially no influence at all on subsequent technological development. \nIn all this\, one fundamental question has been largely ignored: how is it that one individual working alone could have synthesised a workable computer design over a short period\, designing an object whose complexity of behaviour so far exceeded that of contemporary machines that it would not be matched for over one hundred years? \nThe key\, as is well understood in modern engineering contexts\, is to abstract away from the full complexity of a concrete system. The complexity barrier was also faced by the electronics industry in the 1970’s and 1980’s\, and triggered a switch from visual descriptions of large scale digital electronic devices to text-based Hardware Description Languages similar in style to that of a software programming language. Babbage too faced an overwhelming complexity barrier\, and his response was indeed to design a system of hardware abstractions which he called his Notation. The ideas allowed him to reason in the abstract about chains of cause and effect in his mechanisms\, and he believed the Notation to be his crowning achievement. \nHis ideas were not taken up: one near contemporary rejected it because there could be many concrete machines that had the same notational description\, which of course was precisely the point. \nIn this talk Professor Johnstone will outline Babbage’s life and times; describe the functioning of the adder that is at the heart of Babbage’s mid-period designs and describe aspects of his notation that pre-date by 150 years similar concepts in Hardware Description Languages. \nAbout the Speaker\nAdrian Johnstone is Professor of Computing at Royal Holloway\, University of London. He was a founding committee member of the Computer Conservation Society\, and principal investigator for the Leverhulme Trust funded project Notions and Notations: Babbage’s Language of Thought. \nThe event will be hosted by Jonathan Aylen – President of the Newcomen Society \nBooking information:\nTickets are free but subject to availability and are only available in advance through Eventbrite. To secure your place we recommend you book in advance. \nPlease click on the link below to register via Eventbrite\,  who will then email you a confirmation immediately after registration. You will receive a separate email with a link to access the event auditorium on the evening prior to the event itself. This link will be active approximately half an hour before it starts. The event auditorium will also provide access to the other items included in your ticket. \nPlease Note – Each link is unique and should not be shared; also as this is a Zoom Webinar\, whilst you will be able to see and hear the Chairman and Speaker\, they will not be able to see you and you will not be able to see other participants. \nThe Newcomen Society reserves the right to alter the event and its line-up\, or cancel the event. The Newcomen Society will not be liable for any additional expenses incurred by ticket holders in relation to the event. \nYour email address is held by the Newcomen Society to enable it to send you information like this.  Your email address will never be used for other purposes or revealed to third parties.  If you do not wish us to continue holding your address\, please contact us at events@Newcomen.com and we will delete your details from our records. \n\nSign Up For This Event HerePlummer’s Difference Engine Number 3 : Photo credit Adrian Johnstone
URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/babbage-and-the-abstraction-of-mechanism/
LOCATION:This is an Online Event
CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online)
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/BabbageMachineOriginal_Detail_PhotoCredit-AdrianJohnstone_1920x1280.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - London Branch":MAILTO:office@newcomen.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20201013T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20201013T200000
DTSTAMP:20260416T213535
CREATED:20201001T111034Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201002T104111Z
UID:5368-1602613800-1602619200@www.newcomen.com
SUMMARY:Cold War To Coal Trains: TOPS
DESCRIPTION:An Online Lecture from Jonathan Aylen\nBritish Railways’ first computer based train operating system \nTOPS (Total Operations Processing System) was a computer system implemented by British Railways (BR) from 1973 to control its freight traffic. It allowed BR to keep tabs on its rolling stock across the whole rail network using IBM 370 mainframe computers in London. It was a major step towards modern management of railways in the UK. \nTOPS was developed in the USA through collaboration between IBM and Southern Pacific. The software had its origins in the US Strategic Air Command’s SAGE – Semi-Automatic Ground Environment – system which gave early warning of Soviet bomber attacks on the US. TOPS was not so much “swords into ploughshares” as “Cold War to Coal Trains”. \nThe research exhibited in this talk is the summary of a collaboration between Bob Gwynne of the National Railway Museum\, York and Jonathan Aylen to understand the history of computerisation on British Railways. The research shows how railways shaped society and their contribution to modern management. \nQuestions may be submitted via email before the lecture to events@Newcomen.com or via Zoom chat during the lecture. \nAbout the Speaker\nJonathan Aylen is President of the Newcomen Society and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. \nBooking information:\nTickets are free but subject to availability and are only available in advance through Eventbrite. To secure your place we recommend you book in advance. \nPlease click on the link below to register via Eventbrite\,  who will then email you a confirmation immediately after registration. You will receive a separate email with a link to access the event auditorium on the evening prior to the event itself. This link will be active approximately half an hour before it starts. The event auditorium will also provide access to the other items included in your ticket. \nPlease Note – Each link is unique and should not be shared; also as this is a Zoom Webinar\, whilst you will be able to see and hear the Chairman and Speaker\, they will not be able to see you and you will not be able to see other participants. \nThe Newcomen Society reserves the right to alter the event and its line-up\, or cancel the event. The Newcomen Society will not be liable for any additional expenses incurred by ticket holders in relation to the event. \nYour email address is held by the Newcomen Society to enable it to send you information like this.  Your email address will never be used for other purposes or revealed to third parties.  If you do not wish us to continue holding your address\, please contact us at events@Newcomen.com and we will delete your details from our records. \n\nSign Up For This Event HereOther Upcoming Events . . .\n‘The Dickinson Memorial Lecture’ by Bridget EickhoffMay 13 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/cold-war-to-coal-trains-tops-2/
LOCATION:This is an Online Event
CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online)
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TOPS_PublicityPamphlet_NRM_Edit-1920x2046-1.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - North Western Branch":MAILTO:catherine.casson@manchester.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200922T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200922T213000
DTSTAMP:20260416T213535
CREATED:20200930T104726Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201003T071647Z
UID:5329-1600799400-1600810200@www.newcomen.com
SUMMARY:Wealden Iron
DESCRIPTION:An Online Lecture from Dr Tim Smith\nFor some 338 years the Weald was home to a major iron industry with some 109 forges and 119 furnaces\, the last of which closed in 1813. \nHowever\, the area supported a much older iron industry stretching back some 2\,300 years. Early furnaces were small\, made of clay and stone\, and produced a solid spongy mass of iron called a bloom that was never molten but could be hammered into useful shapes. Knights’ armour\, weapons\, horse and ox shoes\, nails and tools were all made from this bloomery iron. \nIn 1490\, the very first blast furnace was built in Britain\, on the Weald\, at Buxted in East Sussex. Called blast furnaces because bellows blew a continuous blast of air into the furnace near its base\, these furnaces produced molten iron that could be cast direct from the furnaces into useful items such as fire backs\, salt pans and later cannon and shot. \nTo make tools\, horse and ox shoes\, nails and hand weapons\, the iron had to be refined in forges to reduce its carbon content. For this the iron was cast into large ‘beams’ 2-3 metres long weighing half a tonne or more\, called ‘sows’. These sows were refined at the forges by burning off the tip of the sow under a blast of air and hammering the resultant mushy mass into long bars. The beating of the water powered hammers gave rise to the name ‘hammer pond’. \nSign Up For This Event HereAbout the Author\nDr Tim Smith\, is a graduate in Metallurgy and has been a member of the Historical Metallurgy Society since his student days at Brunel University. Tim is a leading global expert on modern iron and steel technology. \n\nAs one of the first Newcomen Events to be conducted online as a result of the Corona Virus pandemic\, this talk attracted great praise: “excellent”; “entertaining”; “fluent”; “informative”; “an excellent lecture on a subject of great interest” and from a member in the USA: “The webinar yesterday was excellent – very good talk and excellent slides. It has certainly set the bar high”
URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/wealden-iron/
LOCATION:This is an Online Event
CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online)
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/wealdeniron.jpg_1680x1200.jpg
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