Not a "modeller"!

There's been much discussion in this thread about the meaning of the words "model" and "engineer", but what about the meaning of the word "workshop". Nowadays one hears of theatre workshops and other workshops to do with the arts.

When I was working I remember being sent on a "Total Quality Management Workshop". It was all "The Emperor's New Clothes" type stuff. I resisted the temptation to say that workshops should contain hand and machine tools used to make physical objects. Had I done so I suspect I'd have been ridiculed for the rest of the week and presented with an oil can.

Today workshops seem to be generally thought of by Joe Public as places where motor vehicles are repaired, but "garage" is a more common term. Most other stuff can't be economically repaired.

"The Home Workshop" might be a better title for MEW, but it doesn't suggest working metal with machine tools.

My late father started out on Model Engineering as a hobby and made a couple of steam engines. Then he discovered MEW and started making tools which never got used to make anything else apart from more tools.

Edited By MAX THE MILLER on 24/08/2014 11:05:09

Sorry Bill

Your understanding differs from the dictionary definition of "Engineer" :-

ENGINEER

1 A person who designs, builds, or maintains engines, machines, or structures.

2 A person qualified in a branch of engineering, especially as a professional: eg. an aeronautical engineer

3 A person who controls an engine, especially on an aircraft or ship.

( but, as I've said before, what's in a name!)

Regards

Norman

Don't mind admitting I fell into that group after qualifying.

It took me years of experience, including being in charge of a DO, before I could even think of describing myself as 'An Electrical Engineer'.

Unfortunately the name 'Engineer' has been so 'bastardised' and degraded over the decades, it's become pretty meaningless, in this country at least.

Geoff - Red Bull in action! Well I do need to get energy from somewhere for goodness sakes

I'm intrigued as to why some people seem to be embarrassed by the thought that somebody might believe that they make models.

The title of the magazine seems to me to reflect the size of the equipment one might find in the workshop, although I would move the apostrophe to after the R (Model Engineer's Workshop) to reflect that it's a spin-off from the Model Engineer magazine (which in itself was a nice pun when THE was still in the title).

I'm off to cut the hedge. I'll probably have to fettle the trimmer first, but that's the job of a mere mechanic. The engineering will have to wait till later.

Rod

Rod,

The Engineers will be needed to draw up a schedule of parts and tools needed first, then a time/cost analysis, followed by an HSE evaluation ant it's paperwork.

Been there, done that.

Now I just do when energy allows.

Geoff - Hence R*d B*ll. Oops forgot that I should NOT advertise

Perhaps the simplest solution to all this nonsense would be to stop using MEW as an acronym, and adopt it as a word [not to be confused with "mu" of course].

... More room on the Cover page, and [maybe] non-controversial.

MichaelG.

.. or perhaps rename it Muddle Engineer's Workshop

Russell.

Don't subscribe to the notion that to be an engineer one has to have a degree. When I was at sea in the Merchant Navy I don't think I ever met an engineer who had a degree but I met a load of very good engineers.

One day a guy with a degree in engineering came on a ship. His degree thesis had been on boilers. Whilst being shown round the engine room he asked what this huge piece of equipment was. The reply was "a boiler"............. Just shows that having a degree is not everything!

I like like it.

Must get out of this armchair and do some Muddleing

Cheers Michael.

We'v had an example of name change here in NZ over the last few days, Telecom(you can understand what that is) is now Spark. Ian S C

I have some sympathy with that view - Brunel was not a graduate. But times change. Back in the seventies when I were a lad about 5% of 18 year olds went to university. Now, it's approaching 50%. The bright apprentices who went on to do HNCs and the middling A level students who became bank managers all go on to university now.

Hedge cut, time for lunch.

Rod

Trouble is that "engineer" is a severely debased term, any oik knowing which end of a screwdriver is which is described as an engineer,

I have this vision of Neil on stage singing (?} "I am the very model of a model engineer", parodying "HMS Pinafore".

Dennis

Here is an interesting list of autodidacts, people who self educated themselves and made a difference in many disciplines including engineering and science **LINK**

There must be millions more......

Regards
John

Wow. All this verbosity regarding a name, and the use/definition of the term engineer.

Well I do not make models but I do use engineering machines in my workshop at home. All of which must mean something, but frankly I do not know, nor do I care, what it means.

I know sometimes my views may sail in the face of numerous posters on here, but for goodness sake have you/we got better things to do than simply discuss a non-subject.

Well said Madmike. Totally agree. What a load of hot air over a title.

Steve

Hi Russell

|.". or perhaps rename it Muddle Engineer's Workshop "

or, in my case, the Engineer's Muddled Workshop!

Norman

For a magazine to survive it must attract new readers.

The title doesn't matter to us, as we know what the content is and in many cases are subscribers to the magazine.

The title does matter to the casual or first time buyer who is scanning the titles is a High Street news agent and wondering which magazine to purchase. This buyer may be a vintage or classic car enthusiast who wants to make or repair parts for a vehicle. If "he's not a modeller" he may not even bother to look inside the magazine to see what the content is.

I still like Neville Shute's introduction to "Trustee from the Toolroom" -

"An engineer is someone who can make for five bob what any bloody fool can make for a quid."

I find this subject very sad.

Originally an engineer was a military builder of defenses etc. By the time the engine, what ever that means, arrived he built, maintained and operated engines. At that point the definition of an engineer becomes messy, fitters and others started calling themselves engineers. From the mid nineteenth century the professional institutions have tried the control the definition without success since they do not seem to be prepared to support legislation to protect their definition.

If such legislation was enacted would it encompass "model engineers"? I bet it would by default. Personally I prefer the American "home machinist".

By the way both Brunels and Robert Stephenson went to university.

I should add that I am a chartered engineer having served an apprenticeship and then gained a post-graduate degree.

JA