Open thoughts

Hilarious!

**LINK**

Hi All

Or this recent boo boo

**LINK**

You have to wonder how the design of a building, almost certainly by a committee, could be so badly thought through.

As I said in my earlier post group politics can get in the way of good design and In this case politics likely did. Can we surmise that at least one of the group might have had some knowledge of solar furnaces? Why did they not speak up?

This is a multi million Pound project, surely they would have used experienced professionals to design and engineer it. And what about the green certification team were they asleep also.

Or is it the phobia the corporate world has against a negative comment making you are a pariah (and the pink slip awaits if you are one) in the modern business world? Yes is the only answer. Was not a single word spoken against the design?

With regard to who is and who is not an "Engineer"

To me it comes down to experience. Qualifications earned academically and or practically have equal value. The most important task is finding the right design and engineering abilities for a particular project.

. I mentioned Dianne Broddy in my previous post because she was not academically trained, in the beginning starting off in a drawing office, That did not stop her self training and ending up working as the senior project manager designer on projects around the world, many of the multi million dollar projects were food processing and canning plant, incredibly complex machinery together with large boilers autoclaves and steam processing equipment. She was and is although now semi retired in her 80's highly sought after. Because of this work she has been given several honorary engineering degrees. She is an expert in heir field.

It is of concern to me how legislators try to pass laws trying to restrict the use of common English words like the word Engineer. This legislation is lobbied for quite strongly by various institutes of engineering, the more restrictive they can make it the more fees they can collect. they support their case with the idea that they can weed out charlatans and unqualified people. All good as long as they leave the word Engineering alone. The Dianne Broddy's and the tens of thousands of others like her need protection from name grabbing.

Regards
John

Edited By John McNamara on 18/01/2014 01:10:08

when one thinks of Cherry Hinds Hill and the late Dr J Bradbury Winter, the 'hobby' perspective of this thread rather speaks for itself!

skill isnt measured in qualifications or experience on the machine shop floor but what is produced in our sheds/workshops, and in the case of most of us how what we make then performs in service whether it be a track or some other arena. as in the above superlative examples, no engineering background is required.

cheers,

julian

Gee the London solar cooker was not the first...

**LINK**

Someone in the design team must have known there was a risk...

Regards
John

Buildings singeing people's hair, good job I don't have much hair left then!

Edited By V8Eng on 18/01/2014 09:40:14

Hmm... "committee" - I think that says it all

Russell.

I'm keeping out of this one. I can relate horror stories from both camps and it's a discussion that no one can win.

What I will say is this and this is one of the nicest and most knowledgeable people I know holds about 4 doctorates and one of the apprentices we had at the garage left us still not able to read and write because I had to fill a advert slip in from the back of Tit-Bits, remember that ? so he could buy his girlfriend an engagement ring.

He now runs and owns one of the largest haulage, sorry logistics, companies in the UK.

That's it from me on this one.

You have a good point there Michael.

When I did my engineering degree in the 1960's it was a "thick sandwich" course which consisted of three years at university and a year in industry between the second and third years. The exam questions were not a matter of regurgitating facts learned by rote but involved problem solving using those facts. There was also a practical project that was marked alongside the final exams.

Now there are so many more universities that the entry standards have dropped such that four years are needed just to teach the academic work and the practical applications seem to go by the board - or am I just becoming a cynical grumpy old man?

Things are a bit different over here with the Ecoles d'Ingéneur where the courses are five years after BAC (A-levels) and include long industrial placements.

Russell.

Gentlemen,

Where I served my Apprenticeship and worked for sixteen years my father was an engineering draughtman, he was given a university apprentice to mentor during him term break, my father was given a special bolt to draw as it had snapped and needed remaking, the bolt had been taped together in a tee shape so as not to loose the parts, my father decided the apprentice could do this as a project and when the lad had finished the drawing he asked my father to check his work, what my father found was a perfect drawing with everything in place to make the bolt apart from the fact that it had been drawn exactly as the lad had been given it, taped together in the shape of a tee. He was known throughout the factory as being so clever he was thick as he couldnt see the wood for the tree's.

Martin P

Another point to bear in mind is a persons background, in this country up until fairly recently many people didn't have the chance to go to university, no matter how bright they were. Nowadays everyone has the chance to go, no matter how thick they are - keeps the youth unemployment numbers down - result is that some people come out of universities with a degree that is in reality worthless which is a crying shame.

i think some aspects of engineering need a formal education while others don't necessarily - it would be hard for someone leaving school at 16 with no qualifications to become a successful plant biotechnology engineer but potentially they could become a mechanical (teach yourself in your garage) or computer engineer (teach yourself in your bedroom) or get stuck in as an apprentice and work your way up.

Much engineering data was and still is obtained by testing making test pieces of materials then testing to destruction and finding the maths to suit results. So somebody needed the skill to make these parts before academics could do anything with them. Whether an academic or a machinist all engineers are contributing to the final resultant. I don't consider my engineering HNC any better or worse than the accumulated practical skills of the people that worked to build the things I designed and I always treated them as equals. Colin

Oh My

The typo gremlin is alive and well

Dianne Broddy is incorrect

It should be spelt Dianne Boddy.

Regards
John

Hi Julian

I thionk Cherry Hinds Hill is a fully qualified engineer.

I believe her family owned a farm machinery or similar type of business.

Perhaps someone knows for sure.

regards David

RJW,

As a bricklayer I have seen some crackers in my time ,but NOTHING even remotely close to those.

surely some must have been done for a laugh, but believe me "you never know" the mind boggles!!

Raymond.

No myth... **LINK**

A little more subtle than inches for millimetres, but not much!

Neil

Raymond, no idea if they were photoshopped or for real, I stumbled across them when i made the deadly mistake of clicking a link one of the other guys posted up in his reply, but it gave me a damn good laugh as well as chucking away a bit of time clicking other links, I ended up somewhere on UTube perusing stonking big ship engines ............ the wonders of the web eh

John