Something To Bragg About!
A few days ago, someone asked me about the overhead wires of a railway and the pantographs, that pick up the 25,000 Volts AC current.
I can’t remember what their question was, but I said it is a difficult problem, as a train like a Virgin Class 390 Pendelino might be travelling at 125 mph in bad weather, so maintaining contact with a constant pressure between the pantograph and the overhead wire isn’t easy.
I was reading something else and found this article on the Rail Engineer web site. Research has been going on at the City University to develop a sensor that monitors the forces at the pantograph head. As you can imagine it is a particularly harsh environment and the engineers have bean using a technology called a Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) developed in the 1990s, based on the work by the Nobel Prize-winning scientists William Lawrence Bragg and his father; William Henry Bragg.
I won’t paraphrase the article, but it is a must read. Where it will all lead to I don’t know, but I will repeat this last paragraph.
In the long term, the FBG sensor system offers the ability to detect contact forces from the entire service fleet if combined with GPS and suitable telemetry. This offers the potential of continuous real-time monitoring of the entire overhead line network. Then the Braggs’ work on X-ray diffraction of crystals a hundred years ago could well have made overhead line dewirements also a thing of the past.
Just imagine what it would mean to the operators of our increasingly electrified rail network, if delays caused by trains bringing down the overhead wires were to be reduced.
I’ve met people at Cambridge University for whom William Lawrence Bragg was their tutor and they have described him as a quiet man, who was superb in getting brilliant work out of the students, he tutored.
This tale illustrates why we must do more and more research and often that the solution to a difficult problem is unexpected, but brilliant.
Sixty-Eight Today
At the date and time of my birth in 1947, thousands of people were being slaughtered in India and Pakistan. Only the area has moved slightly, but all across the world people are fighting over warped ideologies and religions. In a very long list, I’d include places like Belfast, Ferguson and Johannesburg.
It is so pointless. And one of the reasons, why I have no religious beliefs. The main reason, is probably that two branches of my family felt that coming to England was preferable to staying put and being annihilated, because they were the wrong and more successful religion. I can personally understand, wh we have a migrant problem.
I like to think I try to follow the best humanist principles common to most of the world’s great religions. Or at least those they tend to adhere to, when they are not mistreating those who disagree on the nature of God. She would not be amused!
I also believe in and follow the established rules of mathematics, medicine and science!
In the last few weeks, I have been meaning to write something critical of the so-called Islamic State or as I prefer the Ultimate Men Behaving Badly Tendency.
Compared to others in the past they are certainly up there with the Nazis on the treatment of their opponents and minorities, but at least the Nazis preserved most art, even if they nicked it for themselves.
I doubt I’ll ever see a totally peaceful world, as in my view the only thing that will stop it, is when people see religion to be the way to exploit them, that I believe it is and science, engineering and medicine solves or mitigates the real problems we all face in this world, like war, poverty, hunger, disease and natural disasters, like floods, extreme weather and and earthquakes.
Scotland’s Weather
Carol Kirkwood, the BBC’s Scottish weatherwoman with the large wardrobe of dresses, has just given statistics to show that Scotland is having a very wet summer.
It’s funny that the weather should get worse, after the General Election, where so many Scots voted for a party that believes in total independence.
If they do leave the UK, I hope they take all that wet weather with them.
It looks like she has made her decision, as I think Carol lives somewhere in the South of England. But then she has access to all the data!
Perhaps, now is the time, for people like me, who don’t particularly like hot weather, to take a holiday North of the Border.
This Big Belly On Islington Green Seems To Be Working
I took this picture by the bus stop on Islington Green.
This Big Belly On Islington Green Seems To Be Working
It would appear that there isn’t much rubbish not in the bin.
So is the Big Belly getting people to put their rubbish in the bin? Or had I just missed the guy with the broom and barrow?
Who Is CB?
If you use Anagram Genius to find an anagram of “Jeremy Corbyn”, you get the following result.
Enjoy Merry CB
So who is CB?
At least his anagram wasn’t rude, unlike some other politicians!
Would You Let Arthur Daley Manage Your Pension?
This week the much-loved actor, George Cole passed away at the age of 90.
Most of us loved his most famous character of Arthur Daley, who went from one disaster to another as not only was he accident prone, but totally incapable of organising his affairs, so he avoided trouble with people like the Revenue and small-time low-life.
It struck me that if Arthur ran a Financial Advice company, that was as well-managed as everything else he did, would you put a brass farthing of your money with his company to look after and grow.
Certainly not!
So why does anybody seriously think about voting for Labour candidates in an election, when they can’t come up with a foolproof and sound method for electing their next leader? The system is so full of holes, that allow interest groups to hi-jack the process, that the final result could be far from what real Labout members want!
To return to my pension example, when you are voting, you are voting to create a good future for yourself, your children and your grandchildren.
So can you be sure that the political party you favour has the capability to manage the economy, if they can’t manage something relatively simple, like electing a leader?
If you go back a few years, the Labour Party of Michael Foot and the Tory Party of Ian Duncan Smith were a shambles, as they drifted too far from the centre.
Only when both parties elected leaders with a bit of sense; Kinnock and Howard respectively, did the parties reorganise themselves sufficiently, so that they were able to regain power a few years later!
Fixing The Shortened Grundtal Rail To The Wall
When I improvised the utensil rack, I wasn’t sure how to fit the cut end to the brick wall.
These pictures show how I did it.
Note that the single bracket now holding the rail can support the weight, unless I put too much in the pot, so all the dowel does is locate the rail in the correct position.
Improvising A Utensil Rack
I use a set of utensils from Joseph Joseph which sit on a carousel. The trouble is they take up space in my small kitchen, so I thought I might put them on the side of one of my new wall cabinets above the cooker. In the end I took an IKEA Grundtal rail, but as it was too long, I shortened it and supported it from one end.
Obviously the end on the brick wall will have to be fixed and tomorrow, I’ll be going to a well-known DIY store to get the bits to create the fitting.
A Rack For Le Creuset Dishes
I have a selection of smaller Le Creuset dishes; in both 1.1 an 0.6 litre sizes.
They have a problem in that they don’t stack well. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, one pole fell onto one of the 1.1 litre dishes and reduced it to several smaller pieces.
I then found this Variera pot lid organiser in IKEA at just £5. Which is less than a replacement dish!
It certainly did the job, even if they are not pot lids.
The New Wall Cabinets In My Kitchen
This morning the Hungarian Handymen put the wall cabinets and my new cooker hood on the walls.
There is still a bit to do, but it has certainly released some more space. I also now have wall cupboards that don’t constantly take lumps out of me, like the steel ones did.
