The Tudor Way of Death
This report is on the BBC web site. Judging by the number of gun accidents, we haven’t got much better, although we don’t drown in cess pits so often.
Looking for Ferrous Inclusions in Copper Wire
One of the first real research projects I ever did, was to look for small ferrous inclusions in copper wire. This was during a vacation job from Liverpool University at Enfield Rolling Mills. It was I think the third summer I spent there and it was all good training for the future.
My problem was to look for small pieces of iron in thin copper wire, that was being drawn smaller to make electrical cable. Even the smallest piece of iron of the order of ten micrograms can do bad damage to the dies that shape the copper. To complicate matters the wire was travelling at something like 3,000 feet per minute, although I can’t remember exactly what the speed was.
I remember building a frame from Dexion, with pulleys at three corners, so that a cotton sash cord could be passed round these and an electric motor at the fourth. The cord was used as I could slip straightened lengths of wire into it to simulate the wire. I can also remember drilling the wire down its length to insert very small pieces of iron in the middle. The whole was sealed with copper wire, as I wanted to make sure that the only magnetic material was the speck of iron.
The person who’d tried the problem before had used a detector based on permanent magnets with a coil in the middle. It didn’t work too well, as you got a pulse when the wire entered and left, with only a small blip from the iron.
I used a longer detector based on an electromagnetic coil, with the detecting coil in the middle. The idea was that any eddy currents created by the start of the wire would die down before the detecting coil. I’m not sure if I got the maths right, but it did work and I got a nice one cycle wave on the Cossorscope, with two smaller ones when the wire entered and left. Note that in those days of 1966, you had to develop miles and miles of paper film to get your results from the oscilloscope. Although I should say that there were plenty of good Textronix ones at the University, but then it was so much better funded than industry.
It wasn’t perfect but it would have been good enough to say that a coil of wire didn’t contain anything bigger than so many micrograms. I think in the end they solved the problem, by better hygiene in the wire drawing, so that there was no need to apply a qualitative test.
But I was rather proud of what I had done as a nineteen year old and have always felt that the technique has other applications.
Why Are Loaves Square?
Apparently, we’ve now had the square sliced loaf for fifty years. In my years, that’s fifty years too many.
But have you ever wondered why Britain fell so much in love with this awful product? Here’s an e-mail, I’ve just written to the BBC.
In the 1970s, I did some work for a major bakery group in the UK. I dealt with top management, some of whom had been bakers. And very much of the old school, who knew their bread.
So I asked why we had so much bad sliced bread and did they eat it.
They didn’t eat it and to a man, they took a sack of flour home and then baked it themselves.
The reason there was so much square sliced bread was that van drivers in those days were paid by commission and they could get most commission by cramming that sort of bread in the van. So they wouldn’t distribute the better class of bread, which didn’t fit so well.
Another interesting fact from this period, was that a lot of bread got returned to the factory. Harold Wilson and his government felt this waste pushed up the price of bread, so they banned returns. Do you remember happy bread, which was a different colour for each day?
In fact, the non-return policy, meant that the price of bread rose, as the returned bread had a whole lot of uses like animal feed, which then became unprofitable. The returned bread just went into the waste bin at the shops and then probably into landfill.
All in all it’s a sad tale, which shows that often the reasons for things being the way they are, are not what you’d expect.
I’ve also just watched the BBC Breakfast report on 50 years of the awful sliced loaf. No wonder there are so many coeliacs or those that are allergic to wheat-based bread in the UK, judging by what goes into it. All of those bakers years ago were right!
Waking Up In Cloud-Cuckoo World
I woke at about five this morning and put the radio on to listen to the news. One of my favourite books is The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
I felt that I’d woken up in a world where everyting was being run by idiots, who had lost their sense of where they were supposed to be, but were still of course getting all of their perks and salaries. Or in the case of various dictators were still milking all their subjects for ever cent they’d got.
The first story was the problems in Syria, where all sane people agree that President Assad must go. The president used to be an opthalmologist, which in my book is a sort of doctor, so why is he blinding some of his people and killing others in an effort to cling to power? And why were we still supporting this despot until recently?
Then there was the story about Greece having a referendum on cuts. Turkeys and Christmas come to mind. Of course they’ll vote yes to the cuts!
The Germans are supposed to be efficient. But they can’t seem to find the source of their e-coli outbreak. So what does the EU do about it, have a meeting?
I could add other stories, where those in charge are going one way and doing their utmost to keep their high-salaried jobs.
Don’t get me going on the NHS, where at present I just need a repeat prescription and it seems to take days at my GP. At the previous one, I sent in an e-mail and either collected the drugs or the signed prescription on the next working day. How many highly-paid civil servants does it take to not impliment that very simple policy?
And now to cap it all, BBC Breakfast is talking about the lack of cuckoos this year. They’re all alive and well and living in politics and government, all over the world!
The Odd Physical Properties of Mixtures of Air and Water
Richard Hammond today, in his program called Engineering Connections about the Space Shuttle, showed how NASA use a wall of water droplets to protect the shuttle and the launch platform from the immense sound waves created by the rocket engines on lift off. I have seen a shuttle launch and even some miles away the noise was awesome and in some ways the most unexpected part of the event.
If I ask an averagely serious engineer or physicist to tell me the speed of sound in air and also that in water, they will give answers of 343.2 and 1497 metres per second respectvely with various conditions like dry air and pure water. So sound travels a lot faster in water than air.
So if you have a mixture of bubbles of air in water or vice-versa, a logical person would think it lies somewhere between the two.
But they would be wrong! According to this paper from 1969, by D. McWilliam and R. K. Duggins, it can be as low as 18.2 metres per second. This creates all sorts of problems and benefits. NASA’s engineers used it in one way and I invested in a company that used it to make an aerosol valve.
But it is a property that hasn’t been used to the full.
They say that oil and water do not mix.
But I have seen an experiment where bubbles of air was introduced into a mixture of water and oil and the resulting mixture was passed through a choke or restriction. A creamy liquid emerged, because the air bubbles in the restriction in trying to get into some form of steady state, mixed evetrything up.
I know that explanation isn’t very good, but who cares as the technique works.
In places like Saudi Arabia, there are large lakes of tar, that are just dumped in the desert. Perhaps by using natural gas as the gas, could this pollution be burned, whilst it is still hot?
I don’t know! But I do know that this abnormal property of mixtures of gases and liquids is not used for all the applications it can be.
Has HMRC Moved To Brazil?
This spam e-mail wasn’t written by the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Tax Refund Notification
After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 973.90 GBP. Please submit the refund request and allow 5-7 days for processing.
Click Here To Claim Your Refund http://ocenomato.com.br/pantanal/galeria/xxxxx.xxx
Best Regards,
HM Revenue & Customs
But it might fool someone. Let’s hope it’s not you! After all, they’d stop sending them, if they didn’t find a mug in each batch they send.
But do note the Brazilian web site! The xxxx’s hide a dangerous web page, so don’t try and access it.
The Candwich
I couldn’t believe that such disgusting food existed, when I saw it on HIGNFY last night. I thought it was a joke.
But never underestimate the Americans, when it comes to creating things that the stupid might eat and make even more obese.
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/864889-finally-a-sandwich-in-a-can-check-out-the-candwich
I can only think of one use for it. Unopened cans might just be the right height to stop some furniture rocking. Or you could use four and a scaffold board to create a cheap shelf in a shed or garage.
Is This Really the Most Read News Story on the BBC?
Look at the BBC News web site today and this is the most read news story.
I think this says just as much about the general public, as it does about Vane Rooney and his hair transplant!
An Enormous Religious Issue
I’ve just realised that a Jewish friend (lapsed), said when I phoned yesterday, Friday, that she had to hurry as she had to put the washing on.
Are there any religious restrictions on days, when doing your smalls is not allowed. I suppose Friday is alright for the Jews, but would a Catholic fishmonger wash his work clothes on that day?
I just do mine, when I’m short of underpants or socks.
