Could Hamilton’s 55-Place Penalty Be Good For The World?
If you want a good explanation of how Lewis Hamilton ended up with a 55-place penalty in a 22-car race, then this article on the BBC, which is entitled Belgian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton’s grid penalties explained.
It does what it says in the title.
This extract, which describes the new technology in Formula One, is significant.
Governing body the FIA realised that the turbo-hybrid engines were highly complex pieces of kit, as well as introducing revolutionary new technology.
How revolutionary? A road-car petrol engine has a thermal efficiency – its ability to convert fuel-energy into usable power – of about 29%, a figure they have been stuck at for decades. A road-going turbo-diesel can be as efficient as about 35-40%.
Modern F1 engines, the best of which produce more than 950bhp, are approaching 50% thermal efficiency – and exceed it when the hybrid system is on full energy deployment.
It is a truly amazing step forward in technology in such a short amount of time, and these advances will soon filter down to road cars, which was the whole point of introducing them into F1.
So that means that if your vehicle does say 29 mpg, then in perhaps a decade, its equivalent will be doing over 50 mpg, as increased thermal efficiency translates into less fuel usage.
There is a lot of innovative technology generally getting itself involved with the humble internal combustion engine and where they are used.
- Engines, whether petrol or diesel will get more efficient, in terms of energy efficiency.
- Engines will get lighter and smaller.
- Transmission and braking will increasingly be electric, with onboard energy storage.
- Energy storage for larger applications like buses, trucks and trains, will use alternatives to batteries.
- Engines will become more complex and will be controlled by sophisticated control systems.
It is definitely a case of |Formula One leading the way.
But I suppose Formula One is one of the few places where there is an incentive to be more efficient.
With passenger cars, more efficient vehicles have generally sold better. But an incentive is probably needed to get people to scrap worthless and inefficient vehicles.
Perhaps a properly thought out carbon tax, would accelerate more efficient buses, trucks and trains.
It is interesting to note, that hybrid buses are commonplace, but when did you see a hybrid truck?
Could it be, that local politicians have more control over the bus fleets in their area and many of the worst trucks are run by cowboys, who don’t care so long as they earn their money?
It is also easier to complain about your buses, than say trucks moving builders rubbish around, if they are noisy, smelly or emitting black smoke.
But I do think the key to more efficient buses, trucks and large off-road construction equipment, is probably a mixture of better engines and some better method of energy storage, that means say an eight-wheel thirty-tonne truck, could sit silently at traffic lights and then move quietly away, when the lights go green. A lot of buses can do that! Why not trucks?
I also think that the next generation of trains will use onboard energy storage.
- It enables regenerative braking everywhere, saving as much as a quarter of the electricity.
- Depots, sensitive heritage areas and downright difficult lines can be without electrification.
- It enables a get to the next station ability , if the power should fail.
As modern trains from many manufacturers, are increasingly becoming two end units with driving cabs, where you plug appropriate units in between to create a train with the correct mix for the route, energy storage and hybrid power cars will start to appear.
Intriguingly, Bombardier have said that all their new Aventra trains will be wired for onboard energy storage.
So a four-car electric multiple unit, might be changed into a five-car one with on-board energy storage to run a service on a short branch line or over a viaduct in an historic city centre.
Could New Technology Help Save Steel Jobs?
One of my first jobs was in the instruments laboratory of Enfield Rolling Mills in the early 1960s. As someone with a mind like a sponge, I never missed storing away every piece of useful engineering and scientific information, I might encounter.
The company was involved in the rolling and the production of materials from non-ferrous metals, like copper, bronze, brass and aluminium. For instance, they did a lot of work with the continuous casting of metals like bronze and aluminium.
The company also used scrap metal as a source of raw material for their processing. One of their problems was identifying the scrap before processing and they had experimented with using a radioactive isotope to see, if it could give them an accurate opinion.
It probably wasn’t the best thing to do!
But since then technology has moved on.
I just wonder now, whether mass spectrometry could correctly identify the exact grade of a large piece of brass, bronze or steel!
If it could, I suspect that we could use our scrap metals to avoid refining new.
So I searched using “automatic steel scrap sorting” and found this page entitled Laser Methods For Automatic Scrap Metal Sorting.
And this page on the Oxford Instruments web site entitled Scrap Metal Analysis, Sorting and Recycling.
Who needs blast furnaces?
We just mine the scrap, rather than send it to China!
Big Belly Bins In Islington
I have a thing about street litter. My road isn’t particularly bad for rubbish, as we have a guy with a barrow, who patrols the area sweeping up anything that gets drops.
But it doesn’t deter people from piling waste around the litter bins in the road, as this picture shows.
Rubbish By A Bin In Hackney
I think a lot of what gets dumped is from people who have opted out of Hackney’s rcycling scheme, as bags often seem to be full of fast food packaging and disposable nappies. But some is definitely from commercial premises, as at times, I’ve seen people unloading rubbish by the bins from the back of pick-ups or vans.
I’ve passed the bin shown below at the Angel a couple of times, but today I had a good look.
An Islington Big Belly
It does appear to be in a better state than Hackney’s traditional bin. Perhaps those who think they will pile litter by bins, think that it’s got a camera inside.
The Big Belly web site, isn’t the easiest to navigate, but for a good explanation go to this page on the Islington web site. This is an extract.
The Big Belly units use solar power to compact litter so can hold up to eight times more litter than a normal bin, and email council staff when they need emptying.
Now under a pilot scheme 30 of the bins – which are also used in Times Square, New York – are being placed at busy recycling and litter hotspots in Islington, where street bins fill quickly.
I don’t know for sure, but I suspect as the bins are solar powered, they probably don’t need to be connected to any services. I did read on their web site, that they use SMS messaging to call for emptying.
I like the concept and suspect that it will get developed in the future to be even better and provide other services.
History Goes Round In Circles
I have just read this article on the BBC web site entitled Balloons take tech war to North Korea.
This is the first paragraph.
Some anti-North Korean activists firmly believe the best way to defeat Kim Jong-un’s regime is to break the cycle of propaganda served up every day to those living north of the border.
It got me thinking about the origins of printing with moveable type.
In some ways it was the Internet of its day, as suddenly information and books became available to anybody who could read.
My father always said that printing started to break the power of the church, as now you didn’t need a priest or monk to read the bible or learned books.
So are the balloons taking their CDs and information to North Korea, just another manifestation of everybody’s insatiable search for the truth? Let’s hope they are as successful in breaking the power of the evil regime in North Korea, as printing was in breaking the power of the Church.
The Latest Doggie Accessory
Thry’ve just shown see the latest doggie accessory on BBC Breakfast; the iCollar with a GPS locator and other sensors? We had a setter who needed that, who roamed all over the stud, but never left it, so was often difficult to find.
My youngest also needed one, as he used to go everywhere following the horses on his own about seven.
Some of C’s divorce clients probably wished they could have locked such a device on their partners, so they could track their movements. I suspect someone is working on it.
Using The Strange Property Of Water To Advantage
Most people, except perhaps those, who live in hot climates, know from their personal experience that ice floats on water. But most people don’t know that water is at its densest at 4°C. So water at this temperature sinks, but it rises at all others.
I once heard somebody use the existence of this property as a reason why God exists. He argued that if it didn’t, then life would have been impossible in water. It was all a bit contrived, but it is still as a strange property.
This morning, I was listening to Wake Up To Money, when a company called SureChill was mentioned. So I looked them up and found that they are using this property to create a new type of refrigerator. This page explains it all. This section describes the solution.
Sure Chill is a brand new kind of cooling system. It doesn’t need a constant power source. In an on-grid situation with intermittent power, it works perfectly well. In an off-grid situation, where a solar panel may be used, a Sure Chill powered refrigerator doesn’t even need a rechargeable battery. It shouldn’t work but it does. And it works beautifully.
Water surrounds a Sure Chill refrigeration compartment. When it has power, the water cools and forms ice above the compartment leaving only water at four degrees cooling the contents. When the power is switched off, the water warms and rises while the ice begins to melt, keeping only four-degree water cooling the contents of the compartment. So it has its own internal and entirely natural energy store that maintains a completely steady temperature. The system can operate like this, without power, for days and weeks.
People think physics is boring. Outside of Metier, I’ve done well in my career and made quite a bit of money by understanding the laws of physics that govern our lives.
My surprise at this idea, is that the technique could have been implemented in a refrigeration system decades ago. Artificial refrigeration was first performed by William Cullen in 1755. My bible; Nelkon amd Parker says that the maximum density of water was first measured by Thomas Charles Hope in 1804.
That is a long time from experimental proof to reality!
Do We Want Platoons of Trucks?
I first read about this idea in the Sunday Times, but I have found a detailed article on the bbc.com website. Here’s the lead paragraph.
Convoys of wireless-linked semi-autonomous vehicles could soon be hitting our roads, giving drivers a chance to put their feet up on the morning commute.
I don’t drive and I miss driving, like you miss the teenager next door, who thinks he’s the best drummer since Ringo, who has just left home.
The technology may well work, but it’s in the same category as driverless cars and unmanned level crossings. They’re all perfectly good and safe until something goes wrong. How many air accidents were never envisaged, when the aircraft was designed?
The thing though about this technology, is there is already a proven alternative in the UK. It’s called freight trains. The money would be better spent removing trucks from the roads, as far as possible. Obviously for long distances across countries like the US, Canada, Australia and Russia, it may well have a place.
I Wonder What The Duke Thought Of It!
Glasgow has got past the first hurdle, by opening the Commonwealth Games without any obvious hitches.
It will be interesting to see how the Duke of Edinburgh rates the ceremony amongst the dross, he has watched in his lifetime.
I would rate it fairly high up the scale, but Glasgow had two big advantages over say the Olympics in Beijing or Athens.
All the proceedings were done in a language that we and most of the spectators understand perfectly.
But perhaps more importantly, Glasgow had one of the first uses of a 96m. wide video screen, which meant instead of training masses of drummers, dancers and musicians, you just set some good programmers and video editors to work to weave some magic. You then prayed that you didn’t get a blue screen of death like Beijing did in 2008.
Perhaps it was just to save money on costumes and performers, but Glasgow kept it simple and colourful. Which worked!
But will Rio do the same for the 2016 Olympics? I hope so.
They’ll certainly use the screen or perhaps two! Without doubt it was impressive technology.
A Glow In The Dark Road
I found this story on the BBC web site. It describes how photo-luminescence is going to be used in The Netherlands to make a road safer. It follows a similar idea in a park in Hammersmith that I reported here.
I backed a guy, who was doing something similar thirty years ago, but nothing came of it, I probably wasted a grand, so it wasn’t something I couldn’t affoprd.
I have only seen one successful application of the technology and that was in the Hotel Windsor in Nice to create a ceiling of stars, that dimmed as you went to sleep.
It was very romantic and I wonder if the hotel still has the same ceiling.
But whatever happens to the road in The Netherlands, I believe it is a technology that has lots of applications and we’ll see a lot of it in the future.
The Anonymous Widower 