Rolls-Royce Move Into Tidal Power
It is being reported that Rolls-Royce has moved into tidal power generation after the acquisition of Tidal Generation Ltd. There are some details here.
I know I keep bringing the Balaena up on this blog. But this surely is another place where the technology could be used. An appropriately sized column-like Balaena could be an ideal mount for the turbine.
How To Show Off Technology
On the dockside they were showing off an old electric crane.
Electric Crane on Bristol Docks
Note the scissor lift at the right to give access to visitors.
And here’s a steam one too!
Steam Crane on Bristol Docks
I suppose some might think the smoke was a bit excessive.
Where are London’s working cranes?
Mathmos Lighting
This company, famed for the Lava Lamp, seems to be thinking the way I am on column lights with its Airswitch range.
I need one that is the size of the IKEA one, with the controls of the Airswitch.
The Real Olympic Legacy
The Wellcome Trust has made a bid to run the Olympic Park and the Village after the 2012 Games finishes. Read about it here.
It seems to me that this could be a real lasting legacy for East London, especially if they eventually create a science and technology park, as they are indicating.
The Bus Powered by a 2-Litre Diesel Engine
The 141 bus passes the end of my road, on its way to Wood Green, where my father’s print works used to be.
A 141 Bus to Wood Green
The route is partly operated by hybrid buses, some of which are Wright Gemini 2 HEVs, which are powered by the 2-litre diesel engine from a Ford Puma.
I’ve always been a bit suspicious of hybrid cars, but surely this bus must be more fuel-efficient, than a similar-sized traditional bus.
An interesting aside here is that the bus is also built without a chassis, partly to save weight and the company that builds these buses, the Wright Group, is family-owned in Northern Ireland.
So does innovation and good design flourish in companies which benefit from not being under the control of unimaginative shareholders and wunches of bankers?
Rare Earth Prices May Hit Smart Phones
I’ve just been hearing on the BBC’s Wake up to Money, that rare earth prices are set to rise, as China imposes export restrictions. This may mean that defence equipment won’t be able to get everything it needs and prices of devices like smart phones may rise.
Am I bothered?
Not really, as I believe that the real developments in the future in defence, security and medicine will be mind-based like software and no-one has ever proved to me any decent reason to buy a smart phone. After all who needs something physical to be smart? Smartness comes from your own brain.
I can text, tweet and make phone calls from my trusty Nokia 6310i and it’s as smart as I need. If it were smarter it might start to rule my life! But, that’s my job!
Adnams Doesn’t Put the Gas in the Beer
When virtually everybody thinks of real ale, they think of Adnams, brewed on the Suffolk coast at Southwold.
When I was starting to drink, they had just thirteen pubs, but they did supply a good part of the club trade in Suffolk. Now their beer is found all over London and the South East, and I’ve even seen it as far north as Newcastle and Edinburgh.
Not bad for a small family company, albeit one that makes a quality product beloved of beer connoisseurs everywhere. But their proven route to success now seems to be being followed by Aspall, the cider maker.
Adnams now have a new venture, called Adnams Bio Energy, which on the face of it is as far from brewing as you can get. They are diversifying into the production of biogas from brewery and food waste. The latter comes mainly from Waitrose.
The scale is only small at present, but it would seem that properly developed it could be a valuable addition to our energy resources. National Grid have said that by 2020 about 15% of domestic gas could be produced in similar ways to that at Adnams Bio Energy.
Self-Repairing Solar Cells
I like this story. It just goes to show that if anything gets the world out of the mess, it will be scientists, engineers and other thinkers, who use science and technology correctly. It will be not be politicians, union leaders or those that believe God is always the solution. These people will just hold back those like the scientists in this story, who might be leading us to salvation from our lack of energy.
The Edgley Optica
The airship photo and the associated comments with Paul, have got me thinking about aviation.
It lways seems, that any alternative approach to replace conventional fixed wing types or helicopters, ends in failure.
Sometimes, this is because the technology doesn’t work, sometimes because there are accidents, but I do feel that sometimes vested interests strangle the new ideas at birth.
I used to be a competent private pilot and I still have over a thousand hours in my log book, if I can find it. It is quite a lot of varied flying in both singles and twins, all around the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Australia. I used to follow the aviation press a lot too, so I’m not without knowledge and experience of what has been tried and what works in aviation. Artemis, the project management system, I designed, was also used on a lot of aviation projects.
One of the aviation projects that fascinated me was the Edgley Optica observation aircraft. It was designed as an alternative to a helicopter for low-level surveillance, for use by those such as the Police. In about 1986, the company was in trouble and looking for investors, so I checked them out and actually had a flight in the aircraft as a passenger. I did take control for a few minutes and it was an easy plane to fly.
The company’s troubles were probably in part caused by an unexplained crash of an Optica being flown by Wiltshire Police. It certainly wouldn’t have helped sales.
The pilot had his own theories about the crash but writing over twenty years later, I can’t give any credence to what he said.
However, this doesn’t mean that this unusual concept isn’t worth pursuing. Especially as now we have learned so much more about the lightweight structures that might just make designs like this possible and economic.
I have a personal regret about my trip in an Optica. I didn’t have my camera with me!
A Farce at Whittlesford
When I picked up my ticket at Whittlesford Parkway station on Wednesday to go to Lingfield, the machine was a struggle for my limited eyesight, as it is placed in the sun. I also found the touch screen very unresponsive, unlike other machines I have used on East Coast and Virgin Trains.
As I eventually got the tickets successfully and I had a few minutes before my train, I popped into the booking office and explained what had just happened and on a Saturday a coiple of weeks ago. He said that the machine was badly placed and that it took a lot of pushing to get it to work. I also asked if the offce would be manned today, as I was going to London. He said it would be fully staffed as it should be!
But today it wasn’t ,manned and despite twenty minutes of trying, I could not purchase the ticket I required. I did get to the payment stage, but it rejected every credit card I had as unreadable.
I was not alone and of the dozen or so of you fought with the machine only one got a ticket.
After perhaps fifteen minutes a train for Cambridge pulled up and the driver or collector, told us all to travel and sort it out at the destination.
So this is what I did!
At Tottenham Hale, I bought my required Travelcard from a friendly ticket inspector called Youssef. And it was also with one of the unreadable cards rejected by the machine at Whittlesford.
Nothing annoys me more than technology that should be to everyone’s benefit, installed and implimented so t just makes people angry and causes extra work for others.
The sooner this machine isreplaced by something that works in a better place, the better!
The Anonymous Widower 