Innehållsförteckning för Issue 4715 från Model Engineer

Engineering and Science On page 560 Ron Fitzgerald describes how mathematical analysis came to be used for the first time in England as a tool in engineering design. He also mentions how England, despite leading the way into the Industrial Revolution, adopted this approach to engineering rather later than, for instance, France. I say England, rather than Britain, because Scotland, as Ron points out, was rather ahead of England in the academic study of engineering science. Brunel, who was educated mainly in Paris, was one of the first engineers in Britain to employ mathematics in his profession. The late application of science, more generally, to engineering has been a consistent theme formany centuries. We've had steam engines since the seventeenth century but the relationship between heat and work was not…

Continued from p.533, M.E.4714 April 7 Interlude - the driving truck My driving truck is a rather ad-hoc affair left over from a previous project (shown without roof in photo 48). I thought I might relate its history as an example of how things evolve. As you will see from the picture it is a non-prototypical coach on a chassis with two bogies, each of two axles. In fact, this chassis was the first thing I made in my new hobby. I had intended to build a CliShay locomotive as a first project as described in the book Building the CliShay by Robert Maynard (ISBN 0941653420). The Shay designs were used in USA, especially for logging where there were tight curves and rough track. The CliShay had a central vertical…

April 19 Bristol SMEE On the table, Begbrook Social Club BS16 1HY, 19:30. Contact: secretary@bristolmodelengineers.co.uk 19 North Wilts MES Public running at the Coate Water Railway, 11:00-17:00. See www.nwmes.infoz 21 Rochdale SMEE Talk: ‘The Big Ditch’, Castleton Community Centre, 19:00. See www.facebook.com/RochdaleModelEngineers 22 Brandon and District SME Running/family day, Weeting track. See www.brandonanddistrictsme.com 22 Sutton MEC AGM from 14:30 in the clubhouse. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 23 Guildford MES Open day, 14:00-17:00. See www.gmes.org.uk 23 North Wilts MES Public running at the Coate Water Railway, 11:00-17:00. See www.nwmes.info 27 Sutton MEC Afternoon run from 12 noon. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 30 Bristol SMEE Public running at the Ashton Court Railway BS8 3PX, noon17:00. Contact: secretary@bristolmodelengineers.co.uk 30 Melton Mowbray and District MES Official opening of new club…

Ron Fitzgerald takes a look at the history and development of the stationary steam engine. Continued from p.470 M.E. 4713, March 24 Cast iron was already an old material when the first iron beams began to be used for structures and steam engines; it was the application that was without precedent. Where long experience of building in timber and stone had shown the safe limits of traditional materials there was no accumulation of empirical knowledge to assist in designing loadbearing cast iron structures. The gap was to be filled by rationalised theory and for the first time in history the use of mathematical analysis became a commonplace tool in engineering design. This is not to say that the scientific theory of structures was new; there was a Continental tradition of…

Continued from p.507, M.E.4714 April 7 The boiler The boiler (fig 5) for Fire Queen is my standard stainless design, although a little stronger than normal due to the requirements for load bearing on the barrel. For those readers who are unfamiliar with some of my previous designs my choice of stainless for boilers is based on financial and ease of manufacture considerations. Some may argue that TIG welding stainless is highly specialised, and so it is, but consider this: most elderly people can handle a fixed line telephone but not everyone of that generation can work a modern smart phone. Similarly, young whippersnappers of today, specifically the technically inclined, will be more comfortable with TIG welding than silver soldering; this is just because it is more likely they received…

Continued from p.519, M E.4714 April 7 The readout The readout is a fairly large box with the connectors on the rear for the mains in and the (very generously long) leads from the sensors. The location of this box is purely down to personal choice so I decided to fit it on the right-hand side of the machine column. This is how it would appear to be fitted in the instructions supplied. In the end, I had to have two goes at fitting the bracket (hands up those who have never made a mistake…) before it was in a reasonably suitable position. Points to note are that if it is mounted on the head (Z-axis), it will, of course, move up and down as the head moves up and…

Continued from p.501 M.E.4714 April 7 Having decided to enter their models for judging at the Model Engineer exhibition, and with neither being finished, the author and his good friend Nick are beginning to realise just what they have let themselves in for, poor fools! The race to the finish line As the experienced painter will know, it is not easy to paint cumbersome objects of complex shape. Say, to pick a randomexample, they were to be presented with the cab and side tanks of a small Caledonian Railway tank locomotive, all soft-soldered together as one complete unit, then the sensible artiste, foreseeing the inevitable runs, overspray and masking headaches, will politely excuse themselves, don their hat and coat and head for the distant hills. But there we are, that…

Introduction Recently my pillar drill switch (fig 1) broke down and I had to replace it. Despite being a simple task for most readers of this magazine, I remembered to address the topic explaining how a monophasic NVR switch works, allowing you to build your own device. That's one of the attractions of our hobby – understanding how devices work and being able to build them. A basic NVR switch has two buttons - ON and OFF. It also has a safety feature that is implied in the name – when main power goes off, energy on the output terminals of the NVR switch also goes off (obviously), but when the power comes back on, the switch stays off unlike the light switches in our homes. So, when main power…

Welcome to the little den of creativity, from the Man Himself, Little Den! Did you spot the Chatbot? Originally proposed in 4713, did you identify it? It was in fact the first paragraph of 4714. Its first suggestion was unadventurous and anodyne. I asked it to try again, with more humour. The reply took only seconds and I haven't changed a word. Is this the future of Journalism? The IET editorial was entirely composed via a chatbot. In this issue: date conflicts, a pull-through, a Royal accolade, picric acid and Young Engineers. In M.E. 4706 I mentioned meeting David Byrne of the Doncaster P2 Locomotive Trust. I have now received two copies of their The Streamliner, with which I am favourably impressed. Visually, it has lots of white space with…