Hello
Peeps, this is my report for August and early for once! July was
pretty quiet for bookings thankfully, that meant I could get on with jobs I
wanted to do in the house and garden; Finishing the bathroom for one thing! August
looked as if it was going to be similar but a rush of last-minute bookings soon
changed that. So this month I have been to: London (City), St Albans,
Sittingbourne (x3), Peterborough and Horsham. Whilst at
Peterborough the factory I was training maintenance engineers in suffered a
total power failure (nothing to do with me) but I felt obliged to get my hands
dirty and get them back online asap. Total power failure not linked to the
incoming supply is unusual. The biggest problem on this occasion was getting
hold of keys to panels! Sometimes brutal decisions have to be made in these
situations so several locks had to be smashed/forced. After this power was
restored fairly quickly (by bringing the load back up sub-main at a time). As
to the actual initial cause of failure, I reckon the main ACB hadn’t been set
up correctly for inrush current, so I made a quick call to the manufacturer and
arranged for a sales engineer to call in and set the thing up properly. Most
suppliers will provide this service as they realise that this may hold the key
to future orders. Still
thinking about undertaking the 18th Edition training back in July. I always
think it is very beneficial for anybody in the training profession to
occasionally undertake training and an exam themselves - a variation on
"Physician heal thyself". I think it is extremely useful to see other
trainers in action and also for us to feel the stress and worry of those taking
an exam. I undertook my training and exam at an ECA centre in Cardiff and I
must say the trainer was excellent. But with regard to exams, I have one piece
of advice: "People who revise Pass" - it’s as simple as that. Although
very familiar with the regs I made sure I had plenty of practice and spent some
time reminding myself what the changes were. It paid off, I ended up with a
good score (not quite 100% but very close), can you imagine the abuse I would
have suffered if I had failed! Summer
continued to be pretty hot and I suppose the gloom and doom merchants will
continue to blame "personkind" for climate change. What if somebody
were just to poke their head above the parapet
and say "What if climate change is a naturally occurring event?" My
God, that would be a brave person. I'm only going to say that Pepys recorded
oranges growing in London in the 1600's. Anyway,
have no fear, winter will soon be here, we will have trains not running due to
leaves on the line and motorists stranded in snow on the M77. I’m sure this
used to be called “Weather”. I also see
certain celebrities showing their Eco credentials by posting on Facebook - "New Rule: Every time you visit the
beach, pick up three bits of plastic" Well that’s very good, very noble.
But what if I can’t find three bits of plastic? should I take some with me just
in case? Is there a problem with plastic in the sea/ocean? I'm sure there is,
but not around the UK or most of Europe. In this screwed up world the words of
where it is a problem can’t be spoken for fear of the big R, but try looking
around India, Malaysia and parts of the Caribbean. I suppose celebrities wouldn't think of going
anywhere else for a holiday. Perhaps they should take their crap home
with them Nuff said. As
mentioned in a previous post somewhere I'm pleased that the proposed part on
Energy Efficiency has been (momentarily) shelved from the 18th Ed. Once again,
this is a idea motivated by the eco-greenies but not suitable for BS7671, it
has no impact on safety or good practice (for safety). I do in fact grow more
and more disheartened when I read news from the IET as I see an organisation
becoming more and more obsessed with playing the PR game: "Lets get more
women into industry" and "Trump brings about end of world" I
just want an IET that delivers information for good engineering, not
politically/PR motivated bullshit. Generally
speaking, I think too many organisations (Industry, Government and local
councils etc) pay too much attention to surveys and PR advisers. To illustrate
this point the “Office for National Statistics” claimed in 2010 that “2.5
million people in the UK had received an electric shock”. Now this was out of a
population of around 55 million. But let me ask you: in 2010 did anybody ask you
if you had had an electric shock? cos nobody asked me. Surveys are worthless
unless you do 100% sampling (and unless 100% of those surveyed tell the truth).
I think what this bunch of jokers at “National Statistics” did was a telephone
survey of probably a 1000 people and then extrapolated those figures upward.
This provides meaningless twaddle and useless data. Ask those around you, most
people have had an electric shock. Probably doing stupid things in childhood,
like poking a knitting needle into a socket. A large number of us survived
because we weren’t connected up very well, or what you might call “good luck”.
Try it the next time you are in a group of people, ask “If you have had an
electric shock raise your hand”. I’m sure you will find a figure of more than
4% of the group, for example; in a group of four people this would equate to less
than one person out of four, possibly a major limb or head of one person in
fact. Because that is the claim by “National Statistics”. You only
have to look at the “Boris Effect” to see that when someone is brave enough to
say the words that we are prevented from saying, far from going down he is
applauded. Look at Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, the PR goons said
“not likely” so what went wrong? The answer is quite straightforward, most
hardworking folk are too busy to take part in surveys, write letters to the
Guardian or send e-mails. Surveys are worthless – organisations of all shapes
and sizes, you should be smart enough to realise this. If you really want to
know what the groundswell of opinion is go into your local pub or take a seat
in a company canteen and listen to what working class people are saying, not
the opinion of some middle-class journalist from his flat in Pimlico. When the
time comes people go out and vote. Take notice of what they want. Simples. Wouldn’t it
be great if you could travel back in time and interview people who may have
puzzled or perhaps inspired you. Some of you might like to have a chat with
Einstein or Newton. For my part I would love to have twenty minutes with Nikola
Tesla. Hold on a minute, have I just stumbled across the idea for a radio
series? It could rival “Desert Island Discs”! “Twenty Minutes With…” I love it.
Ok here goes: this week its “Twenty Minutes With” – Nikola Tesla. Me: Hi Nick,
thanks for meeting with me today. Tesla: No
problem Ted, I hope I am worthy of your attentions. Me: Well,
likewise Nick. Now what about this whole AC/DC thing? Edison really cocked up
there didn’t he? Tesla: No,
No, not at all. But he was a greedy schwine you know. What he wanted was a very
close control of electrical distribution so he could charge more for the
supply. That was why he hated AC – it laid the way for easy distribution
through transformers, because as you know, DC can not operate a transformer
unless pulsed. Me: Yes,
that was my take as well. That was why he electrocuted elephants on the streets
of New York; to “prove” that “this new AC is just too
dangerous” wasn’t it. But why was it that after your death the NSA/OSS/CIA
confiscated all your research notes? Tesla:
(little chuckle) Well Ted, our twenty minutes is nearly up and of course I was
dead at that time so wouldn’t know much about it. But I have a feeling that the
electric weapons I designed and possibly a way to provide free electricity for
everybody might just have had some bearing on that. Me: Nikola
Tesla, Electrical Engineer Exceptionale, thank you for your twenty minutes.
Please give my regards to everyone else on that island where people can
“disappear” to. Next week I will be talking to The Shah of Iran and Marylin
Monroe. Fade to
outake music. Nikola
Tesla was a shining star, a man light years ahead of his time. We owe him so
much in modern life. He could easily be called the father of AC for his work on
transmission alone without even considering his work on single and poly-phase
motors. But the man was nearly always fiddled out of money and respect. It was
only a few years ago that America finally and officially recognised that Tesla
made the first radio transmission and not Marconi. The moral
of the story may be if you have discovered something that may be a total
benefit to mankind, and might be free to all (perhaps you have developed a working
cold fusion generator in your kitchen) then keep it under your hat until fully
patented. As I said in my blog last month – be kind, but don’t be a schmuck. |
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