Author: publius

Fools! I will destroy you all!!

ASFO 2024–07–06

Thanks to another aNONradiator, stug, host of “Flux” (Thursdays at 2000 UTC), I spend most of the show ruminating on the process of engineering design. In the process, I give a word–picture of my own pet design for a small nuclear “package power” plant, suitable for ship propulsion or modest shore–side requirements. Also, a change in policy on the part of data center operators which is really little more than a change in framing ; and the question of what constitutes “sustainable” aviation fuel.

Scans mentioned at the beginning of the episode can be found here

ASFO 2024–06–29

Closely– versus loosely–coupled systems, as illustrated by two different nuclear power plants ; the possibilities of orbital data centers ; the continuing travails of the Boeing CST–100 “Starliner” ; an update on my travel and exhibition plans for the summer ; and Mail Call! If you want to send me mail, don’t feel that you have to use invisible ink.

“Slide Rule : The Autobiography of an Engineer”

The novelist Nevil Shute was once known as NS Norway, pilot, aeronautical engineer, and for a while a principal of the company that made the fastest aeroplanes in the world, known ironically as Airspeed Limited. His autobiography is well written and interests me a great deal, and the section on his work on the R.100 continues the airship theme from My Zeppelins and My Polar Flights.

Recordings

  • 2024–06–25 The first chapter starts south of Melbourne, Victoria, in the early 1950s, and then flashes back to the author’s youth in London, where he skipped school to visit the South Kensington Science Museum.
  • 2024–06–28 The end of the First World War, sailing, early days at de Havillands, a piece of poetry (someone else’s) described as very good and another (the author’s) as very bad, and some advice on writing.
  • 2024–07–02 The beginning of work on the airship R–100, a discussion of what makes a good test pilot, and the publication of the author’s first novel, Marazan.
  • 2024–07–05 Completion and first flight of R–100, and a mention of how So Disdained was published in the USA as The Mysterious Aviator.
  • 2024–07–09 Flight trials of R–100, and the beginning of the flight to Canada, with some vivid description of fascinating aspects of airmanship, and remarks on the difficulties of R–101.
  • 2024–07–12 “Aircraft do not crash of themselves. One crash in a thousand may be unavoidable because God wills it so — no more than that.” The flight to Canada, concluded ; rough weather and mid–air repairs ; the disaster of the R–101 and reflections on its origins.
  • 2024–07–16 The disaster of the R–101 and the end of airships in Britain, lessons drawn about institutions, and the origins of Airspeed Limited.
  • 2024–07–19 Early days at Airspeed Limited, with ruminations on the problem of risk capital ; the sad story of a German pilot who wanted to immigrate to Britain, but was deported back to Germany, where he undoubtedly ended by flying for the Luftwaffe against Britain ; and the observation that “everybody pays lip service to the safety of aeroplanes, but nobody is prepared to pay anything for it.”
  • 2024–07–23 More thoughts about risk capital and its implications, and about what makes a good test pilot ; air–to–air refueling experiments ; financial shenanigans ; and the genesis of the Courier and Envoy aircraft. Look here for some photos of the work at Airspeed, Ltd.
  • 2024–08–02 From Munich (my delayed baggage arrives at about the 45–minute mark). “At that time I was acquiring a reputation with my co–directors and with my City associates for a reckless and unscrupulous optimism that came close to dishonesty. I think this bad reputation was deserved… It is one of the defects of the capitalistic system that a managing director’s responsibility to his employees and his responsibility to the investing public may conflict and often do ; the resolution of this conflict is a matter to be solved by each man for himself.”
  • 2024–09–03 Has it really been a month since my last show? In this episode, the debacle of CP Ulm’s trans Pacific Envoy, the debacle of the Wolseley engine which gave the author yet more reason to resent non technical civil servants who made no effort to understand the subjects they were making rules about, his growing dissatisfaction with the company even as its commercial prospects were improving, and the personal triumph of being selected to supply aircraft for the King’s Flight. Only Chapter 11 remains in the book.
  • 2024–09–10 The conclusion, all in the first quarter of the hour. We sense that the author could have said more, for instance about his work in the Second World War ; but perhaps the time was not yet ripe to speak of such things, or perhaps they simply did not fit the story he wished to tell.

ASFO 2024–06–22

Must nuclear projects always take longer and cost more? Ontario’s Darlington refurbishment says “no”, and I venture to suggest that this should be the expected result. Also, a listener comment elicits a digression into the problem (if it is one) of weapons proliferation and the plutonium economy ; a reminder that Famine is the harshest of teachers, and the lessons of ecology have been learnt primarily at her hand ; and I address a misconception about grid frequency control, and wonder about on–line enlightenment.

ASFO 2024–06–15

Despite delays in the mails, we have Mail call! Also, progress with one of my many “Man and Atom” information efforts — remembering Anita Gale of the National Space Society and Ed Stone of JPL (yes, Voyager has now outlived its Chief Scientist) — Islets of Langerhans! — and a meditation on what we are as human beings, and the value of considering that very question, prompted by another instance of Big Business resembling a mental illness.

Supplementary Shows

  • 2024–06–18 After some reading of bits I am composing for a second issue of blast, I begin reading A Second Nuclear Era : Prospects and Perspectives by Alvin Weinberg, from The Nuclear Chain Reaction — Forty Years Later (RG Sachs, ed), the Proceedings of a University of Chicago symposium commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the first controlled, self–sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
  • 2024–06–21 Despite interspersing my copious commentary, I succeed in finishing A Second Nuclear Era just short of the end of the hour.

ASFO 2024–06–08

Nico–Clean? What in the world? Also, the engineered physical systems which make life in the modern world possible (often prosaically called infrastructure) and the obligation to keep them up ; the value of immigrants and refugees, and the stupidity (quite separate from any moral or human–rights arguments) of refusing them ; and a lesson, in the context of Internet social media, in cause and reasonably–foreseeable effect.

Supplementary Shows

  • 2024–06–11 Probably the last I will read from The Fast–Neutron Fission Breeder Reactor, Energy for 1000 Years by TN Marsham FRS, the succeeding general discussion, and concluding remarks by JG Collier.
  • 2024–06–14 From ATOM 134 (1967 December), a eulogy for nuclear pioneer Sir John Cockcroft, and Electricity from the Atom — Britain’s Second Decade by ES Booth.

A "Nico-Clean" card in its original packaging. Price 1000 yen.
If you want one of these things — or ten of them! — do let me know.

ASFO 2024–06–01

More on “blast” and further efforts with payphones ; aspersions on the US education system ; a US Government press release which may be good news for nuclear, but not for anyone hoping for scientific and engineering literacy among the policy–making class ; and a somewhat abstract and poetic thought about one of the intersections of politics with engineering, in which I use the phrase “touched by the finger of Vulcan”. (Start is just slightly late.)

Supplementary Shows

  • 2024–06–04 Again from The Fast–Neutron Fission Breeder Reactor, I go back to the beginning of Engineering and design of fast reactors by Köhler and read the whole thing, and then some “General Discussion”.
  • 2024–06–07 More from The Fast–Neutron Fission Breeder Reactor : Environmental aspects of the fast reactor fuel cycle by GM Jordan and LEJ Roberts FRS. This is a bit less accessible, and narrowly-focussed on radioactive discharges to the environment, but the basic conclusion that most of the environmental impacts of atomic power are associated with uranium mining, and thus reduced 100-fold by the regenerative fuel cycle, seems clear enough.

ASFO 2024–05–25

Can I solve all the problems of the Japanese economy? Absolutely not. But I might make a few suggestions as to how to reduce fuel use, to the benefit of the balance–of–payments and the value of the yen, and at the same time relieve the pressures that drive people from the rural areas to the cities. Also, US Customs and Border Protection leads me to talk about the problems of Internet social media, which is usually far off my path, and make comparisons with other forms of communication ; and a little bit of capitalism and its discontents. Also, a final version of blast №1 is now available (with extensive commentary).

A link about rail freight in Japan

Supplementary Show

2024–05–31 From The Fast–Neutron Fission Breeder Reactor, the Proceedings of a discussion meeting held 24 and 25 May 1989, reprinted from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (Series A) : Introductory remarks by RS Pease, FRS ; The science of fast reactors and why it has been studied, by G Vendryes (CEA) ; and just the first little bit of Engineering and design of fast reactors by M Köhler (Interatom). Unlike The Breeder Reactor, this is not intended for a general audience, but as it is meant for the non–specialist, at least parts of it should be reasonably accessible, and those are the parts I mean to read for you.

“Journey to Amtrak”

This is another one of my “grievance readings” of books discarded as a result of the Fort Worth city government decision to close the Central Public Library and sell off the land to real–estate developers. To me, this is on a level with the decision to close and demolish a public–housing project on the edge of downtown (convenient to jobs! even without a car!) and sell the land for a new Radio Shack headquarters… the company went bust and the complex stood empty for years, before being taken over by the community college district.

Be that as it may, this slim volume, subtitled The year history rode the passenger train, is a photoessay collection of the last days of railroad passenger service in the USA leading up to 1 May 1971, when the National Railroad Passenger Corporation took over. So you get to listen to me reading text written to accompany photos which you can’t see. Perhaps not my best choice of material…

  • 2024–05–24 As I was not watching the clock closely, this recording breaks off very suddenly, partway through an essay by Harold Edmondson entitled “Sixty–Two Historic Hours” in Chicago.
  • 2024–05–28 In the latter half of this show, I manage to read almost completely through a table listing all the intercity passenger rail services as of 1971–05–01, leaving out only Union Pacific and Chicago South Shore routes on account of lack of time. I think I will call this “done”.