Keeping the classics Going?

 How many aircraft and machines can be kept!

We all as nations and groups want to keep as much as we can to record 20th Century history, but can this collecting, restoration and re-builds be kept up!

So far many restorers and private collectors may eventually pass on to museum collections, but others would want to sell and recover assets for the work that they have done on their respective projects?

Many early aircraft of the first twenty years of human flight are now re-builds and are flying, adding some adventure to those basic and limited days and this come on our current electric revolution!

Fun fare Disasters!

Bad maintenance and Negligence?

Most of us have been to a fun fair, circus or a pleasure park to enjoy the latest rides and the thrill of fear!

But when these rides go wrong fear of falling out of your chair from a height or being crushed is another matter of real fear and probable death?

The more complex the ride is the harder it is to maintain it and areas will be overlooked and not deliberately, since this is a family business that has to make the owners their worth of time and effort!

Many people still believe that show people are travelers or Gypsies, but they are seasonal contractors who entertain the public during the summer months.

There is a plethora of machines on the market, with new one coming out every year and contractors visit sites across the country to view and buy or sell older ones on to others who cannot afford the latest?

The decline in the price of Steel. Part-One.

TATA-U.K. and Port Talbot Steelworks.

We tend to forget that most machines built where made from either iron or steel and today there is a big change with the introduction of Polymers (Tough Plastics). 

The Peoples Republic of China has flooded the world market with cheap steel and many nations have been effected by this slump in the prices. This was not done deliberately, because they have undermined themselves too! 

Port Talbot has been around for over 100 years like many of its now defunct counterparts, it started life as an iron foundry and progressed as science required it to do so. Steel today is used in cannery, automobiles, military vehicles and ship building. But many countries, including the U.K. have lost much of this, the other serious problem with steel is the amounts of scrap and the need to re-cycle it.

The costs lay in the electrical supply for maintaning production, the transportation and mining of fossils from coal to alumina and ore, much of the third world has been left scarred with the removal of bauxite-alumina. Because once it is exposed to the atmosphere it is highly dangerous and this toxic problem has been no stranger to the workforces in the steel working industry and those down wind of smoke.

There is that other side of of heavy industry that people forget as they strive for new things, respiratory problems, lung disease, cancers, asbestosis exposure, that has left generational marks and continues world wide to do to this day.

Engines. Part-One.

The heart of every Machine.

If one visits the Science Museum in London, U.K. or nearly every country in the world, you are confronted by the engines of all the great machines that have ever been built. For mechanics this is a day out, for others perhaps after looking at a couple one can get bored easily?

But it is the engine from the petrol to the hydro-electric fusion that has been the heart of motive power this last 125 years. Engines have helped in the development of getting into space, going to the depths of our oceans, building all forms of structures and tunnels.

 Ford T-Model car, Mark 1 tank, Holland Submarine, Sputnik, Ferrari, Porche,Apollo Rockets, Queen Mary, Spitfire, Volkswagen Beetle, Drones, Hydro Power, Trains, Mustang P-51, Rolls-Royce, MiG-15, SR-71, Bullet train, Antonov 225 Mirya, X-Planes, Mars Rovers,

Steam was one thing, Diesel another, fusion is something else and nuclear elctro fusion will take us out of our solar system?

Christmas.

In light of a wet Christmas in the U.K

Perhaps everyone across the northern hemisphere has had some ammount of snow, the U.K. has seen very violent storms, winds rain with severe flooding. Instead of sleds, it has been the boats and inflatables to the rescue.

The inflatable, Zodiac and even the standard rowing boat continues to be part of the invaluable tools used for basic search and rescue across the globe, in all types of flood zones. Little and easy to inflate, they can work in tight spots. Speed is also an essential element to small craft used in this role along with depth levels changing suddenly.

I think we sometimes forget so easily about the very little machines that we use around us, that they do thr very simple jobs and roles. We also tend to forget how much, we could not do without them.