Engineer In Wonderland

Years of experience, and quite probably many tragedies, have made the UK wiring regulations what they are - good, sensible rules - albeit written in a somewhat impenetrable form.

There are times when you read an article and realise the author has got right down to the bottom of the subject. One such encyclopaedic treatise I came across a few years ago was a Linear Technology application note: 'Ultracompact LCD Backlight Inverters - A Svelte Beast Cuts High Voltage Down to Size'

How do you pump water into a boiler using only steam pressure from that boiler? I would come up with some sort of piston-based steam engine connected to a piston-based water pump...

When I bought a digital camera, I bought one that took easily available AA cells so that I could not run out of film or batteries. And that worked well for a long time, until I wanted a camera with more than a 3x zoom.

Generally I am amazed at how good stuff is. For example, this weekend I spent a couple of hours fixing up a friend's cheap bicycle.

You can get a bit blasé about achievements at the various Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany. They are always doing clever things - take a look the ethylene sensor...

Civil engineers that I know are inclined to get a bit grumpy about architects, on account of their artistic flair getting in the way of actually designing buildings that work.

Occasionally I get that I-wish-I'd-thought-of-that feeling. And these cunning little tins produce exactly that.

I was speaking to someone from a big heritage organisation the other day, and learned that there is a hunt for ways to cut the power consumption of chandeliers.

Coulombs I can do. They quantify charge and are proportional to the number of electrons shifted, and not too difficult to visualise as electrons are real little round things.