Thank god the weather is pretty terrible, or I would be kicking myself. The rain is light but the winds are heavy, working up to gale force tonight. I’m going to have to sit this one out.
I was talking to one of Pete’s scientist friends last night, before the trembling kicked in. Like Pete, Gary has worked on the nearby Harwell Science and Innovation Campus and with the Black Bullet in the back of my mind I asked him what he thought of British manufacturing (I know, I bet he was really pleased to see me). It may be a bit unfair but sometimes a very open question is like a lucky dice roll, he could have laughed it off, I was ready for that, instead he wanted to talk about the Parsons Generator.
“A great piece of kit,” he said, which Charles Parsons struggled to get into production. His coup was to reduce the forces acting on single blade turbines by developing a multi stage system and one of the applications for this was as a marine steam turbine. Anyway, to get noticed he gatecrashed the 1897 Spithead review in his prototype craft, the Turbinia, immediately after the inspection of the fleet by Queen Victoria. The story has it that he and his daring crew suddenly appeared weaving in and out of the Royal warships at a speed of 30 knots, they were uncatchable.
After this exploit he founded the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company, no doubt with the tacit support of the admiralty. His company went on to revolutionise (no pun intended) battleship propulsion. Of course I’ve just found this out on the net, which is why it reads like a potted history. It’s a good story though and if it’s a reliable example of how the innovative and talented make way over here, it speaks about the conditions faced thereabouts, or soon after, by the British bike industry.
I haven’t really dealt with this properly, but it’s an important ingredient in my enjoyment of the bike. I know from browsing the net that a lot of Enfield owners live in the USA and Canada, that’s a long way from home in terms of British Bike history. I hope my trip to the source of the business will be of some interest to enthusiasts, and anything I learn about British manufacturing on the way will be a bonus. We’re in deep recession and frankly I feel resurgence in manufacturing may be key to any sustainable recovery.
Anecdotally, one of my current work projects is the new Manufacturing and Technology Centre in Ansty, Coventry, where I’m engaged in my role as a building fabric consultant. The partners in this scheme are Rolls Royce, Land Rover (and others) and the regional universities. Now, it’s unfortunate that Rolls Royce aircraft engines are under the spotlight after one failed out of Singapore recently. Interesting to note, though, that a Parsons’ derived multi-stage turbine blade was ruined by an oil fire in the incident, which caused the engine to shut down.
The tendrils of history run right through...
