However, it is pointless to correct climate change sceptics as they cling to their belief whatever evidence is presented, in a similar way that creationists demand to see the evidence for evolution after visiting a museum full of fossils carefully arranged and dated to show how life
has evolved.
As for the “great vested interests,” the only ones that I can see are those that wish to continue with the status quo regarding fossil fuels.
Martin Beaney said that the forecast temperature rise was not occurring (Letters, PEJune). However the ice in glaciers and ice sheets around the world is disappearing. So a great deal of heat is being absorbed by the ice masses to have them melt. What no one seems to be considering in the lack of temperature rise is that when ice melts it absorbs a great deal of energy in changing its state from a solid to liquid. A little thing called latent heat. During the melting the temperature of the surrounding water does not rise.
Just check a glass of water with some ice cubes and measure the temperature as the cubes melt.
In addition the energy to convert the water to water vapour is another change of state which absorbs more that six times that to melt the same mass of water from ice.
However when the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets and the mass of ice over Greenland and Antarctica finally do melt, the temperature, if global warming continues, will rise very, very fast.
Then will the naysayers finally consider there is a problem.
On the beaches
Further to “Normandy revisited” (PE June), many years ago I was reading a similar article and it mentioned that the Americans building the Mulberry harbour on Omaha beach (in friendly rivalry with the British on Arromanches beach) decided they would use only half the bolts required in their design to speed up the work. They completed their harbour two days before the British.
When the storm came on 19 June the reduction in strength of their Mulberry harbour possibly caused its failure. I have to emphasise that this is a memory from many years ago and I cannot reference the source. However, if I’m correct, then it is a confirmation of the competence of the design as intended by the engineers.
Eric L Staley, Findern, Derbyshire
Lessons of war
I was impressed by the work being done to help those wounded in Afghanistan (“Help for heroes,” PE June). It made me think of means to avoid the injuries they received.
During the Normandy campaign in the Second World War there were tanks which had rotating flails of chains on a frame in front of them. These chains triggered mines before the tank ran over them so that the tank survived.
I wonder if a similar, probably lighter, fitting on the armoured vehicles used in Afghanistan would have a similar effect on the improvised explosive devices used there.
I have also read that several layers of steel plate separated by spaces give better protection from explosives than a similar weight of solid steel. As I saw no reference to this in the article I wonder if it had been considered. The article implied that the horrible heel injuries were caused by the force transmitted to the floor of the vehicle connected directly to the external armour.
Alfred Reading, Surrey
Taking corners
In your article “Charging ahead” (PE June), you showed a picture of an electric tricycle which I understand to be classified as a quadricycle for licensing purposes.
From the picture, it is clear that the tricycle handles like a car as opposed to a motorcycle. The wheels do not camber like those of a single-track vehicle when the tricycle is cornering.
From a vehicle dynamics point of view, the fitting of motorcycle wheels and tyres appears to be a mistake. Those tyres with their rounded cross-sections are designed to develop side-force by cambering, whereas car tyres primarily develop side-force by side-slipping. Motorcycle wheels and tyres are for tilters. They are not good for non-tilters.
Possibly the stylist is in charge, rather than the engineer. If so, it would not be the first time.
Robin Sharp, Towcester, Northants
Elevated storage
On the subject of energy storage from windfarms (“Whatever the weather,” PE May), I hope that someone is studying the possibility of using the surplus output by pumping water from the lower to the upper reservoirs of the valleys of the Pennine range and reclaiming the energy via water turbines when needed.
The Pennines have many valleys with this feature – Oh! and both windfarms and National Grid pylons decorate the bleak moorlands, so infrastructure should not be a problem.
J B Walker, Halifax
Holiday reading
I read with interest your Archive feature on Sir Ernest Lemon (PE May). An earlier Archive article, by Laura Gardner (PE November 2011), mentioned a biography of Lemon by Terry Jenkins, published by the Railway & Canal Historical Society (www.rchs.org.uk).
I purchased a copy which I found fascinating and I can recommend it to your readers: while it focuses heavily on Lemon’s railway experiences, the portion dealing with his work for the Air Ministry prior to the Second World War is particularly noteworthy.
Bernard Robertson, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Cool solution needed
You asked for nominations for the 2015 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (Soundbites, PE April). Unfortunately I will be too late to nominate myself, but I would like to nominate someone for the 2016 prize.
Living in a nursing home, the biggest need is for a cheap and simple air-conditioning machine for each resident to have in their own room during the summer. Anyone such as Baylis or Dyson who could produce such a device would deserve the prize.
Peter Primrose, Malpas, Cheshire
Remember Newcomen
I attended the IMechE event where Dartmouth’s paddle steamer Kingswear Castle received an Engineering Heritage Award. The accolade rewards the dedication and hard work of the volunteers and crew who brought this ship back into service on its home river.
This was the first Engineering Heritage Award received in Devon. Perhaps the IMechE would like to consider a major engineering landmark residing only a couple of hundred metres away from Kingswear Castle – namely the Thomas Newcomen Memorial Atmospheric Steam Engine in the inventor’s home town. Surely that must qualify.
Geoff Bootle, Devon
Misplaced energy
The article “The white stuff” (PE May) refers to “3,500kWh of electrical power a year”. Even worse, in that it is by the IMechE itself, the article “Whatever the weather” in the same issue refers to “270MW of stored energy”.
Energy is, well, energy, and power is the rate of using it. To clarify, the articles should have referred to “3,500kWh of electrical energy a year” and to “270MWh of stored energy”.
Tony Hemming, Hailsham, East Sussex
Time for a whip round
I recently received from the institution’s chief executive a nice certificate certifying that I had achieved 50 years of membership of the institution. I thought this was a nice gesture. In these days of poor corporate administration standards, it was good to see that at least the institution’s administration is working well.
But what my former boss Sir Peter Parker once called “the crumbling edge of quality” came out of the document: it was signed in biro.
Can we please band together to buy the chief exec a really good quality fountain pen for these special occasions?
By the way, I’m still working around the world, so I can put something in the biro kitty.
Phil Shepherd, Lydiard Millicent, Wiltshire