In Dreams of Iron and Steel (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), Deborah Cadbury tells the stories of seven great works that cover over a century of engineering history. Originally published in Great Britain as Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, the book was a companion to a BBC television series. The projects covered vary widely from a sewer built under a metropolis to a bridge that towered above the skyline of its day.
The oldest of these (still standing like all but one of the other projects) is the Bell Rock lighthouse. The Bell Rock sank many ships that sought shelter from North Sea storms in Scotland’s Firth of Forth. Robert Stevenson, grandfather of author Robert Louis Stevenson, designed and oversaw the construction of a tower on it. The rock was a formidable construction site. It sat eleven miles from land. High tide covered it with as much as 16 feet of water. Low tide exposed an area only 250 by 130 feet. Yet Stevenson and his men built a 100-foot, stone tower on it. They did it 200 years ago.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, several wonders were built almost at once. The Great Eastern, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was twice the size of any other ship. Though a commercial failure, it set the standard for the next generation of ships.
Brunel launched his ship into a dirty and diseased Thames. Joseph Bazalgette sought to make the river safer for London residents. He built sewers under an ancient city that had grown to 2.5 million people and sprawled over 80 square miles.
In the American West, rival firms raced across the continent to build a railroad that would unite a nation recovering from civil war. In New York, John and Washington Roebling tackled the broad East River with their Brooklyn Bridge. They risked their lives and reputations on the longest span of the day and a material untested in bridges—steel.
The twentieth century inaugurated bigger feats. First proposed in 1879 by Vicomte Ferdinand de Lesseps of France, builder of the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal defeated most of those tried to build it. Even the United States poked at the mountains in futility until John Stevens, a railroad engineer, upgraded the infrastructure and equipment. When Stevens left the canal, a frustrated Theodore Roosevelt put military officers in charge. Lieutenant Colonel George Goethels, an engineer with extensive lock and dam experience, saw the canal through to its completion shortly before World War I.
The final project, America’s “damn big dam”, was build during the Depression. Hoover Dam was huge and constructed under difficult conditions. But construction engineer Frank “Hurry up” Crowe pushed and planned to get it done early and under budget.
Cadbury treats each project separately. However, they are linked by common elements.
Tragedy and setbacks touched each one. Thousands of men, usually poor laborers and sometimes children, were killed or injured to make these huge structures. They were beset by lack of financing, reluctance to try new methods and materials, bankrupt contractors, political opposition, corruption, greed, prejudice, and other human imperfections.
At their best, these engineers and their wonders are linked by the same qualities that appear in the best of engineering today. They had a vision to make people safer, healthier, richer, and freer. They created solutions to immense problems.
Robert Stevenson’s triumph at Bell Rock won the confidence of the Northern Lighthouse Board. It also launched an association between the Stevenson family and Scottish lighthouses that lasted four generations. During their tenures in the office of engineer for the board, Stevenson and his sons dominated the design, construction, and operation of the lights. Bella Bathurst tells their story in The Lighthouse Stevensons (New York: HarperCollins, 1999).
This book has its own kind of variety: technical, professional, and personal. It covers the construction and technology of several lighthouses, the masterpieces of Robert and his three sons. They not only built towers, but also improved their design and the design of the lamps, reflectors, optics, and mechanical systems that operated in them. One even studied the waves that assaulted their works.
It shows that engineering is more than simply design and construction. The Stevensons were also managers, fundraisers, businessmen, public servants, purchasing agents, manufacturers, contractors, and more. Their work included a broad section of what engineers do.
The book is also a biography of these four men that reveals the dynamics of the family. Robert insisted his sons join the family profession and business. Only one, David, seemed to take to it naturally. Only David’s sons filled the next generation of lighthouse Stevensons. Alan and Tom were more inclined to work in literature and the arts. Alan proved himself to be a capable engineer by building a 138-foot light at Skerryvore that could withstand the elements and exhibit a simple beauty. He became so disabled by disease, Bathurst suggests it was muscular sclerosis, that he gave up his work with the lighthouses. He managed to work irregularly as a writer. His works include and encyclopedia article on lighthouses and a translation of Greek poems. Tom shared Alan’s artistic leaning, but not his intensity and focus. He and David eventually divided the engineering work for the Northern Lights.
Not everyone is cut out to be an engineer, of course. As Robert Louis Stevenson said about his internship in the profession, “He is a wise youth, to be sure, who can balance one part of genuine life against two parts of drudgery between four walls and for the sake of one, manfully accept the other.” But some managed to catch what Marion Allen, a laborer on the Hoover Dam, called constructitis. “Sometimes one thinks he is cured,” said Allen, “only to have a relapse when he goes by fresh concrete or catches the smell of fresh sawdust from new lumber. Anyone with this affliction has to start construction of some kind, even of only to dig a hole and fill it up again.”
Order this book here.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query construction. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query construction. Sort by date Show all posts
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Canals and Their Architecture by Robert Harris
Harris, Robert. Canals and Their Architecture. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969.
Water has always been an important part of human life. Drinking water is a necessity, but that is only the beginning of our uses of it. Water is also an element in agriculture, industry, transportation and commerce.
It is water’s role in transportation and commerce that Robert Harris focused on in Canals and Their Architecture. At times, artificial or modified waterways have been major means of transporting products in bulk.
Harris mentions canals from continental Europe and North America, especially the United States, but his book is mainly about the canals of Britain. This is an appropriate focus because the canal boom in Britain both fed and was fed by the Industrial Revolution that started there.
The boom began with the Duke of Bridgewater’s famous canal, construction of which began in 1760. The duke owned coalmines and wanted a cheaper way get coal to the mills and factories in Manchester. The canal was by no means an easy or inexpensive project, but it was greatly successful and the wealth put into it was regains many times over.
Bridgewater recognized the talents of millwright James Brindley, who went on to become the most prominent canal engineer of his day. Harris discussed the works of several British engineers who were successors of Brindley including Thomas Telford, John Rennie, and William Edwards.
As the title of the book suggests, it is organized mainly by the types of structures found on canals. In addition to the canal cut, Harris wrote about bridges and auqueducts, locks , tunnels, boats, buildings and unique ways of handling elevation changes on a canal route. Early canals followed the contours of the land to avoid the use of expensive and complex equipment and, where needed, were crossed by utilitarian bridges of wood or brick. As canals became straighter, and more lucrative, they added locks and other mechanisms for raising and lowering boats. The materials became more varied and complex, including stone and iron. Spectacular aqueducts carried canals over low lands. Tunnels were well-made features of canals early on because the technology for building them was readily adapted from mining.
The older canals are impressive in that so much was done with manpower and simple tools. As canals aided other industries, the improvements those industries spawned, especially in iron construction and railroads, returned to canals and the way they were made. The construction of modern canals is the work of enormous equipment.
Canals and Their Architecture includes many illustrations and photographs. These are very helpful for the laymen to see the types of structures discussed in the text, though even an engineer familiar with the terms will likely appreciate the images.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague de Camp
Dreams of Iron and Steel by Deborah Cadbury
Water by Marq de Villiers
Water has always been an important part of human life. Drinking water is a necessity, but that is only the beginning of our uses of it. Water is also an element in agriculture, industry, transportation and commerce.
It is water’s role in transportation and commerce that Robert Harris focused on in Canals and Their Architecture. At times, artificial or modified waterways have been major means of transporting products in bulk.
Harris mentions canals from continental Europe and North America, especially the United States, but his book is mainly about the canals of Britain. This is an appropriate focus because the canal boom in Britain both fed and was fed by the Industrial Revolution that started there.
The boom began with the Duke of Bridgewater’s famous canal, construction of which began in 1760. The duke owned coalmines and wanted a cheaper way get coal to the mills and factories in Manchester. The canal was by no means an easy or inexpensive project, but it was greatly successful and the wealth put into it was regains many times over.
Bridgewater recognized the talents of millwright James Brindley, who went on to become the most prominent canal engineer of his day. Harris discussed the works of several British engineers who were successors of Brindley including Thomas Telford, John Rennie, and William Edwards.
As the title of the book suggests, it is organized mainly by the types of structures found on canals. In addition to the canal cut, Harris wrote about bridges and auqueducts, locks , tunnels, boats, buildings and unique ways of handling elevation changes on a canal route. Early canals followed the contours of the land to avoid the use of expensive and complex equipment and, where needed, were crossed by utilitarian bridges of wood or brick. As canals became straighter, and more lucrative, they added locks and other mechanisms for raising and lowering boats. The materials became more varied and complex, including stone and iron. Spectacular aqueducts carried canals over low lands. Tunnels were well-made features of canals early on because the technology for building them was readily adapted from mining.
The older canals are impressive in that so much was done with manpower and simple tools. As canals aided other industries, the improvements those industries spawned, especially in iron construction and railroads, returned to canals and the way they were made. The construction of modern canals is the work of enormous equipment.
Canals and Their Architecture includes many illustrations and photographs. These are very helpful for the laymen to see the types of structures discussed in the text, though even an engineer familiar with the terms will likely appreciate the images.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague de Camp
Dreams of Iron and Steel by Deborah Cadbury
Water by Marq de Villiers
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Brooklyn Bridge by Judith St. George
St. George, Judith. The Brooklyn Bridge: They Said It Couldn’t Be Built. New York: Putnam, 1982.
Published shortly before the centennial of the Brooklyn Bridge, this book is a short history of bridge. The story of the bridge is necessarily the story of the Roeblings, the family responsible for designing the bridge and overseeing its construction.
When the builders completed the bridge in 1883, it was at the end of 14 years of construction. The plan for the bridge went back further to 1857 when engineer and German immigrant John Roebling first proposed a bridge across the East River to connect New York to Brooklyn. At the time, the only communication across the river was by ferry. Roebling was the leading suspension bridge engineer in the United States.
The bridge would not get needed support until after the Civil War. In the mean time, Roebling’s son Washington would be come a skilled engineer in own right, studying Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, getting a practical education working with his father and studying bridge-building techniques in Europe in the company of his wife, Emily. He also was trained in leadership, having risen to the rank of colonel in the Army during the Civil War.
The bridge took a great toll on the Roeblings. John was killed by tetanus early in the development of the project. Washington’s health was ruined by caisson’s disease (the bends) and for many years Emily acted as his hand, feet, eyes and ears on the bridge project.
St. George’s brief book is a quick read, but for its brevity still a good overview of the bridges development and construction. It includes several photos and illustrations. It seems suitable for younger readers, but is not too simplistic for an adult reader who wants a quick introduction to the bridge and its early history.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Dreams of Iron and Steel by Deborah Cadbury
The Great Bridge by David McCollough
Steam by Andrea Sutcliffe
Related articles:
Brooklyn Bridge getting a $500 million makeover
Published shortly before the centennial of the Brooklyn Bridge, this book is a short history of bridge. The story of the bridge is necessarily the story of the Roeblings, the family responsible for designing the bridge and overseeing its construction.
When the builders completed the bridge in 1883, it was at the end of 14 years of construction. The plan for the bridge went back further to 1857 when engineer and German immigrant John Roebling first proposed a bridge across the East River to connect New York to Brooklyn. At the time, the only communication across the river was by ferry. Roebling was the leading suspension bridge engineer in the United States.
The bridge would not get needed support until after the Civil War. In the mean time, Roebling’s son Washington would be come a skilled engineer in own right, studying Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, getting a practical education working with his father and studying bridge-building techniques in Europe in the company of his wife, Emily. He also was trained in leadership, having risen to the rank of colonel in the Army during the Civil War.
The bridge took a great toll on the Roeblings. John was killed by tetanus early in the development of the project. Washington’s health was ruined by caisson’s disease (the bends) and for many years Emily acted as his hand, feet, eyes and ears on the bridge project.
St. George’s brief book is a quick read, but for its brevity still a good overview of the bridges development and construction. It includes several photos and illustrations. It seems suitable for younger readers, but is not too simplistic for an adult reader who wants a quick introduction to the bridge and its early history.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Dreams of Iron and Steel by Deborah Cadbury
The Great Bridge by David McCollough
Steam by Andrea Sutcliffe
Related articles:
Brooklyn Bridge getting a $500 million makeover
Friday, May 1, 2009
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
Card, Orson Scott. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. Cincinnati, OH: Writers Digest Books, 1990.
Accomplished speculative fiction author Orson Scott Card focuses this manual on the particulars of writing science fiction and fantasy stories. It contains advice that may be useful to writers of any kind of fiction.
To start, Card tries to define the realm of science fiction and fantasy. This is difficult. Once identified as a writer of speculative fiction, you may find it difficult to get your books marketed in any other category. On the up side, within the realm of science fiction of fantasy, you can write almost any kind of story. Science fiction and fantasy is defined by a mix of marketing, reader expectation and what writers produce; something readers of these books will have a feel for, but as a new writer, or someone new to the field, its useful to know what is expected.
Something unique to speculative fiction that Card gives much attention is world creation. All fiction creates a world of sorts, but a characteristic of speculative fiction is that the world of the story is significantly different from the world we live in. A writer of science fiction or fantasy stories must have a well thought out vision for his world and how it works; he need an understanding larger than what is minimally necessary for the story. This chapter contains practical advice on what works and doesn’t in world creation.
Something that sticks out to me is found in the chapter on story construction. Card writes about where a story should begin and end, depending on what kind of story it is: milieu, idea, character or event. All stories have all of these elements to some degree, but most focus on one. By understanding what kind of story you’re trying to write, you can know where to begin and end your story and how to set up and meet reader expectations. Reading this chapter I thought of several short stories and novels that I thought were very good and saw how they fit in these categories and how the authors made fitting decisions about where they started and stopped their stories.
Card’s advice on story construction is applicable to any kind of fiction. He draws examples from speculative fiction, and has writers of it in mind as his audience, but all kind of stories could be improved with this counsel.
Accomplished speculative fiction author Orson Scott Card focuses this manual on the particulars of writing science fiction and fantasy stories. It contains advice that may be useful to writers of any kind of fiction.
To start, Card tries to define the realm of science fiction and fantasy. This is difficult. Once identified as a writer of speculative fiction, you may find it difficult to get your books marketed in any other category. On the up side, within the realm of science fiction of fantasy, you can write almost any kind of story. Science fiction and fantasy is defined by a mix of marketing, reader expectation and what writers produce; something readers of these books will have a feel for, but as a new writer, or someone new to the field, its useful to know what is expected.
Something unique to speculative fiction that Card gives much attention is world creation. All fiction creates a world of sorts, but a characteristic of speculative fiction is that the world of the story is significantly different from the world we live in. A writer of science fiction or fantasy stories must have a well thought out vision for his world and how it works; he need an understanding larger than what is minimally necessary for the story. This chapter contains practical advice on what works and doesn’t in world creation.
Something that sticks out to me is found in the chapter on story construction. Card writes about where a story should begin and end, depending on what kind of story it is: milieu, idea, character or event. All stories have all of these elements to some degree, but most focus on one. By understanding what kind of story you’re trying to write, you can know where to begin and end your story and how to set up and meet reader expectations. Reading this chapter I thought of several short stories and novels that I thought were very good and saw how they fit in these categories and how the authors made fitting decisions about where they started and stopped their stories.
Card’s advice on story construction is applicable to any kind of fiction. He draws examples from speculative fiction, and has writers of it in mind as his audience, but all kind of stories could be improved with this counsel.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
On a Grander Scale by Lisa Jardine
Christopher
Wren (1632-1723) is famous as
an architect.
In particular, he is known for the mark he made on the architectural landscape
of London
after the Great Fire of 1666. St. Paul’s
cathedral, where he is buried, may be the crowning example of his work, but he
designed and built many churches and public buildings in what may have been an
early model for a modern architectural and construction firm.
As any biographer
of Wren must, Lisa
Jardine covers his career as an architect in On a Grander Scale. She also emphasizes other aspects of his life,
specifically the effect political
upheaval may have had on his personal outlook and career, and his involvement
in scientific
pursuits leading to the establishment of the Royal Society.
Wren has a privileged lifestyle as a child. His father (also
Christopher) and uncle had posts as Anglican clergy
that brought the close to Charles I.
Wren spent some important years of his childhood in a house in the walls of Whitehall. His
family remained royalists during the Commonwealth and Protectorate periods,
leaving them little access to the favored clerical and political positions they
had enjoyed. The young Wren effectively operated as a secretary and assistant
to academically minded, ousted royalists who turned to science and invention
to establish their fortunes. His mathematical
sharpness, mechanical
handiness, and facility for drawing
gained him favor in this group of Renaissance physicians,
physicists, chemists and astronomers.
While still a young man, he joined them as a peer and gained an appointment as
an astronomy professor.
Wren remained active in these scientific circles, even when he was much
in demand as an architect and royal construction manager (Surveyor-General of
the King’s Works). With his good friend Robert Hooke
(curator of experiments for the Royal Society as well as a designer in Wren’s
office), he looked for opportunities to incorporate scientific study into
buildings. The work of the precursor of the Royal Society was very
collaborative, and Jardine shows how Wren took that into his later scientific
and architectural practices. His willingness to collaborate with people he
trusted was probably a contributing factor to his success as an administrator
of so many building, scientific, business, public and political projects.
When the monarchy was restored, Charles II
attempted to reward those who had been loyal to his father, or their sons. Wren
never became greatly wealthy or powerful through preferment, but he did rise to
some prominence and had a successful career in public service. Charles I made
him Surveyor-General, and he was reappointed by James II,
co-monarchs William and
Mary, Queen
Anne, and George
I. He was charming, astute, cautious and conscientious, which served him
well on his long career. He was perhaps too cautious (or upright), because he
never gained the wealth many of his mentors and peers achieved.
Jardine shows how Wren was among a group of men who pinned their hopes
on a restored monarchy that was never as glorious as they hoped it would be.
Even so, Wren was resourceful, as were his family and sponsors, and he rose to
a career that his talent for science and hard work made possible. She sets him
in the context of his time and particularly of his relationships.
These relationships were with other men whose fathers fell from favor with the
monarchy, mentors and peers in the scientific community (especially his close
friend Hooke), and trusted assistants in his architectural practice. Wren is
regarded as genius, and Jardine would agree, but he is also very much a part of
a community of similar people who, to varying degrees, shared his fate and
aided his success.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Jardine, Lisa. On a Grander
Scale: The Outstanding Life of Christopher Wren. New York: HarperCollins,
2002.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Seamless Government by Russell M. Linden
Linden, Russell M. Seamless Government: A Practical Guide to Re-Engineering in the Public Sector. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994.
ISBN 0-7879-0015-X
Russell Linden’s book is a guide to the principles and practice of re-engineering in public sector agencies. He defines and explains the concepts of re-engineering and provides a thorough, step-by-step process for conducting a re-engineering project.
I was interested in the way he addressed the problem of defining customers. He identifies three groups: customers, who pay the agency; consumers, who use the agency’s services; and constituents, who have an interest in the mission of the agency. It is a simple way to organize stakeholders and identify potential beneficiaries, but it does not get the agency out of the need to resolve competing interests. For instance, my program will be streamlining the process for issuing construction permits. It will have little impact on the customer (the General Assembly) or the constituents (the public and environmental groups), but will be a benefit to the consumer (permit applicants).
In addition, I finally got the type of handling of case studies that I hoped to find in some of the other books. I was well impressed with the chapter devoted to the case studies of two agencies.
I would have liked to know more about the difficulties, specifically what does not work and sources of resistance to re-engineering. I think this could be well addressed by two more case studies. One would demonstrate how an agency used pilots, trickle-down and tell and sell and why these techniques failed. The second would demonstrate how and agency addressed the fears and resistance of managers, specialists and central staff.
I originally wrote this review in 1999 when I read the book for a class. I don’t remember what construction permitting process improvements I had in mind, but the probably had something to do with state and federal permits for wastewater facilities. I think my old agency is still behind the ball when it comes to using information technology in the permitting process. The job is made more difficult by the addition of new rules, new interpretations of existing requirements, and tight deadlines for getting state rules and practices in line with the present federal regime. I’m full of opinions about both the state and federal approach to wastewater regulation, especially permitting. I’ll refrain from further editorializing here. Presently, I provide management consulting and administrative services to utilities. You can find out more about my consulting practice here.
ISBN 0-7879-0015-X
Russell Linden’s book is a guide to the principles and practice of re-engineering in public sector agencies. He defines and explains the concepts of re-engineering and provides a thorough, step-by-step process for conducting a re-engineering project.
I was interested in the way he addressed the problem of defining customers. He identifies three groups: customers, who pay the agency; consumers, who use the agency’s services; and constituents, who have an interest in the mission of the agency. It is a simple way to organize stakeholders and identify potential beneficiaries, but it does not get the agency out of the need to resolve competing interests. For instance, my program will be streamlining the process for issuing construction permits. It will have little impact on the customer (the General Assembly) or the constituents (the public and environmental groups), but will be a benefit to the consumer (permit applicants).
In addition, I finally got the type of handling of case studies that I hoped to find in some of the other books. I was well impressed with the chapter devoted to the case studies of two agencies.
I would have liked to know more about the difficulties, specifically what does not work and sources of resistance to re-engineering. I think this could be well addressed by two more case studies. One would demonstrate how an agency used pilots, trickle-down and tell and sell and why these techniques failed. The second would demonstrate how and agency addressed the fears and resistance of managers, specialists and central staff.
I originally wrote this review in 1999 when I read the book for a class. I don’t remember what construction permitting process improvements I had in mind, but the probably had something to do with state and federal permits for wastewater facilities. I think my old agency is still behind the ball when it comes to using information technology in the permitting process. The job is made more difficult by the addition of new rules, new interpretations of existing requirements, and tight deadlines for getting state rules and practices in line with the present federal regime. I’m full of opinions about both the state and federal approach to wastewater regulation, especially permitting. I’ll refrain from further editorializing here. Presently, I provide management consulting and administrative services to utilities. You can find out more about my consulting practice here.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Technology in World Civilization by Arnold Pacey
For those looking for a brief survey of technological
history
around the world, Technology in World
Civilization by Arnold Pacey
would be a good start. With just a little preface to introduce ideas about how
civilizations interact in relation to technology, Pacey dives into a historical
narrative of the development of major technologies. He starts in A.D.
700 and continues almost to the time the book was published in 1990.
Throughout the book, Pacey describes the interactions between
civilizations as a dialogue. Straightforward, direct transfer of technology
from one civilization to another is rare in his view. The success and
development of a technology that originated in a foreign culture depends a lot
on the customs, organization, government,
economy,
and technology of the receiving culture. Very often, the adoption of a foreign
technology spurs adaptions, improvements and even new inventions among the
adopters. Even the rumor of a foreign technology can spur people invent, or
independently reinvent, solutions to a problem. Pacey is keen to recognize this
stimulus effect in cross-cultural dialogue related to technology.
In addition to recognizing the inventiveness found in many cultures,
Pacey is careful not to overemphasize mechanical inventions, which might tend
to put the focus on the West. He points out that the development of more
efficient and productive crops and agricultural
practices in Asia
were also important technologies.
Another important technological improvement centered on organization
and abstraction. As technologies became larger and more complex, they exhausted
what could be experienced directly by craftsmen. Improvement depended on
developing new ways of thinking about materials and work. Scale drawing and
model-making became a way to deal with complex construction. New principles of
organization were applied to work, such as specialization and division of
labor, especially as people began to work with powered machinery. Some
technological improvements even required a new way of understanding materials,
spurring interest in the development of sciences,
especially chemistry.
Pacey follows this progression through guns and railroads and
into the 20th
century with computers,
nuclear
power, and flights to the moon. He doesn’t
stop there. Instead, he takes a look, seemingly “back,” to survival
technologies. Technologies related to agriculture, sanitation
and environmental
health in the 20th century have a huge impact on the way we live
today. In the decades since this book was published, the Internet has
revolutionized the way we think about computing and communications, but in many
ways our health, wellbeing and lifestyles depend on technologies that are
centuries old and we cannot neglect them. Perhaps in an ongoing cross-cultural
dialogue about technology, new and old, we can find solutions to current and
future problems (climate change, water shortages, clean energy, food security
and more) that are adaptable to the various needs, scales and organizations of
cultures around the world.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Pacey, Arnold. Technology in
World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History. Cambridge,
MA: The MIT
Press, 1990.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Interesting Stuff July 7, 2010
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife popped by to gloat. (I liked this book, too.)
DARPA BaTMAN & RoBIN projects
DC redesigns Superman in 1974
Interesting Stuff June 29, 2010
The Latest Employment Report: Construction Jobs Get Hammered
Math genius can solve a riddle but won’t accept a prize
New Wonder Woman Costume
Review Wonder Woman costume change
Robot Eats Rubble, Excretes Bricks
San Jose considering plan to sell water system
DARPA BaTMAN & RoBIN projects
DC redesigns Superman in 1974
Interesting Stuff June 29, 2010
The Latest Employment Report: Construction Jobs Get Hammered
Math genius can solve a riddle but won’t accept a prize
New Wonder Woman Costume
Review Wonder Woman costume change
Robot Eats Rubble, Excretes Bricks
San Jose considering plan to sell water system
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Interesting Stuff July 2, 2009
6 More Great Train Stations Lost To The Wrecking Ball
Chicago to St. Louis on 220-m.p.h. trains
Colorado Legalizes Rainwater Harvesting - Sort Of
Congressman: Make Wall Street A**holes Foot The Bill For Infrastructure
Construction Spending Tumbles in May
House Passes Global Warming Bill
Interesting Stuff June 25, 2009
It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado
Mo. Sen. Bond calls river restoration plan “nuts”
Public Domain Soil & Water Assessment Tool
Stone age water well discovered in Cyprus
Summer Reading List With a Twist
Unveiled: First American-Made Streetcar In 60 Years
Walkman Turns 30, but Sony Struggles
Yanking Out Lawns Saves Water and Money (Maybe I should do this with my Missouri lawn.)
Chicago to St. Louis on 220-m.p.h. trains
Colorado Legalizes Rainwater Harvesting - Sort Of
Congressman: Make Wall Street A**holes Foot The Bill For Infrastructure
Construction Spending Tumbles in May
House Passes Global Warming Bill
Interesting Stuff June 25, 2009
It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado
Mo. Sen. Bond calls river restoration plan “nuts”
Public Domain Soil & Water Assessment Tool
Stone age water well discovered in Cyprus
Summer Reading List With a Twist
Unveiled: First American-Made Streetcar In 60 Years
Walkman Turns 30, but Sony Struggles
Yanking Out Lawns Saves Water and Money (Maybe I should do this with my Missouri lawn.)
Saturday, September 29, 2018
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
World War II
was a time when secrecy was often a necessary part of security. The secrecy surrounding the
development to of the atomic bomb was particularly thick. Since that veil was
lifted, Las Alamos, Nevada, has become strongly associated with
the bomb, as it should be. However, there were other locations critical to the
project. Denis Kiernan discusses one of them, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in her book The Girls of Atomic City.
The Clinton Engineer Works was part of the Manhattan Project. Its purpose was the enrichment of
uranium to supply the research, development and construction of an atomic
weapon. When it was built, the Army took over thousands of acres of farmland in Tennessee,
displacing the residents. Oak Ridge did not exist before the project.
As the title suggests,
Kiernan focuses on the role of women at the Clinton Engineer Works, as the area
was known when it was a military reservation. The book draws on her
interviews with women who worked at the site; the
experiences of nine particular women serve as guideposts for the story. These
women served in a variety of roles: statistician, chemist, inspector, equipment operator,
nurse, secretary, and janitor. Some became wives and mothers as well during the war years. It was
an interesting time when there was space for women in science, technology and manufacturing, but not a lot.
Kiernan reaches outside
of Oak Ridge to mention other notable women who played a part. German physicist Lise Meitner coined the term nuclear fission; she
had Jewish ancestors and fled to Sweden as the Nazis came to power in her homeland.
Earlier, Ida Noddack was the first to suggest that the
atomic nucleus could split, an idea that was initially rejected by many
scientists studying radioactivity and the inner workings of the atom.
The growth of families
in a place designed solely for one purpose suggested a result that had not been
considered when the Army started to build the Clinton Engineer Works. Oak Ridge
was becoming a community and it eventually became an incorporated city (in 1958 by a vote of the residents after federal and state laws opened the opportunity). Though the population dropped
dramatically from its war-time peak, Oak Ridge remained a center for research
in nuclear energy and the peace-time use of radioactive
materials as it transitioned to civilian control. Today the Oak Ridge National Laboratory continues research in energy and
computing. The city of Oak Ridge continues as well, still connected to its past
as a unique factory town, but in many way a city like any other.
If you’re interested in
this book, you may also be interested in
Kiernan, Denise. The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story
of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. 2013. New York Touchstone: 2014.
Monday, August 23, 2010
What's New August 23, 2010
10 Audio and Video Reviews Posted on Keenan’s Book Reviews
Alternative Fuels and Energy Resources Articles and Links (Updated)
Bill Watch—111th Congress (Updated)
Congressional Activity
First Stimulus Project to Begin Construction Opens
Government Accountability Office Watches Recovery Act Implementation
Interesting Stuff August 23, 2010
Little Shifts by Suzanna Beth Stinnet
The (Mostly) Walking Diet: A Book Review
Walk Away the Pounds by Leslie Sansone
What's New July 19, 2010
Alternative Fuels and Energy Resources Articles and Links (Updated)
Bill Watch—111th Congress (Updated)
Congressional Activity
First Stimulus Project to Begin Construction Opens
Government Accountability Office Watches Recovery Act Implementation
Interesting Stuff August 23, 2010
Little Shifts by Suzanna Beth Stinnet
The (Mostly) Walking Diet: A Book Review
Walk Away the Pounds by Leslie Sansone
What's New July 19, 2010
Monday, December 10, 2012
New & Interesting Stuff on Ada Lovelace's Birthday 2012
Monday, November 21, 2011
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
After 40 years of wondering, the Israelites are about to enter the land God promised to their forefathers. Their leader and prophet, Moses, won’t be entering with them because of his sin in the wilderness, God ordained that he would not go in. He appoints Joshua to lead the people.
This is the setting of Deuteronomy. The name means “repetition of the law” because Moses takes the opportunity to reiterate to this generation the history of Israel and the law God has given them. Much of the Deuteronomy is a reiteration of the laws found in the books that precede it.
The law, recorded by Moses in writing, was comprehensive. The ecclesiastical law covered religious ceremonies. Other laws dealt with crime and punishment, dealing with accidental deaths, sanitation, construction, safety, marriage, family, commerce, foreign affairs, war, property, inheritance, contracts and other issues of importance to a people who are to live together peaceably. It was not he first recorded law, and it contrasts with its antecedents in its relative humanity, value of life, and emphasis on God. The Israelites were to eradicate the inhabitants of the promised land, God had proclaimed it as a judgment for those nations’ wickedness, but otherwise they were to treat law-abiding foreigners who live among them with fairness, even generosity, which was rare in ancient times and certainly not what they were experiencing when they fled Egypt.
Deuteronomy is not necessarily boring or devoid of new material. It is full of hope and warnings for a nation that was finally coming into its own. God, speaking through Moses, foretold that the people would fall away from the law and that trouble would follow. He foretold that they would seek a king some 400 years before they put a crown on Saul’s high head. The coming of Christ was also predicted.
Moses also composed a song. It was intended to help the people to remember their God, their history, and the law. After teaching them the song, he blesses the tribes of Israel.
It seems sad that Moses, who led Israel out of Egypt and in the wilderness, and who was faithful in comparison to his fellows, would die before he could enter the promised land. God led him up on a mountain to see the whole land that another generation of Israelites, raised in the hardships of the wilderness and fed from God’s special provision, would take. With this vision in his eyes, alone with God on a mountain, he died.
Even at this moment of Moses’ death, we see a picture of God’s justice and mercy mingled. It was just that Moses should not enter the promised land. However, Moses had the unique privilege to have is body laid in a grave prepared by God Himself. The funeral may be the most sparsely attended in history, but the Almighty officiated.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Exodus
Genesis
Leviticus
Numbers
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After 40 years of wondering, the Israelites are about to enter the land God promised to their forefathers. Their leader and prophet, Moses, won’t be entering with them because of his sin in the wilderness, God ordained that he would not go in. He appoints Joshua to lead the people.
This is the setting of Deuteronomy. The name means “repetition of the law” because Moses takes the opportunity to reiterate to this generation the history of Israel and the law God has given them. Much of the Deuteronomy is a reiteration of the laws found in the books that precede it.
The law, recorded by Moses in writing, was comprehensive. The ecclesiastical law covered religious ceremonies. Other laws dealt with crime and punishment, dealing with accidental deaths, sanitation, construction, safety, marriage, family, commerce, foreign affairs, war, property, inheritance, contracts and other issues of importance to a people who are to live together peaceably. It was not he first recorded law, and it contrasts with its antecedents in its relative humanity, value of life, and emphasis on God. The Israelites were to eradicate the inhabitants of the promised land, God had proclaimed it as a judgment for those nations’ wickedness, but otherwise they were to treat law-abiding foreigners who live among them with fairness, even generosity, which was rare in ancient times and certainly not what they were experiencing when they fled Egypt.
Deuteronomy is not necessarily boring or devoid of new material. It is full of hope and warnings for a nation that was finally coming into its own. God, speaking through Moses, foretold that the people would fall away from the law and that trouble would follow. He foretold that they would seek a king some 400 years before they put a crown on Saul’s high head. The coming of Christ was also predicted.
Moses also composed a song. It was intended to help the people to remember their God, their history, and the law. After teaching them the song, he blesses the tribes of Israel.
It seems sad that Moses, who led Israel out of Egypt and in the wilderness, and who was faithful in comparison to his fellows, would die before he could enter the promised land. God led him up on a mountain to see the whole land that another generation of Israelites, raised in the hardships of the wilderness and fed from God’s special provision, would take. With this vision in his eyes, alone with God on a mountain, he died.
Even at this moment of Moses’ death, we see a picture of God’s justice and mercy mingled. It was just that Moses should not enter the promised land. However, Moses had the unique privilege to have is body laid in a grave prepared by God Himself. The funeral may be the most sparsely attended in history, but the Almighty officiated.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Exodus
Genesis
Leviticus
Numbers
Monday, September 2, 2013
London Under by Peter Ackroyd
London
is an ancient city. The Romans established
a settlement their a thousand years ago, but they weren’t the first inhabitants
of the valley. It sits on soil into which everything slowly sinks. Rivers that
brought life to the valley became choked with filth and were buried. The ground
under London is thick with history,
and the infrastructure
of a modern metropolis mingles with the remains of its ancestors. Peter Ackroyd
describes what is beneath the surface of that great city in London Under.
Ackroyd goes back to the earliest settlers of the area and the archeological
remains of their lives. Their holy places were overbuilt by Roman temples. The temples
dedicated to Roman gods were overbuilt by churches.
Old paths became Roman roads. The filth of
a city covered these roads and turned them back into dirt paths. Modern people
paved them anew with brick,
and later asphalt or concrete. It’s
all still there, though, one thing layered over the other, but often still
following the outlines ancient paths.
As you might expect from a man with who has worked with water,
some of my favorite chapters relate to the rivers and sewers.
London was built around rivers. As the population grew, these rivers became
open sewers, carrying away all manner of waste until they were too filthy and
stinking to bear. These rivers were enclosed and became underground sewers. As
the city grew, it overwhelmed the sewers and turned the Thames into a
stinking mess. Eventually it inconvenienced Parliament
enough that they engaged the problems seriously in the 19th
Century, putting in place interceptor sewers that carried the waste away
from the city. Many of the sewers that are now more than a century old are
still in use.
Another feature of London that fascinates my engineering side is the
Underground. The city has the oldest underground railway system.
The first lines are more than 150 years old. It was built in bits and pieces by
competing private companies, though now it is a unified system. The Underground
has become such a part of London life that a literature related to it has
developed. The tunnels
have been the settings of novels
and the inspiration for poems.
World
War II and the Cold War were
another significant phase of buried construction.
The British government
built many tunnels and bunkers to protect government resources threatened by war. During World
War II, so many people sought shelter in the Underground that the government
was forced to provide shelter space for people escaping the bombs.
Like any modern city, London now has an extensive underground
infrastructure. Pipelines carry drinking water, sewerage, electric and
telephone wires, fiber optic cables and all the other things that connect
people to services in their homes and workplaces. These important systems are hidden
underground, out of site and possibly too often out of mind, where their work
apparently does not disturb the sleeping remains of the many things that had
come before.
If you are interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Chief Engineer by Erica Wagner
Washington
Roebling spent 14 year of his life designing and building the Brooklyn Bridge. Though originally conceived by his
father, John A. Roebling, almost every aspect of the bridge
conceived of and constructed from 1869 until it opened in 1883 was from the imagination and under the supervision of
Washington Roebling, the chief engineer.
A lot has been written
about the bridge. In Chief Engineer, Erica Wagner provides a broader picture of
Roebling’s life from his youth to his productive old age.
Roebling grew up in Pennsylvania. His boyhood home was still on the
frontier of settlement even in the 1830s. His formally schooling was varied, and much of his education came from assisting his father in
bridge building. Though John Roebling was a successful engineer and businessman, and immigrant success story, he was abusive to his wife and children. Washington Roebling grew up to be a
man who could bear hardship, but he long resented the abuse he, his siblings and especially his mother suffered in his father’s house.
Engineering was not
Roebling’s only area of success. He joined Union forces during the Civil War.
Though he joined a private, his engineering experience won him an
appointment and an officer and he eventually rose to the rank of colonel. His
rise to the officer corps did not remove him from danger in that bloody war. Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg were just some of the battles he was
part of.
The war
was hard on his health, but good in other ways. It was
during those years that he met his wife Emily, sister of General G. K. Warren. Emily was a vigorous, capable person
who proved to be a great partner to her husband and successful on her own.
The war was not as hard
on Roebling’s health as hard as the Brooklyn Bridge would be. Roebling spent a
lot of time in the caissons as they sunk deeper, seeking firm
foundations for the bridge towers. Prolonged work in compressed air damaged his
health, possibly permanently. Though he remained in charge of the bridge, his
health prevented him from being at the bridge during much of its above ground
construction. Emily became his secretary and agent during this time. She was
involved to such a degree that rumors spread that she was the actual engineer.
There no support for the rumors that Emily was a designer of the bridge, but it
is fair to say that Roebling leaned on her and her ability to organize and
communicate with tact and she made important contributions to the success of
the bridge.
Roebling lived a long
life, surviving Emily, two of his younger brothers and even some of his nephews. Though he left an active role in the
wire company his father founded, he eventually took over management of the
company when his brothers who ran it, Ferdinand and Charles, and later their sons died. He seemed to relish the work and the challenge
well into his eighties.
If you’re interested in
this book, you may also be interested in
Wagner, Erica. Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling: The Man
Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017.
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