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Welcome to the Norwich Engineering Society, an active forum dedicated to fostering the exchange of ideas and experiences among all those passionate about engineering — past, present, and future.
For over a century, we have focused on the people behind groundbreaking innovations and their visionary concepts. Our mission is to enlighten, support, and develop our members in Norfolk and beyond. We achieve this through unique engagements, dynamic events, informative seminars, and insightful publications.
By championing the diverse disciplines within engineering, we ensure its continued evolution and relevance in an ever-changing world.
Donard opened his talk with an introduction to the basic electrochemical processes involved in the chemistry of batteries. He explained the basic electron exchanges processes of the REDOX reaction. He then discussed real practical batteries such as the Daniell Cell and the lead acid battery; some being safer to use than others owing to the nature of the chemicals involved.
Donard then moved on to describing the railway line that ran very close to where was born and brought up; the Bray to Dublin line. He did this because it was on this line that one of the first battery powered trains ran successfully between the wars in the 1930s. One of the major reasons was that after the Great War Eire was awash with cheap electricity because of the success of the River Shannon hydro- electric scheme and the Eirean government was looking for useful applications of electricity to use capacity. Some thought was given to electrifying the Irish Railway national system but they baulked at the apparently excessive capital costs of either the overhead supplies or that of the third rail systems.
As it happens a certain Dr Drumm, an Irish physical chemist had been investigating the chemistry of electrochemical batteries in Dublin. He had discovered that if Zinc was used instead of Fe in an Edison cell much faster charging and discharging rates could be achieved and what is more were much safer to use because of the less corrosive chemicals involved. Indeed Dr Drumm realised that the discharge rates were such as to provide currents big enough to drive powerful electric motors; sufficiently powerful enough to drive railway carriages. Indeed his work came to the attention of the Irish Railways board who commissioned several electric railcars based on his battery technology to run on the Bray to Dublin railway.
This line was chosen as the Drumm battery was very efficient and could contain enough energy to run the full length of the line under all weather conditions with only a partial recharge needed at each terminal. Because of the rapid recharge rate of this type of battery this could be achieved in a matter of a few minutes. This system ran successfully from the early 1930s to the beginning of the WWII. Difficulties then arose because of the availability and cost of both Zn and Ni particularly Ni which was in much demand as a strategic material. Because of this and a policy decision of the wartime Irish railways to unify on burnt oil steam power the Drumm trains were sidelined and eventually scrapped.
William Antony, an NES Member, opened his talk by indicating how his background had allowed him to become the CEO of a business in France producing natural fibre (flax based) components for the automotive industry in France and Spain. Bill was a engineer by training and had some experience of automotive engineering. He was contacted unexpectedly by an old friend who was experimenting with producing natural fibre products. It turns out that this friend had received a large order almost out of the blue from a French Automotive company for a large number of natural fibre components. Given the size of the order there was no way that this order could be delivered in the time required. He had contacted Bill for advice.
Bill soon determined why the French Company had contacted his colleague; it turned out that a factory in France was potentially going to close through financial problems. Bill and colleague decided to go to France to look at the factory and see if it could be saved. After a short investigation they determined that it could be. It turned out that the local French Government were only willing, on the basis of maintaining employment, to put some financial assistance into the enterprise. The factory was well equipped with state of the art equipment and was more than capable of fulfilling the basic fibre material to meet the orders needs. So , after a short negotiation period. the factory was acquired for a £1 together with a large amount of stock at about 20% of market value. After some minor tweaks with production methods the factory was soon put on a sound financial basis.
Bill said, it was during this early set up period, that he became fascinated with the idea that natural fibrous materials, such as flax stalks, could be bonded together with appropriate naturally based glues and cured into 3D shapes that could be used in the automotive business. Particularly as they were stronger and somewhat lighter than the equivalent metallic or even plastic equivalents, especially as they much less susceptible to corrosion.
Because of the way the way the tubes, constituting flax stems, had evolved to resisted the effects of wind, sun and rain, Bill explained that they could be cut unto short lengths then mixed up and compressed together into strongly bonded structures which could be held into position by organic adhesives. The basic factory output was in the form of flat sheets. These sheets were then used by an automotive manufacturer to be formed into an a desired form by a combination of moulds and thermal curing. Bill concluded with the thought that nature had already come up with the solutions to many engineering problems; it was just a matter of determining the correct one for a given problem.
NES Honorary Member and Past President Tony Meacock started his talk with an anecdote about when he and his wife went on a hot air balloon and how he decided he would delve deeper into how they worked. An almost contemporaneous visit to the Pennoyer Centre Airship Museum at the local village of Pulham St Mary, started him off into the history and modern development of airships. Pulham St Mary was one of the major homes to Royal Navy airships of WW1 due to its relative proximity to the North Sea. From the end of that conflict to the early 1930s it became the home of airship development in the UK.
Historically, as Tony mentioned, hot air balloons were developed first. The earliest examples known so far come from China from about 280 AD. These craft were used in military signalling but did not have enough lifting power to carry humans. The first known human lifting hot air devices were those developed by the Montgolfier brothers in the late 18th century France. The problem with all balloons whether hot air or gas filled is that their direction of travel is to a large extent governed by the prevailing wind. Of much more interest is the class of devices called dirigibles-lifting devices that can be steered. These came to the fore at the end of the 19th century with a lot of the early work being carried out by Zeppelin in Bavaria in Germany. As Tony explained he managed to build a very light weight structure that was approximately ellipsoidal in shape that supported hydrogen filled gas bags. To get directed motion he developed lightweight petrol engines that drove propellers that gave the device thrust in the direction of the major axis. Steerage was obtained using rudders.
Tony spent the rest of the talk examining the trials and tribulations associated with airship design; what gas to use, what materials are needed to contain the gas. What power units to use. The story he told about choice of gas is interesting in that hydrogen is superficially the obvious one. It is relatively cheap to use but is difficult to contain and is chemically very active; the history of airship is littered with hydrogen fire accidents. The most notorious being the Hindenberg fire in New York in 1937. This put a virtual stop to the use of hydrogen as a lifting gas. The next most practical gas is Helium. This also has its problems such as availability and 8% less effective as a lifting agent.
As explained by Bill Anthony in his opening remarks the talk was going to be split into two halves. The first part would be about the Greenpower Challenge and how both Town Close School and Langley School became involved. The second part, to be given by Denis Coltman, will describe how Langley School entered the competition and outline how their F24 car evolved to the successful vehicle that it has become.
Bill described how the Greenpower Charity grew from a realisation that youngsters of all ages and gender could be encouraged into engineering by a challenge that they could appreciate but was not beyond their technical capabilities. At the time it was realised that most youngsters were aware that electrical energy was vital for the future and that it was becoming important in transportation and that most youngsters were competitive. Thus the general Challenge which is to see who could build an electrically driven vehicle that could go the furthest for a given amount of electrical energy in a fixed time. As Bill stated absolutely classical STEM territory if correctly set up.
To keep matters under control it was decided that all teams should have identical batteries, motors and a basic safety structure. Outside this the teams can do what ever the like to improve performance, Importantly the students must be deeply involved in decision making and hands on skills as well as be the sole source of vehicle drivers. To cope with the wide school age range Greenpower actually set out three vehicle types; Goblin, F24 and F24+ with different constraints. Bill stressed that this talk concentrates on the F24 age range (11-16).
Dennis then described how his team at Langley went about developing their vehicle. In the early days they realised that friction both rolling and air drag were important features. They also learnt that battery charging history was vital and that batteries were very temperature sensitive in their efficiency. A lot of effort was put into designing and constructing lightweight streamlining and minimising wheel drag. Dennis was amazed at the enthusiasm that all members of his team showed and the skills they learnt. Dennis illustrated his section with many examples of where significant improvements were made to vehicle performance and how the team had contributed ideas.