Jubilee Cerebralation

I wonder if Her Majesty the Queen sat on the throne as the morning of her Diamond Jubilee approached and pondered the mental capacity of her governments, both past and present; I know I did.  She of all people will have realized that just because someone has had a privileged upbringing it doesn`t naturally follow that they are clever.  With all due respect, she only has to look to her own progeny to see that although public school and university can fill a head with facts, it`s the capacity of the brain to manage, interpret and apply them that`s important – that rare ability to assess and come to the right conclusions, and then make sound decisions.  I suppose we must be grateful that her lot can`t do any real damage. But the same can`t be said for some non-royals, where the superiority engendered by public school combined with knowledge and limited cerebral capacity can be such a dangerous cocktail. And if she was thinking along those lines, she will have had little choice but to be reminded of all those Prime Ministers that have kneeled before her.

Didn`t they realize, Her Majesty will have asked herself, just as I did,  that economic weakness continuing over decades must have a root cause. And if they couldn't get their heads round that simple fact, how in the name of the future king are they going to deal with the number of other important problems the country has to face.

The Queen was no doubt thinking, as I still do, that countries that do really well, all round, are those maximising their resources.  Australia mines precious metal, sheikdoms in the Middle East drill for oil - and Germany retains a skilled manufacturing base. When Prime Minister Blair was planning to solve this country’s problems by sending 50% of all school leavers to university, Germany was sending 67% of theirs into apprenticeships.  While we allowed Foden and ERF to be sold abroad, losing control of the future of hundreds of jobs, BMW were deciding on how British workers would fit into the German economy. (The same deliberation TATA now has to make on behalf of India.) By not being totally reliant on one particular area of business, the Germans have maintained and spread their assets, and survived the better for it.

Our eggs, The Queen will have lamented, as I have on so many occasions, all seem to be in one basket, our resourse of established industries supported by a skilled workforce ignored. In her reign she will have seen British companies using British made machinery build large parts of the world that we know today.  She will have seen roads filled with British vehicles of all descriptions and she will have seen a significant part of the workforce occupied in manufacture.  Now, only 15% of business in the UK is in manufacturing; we are almost totally reliant on the service and financial sectors. The result of successive governments following the free market principle of natural selection is that we have had to spend billions of pounds of public money bailing out banks in order to save our constrained economy. This last ditch measure is the result of years of poor thinking and mismanagement - similar measures taken years ago with the manufacturing sector would have saved this country at least some of the pain it`s going through at the moment. While millions in the UK remain in poor employment and vast numbers of young people exist without the hope of a future let alone training, the banks, because they`re all we`ve got left, attempt to increase their reserves.  And as we pay for benefits and bail-outs, the rising economies in the East hunger for the produce of manufacturing: the machines and merchandise needed to build a modern infrastructure.    

We are not pleased, I hear Her Majesty say, speaking for the two of us, and demand better governance by truly clever and capable people. We demand a policy on business, not just a short term strategy.  We demand a larger manufacturing sector with appropriate skills training.  We demand long term, full employment. 

I waved my Union Flag on the Sunday of the Queen's Jubilee parade, watching a procession of the country`s elite escorted by German built police cars and motorcycles. But I didn`t wave it for them, not any of them.  Well, except one.  

Horse

It wasn`t my first truck, and it certainly wasn`t one I would have naturally chosen – it just sort of came along. I had been running an ERF up until then but things between us were getting a bit tense to say the least. Basically the old girl was under powered - not a crime in itself, especially when refuelling, but annoying in the long term - and she had let me down on more than a couple of occasions, which was, I forced myself to admit, unforgivable.  I have always accepted the diesel ingrained in my skin (a situation dating back long before barrier cream and then latex gloves became compulsory), in fact, at one time, I wore those black, ingrained fingernails with a certain amount of pride.  However, that particular ERF tested my apathy towards dermatitis to the limit.  We had spent a lot of time together: all those sunny days and open roads; misty mornings and muddy lorry parks.  I loved the feel of her.  I loved sensing her engine power as the revs climbed and fell every time we accelerated away from traffic lights or when we climbed a hill.  I loved the touch of the non-syncronised gearbox, the way each ratio fell into place at end of that long lever - and the satisfaction of getting gearchanges right.  There`s nothing like driving a loaded artic, especially one you feel connected to in such a way.  Every vibration, every change in road surface and engine note, sent a sensation of raw oneness between me and my machine.  What she felt, I felt and it was great to have such attachment and control.  And every night I would check her over, making sure nothing needed tending to before the following day – bedding her down, I used to call it. Over the years, and like this, we`d wound our way North and South, East and West.  Then, as if it had crept up on me without warning, I came to realize she`d become tired and was no longer up to the job.  

So there it was that remarkable new truck.  Air assisted throttle, gear change, clutch – everything.  Synchromesh gearbox with 16 ratios, power assisted steering and, unusually for that time, a big and comfortable sleeper cab.  I had never seen anything like it, and had certainly never even considered one before.  It was my first Volvo, bought after a chance encounter, and it became the first of many.  The trucks were quite simply the right tool for job.  Driving became less tiring, less painful and, I suppose, less challenging.  It was easier and in a world of increasing legislation and traffic, it helped.

After that I`d almost completely given up on British machinery.  Although I ran a Ford van there was little else British built to choose from, both on four wheels or two. Triumph and Norton motorcycles were all but dead with only a few diehards buying what was left coming from the factories.  By the mid eighties I was riding a BMW, a flying brick; unbreakable, solid reliability that carried me for miles.  The bike was equipped with factory built luggage, a smooth, four cylinder engine, and controls so brightly coloured they looked like something out of a sweet jar. But it worked. It was easy to use and I loaded it, rode it, serviced it occasionally and hardly ever checked anything, apart from the tyres (on any motorcycle, you`re a fool if you don`t).  Shaft driven and bullet proof, it offered soulless reliability.

In 1987 I took it to Spain, crossing on the ferry from Plymouth to Santander, and then rode back across France to Cherbourg. Through the Pyrenees the BMW performed faultlessly.  Nothing phased it.  Rain one day covered the whole lot, me included, with a pasty yellow mulch thrown up from the road.  I jet washed the BMW off at a B&B that night and never gave it a second thought, or a dose of WD40.  In the intense heat of the lower levels, I suffered; the motorcycle didn`t. For me, that motorcycle and my Volvo truck heralded a new age of disconnected technology – they did their thing, I did mine.

In the Pyrenees I stopped one night in a small village I came across nestling in the rock and scrub of the mountains.  Cottages, shops and bars ran down each side of the road and I could see huts jotted about in the hills above.  A small stream ran along one side of the road.  I booked into a B&B and went into an adjoining restaurant for a meal.  No one spoke English and to my shame I spoke little Spanish, so everything was done with the universal sign language of hunger and thirst.  The food was apparently locally sourced, so it was meat and no vegetables - and a beer. When I had finished and I went to the counter to pay, a hairy individual, probably of similar age to myself, and not dissimilar in appearance, turned to me and in the recognizable accent of an Englishman said, “Is that your machine out there?”  And it was those few words that started a bar crawl.

He had gone out there in the 60s, when free love and flower power were `in` and the cool thing to do was to `drop-out` in sunnier climes like San Francisco – and Spain.  Post Second World War Britain was captivated by the memory of war, which became associated by the next generation with the establishment, restriction, discipline and duty.  Traditional values were rejected and a contrasting ideology emerged of colour, love and personal freedom; a revolt was almost inevitable. We walked from bar to bar as he told me how he lived in a hut in the hills with no electricity or running water.  Everywhere we went he was greeted like the old eccentric he probably was, and at each bar we drank a thick red wine, because, he said, it was cheap.

In one place the elderly matriarch of an owner took a special, and on first appearance, disapproving interest in him.  When I asked about what she was saying, he told me it was just fuss about his drinking and concern that he should look after himself better.  She had known him since he first arrived, all those years before, in that small village, the place he`d not moved from since. His lifestyle obviously hadn`t changed despite his age, although the ideology, I felt, was long forgotten: drink, odd jobs and his little shack on the hill seemed to be a cruel destiny for one who must have had such a clear dream.  The rest of the village had moved on with the world.  The villagers dressed fashionably, casually; they travelled outside the area to work. I looked closely and saw that almost every one of those road side cottages had a satellite dish on the roof. When I left him to return to my accommodation, my new friend staggered off alone; the rats in the sewers couldn`t have looked more dishevelled – or less miserable.

My current motorcycle was not one I had thought I wanted.  I`d been looking for something a bit different, and then found it.  Touring motorcycles had become cumbersome, over stacked with delicate looking fairings and luggage. I wanted something capable of racking up the miles but also one that could cope with the rough and unexpected tracks of Spain and beyond.  And one I could ride on those days I wasn't out working the Volvo.  I looked, inevitably, at BMW GS adventure motorcycles but they were bulky and dated.  Then I came across a Triumph dealership and went in to browse.  I walked out with a receipt for a Triumph Explorer.

I love the way she pulls instantly, something to do with the ride-by-wire technology, as well as the torque developed by her 3-cylinder, 1215cc engine. Switchable ABS, traction control and cruise control make her a joy to ride, while giving me a certain amount of control – and a feeling of security.  Virtually maintenance free shaft drive, a higher performing generator for those electronics, and off road capability; she`s a beauty. I wash her and get the polish and WD40 out, not always because I have to but because I want to. It beds her down for the night.   

Building a Scania R500 - Part 6. Tyres

I`m building a Scania R500 - from a 1:24 scale kit produced by ITALERI. 

I`ll be looking at aspects of truck construction as I go along, hopefully highlighting some basic truck technology.  It`s easy to think that modern vehicles bear no resemblance to those of the past, but that`s not true.  Suspension and steering; engine, transmission and final drive; and tyres are all there to maximise the laws of physics, and have retained the same configuration since diesel replaced steam.  Cost and natural performance limits have meant that the chassis abandoned long ago in car design is still used in truck manufacture.   Yes, your truck is computer controlled and a modern marvel;  but so is the modern cruise liner - which is still a Titanic underneath.

Building a Scania V8 R500 Part 6 - Wheels and Tyres

Tyres are probably the most important component of any vehicle.  As strange as it may seem, like all that electronic wizardry, tyres are complicated bits of engineering. They also comprise a number of different materials.  All the digital technology and hardware that`s now a part of any truck, works on small patches of rubber in contact with the ground. 

Tyres will have a number of different rubber (elastomer) compounds and, maybe, rayon or nylon used for the ply, as well as steel cords. With tyres, the critical points are:

• Most modern trucks use tubeless, radial tyres fitted to one piece wheels
• Two or three piece wheels are usually used with stiff, cross-ply tyres for ease of fitting. (These wheels are found on military trucks used in the field or those operated in remote areas where tyre fitting has to be done by the vehicle's crew.) Wheels split in this way need inner tubes
• correct pressure is very important - heat destroys tyres, and it has to be created.  In short, low pressure shortens a tyre`s life and uses fuel
• correct fitting and balance ensures correct service life. 
• cross-ply construction is not shown on a side wall.  Radials are marked R or radial (bias-belted, B or bias) 
• Inflate a newly fitted tyre in a cage or a van - tyre fragmentation at 140psi can kill
• bits of tyre on the hard shoulder of a motorway are not necessarily from remoulds, they will probably be from a poorly maintained tyre that`s got too hot 
• Aspect ratio or profile is used to alter a tyres performance.  There are disadvantages to low profile tyres but the advantages are many.  These include: load bearing, handling and weight.

Wheels fitted to most modern trucks are one piece construction and dished between the rims (wells).  The dish shape ensures that tyres can be fitted, i.e. one bead is dropped into the well, allowing the tyre`s other bead to be brought across the wheel rim.  In the past, with very stiff cross-ply tyres, two or three piece wheels had to be used.  Some special applications still use split rims or two piece wheels for ease of fitting.  However, these are usually on vehicles used out of the range of a professional tyre fitter.

Radial ply tyres are found on all road vehicles these days - even motorcycles and trucks, where cross-ply tyres or bis-belted tyres were once used.  Radial ply is at 90 degrees to the bead (straight across inside the tyre`s rubber) and runs cooler than cross-ply construction.  Heat uses more energy, so creates higher rolling resistance, and destroys tyres.  Radials last longer and use less fuel.  They are not as tough as cross-ply tyres, so are not always used on heavy duty/rough terrain applications.  Radials handle most dynamic forces better. 

Side wall markings include size information in metric and imperial.  This radial (R) tyre has 22.5 inch wheel. Lower aspect ratios have many advantages including better handling but they also reduce the suspension effect of the tyre.  With trucks they are sometimes used simply to lower the overall height of the vehicle. Other side wall markings may include European load index numbers and speed index letters.  US weights are also shown on some tyres.  A DOT stream of numbers relates construction and ends with a number that indicates the tyre`s age. E.g.  2012 means the tyre was made in the 20th week of 2012.

Aspect ratio (profile) is a very important part of a tyre`s characteristics.  Care should be taken to match tyre sizes properly as increased stress can be induced in incorrectly paired units.  When radials replaced cross ply tyres, the advantages were similar to those now offered by lowering profile.

Aspect ratio is a simple calculation

Next:  Part 7 -  Brakes

Stopping

I read a magazine article this week where a journalist attacked the stopping distances quoted in the Highway Code.  Modern braking systems and tyre compounds, he claimed, have shortened the distances in which we can bring our vehicles to a halt.  The whole thing, he seemed to be suggesting, was so out of date it was next to useless.

Yes, I thought, braking distances for some vehicles may have shortened, but the overall picture is not quite that simple.  The Highway Code may be old in detail but the general message still holds true.  Here`s why.

The Highway Code uses a short reaction time (0.7 seconds). 

The distance a vehicle will travel while the driver reacts lengthens as reaction time increases.  Most drivers take a little longer, in fact on a motorway reaction times can reach 1.5 to 2 seconds. 1 second is considered a reasonable representation, but by no means average.  Coefficients of friction between the tyres and the road have increased with modern compounds and construction.  The Highway Code uses 0.65, which is no longer typical for most cars - they can now exceed 0.8. Many trucks and buses, however, still have tyres that only achieve about 0.65. 

A speed of 30mph is used for the calculations above. The deceleration rate and reaction time calculated is the same for all speeds quoted in the Highway Code.  The figures for s, reaction distance of 9 metres and braking distance of 14 metres, are taken from the code.



The Highway Code stopping distances compared with those representing greater tyre friction coefficients and increased reaction times.  

The end result is similar stopping distances.  It should be noted that impacts that occur at the same point along these distances will vary in speed between the two sets of graphs (e.g. at 50mph, the Highway Code figures show the vehicle braking before 20m has been covered. With a longer reaction time, the driver doesn`t start braking until after 20m).  The dotted line on the Highway Code graph illustrates the squared relationship between energy (work) and speed. The braking distance (red) at 60mph is about 4 times that of 30mph, despite the speed being only doubled. 



Building a Scania V8 R500 - Part 5. Drive

I`m building a Scania R500 - from a 1:24 scale kit produced by ITALERI.

I`ll be looking at aspects of truck construction as I go along, hopefully highlighting some basic truck technology.  It`s easy to think that modern vehicles bear no resemblance to those of the past, but that`s not true.  Suspension and steering; engine, transmission and final drive; and tyres are all there to maximise the laws of physics, and have retained the same configuration since diesel replaced steam.  Cost and natural performance limits have meant that the chassis abandoned long ago in car design is still used in truck manufacture.   Yes, your truck is computer controlled and a modern marvel;  but so is the modern cruise liner - which is still a Titanic underneath.

Building a Scania V8 R500 Part 5 - Driveline

All vehicles use diesel (DERV - diesel engine road vehicle) power.  Modern engines utilize extremely high, common rail fuel systems, where injectors are opened electronically - as opposed to the older, lower pressure systems that used fuel pressure created by the injection pump to open injectors.  Exhaust gas driven turbos, used to increase are mass in the combustion chambers, are common.

All gearboxes are conventional, synchronized, manual types but many have automated clutches.  Manual boxes are often 4-speed with additional input and out put ratios (range-change and splitters).

After the gearbox, the driveline comprises: universal (Hooke`s) joints; splined joints; differential; half-shafts:

Prop-shaft has a universal joint (UJ) at each end.  And a splined joint somewhere along its length

Looking at the UJ at the back of the gearbox.

The centre of the UJ, the centre cross.  The joint is based on this small component.  UJs are needed to allow for change in direction of the prop-shaft.  A UJ is not, however, a constant velocity joint. 

The prop-shaft angle will change as suspension deflects, so its effective length will change in addition to its angle.  A splined joint allows for this extension.

The `diff`is the housing that contains the final drive crown wheel and pinion gear as well as a differential.  Differentials are necessary because the rear, driven wheels will not always run at the same speed (when the vehicle is cornering). Bevel gears rotate in the spider attached to the crown wheel.  Half shafts are splined into the spider.  If one half-shaft slows compared to the other, torque is transferred to the other shaft, via the bevel gears.

Next  Part 6 - wheels and tyres

Wave Goodbye

If there`s one thing that should make even the most ardent atheist reconsider their position, it`s quantum physics.  How can something so remarkable and inconsistent with our every day experience not be the work of a higher being? Quantum physics is not some abstract theory  despite being concerned with particles so minute we can only observe them through special microscopes  - quantum physics is about everything.  What it says is that the very building blocks of our world, the atoms that all things are made of, are themselves constructed from particles that we are not allowed to fully understand.  And there is not a scientist living or dead that really knows or knew why this is the case.

Electrons are just one particle in the structure of an atom and a comparatively small part at that.  Apparently, they whizz around outside the atom`s nucleus in what is mainly empty space.  I read once that in a scaled up version, an electron would be a speck of dust in the dome St Pauls while the nucleus would be a pea suspended in the middle (well, it was something like that; I`m sure you get the picture). The important thing is that with electrons, as with other sub-atomic particles, you cannot know where they are at any instant in time if you also want to know their direction and speed. You can have either one or the other, but not both.  There are rules it seems about just how much we are allowed to know of our existence.

What we do know is that electrons can behave like both waves and particles but have the absolute properties of neither.  Experiments have shown that they can exhibit wave behaviour but then change to that of a particle when an attempt is made to observe them.  Waves create distribution patterns that show constructive and destructive lines.  Imagine two small openings in a harbour breakwater.  Waves crashing through them fan out in the harbour and the peaks and troughs from one set meet the peaks and troughs from the other.  The peaks that come together create very high peaks and the troughs that meet peaks cancel each other out, resulting in flat water. When this `interference` pattern reaches the harbour`s inner wall the super high peaks splash violently up against it, but at intervals and spacing along the wall dictated by the wavelength and amplitude that has been formed.  It would be the same with light waves passing through two slits cut in a piece of card and shining on a screen behind.       

Remarkably, sub atomic particles will behave in the same way but with a surprising result when any attempt is made to look at their movement in detail.  Scientists have fired electrons at the slits and found a wave pattern, but when they tried to discover through which slit each electron had passed, the behaviour reverted to what you would expect from particles – that similar to firing bullets through slits and where no interference pattern is formed.  Even single electrons, fired at the slits undetected, create interference wave patterns. The totally unintuitive conclusion is that, when we are not trying to peek at them, each particle must be considered to be passing through both slits at the same time, and only predictions based on statistical information can be used to estimate their position, direction and speed.  The material of the universe, it turns out, is not constructed in quite the way we once thought.  There are many theories emerging from this discovery, not least the uncertainty principle and its implications for probability.

Up until the discovery of the quantum nature of matter, physical systems were considered deterministic – everything could be predicted or retrodicted.  Probability was associated with error margin and precision; a normal consideration when accuracy was discussed. As we know it, any variation in precision is caused by the quality of the available data – error is often considered a manmade limiting factor.  Quantum theory, though, says that probability is a natural phenomenon and that there is no alternative to its implications.  With quantum physics a particle can be in more than one position until some effort is made to see it; then it becomes real, well in our interpretation of the word.  A famous thought experiment put forward the notion that a cat in a box with a phial of poison could be both alive and dead until the box was opened to reveal whether the phial had broken or not. 

The proposition of the multiverse has since emerged: multiple universes all existing together, each resulting from the many alternative paths suggested by quantum theory. As philosophy seeks to explain our experiences, so physics describes the world that shapes them.  Looking at the past and into the future there are many alternative possibilities of reality; personal consequences following on from physical effect. In the end, only this instant, `the now`, may be true and everything else merely a range of potential states of being. Isn`t it true that our memory is never as black and white as we imagine and history is merely a collection of recollections that together produce a likely account? The image of the past may seem clear but that doesn`t mean it`s accurate.  What is looming on the horizon can often be predicted with some level of certainty but it can never be guaranteed; the expected, sometimes obvious, is not always the result.  In what may seem like a wave of happenings, life flowing from one second to the next, there may be a number of alternatives to our individual perceptions.  Don`t be fooled by the apparent clarity of your assumptions or apply unwarranted colour to your expectations; in the mechanics of all things, certainty does not exist.

Beauty is in the 'I' of the beholder

The Daily Mail journalist Samantha Brick`s claim that her beauty makes life difficult, not least because other women become so jealous they end up disliking her, created an enormous amount of vitriol - and interest.  Some questioned how a woman who doesn`t appear to be anything special could have the arrogance to imagine herself beautiful.  Others thought such delusion must be the result of subconscious low self esteem. When the initial furore had subsided, the debate continued with many people agreeing that exceptional physical attractiveness was not always easy to live with, and that some women felt threatened by those who were beautiful.  Brick`s comment certainly made us look closely at the subject of appearance.

The whole affair has exposed our fascination with all things we judge to be good looking, and highlighted something about jealousy that means this is not about Samantha Brick: it`s about us, and when we look at another person we are simply making comparisons with ourselves. If someone does everything within their power to be physically more attractive, all that results is that others look in the mirror more closely. Money on clothing, cosmetics and hair styling is spent so others can ponder their own worth and significance.

We are surrounded by items of beauty that provoke similar emotion.  I`ve often thought that by buying an expensive new car I am simply providing a moving display for others to fantasize over.  They are not going to look at me, sitting there behind the wheel, and think, I am pleased for him, but instead imagine themselves behind the wheel, and what it would be like to own such a car.  All I get in return for my money is a view of the dashboard – and one dash looks very much like any other, believe me.  The real beauty will be appreciated by those outside, looking on.

Truck designers place great emphasis on the image their vehicles present to the world.  And although they use basic symmetry to achieve the looks we find most attractive in people, there`s a lot more going on. Just like fashion can dictate hair styling, the use of facial studs and other adornments, truck appearances change to reflect contemporary attitudes.  In the modern world of full control, where every second of the day has to be accounted for and everything is expected to work to maximum effect, every moment presents a challenge.   

With so many demands and so much complexity, the reaction is obvious: everyone`s on the attack.  We mirror confrontation and become confrontational ourselves. All around this attitude is interpreted as normal, the natural consequence of our new systems.  You can see it in Scania`s R800 and its twin, the new Actros. The word in truck design at the moment seems to be `aggressive`, a physical representation of the new order.  These are the machines of the digital age; a compilation of discrete shapes coming together to complete a task, like the computers that run them. It would be a brave creation that went against such a trend; anything outside the current vogue for confrontation would surely be seen as unattractive.  We want to see something in the trucks appearance that we imagine we need to see in ourselves.

Samantha Brick need not worry about the reactions of others to her looks. It`s not her they are worried about, it`s themselves.  But if she is still concerned, she can always create an image for herself that no one else would find desirable.  Reflect something no one would wish to see in the mirror. Even if natural beauty is used as a base to build on, cosmetic changes are easily achieved.  If the current thing is long blonde hair and business suits, she could cut her hair, dye it black and wear an afghan coat.  But even then it`ll probably all be a waste of time and money, and she would be better off staying as she is.   She`ll soon be replaced in the “I” of others.