Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Cheam design workshop
Pondering on why some of the drain covers on Howell Hill block and some don't - our now moving into the blocking time of year - I have found my true vocation as a drain cover designer.
Firstly we have design objectives: maximum steady load, maximum impact load, maximum aperture (of the sort that can take bicycle wheels. Some years ago a friend of an acquaintance of mine was killed cycling in London when he put his front wheel in a cover, stopped dead and was hit by a lorry). Secondly we have the design of the grid. How many primary bars should there be? At what angle should they have to the intended direction of traffic? 45% seems to be the popular view. At what angle should the bars be to the vertical? Should they be curved or straight? 45% and strongly curved seems to be the popular view. How big should the sump be? The bigger the sump the less often one has to empty it but the higher the installation cost. How deep can the cover be? How much steel can one afford to put into the thing (domestic drain covers having gone very weedy and thin over the years)? In the round, I put my money on the three or four primary bars, 45% to traffic, 45% to vertical and strongly curved variety for non blocking. They also seem to be the most common on this stretch of road. Solid looking things. I imagine it would take a very serious impact to impact.
Various other Cheam events to report. An open lorry piled high with wheel barrows. Nothing particularly strange about a lorry delivering wheel barrows but I have never seen such a thing before. Not seen anything like it since the tanker lorry full of marmite passed me on the way to Warrington. And then there was the van from Movenpick. They had gone off my radar since their large restaurant underneath Bressenden Place shut a few years ago. Judging by the van they must have some sort of local delivery operation going on. No doubt Google would reveal all. Last but not least was the Hystar speculative housing development - maybe a dozen units - at the top of East Street, construction on which appears to have ground to a halt, although the site is not completely shut up. Was Mr Hystar speculating on the basis of a short term loan which he has not been able to renew? So all his roofers have left pending payment?
Was quite impressed by the queue outside Northern Rock in Kingston yesterday, which we happened to pass on the way to Oxfam. But a little cross that speculators have made a lot of money out of Northern Rock misery by selling short (or long. Whichever way round betting on the share price falling is). Hard to see how we can stop such things in a market economy but one doesn't have to like the people who get rich at it. Maybe we could take a leaf out of the book of the people in the 18th century who wanted to ban gambling and thought that the answer was to make gambling debts unenforceable in law (leaving a nice hole for the Krays of the day to climb into). We could make any deal in securities which did not take place on the spot at the prevailing price unenforceable. But apart from closing down legitimate futures operations there would no doubt be plenty of room for manoeuvre at the margin - no way to tie down exactly what it is one is trying to do in words of one syllable - so lots of fat fees for the advisors and their hangers on for little real gain. Maybe BBB will earn their crusts for once and think of something.
Consumed the first two Blenheim Oranges yesterday. The first was half rotten and the half that was not was in good condition. Something like a russet, but without the mealiness one gets with winter eating russets. The second was more or less sound (barring small livestock in the core) but was not very ripe. Eatable but chickened out half way through and cooked the remainder. Slightly too much but still a bit differant from your Bramleys. Or was that wishful tasting? Must try again.
Firstly we have design objectives: maximum steady load, maximum impact load, maximum aperture (of the sort that can take bicycle wheels. Some years ago a friend of an acquaintance of mine was killed cycling in London when he put his front wheel in a cover, stopped dead and was hit by a lorry). Secondly we have the design of the grid. How many primary bars should there be? At what angle should they have to the intended direction of traffic? 45% seems to be the popular view. At what angle should the bars be to the vertical? Should they be curved or straight? 45% and strongly curved seems to be the popular view. How big should the sump be? The bigger the sump the less often one has to empty it but the higher the installation cost. How deep can the cover be? How much steel can one afford to put into the thing (domestic drain covers having gone very weedy and thin over the years)? In the round, I put my money on the three or four primary bars, 45% to traffic, 45% to vertical and strongly curved variety for non blocking. They also seem to be the most common on this stretch of road. Solid looking things. I imagine it would take a very serious impact to impact.
Various other Cheam events to report. An open lorry piled high with wheel barrows. Nothing particularly strange about a lorry delivering wheel barrows but I have never seen such a thing before. Not seen anything like it since the tanker lorry full of marmite passed me on the way to Warrington. And then there was the van from Movenpick. They had gone off my radar since their large restaurant underneath Bressenden Place shut a few years ago. Judging by the van they must have some sort of local delivery operation going on. No doubt Google would reveal all. Last but not least was the Hystar speculative housing development - maybe a dozen units - at the top of East Street, construction on which appears to have ground to a halt, although the site is not completely shut up. Was Mr Hystar speculating on the basis of a short term loan which he has not been able to renew? So all his roofers have left pending payment?
Was quite impressed by the queue outside Northern Rock in Kingston yesterday, which we happened to pass on the way to Oxfam. But a little cross that speculators have made a lot of money out of Northern Rock misery by selling short (or long. Whichever way round betting on the share price falling is). Hard to see how we can stop such things in a market economy but one doesn't have to like the people who get rich at it. Maybe we could take a leaf out of the book of the people in the 18th century who wanted to ban gambling and thought that the answer was to make gambling debts unenforceable in law (leaving a nice hole for the Krays of the day to climb into). We could make any deal in securities which did not take place on the spot at the prevailing price unenforceable. But apart from closing down legitimate futures operations there would no doubt be plenty of room for manoeuvre at the margin - no way to tie down exactly what it is one is trying to do in words of one syllable - so lots of fat fees for the advisors and their hangers on for little real gain. Maybe BBB will earn their crusts for once and think of something.
Consumed the first two Blenheim Oranges yesterday. The first was half rotten and the half that was not was in good condition. Something like a russet, but without the mealiness one gets with winter eating russets. The second was more or less sound (barring small livestock in the core) but was not very ripe. Eatable but chickened out half way through and cooked the remainder. Slightly too much but still a bit differant from your Bramleys. Or was that wishful tasting? Must try again.
# posted by Jim @ 3:31 AM 
