Did the British Invent EVERYTHING!

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

In the Korean war, when 600 British soldiers were surrounded by 10,000 Chinese, the officer in charge reported ‘things are getting a little sticky’. The USA man in charge misinterpreted this and didn’t send reinforcements. See

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1285708.stm

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

It’s not just Morse Tapers the US came up with , what about R8 and then there are things like 5C collets and the Weldon shank not to mention helical flutes on milling cutters.

Then there was that bloke Fritz who came up with the ER collet, he does not sound very British.

All inventions that may affect the practical man more than others.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Cast iron

Co-fusion Steel processing

The Blast furnace

The Cupola furnace

The Finery forge

Coking/Coke

Hydraulic bellows

The Belt Drive

The Crank

Continuous Chain drive

The Cogged gear

Chromium (as a surface finish)

The Borehole and Drilling Rig

Use of Natural Gas / Oil

The Lingqu Canal, complete with thirty-six lock gates, was built by Shi Lu at the request of China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BC).

Oh, here – it’s everything you hold most dear, startlingly early, and very interesting.. ..scroll down the list..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions

 

 

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

Interesting video on Youtube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZQS4LBugk

[Howard Lewis]

On Howard Lewis Said:

Sadly, I think that water borne transport was used by the Romans. They certainly used Carr Dyke around here.

Yes, but the early civilisations who built canals didn’t manage the next step – networking canals into a general purpose transport system.   Not only internally, but internationally, by linking to sea-ports.  British canals accelerated the economy at large, much more beneficial than building a few point to point routes.   The need to spread the canal network forced engineers to tackle hills, resulting in locks (new), and better ways of building tunnels, viaducts, and other infrastructure.  The scale resulted in advanced loading/unloading facilities, and a service where a customer could dispatch tons of goods to distant customers without understanding how it would actually be moved.   The British have a strong claim to having invented the service industry!

 

The problem now, is that Britons are afraid of being proud of their achievements. “Not the done thing, old chap” And we are being brainwashed into believing the nonsense that Britain is useless, so that the prophesy becomes self fulfilling.

Well, we Brits prefer not to bang on about our achievements because boasting isn’t a good way of making friends!  I agree we’re brainwashing ourselves into believing Britain is useless though, but the reason isn’t that Brits are afraid to be proud.

The real reason is too many living in the past, resisting change, and despite history, believing that British Industry in yesteryear was a high-performer that could carry on forever digging coal and making tin-trays, clothes pegs, shovels, manual machine tools, unreliable cars, overpriced textiles, and cheap bulk steel.  They tend to remember the best, and air-brush out the mass of out-dated, ignorant, smug failures making modest stuff that was overpriced.

Plenty of folk on this forum believe the old-ways are the best, clinging to Whitworth, denying Metric, and wishing to educate youngsters for a world that no longer exists.  Please stop!  The reality is that manufacturing has moved on, and many old skills are far less useful now.  Before WW2 tens of thousands of machinists were needed to drive hosts of manual and semi-automatic machine tools in British factories, plus there was a strong need for basic workshop skills of all types.   Those days have gone!  The problem wasn’t quality, it was the extraordinarily high cost of production.   And maybe too many thought their existing hard-won skills were good for life and didn’t twig their jobs were threatened by any competitor in the world with modern machinery, slightly cheaper materials, or lower labour costs.

This forum has posts made by chaps whom I suspect were trained for British Industry as it was between 1900 and 1980.  Unfortunately they appear not to have understood the scale or significance of the change, or insist it was all wrong. Be that as it, may knowing how to mark-out and centre-pop before drilling holes is a niche requirement today; only prototypes, repair work, and ad-hoc work.   The need for most traditional skills has been largely replaced; industry needs CAD and CAM skills, not the skills painfully acquired by an apprentice in 1960.

The achievements of today’s British industry are still impressive, and we should celebrate that, not a rose-tinted past.  British industry generates as much money for the economy as ever.   But the way industry works, and what they choose to do, is very different.    Much  less obvious, without slag heaps, pit-heads, smoke-stacks, sprawling works, railway marshalling yards, grubby industrial towns, or gigantic workforces!   But it’s there.

We should also be proud of inventing the “Post-industrial society”, that is how to stay rich, when making physical things fails to make a profit.  Hard to comprehend I know, but it is possible to make money without manufacturing anything!

These industrial changes reflect into education and Model Engineering; times have changed.  The idea that youngsters aren’t interested in technology is completely wrong.  It’s different!  Not lathes, vices, hammers and swarf, much more computer, electronics, and module focused.  Stuff a man of my age didn’t have during my career.  Basic metal and woodworking skills might be needed occasionally, but the youth get things done without bashing metal in time-honoured ways!

So youngsters aren’t in sheds working to inch fraction plans drawn by LBSC in 1928, and completely stuck because they don’t know how to file straight.   Don’t believe me?  Explore the internet to find what’s available for “Makers”. A huge number of modules, gadgets, components, materials, and hobby stuff.  My guess is the maker hobby is much bigger than traditional Model Engineering.  The reality is ME has slowly become a sub-set, and no-one apart from us knows or cares traditional engineering is the mother lode!

That said, my workshop is old-school and I place high-value on traditional skills and methods.  Though I have a 3D printer, no CNC here, though I do lots of CAD.  I work by “fitting”, a practice that hasn’t been mainstream for a century.   Though what I have and do with my workshop suits me down to to the ground, it’s a hobby, and I know many methods are barely relevant to industry.

Good news!  ME will attract the youth in due course.  After the kids leave home and as retirement approaches we get the time, money, and space needed to set up a workshop, and start to prefer traditional hands-on to innovative brain-work.  All that’s necessary for us to do for the youth is plant the seed.

I’ve found learning how to use my tools great fun, and I think most others do too.  The hobby doesn’t require newcomers to have skills already, only that they put the time in necessary to pick ’em up.   Unless interested in how engineering works under the bonnet there’s no need to be academic.  Most hobbyists don’t need lots of theory, though it’s helpful when one does! Hobby engineering, and repair/restoration work is more about getting a feel for how machines cut, which materials are suitable, and finding pragmatic ways of getting the job done.  Never overvalue practical skills though!  Professional engineers and designers absolutely have to have a deeper understanding.  That means maths, theory and knowing what’s possible in the broad sense rather than simplistically applying existing recipes.

Dave

 

[SillyOldDuffer]

On SillyOldDuffer Said:

[…]   The British have a strong claim to having invented the service industry!

[…]

We should also be proud of inventing the “Post-industrial society”, that is how to stay rich, when making physical things fails to make a profit.  Hard to comprehend I know, but it is possible to make money without manufacturing anything!  […]

It was better on the Radio … but I just found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMoPR2IA2Uk

Enjoy … and be a little afraid

Many a true word, and all that !

MichaelG.

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[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

O

It was better on the Radio … but I just found this:

The pictures were better…

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

The submarine was an American invention, small and could only have one crew member it was however the first. Gunpowder I think was Chinese.
however we did come up with the railway. Turning battleship turrets one year before the Americans. Maths I believe was a Muslim thing the ancient world did not have a zero number. Cricket, and MRI scanners.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

We did invent the concept of public passenger-carrying railways, and there was an intriguing reference to that earlier this evening, on part of today’s Radio Three round-the-country celebration of Christmas-related regional musical traditions.

The presenter said the “world’s first passenger railway was on The Mumbles”, near Swansea. Not Manchester-Liverpool, nor the Stratford-on-Avon to Oxford (with London intended) line that was anyway goods-only and limited by the politicians to horse-traction only. (Early-19C politicians didn’t know much about anything technical…) No: South Wales!

[Michael Callaghan]

On Michael Callaghan Said:

….. Maths I believe was a Muslim thing the ancient world did not have a zero number……

I think if a lot of things that begin with ‘al’ are of Arabic origin, algebra, alcohol (honest) alkali for instance

[Derek DroverParticipant @derekdrover32802]

I thought the Greeks invented everything ??

[Author]

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