Does anyone remember this?

[james whitfieldParticipant @jameswhitfield90483]

I recall seeing on TV 10-15 years ago an artical on TV about a woman engineer who made V good working models of steam engines etc.

Amazingly once she had made them and proved they worked, after taking a video of it she then laquered the whole thing to make it inoperatable.

Any idea who it was? is there a web site that shows the detail?

Cheers

[james whitfieldParticipant @jameswhitfield90483]

TV artical about 10 years ago

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Sounds like Cherry Hill

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

I know what you mean, but would she, of all people, actually do that?

[james whitfieldParticipant @jameswhitfield90483]

Thanks Chaps

I was thinking I must have dreamt it

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

I have never asked Cherry, but not all of her work is painted so there must be some form of protection on any bare metal on her models whilst they reside at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi James, the programe I saw which you discribe was Cherry Hill. Like you say she would video them in action as proof that they worked, but they were unpainted at this stage. Once they had been proved and videoed, I seem to remember they were disassembled, painted and then reassembled using glue so they would never operate ever again and become a static deplay.

 

Regards Nick.

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by Nicholas Farr on 14/03/2011 21:31:24:

Hi James, the programe I saw which you discribe was Cherry Hill. Like you say she would video them in action as proof that they worked, but they were unpainted at this stage. Once they had been proved and videoed, I seem to remember they were disassembled, painted and then reassembled using glue so they would never operate ever again and become a static deplay.

 

Regards Nick.

 

 

Why?

 

T

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Terry, I can’t recall why, but I do remember thinking what a strange thing to do. I wouldn’t do such a thing myself, I remember thinking.

 

I think Cherry Hill has as much interest in the research of her models as she does building and proving them.

 

I suppose we all have our own reasons for doing things that seem unreasonable to others. I can only admire Cherry’s achievments, as I doubt I’ll ever come close to match them.

 

Regards Nick.

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

I agree Nick with all you say,

 

It just seems a shame to fix models so that they are static. Just think in the far (or not so far) future when digital video cannot be accessed as the technology has evolved and digital systems superseded, but the models will still exist. There will be those who look and wonder at these beautiful models and consider if they can work. They will then have to disassemble them carefully, and lovingly clean, restore and reassemble them.

 

It just seems a terrible loss to the future generations of engineers ans enthusiasts. I get worried that our digital age is becoming more ephemeral and short lived, I can look at an analogue film, say a supre8 in its reel and see that there are pictures and after a little investigation find that they can be made to represent movement, From there I can perhaps work out a mechanism to view them. The same holds with analogue records (vinyl), you can see the grooves and the centre hole and make certain assumptions even if you are not familiar with then. With simple study it would be possible to make noise, perhaps with a pin in a cone of paper and eventually work out the purpose and interpret the sounds.

 

Unfortunately with digital systems storage methods are rapidly changing so that the 7 1/4 disc of 20 years ago was superseded by the 3 1/2 ‘floppy’ then the CD rom and now the DVD.These however would be unreadable by future generation as the reading mechanisms and software support becomes obsolete next we have the solid state memory, solid state Hard drives and USB memory devices How will they be read without the layers of software to operate and read the device, interpret the content and then display it in a usable form as visual or aural material, What will happen when the next wave of technology takes over, Cherry’s videos could be lost in the ephemeral Miniverse leaving only sterile immovable machines to be admired for their paintwork and polish..

 

Sad to think of really

 

Regards

 

Terry

[chris stephensParticipant @chrisstephens63393]

Hi Guys,

The host of the show was Adam Hart-Davis and if memory serves there were three programs in the series.

Oh and Terry, even as painted static models you can see the skill that went into their production. If they were to run for any length of time they would soon become lumps of scrap. The beauty of her work is that she makes a proper scale replica of an original and as LBSC was always saying “you cannot scale nature”. If she were to make working models she would have to redesign them to be such.

She is one of the reasons I, probably, will not ever finish a model, how can one possibly compete?

chriStephens

[Geoff SheppardParticipant @geoffsheppard46476]

I believe that the person who made the point about immobilising models was Gerald Wingrove, the man who makes such beautiful scale models of vintage and post-vintage cars. His models are much more fragile than Cherry’s and he said that the commissioning owner would not really appreciate it if vibration caused his pride and joy to set off across the coffee table and launch itself on to the floor. Hence the need to prevent wheels from turning on axles.

 

It is interesting that the people mentioned are two, of possibly three, that we are aware have been given an award (the MBE) by H. M. The Queen for ‘Services to Model Engineering’. Praise indeed.

 

Geoff

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi Chris,

 

I agree with you about the ability to see the skill of those beautiful models and about scaling nature. But they don’t have to be run for a length of time but it would surely be nice if they could be demonstrated occasionally and as I so badly tried to point out future generations of admirers may not have access to the videos. It was just an opinion, surely the beauty of a machine of any type is in it’s operation as well as it’s structure. It is the movement that makes it come alive. Without movement surely a machine is just a collection of metal bits, beautiful perhaps but dead nonetheless.

 

Best regards

 

Terry

[chris stephensParticipant @chrisstephens63393]

Hi Terry,

Absolutely agree about future generations not being able to see the present forms of storage. Pictures of grand parents will soon be a thing of the past.. This is NOT progress.

chriStephens

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Terry, while digital is a wonderfull thing, like you say is film and video footage all going to get lost. Lets hope for the benifit of the future generations that any existing videos or film for that matter, of interesting models or real working machines in action, is continually upgraded every time new media is brought out.

 

I agree that any machine that just sits there not moving is a bit dead, but I think they still have a certain appeal and appreciation. While it’s impossible to have every has been machine that are in museums in working order, it does seem a shame not to see them running, but I suppose it taxes the mind to try and work out the operation of one that you have never seen before.

 

My late mother always said progress is a double edged sword, and I tend to agree with that.

 

Am I right in understanding that some of Cherry Hill’s models depict prototypes that were not actually built in the commercial arena, but were just proposals that never got finaced.

 

Regards Nick.

 

 

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 15/03/2011 22:09:55

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