The Night Mail

[Happy Hippo]

49 minutes ago, Darlington_Shed said:

Greetings to all and Sunday. On Friday I had the pleasure of driving from London to Newcastle for Mrs Shed's father's 90th birthday celebrations. Eight hours it took, starting with the car park that is the M25, the M1 closed near Leicester while a collision was dealt with, and torrential rain for the duration. I have just returned home in a somewhat-less-tedious six hours. The rain was equally torrential. Thanks to a cunning arrangement of business meetings, Mrs Shed travelled to Newcastle by train from Edinburgh on Friday, and will return home by train tomorrow.

 

I wll be partaking of something medicinal and Scottish later this evening.

I'm already taking Jameson's Stout Edition to aid in my recovery from this morning's little adventure.

 

It seems to be working very well, as I can already see the little green men dancing around the table.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Happy Hippo

[Northmoor]

4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I'm already taking Jameson's Stout Edition to aid in my recovery from this morning's little adventure.

 

It seems to be working very well, as I can already see the little green men dancing around the table.

I have an 18y.o daughter who limits my self-medication with (currently) Penderyn.  Last night she needed her friend driven home at closing time (long after the last bus), so it was gone midnight before I could have a dram.  Tonight I have to pick her up from a concert 30 miles away, so won't be home until nearly midnight again.  I also have a 6am start for work tomorrow, so I tend to avoid "refreshment" before bed on these nights.  Still, next weekend is a long one, so I will do my best to catch up. 

[Happy Hippo]

36 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

I have an 18y.o daughter who limits my self-medication with (currently) Penderyn.  Last night she needed her friend driven home at closing time (long after the last bus), so it was gone midnight before I could have a dram.  Tonight I have to pick her up from a concert 30 miles away, so won't be home until nearly midnight again.  I also have a 6am start for work tomorrow, so I tend to avoid "refreshment" before bed on these nights.  Still, next weekend is a long one, so I will do my best to catch up. 

One of the advantages of children who have both left home is that you are not under the same on call regime.

 

However, I do limit my intake so I might only have two drinks in one week ,and maybe four or five in another.  It depends on what we are doing.  Certainly if Nyda is out for the evening, I would not consider touching a drop until she is safely back in the house.  Similarly if we are visited by the children, I would not drink after their departure until I know they are safe at their destination.

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

This Fresh Flour stuff sounds innocent enough but beware. In 1964 Brown & Polson's animal feed stuff plant in Paisley was totally destroyed in a massive explosion when corn dust ignited.

 

I believe that Birds custard powder factory has suffered more than one explosion due to the fine dust being combustible.

 

Dave

[polybear]

12 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I believe that Birds custard powder factory has suffered more than one explosion due to the fine dust being combustible.

 

Dave

 

ISTR my Physics Teacher saying that pretty much any fine dust is a powerful explosive; the dust extraction system in the school woodwork dept. was fitted with explosion relief panels - similar to those fitted to Hippo IIRC, though far less objectionable....

[Dave Hunt]

Well, I managed to get some shed time in after all. Just as things were looking doubtful Jill's pal rang to ask if she wanted to go for a walk so I was left to my own devices. Before the front door closed I was heading to the big shed to do some work on the small shed as well as a pair of tool vans I'm making to finish the breakdown train. I suspect that tomorrow will involve some domestic tasks before any more muddling is on the cards.

 

Dave

[SM42]

I tend not to drink too much, maybe a coupe of beers a week unless there is a special  occasion  to drink a bit more. 

 

The zero alcohol limit at work, coupled with random testing tends to keep you focused on your intake  as well, so some weeks I won't touch a drop as it isn't worth the risk

 

The rules tend to go out of the window in  the motherland where the liver is evil and must be punished. 

 

I am currently full of BBQ, beer and vodka. 

 

It is the way of the Glen and thus useless to resist. 

 

Andy

[SM42]

I suspect granite powder is not combustible as they throw it around in the pits to stop the coal dust going up. 

 

Andy

[AndyID]

8 minutes ago, SM42 said:

I suspect granite powder is not combustible as they throw it around in the pits to stop the coal dust going up. 

 

Andy

 

Granite should be pretty safe. The problem arises with anything that can rapidly oxidize, and that's quite a lot of stuff. Even small steel or iron particles will burn in air if atomized. When you cut steel with an oxyacetylene torch you only use the acetylene to get the melting started. Then you shut it off and only supply oxygen to continue the cut. The steel oxidizing produces all the heat required after that.

 

It's just as well Earth's atmosphere is mainly nitrogen 😀

[Dave Hunt]

Early in the development of the compression ignition engine Rudolf Diesel tried using powdered coal as fuel but although it was partially successful, controlling the exact quantity of the fuel injected was difficult and eventually the coal engine was destroyed in an explosion. Diesel then abandoned the idea and started to use liquid fuel. There were some further experiments in America in the 1940s to power diesel locomotives using coal dust but they were again unsuccessful.

 

Dave

[AndyID]

2 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Early in the development of the compression ignition engine Rudolf Diesel tried using powdered coal as fuel but although it was partially successful, controlling the exact quantity of the fuel injected was difficult and eventually the coal engine was destroyed in an explosion. Diesel then abandoned the idea and started to use liquid fuel. There were some further experiments in America in the 1940s to power diesel locomotives using coal dust but they were again unsuccessful.

 

Dave

 

Given current technology we could probably come up with a way to make it work but it's a better idea to leave the coal in the ground.

[jamie92208]

10 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Early in the development of the compression ignition engine Rudolf Diesel tried using powdered coal as fuel but although it was partially successful, controlling the exact quantity of the fuel injected was difficult and eventually the coal engine was destroyed in an explosion. Diesel then abandoned the idea and started to use liquid fuel. There were some further experiments in America in the 1940s to power diesel locomotives using coal dust but they were again unsuccessful.

 

Dave

Union Pacific made a coal fired gas turbine loco in about 1960, I think. They used a redundant GN electric that had the turbine, coal crusher and generator with a former steam loco tender plus a diesel loco at the front as shunting power and control unit.  Yes granite dust was used a lot in coal mines.  They had boards on ropes in the roofs of the roadways with the granite dust piled on top of them.  Apparently the blast wave would blow the dust off which then stopped the flame front. 

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

53 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I believe that Birds custard powder factory has suffered more than one explosion due to the fine dust being combustible.

 

Dave

When I first started teaching exploding custard powder was a fairly standard lab demonstration. Not sure I recall why but it was about then ‘don’t try this at home’ became common advice. One of my students made his family ill with homemade salad,dressing after a lesson  on emulsions. He didn’t use vegetable oil…

[SM42]

3 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Given current technology we could probably come up with a way to make it work but it's a better idea to leave the coal in the ground.

 

That's as maybe, but coal is still a vital and cost effective ingredient to make all those things we need to not need coal anymore. 

 

You can't make a wind turbine out of chocolate, you are going to need concrete and steel. 

 

Using hydrogen in the steel making process is way to expensive at present which would push up the costs of green infrastructure to uneconomic levels, or the price to the consumer into eye watering territory  

 

In  the meantime,  technology is available to stop the nasties getting out into the atmosphere. 

 

Unfortunately we seem to be pushing out more CO2 from road traffic now by encouraging petrol over diesel, ignoring the significant advances made in capturing the exhaust nasties that have occurred over the last 20 years. 

 

I hope that both hydrogen and battery technology can move ahead quickly to give a practical,  cost effective alternative 

 

I recall in the late 1980s we were promised environmental armageddon by 2000. 

 

We seem to have done reasonably well in delaying that. 

 

Still work to do though

 

Andy

[New Haven Neil]

19 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Early in the development of the compression ignition engine Rudolf Diesel tried using powdered coal as fuel but although it was partially successful, controlling the exact quantity of the fuel injected was difficult and eventually the coal engine was destroyed in an explosion. Diesel then abandoned the idea and started to use liquid fuel. There were some further experiments in America in the 1940s to power diesel locomotives using coal dust but they were again unsuccessful.

 

Dave

 

Sulzer did some research in the 70's with marine (V large size!) diesels along the same lines.  Wear in the ceramic injectors was the main stumbling block IIRC.

[Dave Hunt]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

When I first started teaching exploding custard powder was a fairly standard lab demonstration. Not sure I recall why but it was about then ‘don’t try this at home’ became common advice. One of my students made his family ill with homemade salad,dressing after a lesson  on emulsions. He didn’t use vegetable oil…

 

Did he then go on to try decorating the lounge with vegetable oil?

 

Dave

[SM42]

I'm just hoping Fresh Flour isn't combustible 

 

Andy

[SM42]

A coal fired internal combustion engine had me wondering about how to remove clinker and how much wear there would be on the fuel delivery system. 

 

Seemed doomed from the offset 

 

Andy

Edited July 23, 2023 by SM42

[newbryford]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

You always need to remember that the shelf life of brownie points is always in the control of the distributor and can be altered remotely at any time. 

 

Jamie

 

I have just quoted that to Mrs NB and she simply said "I like that one".

 

 

[SM42]

I spend my brownie points very quickly. 

 

Stops them going off. 

 

Andy

[newbryford]

5 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

This Fresh Flour stuff sounds innocent enough but beware. In 1964 Brown & Polson's animal feed stuff plant in Paisley was totally destroyed in a massive explosion when corn dust ignited.

 

Food "dust" can be exceedingly dangerous.  I've worked in quite a few places where the electrical control gear was either intrinsically safe (i.e cannot generate a spark by use of low voltage/low energy), or explosion proof - where a simple pushbutton was housed in a substantial cast iron enclosure to contain any such spark generated explosion.

 

 

[newbryford]

7 minutes ago, SM42 said:

I spend my brownie points very quickly. 

 

Stops them going off. 

 

Andy

 

Brownie points are like good reputations.

Hard to earn, but easy to lose.

[AndyID]

12 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

That's as maybe, but coal is still a vital and cost effective ingredient to make all those things we need to not need coal anymore. 

 

You can't make a wind turbine out of chocolate, you are going to need concrete and steel. 

 

Using hydrogen in the steel making process is way to expensive at present which would push up the costs of green infrastructure to uneconomic levels, or the price to the consumer into eye watering territory  

 

In  the meantime,  technology is available to stop the nasties getting out into the atmosphere. 

 

Unfortunately we seem to be pushing out more CO2 from road traffic now by encouraging petrol over diesel, ignoring the significant advances made in capturing the exhaust nasties that have occurred over the last 20 years. 

 

I hope that both hydrogen and battery technology can move ahead quickly to give a practical,  cost effective alternative 

 

I recall in the late 1980s we were promised environmental armageddon by 2000. 

 

We seem to have done reasonably well in delaying that. 

 

Still work to do though

 

Andy

 

Here's an analogy. I hope it's not too accurate:

 

How to boil a frog. You put the frog in water at room temperature. Then, very, very slowly you increase the water temperature. By the time the frog realizes it's getting far too hot, it's too late.

[newbryford]

A long day....

Some of which entailed large quantities of mud.

@Happy Hippo would have loved it.

 

This is me in Mrs NB's car being rescued from the car park of the Royal Lancashire Agriculture Show.

It was always going to be bad, when they were towing cars ONTO the car park.......

 

Whoever decided to use the same parking field for two days running needs a very large pointed object shoving where it may be is painful.

 

They even employed the services of an Army Warrior to drag a fire appliance from the main showground........... (vid by Mrs NB as I was waiting in the queue to get in with a van to shift her Children's Corner stuff. As for the stewards trying to organise the movement of vehicles tofrom the showground, they were seriously lacking in the decision making department)

 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by newbryford

[AndyID]

3 minutes ago, newbryford said:

A long day....

Some of which entailed large quantities of mud.

@Happy Hippo would have loved it.

 

This is me in Mrs NB's car being rescued from the car park of the Royal Lancashire Agriculture Show.

It was always going to be bad, when they were towing cars ONTO the car park.......

 

Whoever decided to use the same parking field for two days running needs a very large pointed object shoving where it may be is painful.

 

They even employed the services of an Army Warrior to drag a fire appliance from the main showground........... (vid later - maybe)

 

 

 

 

We could do with a bit of that rain here. It's so hot and dry the whole place could go up like a Roman candle.