Season’s Greetings

We hope you had a superb Christmas with family and friends and didn’t suffer too many severe hang-overs.

Annual General Meeting

Some 24 members and friends attended the AGM of the Society held at Taunton on 15th March. At the start of the meeting we remembered committee member, John Heath, who died in February (see obituary by John Haynes). Chairman David Hutton gave a summary of the activities over the last year and John Gale on behalf of the Treasurer presented the Society’s accounts. The following members were elected :-

• Chairman :	David Hutton
  Vice-Chairman :	David Peacock
  Treasurer :	Clive Goodman
  Secretary :	Peter Lamb
  Committee :	Roger Hughes, Chris Buck, John Gale, Marcus Palmen, David Hole, Keith Morgan & John Ferrier

• Membership Secretary :	Paul Hulbert
  Museum Secretary :	David Cousins
  Hon. Accounts Certifier :	David Legg

Stop Press

The proposal for the largest land based windfarm in Europe involving 181 turbines on the isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides has been turned down by the Scottish Executive, since it would adversely affect the wildlife, which has considerable implications elsewhere.

Energy Fund

Did you know that there is a Government Marine Renewables Deployment Fund of £50M? The problem is that few can get their hands on the money because the conditions are too stringent. To comply, companies need to have full-scale devices operating in the sea, which leaves a lot of companies out in the cold. In contrast Portugal is offering a fixed premium price for electricity for 12 years – quite an incentive! Consequently only two applications to the fund have been received to date. Also there is the Carbon Trust, an independent company set up by Government to work with private and public sectors to reduce carbon emissions and to encourage new technologies, particularly energy efficient projects.

Nuclear Debate

The Economic Research Council (ERC) produced a report in March criticising the Government’s handling of the Nuclear building programme. They said that the Government appears to imagine that White Papers are going to motivate the private sector to build nuclear power stations, whereas it is financial incentives that are required. The Times stated that there are only three companies in Europe capable of building these stations, namely EDF, E-ON and RWE, who have the financial strength to make such a commitment. America has Westinghouse (owned by Toshiba) which is at present building four nuclear stations in China. Westinghouse is wanting to use Britain as a base for launching its nuclear credentials in Europe and is urging the Government to narrow its choice of reactor designs from four to two.

Without the above companies stepping forward with bold plans, it looks as if we have a political stalemate, which is sad for the nuclear industry and all the associated peripheral companies in this Country. Should we be lobbying our MP’s for some action?

Severn Barrage

In January Mr John Hutton Secretary of State for BERR announced that a new feasibility study would be undertaken of the proposed Severn Barrage scheme. Mr Hutton said the study will look at the range of options for power generation from the Severn Estuary tidal range, including barrages, lagoons and other technologies. He said "It will include a strategic environmental assessment of plans for generating electricity from the Severn Estuary tidal range to ensure a detailed understanding of its environmental resource, recognising the nature conservation significance of the estuary".

John Heath by John Haynes

I was very sad to learn of the death of my old friend and colleague at the relatively early age of 70 years. I first met John at Mr H. Bearcroft’s Saturday morning classes for Student Engineers, Electricity House, Bristol in ’56.

In the late 1960’s we both worked in the Distribution Engineers Dept, Bristol District. John was in Bristol Central and I was in Bristol North. We often teamed up on standby duty. I then moved into the Bristol District Planning Office working under Leon Bass.

In the 1970’s John and I met again in Head office when I joined a small team under Cedric Marshall. During the 4 years I was there, we wrote and performed scripts for the Group Engineer’s Dinners. We performed as ‘The Two Johnnies’and claimed we were an answer to Head Office’s critics! John and I spent a lot of time at Taunton Training Centre compiling a Cable Jointing Manual, with the welcome help of Harry Cardy. There was quite a lot of witty banter between the three of us at the time!

In 1974 I moved to East Cornwall District in Liskeard. On one visit to the District Office John stayed with Ellie and me in our bungalow at St Cleer village. In 1983 I moved to the Area Planning Office at Pool, West Cornwall. I later became the Project Engineer for the Electrification of the Scilly Isles. As this involved laying 11,000 volt submarine cables between St Marys and the 4 off-islands, John joined me on the Islands to help organise the work. A couple of years later, SWEB decided to lay a 33,000 volt cable from the Cornish Mainland to the Diesel Generating station on St. Marys. John and I again teamed up, him dealing with the 33kV undersea cable, and I with the 33kV switchgear and the on-land cables at each end.

We both retired fron SWEB when it was privatised in the 1990’s. I remained living in Cornwall and John in Gloucestershire. We met up again through the SWEHS, I was a founder member and John joined soon after. Over the years John and I gave talks to the Society, one being a slide presentation about the Isles of Scilly Project. We both shared an interest in steam railways and John had a library of railway books. He and I enjoyed the SWEHS outing to the Buckfastleigh Steam Railway in June last year.

John’s great contribution to the SWEHS Committee was in compiling a complete inventory of the Museum artefacts, including individual photographs of each item, which are now on the website. For the SWEHS ‘Sussex by the Sea’ weekend in September 2005, John wrote a splendid pamphlet covering the Hotel at Worthing and the background to the various organised trips.

John and I shared another sad matter, in that we both contracted bowel cancer in our retirement years. I underwent two operations in a Cornwall hospital in 1995, so I was able to sympathise with John when he fell ill about three years ago. I last met John and Barbara in August 2007 when six of us got together to celebrate John’s 70th birthday at a hostelry in north Bristol. Peter and Valerie Lamb joined us, together with my wife Ellie. Since then I have spoken to John on the ‘phone on several occasions to enquire after his health and to see what he was up to with his Bowls Club and other interests. I shall miss John, who was a witty friend, a colleague and part of my life for over 50 years.

Annual Winter Luncheon

This year’s Annual Winter Luncheon took place on Saturday 26th January on a fine if somewhat breezy day. Prior to the luncheon, some members and friends met in the morning at the North Somerset Museum hidden away in Burlington Street, a rather quiet backwater not too far from the hustle and bustle of Weston Super Mare’s High Street. After being welcomed by the staff, serving coffee and biscuits, we were given a potted history of the Museum before being left free to look around the many interesting exhibits. These cover the history of the local area over many centuries and of some of the prominent families. The growth of Weston as a seaside resort is well documented and illustrated with exhibits such as pier vending machines. Attached to the museum is Clara’s cottage, built in 1864 and is fitted out with furniture and household appliances for the family of Clara Payne, her husband and her four children who lived there in around 1900. At the time of our visit there was also, a special exhibition about the experiences of teenagers from the 1950s designed by young people of today.

Moving to the Royal Pier Hotel, which was built in 1851 and became a hotel in the 1930’s, it has an impressive view of Weston Bay and the Bristol Channel from Birnbeck to Brean and beyond. The Hotel has had a number of well known personalities staying there including The Beetles for a week in 1963.

Our Chairman, David Hutton welcomed our guest speaker Ed Wallis and his wife, Jill and the 47 members and friends present. After lunch Ed Wallis gave an interesting resume of his career in the industry with the CEA, CEGB and finally, PowerGen plc. He recalled his various jobs in the ESI, including power station management, systems co-ordination management and ultimately as Systems Operations Director. After privatisation he was appointed the Chief Executive of PowerGen and later became its Chairman.

Mr Wallis recalled some of the interesting, alarming and rather expensive incidents he experienced whilst working at power stations. It was also fascinating to hear of the planning undertaken prior to the coal miner’s strike to ensure fuel stocks were already in place at power stations and of the efforts made to keep the generators supplying the grid throughout a very difficult period. In addition to the operational aspects, Mr Wallis outlined the close liaison between the CEGB and Government prior to and during the miners’ strike and the various meetings held.

Roger Hughes thanked Ed for a very entertaining and informative presentation. David Hutton then announced that Mr Charles Isherwood, who had been made a Life Member recently, wished to speak when he thanked the Society for their generosity.

AGM Talk

Marcus Palmen, our web master, willingly stepped into the breach, when David Hole was forced to pull out due to having an operation. He gave us a fascinating talk on “His Boyhood Experiences in Europe during World War II”. Marcus had to explain first that he was born in Finland and brought to Hull by his parents in the 1930’s and they were here when war broke out. Marcus’s father was a seamen’s padre with the Lutheran Church. They were required to return to Finland in 1941, so the story was about this amazing trek across Europe at the height of the hostilities. The family left the UK in a Flying Boat from Poole Harbour to Lisbon, then by plane to Madrid. There they caught a German plane to Berlin and then by train to the Baltic and by boat to Helsinki. We were all pleased to hear that the family returned to Hull after the war, which explains Marcus being with us today.

Portsmouth Report

Members, wives and friends, a complement of 36, descended upon the Queens Hotel, Southsea, a gem of Edwardian splendour, on Friday evening of the 19th April for a “Sea-faring Weekend”. The first evening’s dinner was followed by a talk by a Portsmouth Tourist Office guide, who was positively gushing with enthusiasm about the many things to do and see in Pompey.

Saturday dawned with ghastly driving rain, but unperturbed the Sea-farers set out, some walking first to the D Day Museum on the front at Southsea and then on to the historic naval dockyard, others caught the bus and some drove their cars. There many of us saw in varying orders, HMS Warrior (1860), HMS Victory (1765) and HMS Mary Rose (1511). Most knew what to expect with the Victory, but were stunned by the incredible size and armaments and other artefacts on the Warrior. Again many were surprised by the sheer size of the Mary Rose and the enormity of the preservation task. The Museum for the Mary Rose was also an eye opener for the amazing quantity of 19,000 16th century artefacts, recovered from the sea-bed, displayed there. The Royal Naval Museum was interesting, particularly a 1670 Pinnace, which was hung in the middle. It had been used as a Royal Barge for Charles II and 135 years later to carry the body of Nelson from Greenwich to St.Pauls. Many also climbed the Spinnaker Tower on Gunwharf Quay to gain super views over Portsmouth and the Solent. On Saturday evening after dinner everyone was entertained by Peter Lamb, John Haynes and friends with sketches in the manner of the old Group Engineer’s Dinners and humorous poetry readings.

The Sunday dawned with sunshine and we sped off by coach to Beaulieu National Motor Museum for a guided tour. Many strolled around the gardens in the afternoon and visited the Beaulieu Palace and the Abbey remains. Mid-afternoon we went to Buckler’s Hard, where some of Nelson’s fleet had been built in the late 1700’s and ended our day with a boat trip on the Beaulieu River. In the evening after dinner Chris Buck set us a quiz about the London Underground Station names. At the end John Muggleton gave enthusiastic praise to the organisers. Good fun was had by all and our thanks are due to the superb planning of the event by Chris Buck, John Gale and Roger Hughes.

Members News

Patrick Bilyard – Patrick and his wife were due to join us at Portsmouth, but due to illness, he had to pull out. We wish him well.

David Hole has had a heart bypass operation and is making good progress.

Roger Hughes has had an operation but has made a great recovery enabling him to join us at Portsmouth.

Temple Back Development

The redevelopment of the Temple Back site (Bristol’s first generating station in 1893) is nearing completion with only the front façade retained since it had a preservation order on it. The scheme offers 125 sq.ft of office space possibly housing around 100 people. The new building is anticipated to require very low energy costs 50% lower than other 1990’s buildings in Bristol. The agents said that low energy consumption is increasingly important since Energy Performance Certificates for commercial premises are due to come into effect later in the year.

Night In 1940

This participative blitz evening organised by member, John Dike, was a great success in Backwell in March in the local WI Hall. You may recall that SWEHS were intending to run this, but decided that we wouldn’t get enough people to attend and so my wife, Valerie, took on the challenge with the help of Backwell Drama Club, who sold 90 tickets at £10 each to include supper, all in aid of a charity.

John was producer, director and scriptwriter dressed as a captain in the Home Guard. He had others dressed as Home Guard, ARP, RAF, Naval Captains, Land Girls, Police Sergeant, Vicar, Shelter Marshall and even Germans. All of the participants were required to do something in the course of the evening, the biggest event being the evacuation of everyone to the shelter, whilst the bombs rained down i.e. sound effects only of course.

The biggest challenge for John and his team was the distribution of the many costumes involved a week beforehand, which he bought up from Devon in a trailer. On the day the hall was all decorated with relevant material of the period together with props of incendiary bombs, HE bomb, rifles, Sten gun, stirrup pump, a panto cow, wireless, air-force plotting desk, models of Spitfire and German tank.

Five members of the Society attended with their wives. The evening was rounded off with a jitter-bug dancing session and overall everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable nostalgic time.

Nuclear Archive

The National Nuclear Decommissioning Authority are to invest £8M to create a UK Nuclear Archive. It is to be built near Caithness Airport in Scotland. This is surely a surprising choice of site, since it is not the most accessible place in the UK.

Bangkok North Power Station

(Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand - EGAT)

I first saw this station from the deck of MV “Orient Queen”, heading down stream on the Chao Phraya River on Christmas day 1977. It was several years later during the mid 1990’s that through a Thai relative, who was an accountant with EGAT that I was able to visit this station.

After the Second World War, Thailand was faced with a serious power shortage as all of its power stations had been severely damaged as a result of the Japanese occupation. In an effort to resolve this problem the Thai Government embarked on a series of feasibility studies to find a programme to establish a reliable source of power supplies to relieve the acute shortage of power to the Nation. These studies concluded that the most feasible solution would be the construction of the Bhumibol Hydro Electric Project in the province of Changwat Tak. This project was approved by the Government, and construction work started in 1952, requiring ten years to complete; the power shortages became more acute during the construction of the Bhumibol project, and the Government implemented plans to resolve this urgent problem by the construction of a large thermal generating station as this could be completed in a shorter time.

The site for this station was chosen on a plot of land upstream of the Rama VI Bridge on the right bank of the Chao Phraya River in Amphoe Bang Kruai, Changwat Nonthaburi; in order that the station be close to the load centre in the City. The EGAT Head Offices are also located on this site.

Marine Turbines

The World’s first deep-water device is to start generating electricity within weeks. The first free-standing turbine has been lowered into place at the SeaGen Tidal System at Strangford Lough, County Down, N.Ireland. The system is made by Marine Current Turbines (MCT) based at Stoke Gifford north of Bristol, and assembled at Harland & Wolff Dockyard. The 1.2MW turbine has two 16m blades which will be turned by the water streaming in and out of the Lough.

MCT are also involved with the big energy firm Npower to construct seven underwater turbines to be situated off the coast of Anglesey, North Wales to be completed by 2011. The project would be able to generate 10MW of electrical power. The MCT Managing Director is quoted as saying that Npower have extensive experience developing off-shore renewable projects in the UK. This is particularly interesting since we featured in the last issue a similar project in Portugal involving EON and a Scottish firm, Pelamis.

There are obviously many firms getting in on these renewable projects; let’s hope they can cover their development costs and the schemes are actually successful.

Bigger Biomass Station

Approval has been given for the world’s largest biomass power station, which is to be built in Port Talbot at a cost of £400M. The station, to be fuelled by wood-chips, will be built by Prenergy Power and completed by 2010. The Times article never stated the KW size other than it would be eight times that of the UK’s biggest at the moment. The crazy thing about this project is that the wood-chips will be imported from “sustainable forests” in the Americas. The chance of guaranteeing the sustainable bit seems pretty slim to me.

Existing Nuclear

British Energy is hoping to extend the lives of two of its Nuclear Power Stations by ten years – they are Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B. They have permission to extend from 2011 for another five years. They plan to spend £90M over the next three years upgrading the reactors, boilers and transformers. At Oldbury, which is to be taken out of service this year, a publicity campaign is being mounted on the decommissioning strategy up to 2018.

Incidentally British Energy is to be sold to the highest bidder. EDF and RWE are reportedly putting together likely bids.

Nuclear Power Stations

With all the fuss and palaver of locating nuclear power stations in the UK, you never hear of any problems across the water in mainland Europe, so I was delighted to see a picture in the Times recently of the disposition of the nuclear power stations on the other side of the Channel. The article was about the power staions cooling systems affecting fish habitats.

It has also surprised me that no one in the UK has complained about the stations just across the water. If they had an explosion involving nuclear material, the prevailing wind would blow it across to England’s south coast, then there would be trouble.

Smart Meters

Austin Philp from WPD attended a conference on Smart Metering at the IET, Savoy Place recently on behalf of the Union Prospect. The importance of Smart Metering was expressed as encouraging consumers in more energy efficient use and will eventually remove the need for meter reading and estimated bills. Pretty challenging stuff! A representative for the Government body BERR (Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) was present, but Austin was quoted as saying that it would be difficult with the fragmented nature of the ESI, posing massive interoperability problems.

Solar Power

There is such a demand for solar panels that there is now a shortage of Silicon, the major material involved in constructing solar panels. The specific material is polysilicon converted from common sand by a heating process into a very refined crystalline form. The German manufacturer is proposing to double the size of their factory output. A few more factories would be needed if the idea put forward by Jordan’s Prince Hassan recently to build millions of solar panels in the North African deserts. Thus capturing the wasted sunlight and transmitting the electricity to Europe via cables under the Mediterranean Sea – or should I say “piped under”, since it might be a pipe-dream!

Home Wind Turbines

I believe that our members are not rushing out to install wind turbines on the houses. Just as well since I have read that they are not very successful. Firstly it would take 15 years to recoup the ‘green energy’ to compensate for the energy used in manufacturing the turbine in the first case. They are also less efficient than publicised due to wind speeds being roughly a third of those predicted. Thus it would take years to rcoup the money spent on the installation.

Results from 15 sites showed that only three generated 400watt-hours of electricity. This interim information will create a need for tougher criteria for suitability of any site for installing micro-turbines.

Acquisitions

Two archival items have been deposited with us, the first by new member Ian Hopley, being detailed papers about the mathematical formulae formulated by Clerk Maxwell after considerable research by Ian. The other is the Operating Manuals for East Deptford Power Station, which we wouldn’t normally keep, but we decided that they would be a typical reference of that period.

Also member John Dike has deposited a Mid-Somerset Electric Supply Company seal.

Galileo Galilei

It is anticipated that there will be a celebration next year for the 400th anniversary of Galileo building his first telescope in 1609. As most people know, he was tortured by the Roman Church to recant on his then advanced views of the planetary system, so it is pleasing to note that he is being rehabilitated by a statue being erected in the Vatican Museum gardens.

Thermostats

Following the death of a baby in Taunton in 2007 caused by an exploding hot-water tank, it has been revealed that thermostats controlling immersion heaters need to be designed to a certain standard incorporating a fail-safe switch, which turns the device off, if the thermostat fails. Many local authorities will now be faced with replacing all their older thermostats.

Congratulations - - -

to all those born in the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's 70's

First, we survived being born to mothers, who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always exciting and great fun. We drank water from the garden hose or tap and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank cordial with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day - and we were O.K! We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, No video games at all, No 99 channels, No Pay TV, No cable, No DVD movies or surround sound. It's crazy! We even had no mobile phones, No text messaging, No personal computers, No Internet or Internet chat rooms - - - - - - WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it could happen, we didn't poke out anyone's eye. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all!

And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

Sageism

You don’t stop playing when you get old, you get old when you stop playing!

Submitted by David Peacock

Improved Hi-Fi

This story was reported in the HI-FI Critic Journal last year. A HI-FI enthusiast lost his electricity supply and when it came back he was surprised that his HI-FI was noticeably better. He asked the utility fault engineer, who was in the vicinity, what had he done? The answer was that he only replaced the substation fuse with a larger one. The enthusiast decided that the source impedance had been reduced!!

Striding Pylons

Ref your newsletter from August 2005: I’ve been searching for the music for the “striding pylons” power company advert for years, and think I’ve found out what it is - Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D (1st movement) about 6 minutes into the Itzhak Perleman recording (available on i-tunes).

I’d be interested to hear if anyone else agrees!

You Don’t Say!!

Quest 1 : What is the definition of a shock absorber?
Ans : A careless electrician!!

Quest 2 : Do you know how an electrician knows whether he is working with AC or DC?
Ans : If it’s AC his teeth chatter when he grabs the live conductors, if it’s DC they just clamp together!

Quest 3 : Why do transformers hum?
Ans : ‘Cause they don’t know the words!