[BITList] TITANIC

[HUGH]

Last night on Channel 4 (UK) there was episode 1 of a series on Titanic.  Three "engineers" had undertaken to reproduce bits of the ship, and the first such was the anchor.  According to them, they proposed to build the anchor then reconstruct the parade through the streets of the town where the original had been made - on a wagon drawn by a dozen or so Shire horses.  One of the engineers used to erect steelwork for buildings, another used to be in aeronautics, and the obligatory lady said she was a designer - she'd designed things.  And there was a man who is an artist.  I noted the "build" an anchor bit, but let it pass.  Give it a chance, I thought, and I may have said it out loud to Janet.

They found a firm in Sheffield who could still make items like the 5 ton "shaft" of the anchor (never had an anchor in an engine room).  I omit reference to the technical discussion over the "plan" of the anchor - an A3 drawing showing the anchor. So one of their number got into the control room and (we assume) got a crash course in what lever to pull while looking at the monitor.  At this point, the script explained that he was in a control room and not at the side of a coal driven (I repeat, coal driven) hammer such as the one that forged the original.  So his computer driven hammer (it was a hydraulic press, but what do I know) squeezed out the square section.  This had to be to "millimetre accuracy", they said, and one of them got very overheated wielding a giant set of calipers on the white hot metal.  Eventually all were satisfied, and at that point I could take no more.

Will I tune in next week ? Probably, if only to see them riveting up a hull section.

Hugh.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20101005/f3adf71b/attachment.shtml