Great Uncle Fred Higgins played rugby league in the Fifties for Widnes, England and Great Britain. He also ran a haulage company. My Grandad helped him build a brick workshop in his yard with heavy metal purlins bought from an old military base, hoisted by muscle power (using a guy derrick, artfully depicted in woodcut here), and covered with asbestos sheeting. People knew how to do all sorts of stuff in those days. Apart from the asbestos roof bit. That wasn't such a good idea.
When Uncle Fred died I helped clear the workshop of forty years worth of oversized wrenches, traction engine belts, Finn McCool sledgehammers, and thousands of copper nails. Looking at the building today - now a house - I see I must have muddled it up with some other favourite buildings - taking a curved brick from here, a Bakelite toggle switch from there, the hot oil smell of MoSI's Power Hall - to create a mental image of my ideal work building.
This ideal building has a few understated artistic touches in the bricks and ironwork (and a much more sensible roof), yet mainly it is functional, adaptable and, most importantly, characterful. Sleek, modern university buildings aim to give the impression of hi-tech dynamism, which is fine, but they do tend to lack soul. Perhaps a little better are those Victorian buildings retrofitted with glass and steel that house nebulous marketing companies. Designing buildings to convey a message is all very well, but not when Style becomes more important than Content. Uncle Fred used his workshop to fix lorries. I'd use mine for inventing mostly. Give me a soulful, greasy workshop any day.
My perfect job isn't really Scientist - that's just the closest approximation - it's Inventor. There isn't really such a job though, so nobody offers a university course in Inventing. An Inventor needs to have a broad knowledge and good manual skills. Sometimes a jack of all trades is better than a master of one. Do schools and colleges provide enough basic education in electronics, computing or materials science, or manual skills with wood, metal and plastic, so that people are equipped to turn their ideas into real things? All I ever did in CDT was set my tie on fire with a soldering iron.
This ideal building has a few understated artistic touches in the bricks and ironwork (and a much more sensible roof), yet mainly it is functional, adaptable and, most importantly, characterful. Sleek, modern university buildings aim to give the impression of hi-tech dynamism, which is fine, but they do tend to lack soul. Perhaps a little better are those Victorian buildings retrofitted with glass and steel that house nebulous marketing companies. Designing buildings to convey a message is all very well, but not when Style becomes more important than Content. Uncle Fred used his workshop to fix lorries. I'd use mine for inventing mostly. Give me a soulful, greasy workshop any day.
My perfect job isn't really Scientist - that's just the closest approximation - it's Inventor. There isn't really such a job though, so nobody offers a university course in Inventing. An Inventor needs to have a broad knowledge and good manual skills. Sometimes a jack of all trades is better than a master of one. Do schools and colleges provide enough basic education in electronics, computing or materials science, or manual skills with wood, metal and plastic, so that people are equipped to turn their ideas into real things? All I ever did in CDT was set my tie on fire with a soldering iron.
Like everyone else, I was set on the path to specialisation into science at fourteen when I picked my GCSE subjects. Being ignorant and hormonal, this is no age to be making life-changing decisions. By sixteen the die was well and truly cast as I began A-levels in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Geology. I'm picking up bits of other subjects where I need to these days, but surely it would have been better to learn more when I was younger, freer and still spongy-brained.
My current hero is Trevor Baylis OBE, clockwork radio inventor, Thames island dweller and moustachioed pipe smoker. The story of his life is almost congladiatorially fantastical.
My current hero is Trevor Baylis OBE, clockwork radio inventor, Thames island dweller and moustachioed pipe smoker. The story of his life is almost congladiatorially fantastical.
"The key to success is to risk thinking unconventional thoughts. Convention is the enemy of progress. As long as you've got slightly more perception than the average wrapped loaf, you could invent something"
These blog posts are increasingly becoming just a stream of consciousness. I'd intended to discuss a talk I recently went to about commercialising magnetic gears, but all the wheeler-dealing was highly unedifying.
i am going to be an inventor too!!!
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