Jakob Whitfield

@PreachyPreach @OU_Williams @yorksranter (As my posting history may suggest, I've been away from this hellsite for quite a while; clearly this is what it took to - however temporarily - draw me back...)

We live in an age of miracles and wonders... does this mean Strachan's volume 2 might also one day appear? @PreachyPreach @OU_Williams @yorksranter et al.

@NLi10 @Bozzers It was a crying shame - it was a real community hub. From what I gathered it was the landlords calling in the COVID rent arrears at short notice; of course it's now just another empty unit...

@Bozzers Until recently there was a huge warehouse games cafe at that end of town. I’d never realised it was there until they announced it was closing. Sundown was the last of the good record shops in Walsall - they liked me as their record shop of choice as kids was ours in Brownhills!

I went back to the town where we dossed out as kids, to buy shag bands, try on clothes at Internacionale and touch crystals to try and make Paul from D&T class fall in love with me. It was absolutely dreadful 😭 Let me explain: birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/…

@OU_Williams @CalumDouglas1 @HarksenNiels Technology and Culture indexes would bring up some interesting work. But again I can't think of anything general and overarching - either specific and smaller-scale like T&C papers, or subsumed in economic historians' broader arguments (e.g. Tooze).

@OU_Williams @CalumDouglas1 @HarksenNiels AIUI economic historians have been particularly interested in machine tools, I guess because they're a good proxy for infrastructure capitalisation? But also a fair bit of HistTech; Charles Sabel and Jonathan Zeitlin spring to mind? Sure a search through the+

During WW2 when Packard started manufacturing their version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, certain differences were agreed as unfortunate but necessary. To deal with certain patent difficulties Packard made their own (quite different) supercharger gearbox system, and because they didnt want to ship things like British Magnetos and cabin compressors across the Atlantic and then ship them all the way back again, OR start making British specification accessories when similar performance American ones were already available. However, it was patently obvious that if the rest of the spare parts were not interchangeable, it would make field repair and servicing impossibly complex and difficult. This was of course discussed at an early stage (see Air Ministry memo below) and so all the major parts which might reasonably be required to be changed had to be made to equivalent tolerances and so a RR-Merlin part should work in a Packard, and visa-versa. This was not always possible, as Packard didn't always machine things like shim sets to the same range, so a parts-interchange booklet was published, allowing anyone to look up a RR part, and find the corresponding compatible part from Packard (and visa versa). It was advised that of course it was safest to always where possible use RR parts for RR engines and Packard Parts in a Packard engine as that of course gave 100% confidence, but it was obvious that it was going to often be necessary in war to use whatever was available to repair engines needed for urgent service in the field. The parts-interchange manual list which parts may with no alteration be used with guaranteed interchangeability, and which parts either had no corresponding number from the other engine manufacturer (because it was for a part which came from an assembly which didn't exist in the same design, like the supercharger gearbox or magnetos), or because it would require a grind to suit a clearance which was different between the two engines. About 70% of the Packard Merlin parts were a guaranteed straight-swap into a RR Merlin (and visa versa). the rest could be modified, or were impossible as the design area was totally different. Both manufacturers worked hard to work to corresponding tolerances to this end, and a lot of work was put in to ensure a constant line of communication between RR and Packard as changes were made by one or the other maker. RR of course had no problem matching their precision to anything Packard did, and the other way around, because BOTH manufacturers relied almost totally on exactly the same American made automatic machine tools, which proliferated all RR mass production factories in Britain. Severe problems occured when U-Boats sunk ships containing Cincinnati and Hardinge machine tools en-route to RR factories. (Packard Image Credit: airandspace.si.edu/collection-obj…)

@Airminded Probably not a #longread, mind...

@AeroPaleo @penandpaper1989 Having dealt with TV before, that's a big if, but if it does, you're on!

@penandpaper1989 @thrustvector You both owe me beer if this happens….

Looking for an expert on early jet engines for an upcoming major TV channel feature. You can guess what airframe my involvement will be related to. Please DM me. #avgeek #aviationlovers #vintagejets

@AeroPaleo @penandpaper1989 Ha! To modify the old joke, if it's a device for turning hydrocarbons into noise, vibration, and a bit of power, I'm interested...

@penandpaper1989 Speak to @thrustvector! I’m sure he’s not merely axial…

@AeroPaleo (cont.) strategy at the time, it would have made sense for them to have encouraged this, as they wanted to ensure a smooth transfer of MV's jet projects to an existing aero-engine maker. Plus IIRC at the time the F.9 had a higher design thrust than the AJ65/Avon.

@AeroPaleo I don't actually know - I never looked at the A-S papers in detail, and none of the refs I have to hand give that detail. A Key Aero piece on the Victor I found suggests the Nov 1947 MoS contract for the HP.80 specified MV F.9 engines; given what I know about the MoS industrial+

Perhaps one for Metrovick expert @thrustvector, but could anyone tell me the date at which the AS Sapphire was selected for the Victor please? #engines #history #Avgeeks

@PreachyPreach @Chris_A_W "Because this isn't like my usual Osprey/Schiffer/Stackpole habit"? (This is obvs from a place of love/self-recognition...)

@Chris_A_W @PreachyPreach In some ways the blog was better than the usual enthusiast press; e.g. I was hoping there might be an Amber Butchart fashion article in there. Or a Fiona Banner interview (volume 2, hint, hint?)

@PreachyPreach @Chris_A_W Entertaining going through the list of supporters at the back and spotting people I know either IRL or online.

@PreachyPreach @Chris_A_W It came!

@PreachyPreach @Chris_A_W I've just had my dispatch notification for the hardcopy...

@TACJ From (very, as in < 1hr) recent experience; be careful drinking beer on the Chiltern line out of Marylebone; the crappy shaking bit before Bicester meant opening the second can was a... foamy experience.

It’s outrageous I can drink a beer on a train into London but not on a Tube.

@Chris_A_W I thought (as per Hennessy's sub book) that the Yanks could jark the system in a 6-12(?) month timeframe by refusing to provide servicing, but that they couldn't turn it off at a moment's notice?

@HPS_Vanessa Ah, ok - most of the answers I get are related to the Motor City thing, which, fair dos, but even that's been improved in recent years.

@HPS_Vanessa (Oops, hadn't kept up with today's news - thought this was someone who was complaining about the city to you personally. Yeah, 'places that actually vote for us' feels like it's doing a lot of work there...)

@HPS_Vanessa I've thankfully not had that - more often it's based on an outdated picture. Brum had strong shithole vibes when I first visited, but that was over a decade ago. A lot of the best bits are IMO out of the centre; if you're staying inside the inner ring, then you're missing out.