Just arrived back from a couple of days subcontracting. Had a productive time sorting out some last "fiddly" bits on an Aston Martin 15/98 chassis (1937). This is close to becoming a rolling driving chassis after lots of work bringing it back from a pile of rusty dismantled bits that had been exposed to the elements for many years.
Also in one particular place that I have been working, I overheard a comment that really annoys me!
The comment came from one of a team of, I presume, highly qualified development engineers working on a very new automotive project. It seemed to be a continuation from a discussion about traction and torque when the following statement was made. "Well one motorcycle company have been using a four cyl engine that fires as two cylinders instead of four, supposed to help traction, I find it best to take all motorcycle engineers with a pinch o salt, they don't seem to know what they are doing"!!!
Their words entirely.... how can someone of that calibre make such an incorrect, sweeping and arrogant comment? There was even more of a poetic twist in the tale later in the day, but I cannot comment on this.
I also heard a similar statement from a mature student toward the end of my engineering studies. He was very bright with the mathematics side and worked as an engineer with a large international aircraft company.
We had to do some in depth studies on the subject of torque and materials. As a quick reminder, the lecturer sketched on to the blackboard, a very brief diagram of a spanner on a nut held by a hand at the opposite end, followed by the very basic initial torque calculations. As the sketch was completed the particular student and his group of followers stated loudly " what do we need a picture of a spanner for, we are engineers not grease monkeys"
I started as a grease monkey and worked many hours of extra time in eve classes and part time releases to get to this particular level. Also many of our greatest engineers in history started from the bottom, getting their hands dirty, before moving on to great things.
Both of the above comments deeply annoy me. I will not forget them, especially when I see a component that has failed..... because of a fundamental design fault..... not to be confused with a normal human error/ mistake that we all do from time to time.
Soap box is away now, sorry for grumbling!
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