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Opening without hands
If you have ever had to open a door with your arms full, you will have appreciated that there is a problem with door handles |
19/08/2008
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Poring over water solutions
Apart from air to breathe and food to eat, there’s nothing more vital than pure, potable water. It’s possible to survive only about three days without water, while the benefits of drinking water are well documented |
10/07/2008
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Doing the knowledge, staying safe
Taxi driving is a job often undertaken by newly arrived immigrants, being relatively easy to get into – but it’s a hazardous business |
12/06/2008
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Time for some deep thinking
It’s hard enough to dig a trench on land, but how on earth (no pun intended!) do you go about it when it’s underwater? |
12/05/2008
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Doing the right thing intuitively
With ever-greater pressures to manufacture products at maximum speed – and with high quality – it is increasingly important not to make mistakes. Machines can be automated, but what about the workers? |
10/04/2008
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Beauty and the beastly
One of the most unsightly aspects of many beauty spots in the UK is overflowing rubbish bins |
13/03/2008
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The door to success
Any engineer who has had teenage children may well have wondered if there wasn’t some way of usefully harnessing the energy from a slammed door |
08/02/2008
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Mountainous problem
Men have rescued injured friends and comrades since the dawn of humankind. And yet, while the wish may be strong, the logistical problems of getting somebody else to safety can be daunting. |
25/01/2008
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Climbing high
Ever since its closure in 1983, Battersea Power Station has slowly deteriorated into an increasingly melancholy ruin |
17/12/2007
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Taking the heat off the Tube
Travellers on the London Underground in summer will be well aware that stifling temperatures in parts of the system – particularly some of the deep tube lines in the central area – can be unbearable and even hazardous to health |
07/11/2007
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Cracking nuts
Taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut may be a metaphorical expression – but there are some nuts, such as macadamias, requiring that amount of effort to break them |
24/09/2007
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Safety first at the front door
The Englishman’s home may be his castle, but most homes have an aperture of vulnerability in the form of their letterbox |
08/08/2007
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Digging the dirt
Even in this age of relentless automation, there is still the need for the odd bit of physical labour |
20/07/2007
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Ultimate stability – bar none
Wheelchair users who want their vehicles to move more quickly – particularly over rough terrain – have a variable wheel camber. If the tops of the wheels are cambered inwards, and the bottoms outwards, this helps stability. However, in order for the wheelchairs to pass through narrow doorways, the wheels have to be restored to the vertical position. |
07/06/2007
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Rocky foundations
There is nothing that provides a greater impression of tackiness in a restaurant than tables that rock slightly |
09/05/2007
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Keeping the trains on time
Leaves on the line, ice on conductor rails or wrong kind of snow – excuses for late trains please nobody, especially commuters who depend on them arriving more or less promptly. Interestingly, these kinds of problems are not peculiar to the UK |
10/04/2007
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Quick barriers for vehicles
There are many instances where it is necessary to control the entrance and exit of motor vehicles from an area. Car parks and city centre traffic control schemes tend to go for barriers that drop down, or large pillars that rise out of the ground and threaten to impale errant vehicles.
But there is also a need for temporary barriers, whether for temporary car parks, army encampments or conferences held in rural locations for various heads of state. These events are held in the countryside to provide an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity – which is ruined if the location is protected by barbed wire and armed police. |
16/03/2007
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Tipping the balance
Those engaged in construction will know that there has recently been a habit of very long tipping trailers tipping over sideways when they are raised to start discharging their load. |
09/03/2007
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Water, water everywhere…
It has been estimated that more than half the hospital beds across the world are occupied by people suffering from water-borne diseases and that more people will die from such causes this century than from the effects of either AIDS or climate change |
15/01/2007
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Dripping umbrellas
In all their long history, nobody has yet devised a good solution for dealing with dripping wet umbrellas. |
12/10/2006
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Eat off it, work on it
While many people from Asia are accustomed to sitting on the floor to eat or work, those of us brought up in Europe generally prefer to eat from a table |
15/09/2006
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