British Section
Newsletter
www.cnisf.co.uk
Issue 17
April 2014
The Third Gustav Eiffel Lecture and Dinner
Julien Roitman, Sir Michael Pepper, and Peter Varley
Julien Roitman presents la Médaille IESF to
Sir Alcon Copisarow
Some time ago your Council decided that we should hold the third Gustav Eiffel Lecture. Gustave Eiffel
(1832 – 1923) was the leading French civil engineer who made his name with various bridges for the
French rail network, and the Eiffel tower, which was built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris.
The Lecture, inaugurated by IESF in 2000, is open to non-members and intended to focus on elegance in
engineering and related topics.
The lecture was held on 7th April at the Institution of Civil Engineers, and was followed by an optional
prestige dinner. Peter Varley, President, invited Sir Michael Pepper, holder of the Pender Chair at UCL’s
London Centre for Nanotechnology, to give the presentation on “Nanotechnology: Implications for
Engineering”. Both Peter and Sir Michael were together at St Marylebone Grammar School.
We were delighted that Julien Roitman, President of our parent organisation, IESF France, had joined
us from Paris. He presented Sir Alcon Copisarow, our recently retired Patron, with the IESF Medal (la
Médaille IESF), in recognition of the many years of support that he has given to the British Section.
John Beck, Secretary, then presented Sir Alcon with Honorary Life Membership of the British Section
and said that he hoped to see Sir Alcon and Lady Diana at many more of our events.
About 170 people attended the Lecture, hearing many fascinating facts about the wonders of
nanotechnology and how it has so many uses in many branches of engineering and technology. About 12
people attended “on-line”, a first for a British Section event. About 100 went on to enjoy a prestige
dinner, in a relaxed and social atmosphere that has become characteristic of the British Section’s
occasions. The Lecture was recorded and is shortly available as a video on the ICE website.
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The AGM and the New President’s Lecture
on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- reported by Richard Groome
British Section
Cormie for his services as Auditor, David
Hattersley for well balanced out turns on events,
David and Karen Park for scrupulous voyage
accounts and Angela again for all her hard work.
A special Rule Change was then proposed and
agreed, to enable Council to confer Honorary Life
Membership on any individual; this was swiftly
followed by the intention to award this status to
Sir Alcon Copisarow, which was also agreed
unanimously.
It was a capacity crowd for the AGM with a
member of the Board from IESF France,
Francois Lureau, and our new Patron Robert Mair,
and his wife Margaret, in attendance and 114
persons dining afterwards.
Outgoing President David Park noted that the
baton change had occurred with the Secretarial
services, with ICE now providing these under a
Service Level Agreement. He welcomed Greg
James from ICE, who would be spearheading the
new start, and he thanked Angela again for her
years of service. He was particularly pleased to
see Francois Lureau in the audience and noted
that our links with IESF France were
strengthening all the time, indeed they now have
an English language page on their website. John
Beck added at this point that we are now an
Associated Society of ICE and therefore have a
page on the ICE website. Finally David thanked
the Patron and his wife for their attendance, and
acknowledged
their
support
of
Council
throughout his year.
Our Treasurer Simon Greenway told members
that the accounts were in good order, although
he could predict a subscription increase in 1 to 2
years time; in particular the 3rd Gustav Eiffel
lecture would be taking place this year and would
be subsidised by our funds. He thanked Bill
Hon Sec. John Beck then announced David
Shillito was stepping down from the Council after
11 years. All members thanked David for this
distinguished record. Edmund Morgan-Warren
announced that there are currently 151 Members
and 8 Amis.
David Park then took AOB in which he announced
the official launch of the Sir Alcon Copisarow
Award, which will be awarded probably every two
years and will be a special medal. More details to
follow.
The Badge was then handed over to new
President Peter Varley, who gave his address on
'IK Brunel Engineer 1806 to 1859'
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was of course the son
of Frenchman Marc Brunel, who saw that
Isambard was taught engineering properly (in
France), so that when he came back to London
aged 20 he was technically much more
knowledgeable than many of his peers. Marc also
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gave him significant experience and responsibility
at this early age, and Isambard would soon be the
Project Manager on the Thames Tunnel project,
using the patented new tunnel shield method
(still used today). It was here that Isambard was
also nearly killed, when there was a serious
inundation from the Thames and IKB was washed
down the tunnel in the flood (his colleagues
drowned). It was also the case that IKB and his
workers suffered poor health during this
project, as the Thames was effectively a sewer.
So Marc sent him to Bristol to recover. IKB was
never one to rest, and when stopped on one front
he would start something else. So he set about
wresting the Bristol Suspension bridge project
off Thomas Telford, who was in charge of the
committee to build the new bridge, by putting
forward a revolutionary new and slim suspension
bridge.
Brunel was an artist, pioneer, promoter, surveyor,
designer, contractor and chief engineer amongst
his many talents. However, he didn't deliver on
time and budget, and bankrupted many of his sub
contractors. Health and Safety were nonexistent on his projects and for instance, on the
Box Tunnel project there was more risk to you
being killed as a worker than if you had been in
the First World War trenches.
IKB's next projects were all in the railway arena,
where he introduced Broad Gauge instead of
Standard Gauge (this would be abandoned after
his death) and built much of the Great Western
Railway and others. He managed 33 major
projects during his lifetime, with at one point, 18
on the go at once!
Visit to the Joint European Taurus (JET) at
Culham 19th February 2014
- reported by Brian Simpson
Then we come to the ships. The Great Western
was a wooden paddle steamer, built to do transAtlantic runs, followed by the iron hulled,
propeller driven Great Britain, the largest vessel
afloat when it was completed. This ship did 20
years service on the Britain Australia route
before being scuttled in the Falklands, (it would
later be repatriated to Bristol at vast expense).
Finally the Great Eastern, the largest ship ever
built at the time, 700 feet long and 22,500 tons,
driven by propeller, paddle and sail. It was
intended to be capable of sailing round the world
without re-fuelling. It hit a rock in 1862 and had
£200,000 worth of repairs; during the rest of
it's life it never realised its potential and was
used as a cable layer between Europe and the
USA. It was broken up in 1889.
He was over ambitious, but produced many iconic
structures still in use today. Peter Varley said
that he had no modern day equivalent. We
finished with a picture of the Brunel railway
bridge at Saltash in Cornwall, completed the year
Brunel died in 1859.
Vice President Peter Blair Fish then proposed a
vote of thanks to Peter.
On 19th February 2014, four and twenty members
and partners made the first of two visits to a
futuristic scientific establishment known as JET
at Culham in Oxfordshire. JET is an acronym of
Joint European Torus operated by Culham Centre
for Fusion Energy (CCFE) and as the visit
progressed we were introduced to a bewildering
number of acronyms for machines and processes
which were new to many, if not all, of us.
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Although JET was being refurbished for the
next series of experiments, the visit gave us a
guided tour of the facilities. Explanations, for
those of us able to follow, of the high level
physics being investigated, described the steps
towards full sale commercial generation of
electricity by means of nuclear fusion.
The
experiments involve temperatures in excess of
100 million degrees C in plasma contained within a
huge torus.
To separate the plasma from the
surfaces
of
the
container
enormous
electromagnetic fields are generated. The scale
of the temperatures and the accuracy required in
all components and processes puts engineering
and material science at the peak of what is
achievable. Monitoring experiments that occur in
nanoseconds require advanced technology of its
own.
A few hours of guided tours of the
facilities left us bemused by the advances in all
aspects of science and engineering on display.
After lunch in the Culham canteen we were taken
on a tour of another part of the research work
centred on a spherical tokamak with the acronym:
MAST (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak). This
facility was also undergoing refurbishment but
we were able to see and marvel at the complexity
of the installation and its instrumentation.
A further interesting aspect of the work was the
development and use of robots to work inside the
chambers of the Tokamak in order to avoid
contamination at atomic levels.
All in all we enjoyed an interesting, educational
and stimulating visit that will prepare us in some
measure for the visit to ITER in France on the
September Voyage d’Etude.
British Section
Meeting at the Caledonian Club with a Talk on
the TGV 5th March 2014
Assembled at the Caledonian Club we were
privileged to hear a talk on the French TGV by an
engineer closely involved with it’s development.
Gilles Cartier is a graduate engineer of the Ponts
et Chaussées School and holds a Master of
Science from Berkeley University. His first job
was as head of the Geotechnics Department at
the Central Laboratory at Ponts et Chaussées,
before joining SNCF in 1986, as head of various
technical units. He then managed the major
project for the new TGV Mediterranean line. He
was regional director of Provence, Alpes, Cote
d'Azur, one of SNCF's largest regions, from
2000 to 2005, and later Technical Director of
SNCF's engineering division. With this track
record, it was natural for him to take over as
CEO of INEXIA when it was created in 2007,
from where he helped form SYSTRA a world
leader in public transport engineering.
We were impressed by the size of the
establishment; a staff member said we had
walked for about two and a half miles during our
tours thus we exercised physically as well as
mentally. Many thanks to our President for
arranging the visit, which was enjoyed by all.
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Gilles talked about the development of the TGV
in France from the first line from Paris to Lyon,
which now is so popular that it is in need of
greater capacity, to the developments in plan
today. He explained some of the improvements
in the technology from the first ideas through to
the world train speed record run of 574.8 km/h
on LGV Est in 2007. He also explained the
financing and the commercial structures of the
various lines and how these had developed over
the years. Andrew McNaughton, who is Technical
Director of the HS2, gave the vote of thanks and
praised both Gilles and the French for taking the
world lead in high-speed rail so clearly. He noted
that as a result the world standards for highspeed rail were European and in reality that
meant that they were French. A significant
achievement.
The Unofficial Ski Trip to Courchevel 9th on
16th March 2014 – reported by David Shillito
This year, under the excellent organisation of
Richard and Janet Groome, our IESF Ski group
returned to Chalet Monique at Courchevel
Moriond and was roundly welcomed by Sheridan,
the Manager and Chef. Apparently during our last
year’s stay we set a new record for the most
bottles emptied during the week. There was little
prospect of exceeding that this year as two of
our members were on the wagon. The food was
again excellent: porridge and cooked breakfast
etc, fresh cake at 4:30, help-yourself bar from
16:30, Kir Royale and canapés at 7.00 with dinner
and a range of different wines on successive
British Section
days, followed by local cheeses and port both red
and white.
The weather was quite unbelievable. With
cloudless skies, it was really hot during the day
and temperatures only dropped below freezing at
night. High up the snow was great and only
tended to be a bit sticky on the lower nursery
slopes, especially around the lifts. But that is
what you have to expect in March. In these
beautiful conditions the group of strong skiers
covered hundreds of kilometres of the runs of
Les 3 Vallees knowledgably guided by Simon. In
these magical conditions, and they still found
time for making comparisons of the standards of
various lunching establishments of the area. The
less intrepid skiers travelled the Courchevel area
and found runs offering a full range of difficulty
to suit their experience; the main disadvantage
of travelling slowly was that of overheating in the
hot sunshine.
The hot tub was popular and we were able to
repair to Rocky’s bar to join the packed house
for the communal viewing of the 6 Nations rugby.
Unfortunately Meg, the original instigator of
these Ski-Voyages had to forgo the pleasures of
the slopes due to sailing injuries sustained in the
Antipodes.
Wednesday after dinner was quiz night with
questions specially compiled for our assumed
level of expertise by Sheridan and her chalet
team. She pointed out that her decision was final,
regardless of “how many degrees you have, or
who was professor of where-so-ever”! It was
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tough! The winning team only got a score of 50%
- enough of testing conditions. Thursday, the
day-off for the Chalet team, involved a new local
restaurant, cosy seating for the group and eating
a local dish - hot stones again!
With six days of unbelievable weather only
Saturday 15th March provided high cloud to
flatten visibility. Nevertheless, the high peaks
stood out clearly with the Mont Blanc massif only
50+ km away to the north and snowy peaks
extending to spectacular La Meije, the last major
peak in the Alps to be climbed, 50 km to the
southwest.
We are looking forward to next year!
Ladies Day visiting the
Portsmouth 26th March 2014
- reported by Rae Varley
Mary
Rose
in
The weather was thankfully calm and bright as
we gathered at the foot of the Spinnaker Tower
to commence our Ladies Day visit. The Tower was
originally planned to open in 1999 to coincide with
the Millennium celebrations and to be known as
the Portsmouth Millennium Tower. However,
after 6 years of delays it was finally opened in
2005 and renamed the Spinnaker Tower as it
resembles a Spinnaker sail blowing in the wind.
On the day of the official opening the Project
Manager and Representatives of Mowlem and
Maspero were stranded in the exterior lift for 1
1/2hrs and had to be rescued by abseiling
Engineers! We enjoyed reaching the 3
observation platforms by the interior lift to
enjoy the 350degree views of Portsmouth,
Gosport, Isle of Wight and Solent to a distance
of 23 miles.
Back on ground level again we had a tasty lunch at
Loch Fyne in Gun Wharf Quays before wandering
over to the Naval Dockyard to start our visit to
the Mary Rose. We had an interesting talk about
the Ship, which set the scene for our visit to the
Museum. It tells the fascinating story of the
building of the ship in 1509-11 to becoming the
Flagship of King Henry's Fleet in 1512-14, to the
capsizing in the Solent on the 19/7/1545.
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Artifacts were recovered in the worlds largest
underwater excavation led by Margaret Rule in
1978-82, although previous attempts were made
in 1836 and 1965. The lifting of the Hull on
11/10/82 was a huge Engineering operation and
was watched worldwide by 60 million people.
It is hard to imagine the Mary Rose journey but I
think that we all agreed that the Museum has
done a wonderful job in telling the story and
bringing it alive. We all had an excellent day and
am sure many of us will be planning a return visit
in the future.
British Section
News from an Old Member
David Hatterslely has received news from an old
member whom many of our long service members
may remember. Maurice Keen was a water
engineer at Imperial College many years ago. He
and his wife Rosemary emigrated to Australia to
be near their children as an “Aged Dependant”.
They are enjoying their time in Australia and are
active with many local groups.
Good News and Congratulations
The Sad Passing of an Indefatigable Lady
We have received the excellent news
that our IESF British Section Patron,
Robert Mair has been elected as a
succeeding Vice-President of ICE,
taking up office in November 2014
with a view to becoming ICE President
in November 2017
Many members will remember Irene Cope for her
interesting and often penetrating questions that
she used to ask our speakers. Accompanying
Geoffrey Cope and often wearing red she was
always a lively contributor to the events. Many
members attended the celebration of her life in
December 2013, all wearing something red as a
tribute to her. Geoffrey Cope, married to Irene
for 63 years, wore an immaculate red tie.
Furthermore IESF British Section
Past President Richard Groome has
been elected as Junior Warden of the
Worshipful Company of Engineers and
is expected therefore to become
Master Engineer in April 2017
.
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British Section
SIR$ALCON$COPISAROW$MEDAL$
$
Council(would(like(to(express(its(sincere(thanks(to(all(those(
members( and( friends( who( have( made( donations( towards(
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generosity( is( very( much( appreciated.(( If( anyone( else( would(
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would( be( particularly( helpful( to( us( in( terms( of( forward(
planning,(but(it(is(not(our(intention(to(adopt(a(formal(time(
limit.(
Use$of$the$Website$and$Emails$
(
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meeting(and(other(information(about(the(British(Section(to(members.(This(
action(has(saved(considerable(printing(and(postage(costs.(The(Council(has(
decided(that,(in(view(of(its(nature,(this(Newsletter(should(go(out(in(paper(
form.( ( We( will( also( add( a( digital( copy( to( the( website( where( it( can( be(
downloaded( for( viewing( on( a( computer( or( a( tablet.( ( The( method( of(
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available( only( to( members,( who( would( be( able( to( view( other( documents(
about( the( activities( of( the( Section.( ( Further( information( will( be( sent( out(
when(we(have(finalized(how(it(will(work.(
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If(you(have(any(views(on(the(use(of(emails(and(the(website(please(let(the(
editor(know.((Suggestions(concerning(and(contributions(to(your(Newsletter(
would(be(very(welcome.((
(
Your(Editor(:((Bill(Bayly(:(([email protected]
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