Programme

SUMMARY PROGRAMME OF EVENTS 2024-2025

All Talks and Meetings will commence at 2.30 pm and be held in the pavilion, Field Place, Worthing,           BN13 1NP, unless another venue or time is indicated.

Visitors are welcome to attend all meetings; there is a charge for non members of £5 which includes tea/coffee and biscuits, members and spouses pay £2. To become a member see Membership under About Us.

Timings for visits and outings will be as printed in the detailed description of the activity. Click here for full details…

Coffee mornings take place at 10.30am on the 3rd and the last Thursdays of the month.

Click here for full details…

Description

Date Event Detail Place News Letter Report
2024        
May 7th VISIT

Visit to Shoreham lifeboat Station at 2.30pm

 

COMPLETE

June 5th

VISIT Visit to The AMEX Stadium at Falmer at 11.00am    COMPLETE
September 17th AGM followed by a talk by our member Chris Rickard The talk will start with discussing how it was decided to design and build a car to do 1,000 mph, and how the team managed to persuade the Ministry to loan them the typhoon jet engines needed for the project by starting up an education
program around STEM.
Some short videos will be shown regarding the design process, and the problems and mistakes made securing funding for the project.
The talk will then move on to the testing done in Newquay to prove to Rolls Royce that the design could provide sufficient air intake to enable Max Re-burn from the EJ 200 standing still.
Finally, the talk will explain how the project went broke and the receivers were called in. Fortunately, things were saved at the last minute enabling the project to proceed to testing in South Africa, which is where Bloodhound is currently.
  COMPLETE
October 8th Talk by member Dr David James on Nuclear Fusion

Where are all the nuclear fusion power plants?

In the late 1960’s it was predicted that within 20 years we would have commercial fusion reactors, generating power that was so cheap it would almost be given away. 55 years later there is still no commercial power plant using nuclear fusion. But are things about to change?

After reminding ourselves about the basic physics of the fission and fusion processes we will look at the technological approaches that have been followed in an attempt to generate power from the fusion of atoms. Over the intervening decades a lot of research has taken place around the world, so we will review that before looking at the approaches now being followed by private ventures.

Finally we will get out our crystal ball and look to see how the road to fusion power might develop.

  COMPLETE
November 12th Talk by member Roy Allen

The BP Magnus Platform

In 1982 the Magnus platform was installed in the North Sea. It was the largest steel platform installed in the North Sea and the most northerly. The project was developed by BP without partners and cost £1.3 billion in 1982. In 1981 I was asked by the Project Manager to undertake an audit of the survey results to give him confidence that the modules on the platform would fit when lifted onto the jacket by Heerema’s Balder, the largest semi-submersible crane vessel in the world (at the time). I was sent offshore to witness every module lift as BP’s official scapegoat if the modules didn’t fit. I will describe how the platform was built and installed with photographs and video film. As the jacket was installed there was a major incident which could have jeopardised the whole project – why do few people know about it? Roy Allen MIET BSc(Eng) ACGI PGCETBA

  COMPLETE
December  10th

Talk by Frances Farrar-Brown.

A Blue Badge Guide

Families, Friends and Foreigners

A light-hearted look at twenty years of running a bed and breakfast business. What it’s like sharing a home with total strangers, the extraordinary things that guests do and say plus the lowdown on tourist board inspectors!

  COMPLETE
December 12th Christmas Lunch

Findon Manor Hotel.

 

  COMPLETE
January 14th Talk by S Wilkins. Professor of Astronomy, University of Sussex.

Exploring the End of the Dark Ages

In our current understanding, our Universe emerged from an incredibly hot, dense state roughly 14 billion years ago. While so hot and full of light, as the Universe expanded, it cooled, eventually becoming dark, and entering a period known as the “cosmological dark ages”. During this period dark matter and gas, attracted by the force of gravity, developed into structures, eventually leading to the formation of the first stars and galaxies, lighting up the Universe. This earliest period of galaxy formation is now accessible thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb). Webb not only allows us to identify examples of early galaxies but learn about their detailed physical properties. Webb has already thrown up surprising results including many more super-massive black holes in the early Universe than expected. 

  COMPLETE
February 11th Talk by member Geof Gibbs

Why Water Engineering?

Geoff’s presentation will consist mainly of picture slides illustrating his career as a Civil Engineer almost entirely involved with water. He will explain how his early experience led to a degree in Civil Engineering and the need to obtain suitable experience to get Chartered. This was the design and construction supervision of a large tunnelled sewer a major wastewater treatment plant extension in Worthing. This developed into an interest in the marine treatment of sewage between 1975 and 1990 including an MSc in Water Engineering. He will talk about European standards of the time and what he learnt from the way Americans dealt with these issues. With the privatisation of English Water Companies he moved to the Environment Agency to work on flood risk management. He will explain his involvement in major sea defence and fluvial schemes to reduce flood risk to existing development. He will then talk about his part in drafting guidance to influence new development and flood risk including Planning Policy Statements, Building Regulations and British Standards. Finally he will mention education in that he encouraged STEM initiatives as a school governor and, for several years, taught civil engineering fluid mechanics part time at University.

   

March 11th

Talk by member Philip Sherwin

A Naval Weapons Engineer’s Life Story

Philip Sherwin was employed by the Ministry of Defence for 44 years principally as a Weapons Engineer Officer but latterly as a Scientist in Whitehall. Despite his first Ship being the Dispatch Vessel (Yacht) HMS SURPRISE, armed with 4x 3pdr saluting guns and driven by triple expansion reciprocating machinery, the Navy subsequently required him to take an Electrical Degree and qualify as a professionally recognised Weapons Engineer. After 3 years learning the trade at sea, the Navy sent him to the Underwater Research Establishment in a civilian Scientific Officer’s post where he learned machine code programming and researched digital command and control systems for future nuclear submarines. The Navy, then unaware of the difference of software and hardware, next appointed him to design and teach the six-month digital conversion courses for senior Electrical Artificers. There followed six years with the first fully digital and all missile, gas turbine propelled, frigate, initially one of three crew when the hull was launched at Yarrows shipbuilders in Glasgow. Philip will describe the process of ‘first-of-class’ ship and weapon acceptance trials which included 33 increasingly challenging missile firings. Staff Officer Engineering in Chatham Dockyard during the Falkland war, he then transferred to MoD Whitehall as ‘sponsor’ of the proposed Defence Satellite Communications System, SKYNET 4, a rapid learning curve! A Squadron Weapons Engineer posting, mainly in the Gulf, was followed by a Procurement job investigating possible future weapons and then Naval research customer desk officer in MoD. Final Naval appointments were at the ‘Privatising’ Defence Research Establishments at Malvern and Portsdown. On retirement from the RN he became a Civil Servant, staff assistant to the Chief Scientist at DERA HQ Farnborough, moving to Whitehall as a scientific advisor to the Naval Operational Requirement staff.

   
April 8th Talk by member Ray Parsons

I remember, do You?

A look back over Ray’s interesting life, sharing some fascinating nuggets from the past.