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Hydrogen offers low drag and good thermal conductivity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen-cooled_turbo_generator
Why wouldn't they spin instead in a near-vacuum, instead of an environment of hydrogen?
One often gets the "nothing like this will be built again" feeling around these kinds of engineering projects from the 20th century, since modern constructions tend to have a very different feel, more sleek and less massive. Also true with things like transit infrastructure: even though a modern subway or elevated train line, like the Copenhagen metro (which has both), is better in just about every way from the old s…
"with their massive steel columns and hundreds of thousands of rivets" We have a fantastic example of that near Edinburgh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Bridge
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"with their massive steel columns and hundreds of thousands of rivets" We have a fantastic example of that near Edinburgh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Bridge
Wasn't that bridge intentionally designed to not only be robust, but to look as imposing and robust as possible, in order to reassure the public since the previous bridge in the location had collapsed?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster
One interesting thing if you like Science Fiction is that Iain (M) Banks grew up in North Queensferry, which is right under the north end of the Forth Bridge - which completely dominates the wee town. I remember hearing in an interview that Iain claimed that his fascination with megastructures (e.g. Culture GSVs and Orbitals) probably came from growing up in an environment dominated by a Victorian megastructure.
He even set one of his novels on a fictionalized mega-sized version of the Forth Bridge:
My father and I went on an equally in-depth guided tour of Hinkley Point station back in the mid '80s when I was a boy. We too got to walk on the reactor lid, view the cooling ponds, and meander underneath miles of thrumming piping. It was utterly fascinating and one of the very best memories I have of my childhood. Hinkley Point is a PWR rather than an AGR, but what the author writes about that collision of space ag…
It's one of the leading sites for new-build nuclear in the UK, and if Hinkley Point C does happen, it'll be a PWR. Right now, the only operating civil PWR (naval reactors are a rather different matter) in the UK is at Sizewell.
I also had the Hinkley Point tour as a child and remember it fondly.
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I agree that there is a vast increase in productivity and saved resources from better modelling and understanding of the materials. But you cannot ever convince me that our steel suspension bridges are going to last for centuries like our stone bridges from the 15th century and onwards.
Yes, stone will last longer, simply because it doesn't get eroded by the elements as quickly as possible. But it's also simply not usable as a construction material for bridges beyond a certain size and span, because it's only good under compression and even then its own weight starts to become a limiting factor as you get larger. By the 1940s, a stone bridge that might take 100 man-years of labor to create could be…
And then we get to where we are now a lot faster. . .
http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-state-road-systems-2010...
"Over 90,000 miles of roads and 71,000 bridges are in dangerous disrepair, according to a 2010 U.S. PIRG study."
My father and I went on an equally in-depth guided tour of Hinkley Point station back in the mid '80s when I was a boy. We too got to walk on the reactor lid, view the cooling ponds, and meander underneath miles of thrumming piping. It was utterly fascinating and one of the very best memories I have of my childhood. Hinkley Point is a PWR rather than an AGR, but what the author writes about that collision of space ag…
Hinkley Point B is an AGR (or, more specifically, two AGRs). Hinkley Point A was an earlier Magnox station. It's one of the leading sites for new-build nuclear in the UK, and if Hinkley Point C does happen, it'll be a PWR. Right now, the only operating civil PWR (naval reactors are a rather different matter) in the UK is at Sizewell. I also had the Hinkley Point tour as a child and remember it fondly.
Do you remember whether you toured A or B? I am pretty sure we only looked around one.
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Hinkley Point B is an AGR (or, more specifically, two AGRs). Hinkley Point A was an earlier Magnox station. It's one of the leading sites for new-build nuclear in the UK, and if Hinkley Point C does happen, it'll be a PWR. Right now, the only operating civil PWR (naval reactors are a rather different matter) in the UK is at Sizewell. I also had the Hinkley Point tour as a child and remember it fondly.
Thank you for the correction. I was relying on very old memory there. Do you remember whether you toured A or B? I am pretty sure we only looked around one.