h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today was a good day at work. Finally the subcontractors, who've been dragging their feet since the shutdown ended, have got the plant in a position where we can begin water trials.

This is the bit where the chemical plant you've designed is supposedly finished and ready to use, but you don't put product in it yet, you run the thing with just water in case it spews out all over the floor (which it unaccountably does EVERY TIME no matter how many times you check).

This is the best bit of a chemical engineer's job, I think. The bit where you get to actually play with the toys you've designed before you have to give them back to the company for them to make money with. It's a wonderful, stimulating time of creative problem solving, time management, thinking on your feet and a succession of little triumphs when the things you imagined on a piece of paper months before stand before you, steel and plastic and computer chips and pumps and instruments and agitators, all working.

Today I also did some *proper* engineering. One of the tasks of the day was to recirculate water round six closed loops, filling some vessel on the way. At one point the pump stopped. Four years of university education and over a dozen years of experience as a chartered chemical engineer came to the fore as I resolved the problem by... twatting it with a spanner. Which worked!

I love my job.

SoRB

Fuckyeah!

That DOES sound incredibly satisfying. One of the downsides of being a scientist is that you seldom produce anything tanglible; a thing you can kick and go "yep, made that I did". In fact, I think a big part of me craves that kind of job. Consider me jealous.

Nice one.

Ste

"you run the thing with just water in case it spews out all over the floor"

Ever design anything having hydrophobic bits? I understand that water is about as benign as a liquid can get, but suspect that some things might be averse to it. Just curious.

Good to see the old engineering principles are alive and well in the 21st Century. If it don't work, hit it!

I thought the proper name for such a tool was a "Technical Adjuster"?

My philosophy has always been, "if it still doesn't work, use a bigger hammer"!

In the Six Step Troubleshooting method, a hammer is step one.