August 6, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 6, 2022, he’s punching harder.
Five years ago today: August 6, 2018, “disproportionately”
Nine years ago today: August 6, 2014, a Niel Diamond fan.
Random years ago today: August 6, 2008, 125 million times larger.

           With some regularity, I review things during August over the years. Is this where I want to be? No, I figured by now I’d be independently wealthy and have 16 grandchildren. The snag with that plan is everybody else figured the same and resources were in fantastically short supply. I lived through the age where a lot of today’s problems evolved from but were not necessarily cause by events of the day. Like student loans. We had them, and had the troubles paying them back—but we did not abuse the system and then demand the loans be forgiven because there were no jobs in “gender studies”.

           I’m retired but still in the mode of active and working every day. And sometimes going shopping or to the doctor is identical to work. My Internet is acting up, probably this “Nashville” computer, so tomorrow I have to spend the morning at the library again. See this ship’s wheel? It is part of a pulley system operated by two men. It stands around twelve feet in diameter. I’m guessing there were not many easy jobs in the shipping business. See today’s addendum.

           I’ve done some sketching and such on my “solenoid motor”. The so-called piston will drive back if given a good tap, meaning my plan in principle is sound. Gravity is nice, but it would be better to have a short delay, or even have the pendulum swing far enough to be grabbed by a magnetic field. This is getting past the limits of my understanding.

           The idea is that the solenoid strikes the end of the pendulum and swings it up and back, which causes the coil to disconnect from the power. The stored energy has to go somewhere, so why not have it hold the pendulum up just a bit, by charging up a capacitor connected to an electromagnet.
           The capacitor is paired with a resistor, thus allowing the magnet to discharge, releasing the pendulum to strike the piston, driving it back to start position. This hits a switch which turns the power back on and the cycle begins again. If I can get myself charged up, I’ll see about drawing a nice diagram for you. Of a device which may not work, and if I could get Elliott over here, he would swear I could not possibly be the inventor.
           Here’s an odd switch I found. Not giving it a second thought, I picked it up and went to wire it as a standard hot wire interrupter, and it did not work. The switch seems new and a closer examination shows it has three lugs. The wiring shown here is not real. I had connected two black wires when I notice the third lug. What’s that for? (The fourth lug is the ground wire.) I’ll solve this mystery in the morning.

           A bit later, here is my first stab at spreadsheet animation. This reveals the concept, showing the cycle. When the battery is powered on, it rams the piston toward the pendulum. As the pendulum swings up, it triggers the switch to cut the battery power. The returning pendulum smacks the piston back toward the switch, activating the battery and the cycle renews. I expect this to be noisy, run hot, and consume a lot of battery. Not too shabby for an old guy with zero mechanical aptitude.

Picture of the day.
The Lingotto factory.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Still blah from the trip, I see the DVD Hannibal. I have not watched that in years. Do I do the shopping and chores, or watch it again. Retirement decisions are not always so easy. I watch these Hannibal themes with indifference. I figure by the time people get to the stage where ordinary sex by itself no longer excites them, they are of little further use to humanity. Mind you, that is not the summation of my take on the matter. For example, by the time you have to work at a relationship, it is time to move on. You have more relationships that way, but you don’t develop a legacy of time wasted on repairs. Instead, you waste time playing this Rummy-like tile game, which is most fun when you win.

           The kitchen radio is on the investment station, they are again pushing annuities. It shows how far from reality the well-to-do have become. The premise is the old start saving while you are young. And they are suggesting $500 per month, it is up to you to find an 8% return. With a couple of exceptions, I’ve never met or known any working man who could tuck that kind of money away. Can you imagine anyone at age 25 who is on their own who could seriously manage that? I was at the height of my career before I could afford that much. As usual, the figures they quote ignore income taxes. No way you can “save” your way to the $2 million they say is needed for a bare-bones retirement.

           Cancel today. These Hannibal movies are very well-made but I could do without the obligatory scenes of big important Italians holding meetings in old buildings. I played through such as I had of the new material, noting once more the characteristic of pre-blues music to not follow any 12-bar pattern. Instead, the chords change where the song lyrics or message suggest it. Example, “Honkytonk Man”. There is a two-measure phrase that often changes at the half-way spot.
           I wired up a double outlet in the white shed in preparation of moving the jointer into that spot with a convenient place of my box-making tools, Once again, I enjoyed the wiring but we are looking at close to three hours for a job with the wiring and boxes already in place. That is not performance. Over time, I’ve accumulated some scraps of expensive wood, but it was only gathering dust. I cut some of it for so-so things like a lid on my sandpaper box.
           You know what I cannot find? The new circular saw I bought. But I know I stashed it somewhere and it will turn up. What I’m short is 25 feet of 14/2 wire. I remember now I ran out on the silo and put in some pieces I knew would need replacing. Here’s the outlet, the clock is just to test for power.

ADDENDUM
           How’s my book on oil tankers? Good, I am at the part where the switchover from small to large carriers began impacting the entire west. As it turns out, not that much shipping has to go around Cape Horn. The oil exporting countries are either around Africa or served by gigantic ports on the American west coast. The canals handle the small traffic. The book avoids mentioning costs but you can be sure they are phenomenal. They discuss patents for machines to inspect and paint the hulls as the work is too demanding or dangerous for humans. There is frequent mention of a name I never heard much of until he married Kennedy’s widow. Hello Aristotle Onassis. He personally made crew accommodations far better than what came before.

           There is a commonality between the tankers I did not even think was needed. Two propellers, two rudders, and the living quarters all in a structure at the stern, as well as engine size, mounts, bearings, and turning radius. All of this had to be decided, or rather well-argued, in advance. Now I know what “ship squat” is. Ready? The faster a ship moves in shallow water, the more the hull “sinks”. Thus a vessel with an already deep draft cannot enter the English Channel or many otherwise deep-water ports except at uneconomically slow speeds.
           The diagram shown is a model and sketch of a Delta million-ton tanker. The largest current tanker is 524,000 tones. The literature clarifies Delta is not intended to enter a port. Shown here, the detachable modules are taken to pumping facilities by tugboat.

           I learned the bulb in the bow can be flooded to brake the ship in an emergency. Ships can be too heavy for the wooden blocks used for dry-dock repairs. The oil cargo is measured in tons, not barrels. When a huge tanker at speed hits a wave, it plows through it rather than rising. The water that splashes over the forward hull is called “green seas” (hence the crew lives at the back of the deck).
           While the tanker business is watched and regulated, the tankers themselves are less monitored. The US allows tankers a 25 years life-span, although from what I read half of that is more normal due to obsolescence. Technology, that is, moves faster than experience. Profit margins change with factors as narrow and the time spent pumping out the cargo. The publication date was 2006 and some of the stats are 2004. But we’ve lived in a millennialized world since then, so it is likely nothing of importance has changed. There were 3,250 tankers in operation at that time and you can’t vote or protest these ships into existence.

           About 20% of the tankers are above 300 tons, they said, expecting that to grow. They warn, mind you, of the emergence of “cowboys”. These are ill-fitted and underpaid old boats that move oil between unregistered users, mostly in Nigerian and Malaysian waters. Supply and demand, folks. I had to do some seat-of-the-pants calculating, but it would seem in 1981, oil on average was pumped and transported at $11 per barrel. By 1998, that was down to $5 per barrel. We are talking the production of the oil, not the finished products such as gasoline. This would indicate that was the price the tanker paid for the oil to load the stuff up, called well-head or something.
           Then along comes robotics. The book states in 2006, the Norwegians were able to supply North Sea oil at $1 per barrel. And that was enough to bail out their economy from the junk bond disaster. I’m really liking this book so far. The distinction between American and European maritime laws is evident, but inconsistent. When Europe is pointing fingers, it is the Americans being tolerant of environmental damage, but when themselves accused, they make it clear it is not Europeans at large, rather specific companies or individuals to blame.

Last Laugh