Robert Forester Mushet

del.icio.us Tags: railway, train, steel, engineering, metal, hardware, tools, drills, hss, derby

Just reading about Mushet and his work on what eventually became high speed steel (HSS), used in most drill bits these days.

According to the wikipedia article:

"In 1857 Mushet was the first to make durable rails of steel rather than cast iron, providing the basis for the development of rail transportation throughout the world in the late Nineteenth century. The first of Mushet's steel rails was delivered to Derby Midland Station, where it was laid down early in 1857 at a heavily trafficked part of the line where the iron rails had to be renewed every six months, and occasionally every three." Six years later, in 1863, the rail seemed as perfect as ever, although some 700 trains had passed over it daily."

Impressive!

Nothing on telly?

Standing on the tube this morning, I couldn't help but overhear two women discussing the lack of good content on the television at the moment.  They were so distraught they had resorted to asking one's boyfriend to spend his time downloading "Lost" episodes from the internet.

Have they really nothing better to do than watch endless television??

del.icio.us Tags: television, tv, lost, tube, underground

Halfords in Wiltshire

Not that it's anywhere on the Halfords web site, but it turns out the Halfords in Salisbury is larger than the one in Frome.