Brock Lecture 1996

The thirteenth Brock Lecture was given on 4 December 1996 by J H 'Brummie' Stokes BEM. As a departure from recent years, a close contact of the School was invited to speak. Brummie is involved twice a year in Lower School Expeditions, and runs an Activity Centre in Hereford where outward bound Survival and Group skills are taught, especially to underprivileged and difficult youngsters. He finances this as a charity (to which the School Society was delighted to give a donation) by running courses for schools and businesses. Brummie himself came from a very rough background in Birmingham and in his teens was involved in a drug/gun culture from which he escaped to join first the regular Army and then the SAS, where he spent his Army career and in which regiment he is something of a legend. Though his experiences in the SAS would have made a thrilling and thought provoking talk, he is not proud of what he has had to do in the past and instead aims through his centre to encourage and promote an individual's desire to succeed and to be motivated towards worthwhile goals. The emphasis is firmly on team progress however and is totally contrary to any form of selfish desire.

Brummie's goal was to top the world and, despite having been shot in the knee some years earlier, he reached the summit of Everest in 1976 as part of a massive Army expedition. This formed the basis of a powerful talk, supported by slides for which the intervening 20 years had done nothing to diminish a sense of awe and wonder and gratitude for the team-work and joint effort which enabled the summit bid to be made. The expedition was not without calamity and, having lost one climber, Brummie and the other summiteer 'Bronco' were caught out just below the summit and had to spend a night in a snow hole, barely keeping each other alive. The experience cost Brummie and Bronco their toes and made a remarkable tale of survival.

The fact that Brummie went back to full time soldiering, and now even runs marathons, is a testimony to his will to survive.

The talk was well received by an audience of some 300, including a pleasing number of prep school visitors and present pupils as well as invited guests and old boys. I think all felt moved in the presence of such a character.

The Fourteenth Brock Lecture is due to take place on 3 December 1997 at 8:00pm and will be given by Hallam Murray, a frequent lecturer at the RGS, who will talk on cycling the length of the Andes. Any further information may be obtained from Charles Barclay, 17 Dean's Yard, London, SW1P 3PB. Tickets and invitations will be sent out from October half-term.

Charles Barclay

Full Steam Ahead

On Thursday lunchtimes for the last two terms twelve Sixth Formers have gathered in the Technology department for a packed lunch before setting off for the wilds of Wandsworth. Having successfully negotiated the vagaries of the 77A bus (reputed to be scheduled every ten minutes but actually found hunting in packs every half hour) we made our way to South Thames College. All the students attending the course have an interest in applied science and the facilities at South Thames offer the opportunity to gain experience in the techniques used in engineering manufacture.

Over a period of twenty weeks each student built, from scratch, a working stationary steam engine. To achieve this, a range of machine and hand tools were used, and practical skills were learned and developed.

Many of the parts for the engine begin life as various sizes of hollow round tube or solid round bar in a variety of materials: steel, brass, copper and aluminium. To convert these into the precision components needed for a functioning machine the students used a Centre Lathe to reduce diameters, knurl, form curves, create smooth surfaces, bore holes of precise diameter and depth, and cut threads. Sheet metal cutting, shaping, bending and finishing techniques were used to build the chassis frame of the engine.

It is of course crucial that a working steam engine has a sealed boiler in which water is heated to create the head of steam necessary to drive the piston back and forth. The fabrication of the boiler involved the use of various joining processes including brazing and silver-soldering. The manufacture of the body of the engine was achieved using a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling machine, fashioning the complex shape from a solid block of aluminium following a computer program.

There were times when there seemed to be just too many parts to be made and cries of anguish when an absent-minded twist of the controls destroyed an hour's work, but as you neared completion the excitement of seeing your own engine working - first using compressed air, and then quite literally under its own steam - made the effort worthwhile. An additional highlight of the course was the opportunity to visit the local brewery where they still have two functioning steam powered Beam Engines (not to mention a large collection of dray horses, donkeys, goats, other assorted wildlife and a very pleasant sampling room!). Having seen the brewing process it was naturally necessary to check the chemical make-up of product before leaving the premises.

On the last day of the course (with a little assistance from our ever helpful and knowledgeable tutor, Graham) everyone successfully completed their engine. Whilst none of the students are likely to spend time in future working on a lathe or mill, the insight into how artifacts are manufactured will be invaluable to those entering careers in engineering or product design.

David Hemsley-Brown