Scientists, Engineers, and Technicians
and a Vorlon story:
many years ago, I was assembling an electrical cabinet. There were many wires, many gizmos and many thingamabobbers in it. And there were carefully prepared engineering drawings and blueprints guiding me every step of the way. And there at the top of the cabinet was a hole. And over the hole goes a fan. So, does the fan suck out or blow in?
LOL, the fan was on the paper work as blowing in. From the top.
Hmmm.
Bunch of electrical stuff in the cabinet as it is, and I thought everyone knew 'hot air rises', so shouldn't the fan blow the other way? You know, to augment something that was happening anyhow instead of fighting it?
Well, I was working for a big outfit, and I was already aware changing things could either make one a hero or a goat. So, I sent an interdepartmental envelope with an invitation to the engineer for the project to come on down to the lab and have a chat. Lo and behold, he came down the next day, and I found myself, as a technician, explaining to a pretty major aerospace engineer how "hot air rises" and how about changing the direction of the fan.
I received a "I'll get back to you".
And a week later, there was a new revision to the blueprints sent to our department, and the fan was reversed.
I don't know what that cost the company, but back in the 80s, there was some CAD in house, but I don't think 'in house' equipment was handled that way, so after the engineer put in a change order, the drafting department had to pull the print from the files, and an actual draftsman had to erase and fix the details on the fan and add a bullet to the drawings (top, side and front views) and then record a new rev, # to the prints, file everything, and send a copy of the corrected print to the offsite corporate storage repository, and then another set to me. And every step of the way, higher ups had to sign off everything that was happening.
In the big scheme of things, take heart in the process, all that care for a fan on a test stand might seem excessive, but the test stand equipment was used to test hardware for passenger, general and military aircraft, and to date, nothing bad has happened.
and a Vorlon story:
many years ago, I was assembling an electrical cabinet. There were many wires, many gizmos and many thingamabobbers in it. And there were carefully prepared engineering drawings and blueprints guiding me every step of the way. And there at the top of the cabinet was a hole. And over the hole goes a fan. So, does the fan suck out or blow in?
LOL, the fan was on the paper work as blowing in. From the top.
Hmmm.
Bunch of electrical stuff in the cabinet as it is, and I thought everyone knew 'hot air rises', so shouldn't the fan blow the other way? You know, to augment something that was happening anyhow instead of fighting it?
Well, I was working for a big outfit, and I was already aware changing things could either make one a hero or a goat. So, I sent an interdepartmental envelope with an invitation to the engineer for the project to come on down to the lab and have a chat. Lo and behold, he came down the next day, and I found myself, as a technician, explaining to a pretty major aerospace engineer how "hot air rises" and how about changing the direction of the fan.
I received a "I'll get back to you".
And a week later, there was a new revision to the blueprints sent to our department, and the fan was reversed.
I don't know what that cost the company, but back in the 80s, there was some CAD in house, but I don't think 'in house' equipment was handled that way, so after the engineer put in a change order, the drafting department had to pull the print from the files, and an actual draftsman had to erase and fix the details on the fan and add a bullet to the drawings (top, side and front views) and then record a new rev, # to the prints, file everything, and send a copy of the corrected print to the offsite corporate storage repository, and then another set to me. And every step of the way, higher ups had to sign off everything that was happening.
In the big scheme of things, take heart in the process, all that care for a fan on a test stand might seem excessive, but the test stand equipment was used to test hardware for passenger, general and military aircraft, and to date, nothing bad has happened.
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
