Engineering linkages with the coal chain

"Industrial restructuring without parallel in recent British industrial history" is how the current Chairman of British Coal, Sir Robert Haslam, has described events in that industry. Since 1960 upwards of three quarters of a million jobs have gone in the deep coal mining industry alone. Numerous studies have analysed the underlying mechanisms behind the rapid decline of the nationalised coal industry, but hitherto little attention has been paid to the national linkage effects of that decline. This thesis is an attempt to analyse the consequences of industrial restructuring in coal mining on its UK engineering suppliers. In so doing, the thesis develops into much more than an empirical case study of industrial linkage and becomes a critical analysis of state capital-private capital relations. In particular, it focusses on the shifting boundaries of state ownership in the energy sector of the 'eighties. It considers what are the main processes involved and some of the consequences for those people and places most dependent on mining related jobs for their livelihoods

Prédiction et gestion de l’énergie dans un réseau de capteurs sans fil récolteurs d’énergie vibratoire pour les applications industrielles de l’internet des objets

La question de l’autonomie énergétique des capteurs sans fil (WS pour Wireless Sensor), indispensables pour l’automatisation de nombreux procédés industriels, est aujourd’hui une limite fondamentale dans l’atteinte des objectifs de l’industrie 4.0. Pour surmonter cette limite, la piste de solution la plus prometteuse est celle de la récolte de l’énergie ambiante (EH pour Energy Harvesting). L’EH consiste à identifier une source d’énergie primaire (soleil, vibrations, ondes radiofréquences, chaleur, etc.), disponible dans l’environnement immédiat du capteur et de la transformer en énergie électrique pour son alimentation. Cette thèse est une contribution dans ce domaine de recherche en pleine expansion, pour des applications dans l’environnement industriel. Les vibrations qui abondent dans la plupart des procédés industriels sont considérées comme source d’alimentation des WS capables de remplacer les capteurs filés actuellement utilisés. Prenant en considération le caractère aléatoire de la quantité d’énergie récoltable, deux contributions majeures sont proposées dans cette thèse à savoir la conception d’un Prédicteur de l’Énergie Récoltable des vibrations (PERV) et la mise en place d’une solution permettant de gérer efficacement l’énergie récoltée à travers un Protocole Hiérarchique à Équilibrage d’Énergie (PHEE). La conception du PERV est basée sur des données de vibrations enregistrées à 12 emplacements différents, et ce pendant un mois, sur le processus de concassage des minerais par un broyeur semiautogène. La périodicité observée dans les signaux est exploitée pour minimiser la quantité de données devant être stockées pour l’estimation de la puissance à un instant donné. Les performances du PERV sont ensuite comparées à un prédicteur de l’état de l’art le EWMA (Exponentially Weighted Moving-Average qui utilise l’historique des données d’énergie pour estimer les quantités d’énergie récoltable dans le futur) et il est obtenu que l’erreur quadratique moyenne pour les 12 points de mesure subie des améliorations allant de 10 % à 90.5 % comparé au prédicteur EWMA. Le PERV permet ainsi d’augmenter la précision dans la prédiction tout en réduisant la quantité des données devant être stockées. Sous la base de l’énergie prédite, le PHEE est conçu avec pour objectif d’optimiser à la fois la Qualité de Service individuelle de chacun des noeuds, mais aussi celle du réseau en entier. De façon plus spécifique, sous la base de l’énergie prédite, les noeuds capteurs contrôlant le procédé sont capables d'opérer de façon perpétuelle lorsque le coût énergétique par cycle de mesure est inférieur à 160

Patent Law: An Open-Source Casebook (Chapter 8: Defenses)

Less than a handful of casebooks are truly open source, in the sense of being fully modifiable. Patent Law: An Open-Source Casebook is the first patent law casebook that provides adopting professors, students, and others the ability to fully modify its contents. This chapter of the casebook covers defenses to infringement, including inequitable conduct, patent exhaustion, patent misuse, laches, equitable estoppel, experimental use, and spoliation of evidence

British tanks 1915-18, manufacture & employment

For far too long it was accepted that the higher echelons of the British Army, that is the War Office and GHQ, France, were reactionary, that they were anti-technology and cavalry oriented. In the past decade historians have gone some way to challenge this view, but not far enough. Much of the "traditional versus progressive" school of thought, in regard to the tactical employment of the tank, still survives. This thesis will attempt to continue the roll-back. It will not, however, confine itself to the tactical employment of the tank, but will instead suggest that to gain a more complete picture of the Army's support for the tank development programme in World War One we have to examine the manufacture of the tank too. No one has acknowledged the role of the War Office in pushing for the creation not only of the first Tank Committee, but every subsequent committee thereafter. The original Tank Committee, the "New" or "Advisory" Tank Committee, The Tank Directorate and the Tank Board were all set up under the aegis of the War Office. True, the War Office had a great deal to gain in establishing these bodies in their attempt to wrest control of the destiny of the tank from "civilian" hands at the Ministry of Munitions, but it was these bodies, particularly the Tank Board (established in August 1918) that facilitated the crucially important liaison between the users of tanks in France, that is to say the Tank Corps, and the producers at the Ministry, the Mechanical Warfare Department (MWD). Without War Office involvement in this way (and, of course, the continued orders for more and better tanks from the War Office) it is inconceivable that the tank would have reached the level of technical sophistication, and therefore usefulness, that it had by late 1918. Ironically, if we persist with the "progressive versus traditional" scenario, we see that the "progressive" group, which consisted of the MWD and the Tank Corps, was in actual fact constantly at odds with itself over the design of the machines and the availability of spare parts for the whole period of the war. We can suggest, therefore, that the most damaging of the divisions that existed within tank circles in World War One lay not between the "progressive" and "traditional" camps, but across them, clearly dividing the "progressive" camp itself. The continued existence of a struggle for control ( note control and not survival) of the tank between the War Office and the MWD ( which was at its most intense during 1917), and the constant "battle of the spares" waged between the Tank Corps in France and the MWD, further call into question the accepted wisdom that when Lloyd George handed over the reins of the Ministry of Munitions to Edwin Montagu in July 1916, he had largely resolved the nation's munitions problems. R.J.Q. Adams cites a tank pioneer who believed that" as Minister of Munitions he [Lloyd George] saved this country from dire disaster". Adams admits that such a claim was "extravagant" and that no one man "won the War ", but this thesis will suggest that the successful development and manufacture of the tank owed considerably more to his successors, particularly Addison, and to Churchill and support from the Army than it did to Lloyd George's own actions. Finally, regarding the "reactionary" nature of GHQ, this thesis calls in to question the originality of J.F.C. Fuller's "Plan 1919", so often cited as the way forward in terms of the tactical employment of the tank, and suggests that by 1918 such plans were common currency among the upper echelons of the Army, and that Fuller's own scheme was but one of many. Further, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that GHQ had far-sighted plans for the employment of tanks once greater mechanical reliability had been achieved. But greater reliability was a matter of design and manufacture, not tactics. The role of the British tank on the battlefields of WorldWar One was, therefore, not dictated by the limited imagination of those at GHQ, but rather by the inevitable problems associated with developing and mass producing a highly complex and unique weapon at a time of total war

Groping in the dark : an early history of WHAS radio.

As the historiography on radio broadcasting continues to grow and forces examination from the macro-level to the micro-level, station histories are becoming increasingly important. The story of WHAS highlights the evolution of a nationally celebrated, innovative radio station dedicated to the service of its community. However, this thesis argues that WHAS radio\u27s arrival as a viable commercial business distorted the initial trajectories its forefathers intended for the medium thereby diluting its nobler aspects. A technological tool with the unprecedented power and influence -- to enlighten and enhance the daily lives of millions through education, the high art of classical music and opera, exposure to politics, and instant news updates, all filtered through a sense of duty to its listeners -- saw its grand ambitions watered down by the allure of increased profits sacrificing originality and imagination for accessible, light-entertainment programming generated from a handful of single sources

Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995)

The files on this record represent the various databases that originally composed the CD-ROM issue of "Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding" database, which is now part of the Dudley Knox Library's Abstracts and Selected Full Text Documents on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995) Collection. (See Calhoun record https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/57364 for further information on this collection and the bibliography). Due to issues of technological obsolescence preventing current and future audiences from accessing the bibliography, DKL exported and converted into the three files on this record the various databases contained in the CD-ROM. The contents of these files are: 1) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_xls.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.xls: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format; RDFA_Glossary.xls: Glossary of terms, in Excel 97-2003 Workbookformat; RDFA_Biographies.xls: Biographies of leading figures, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format]; 2) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_csv.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.TXT: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in CSV format; RDFA_Glossary.TXT: Glossary of terms, in CSV format; RDFA_Biographies.TXT: Biographies of leading figures, in CSV format]; 3) RDFA_CompleteBibliography.pdf: A human readable display of the bibliographic data, as a means of double-checking any possible deviations due to conversion

Great Britain and naval arms control: international law and security 1898-1914

This thesis traces the British role in the evolution of international law prior to 1914, utilizing naval arms control as a case study. In the thesis, I argue that the Foreign Office adopted a pragmatic approach towards international law, emphasizing what was possible within the existing system of law rather than attempting to create radically new and powerful international institutions. The thesis challenges standard perceptions of the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 which interpreted these gatherings as unrealistic efforts at general disarmament through world government, positing instead that legalized arms control provided a realistic means of limiting armaments. This thesis explores how a great power employed treaties to complement maritime security strategies. A powerful world government was not advocated and was unnecessary for the management of naval arms control. While law could not guarantee state compliance, the framework of the international legal system provided a buffer, increasing predictability in interstate relations. This thesis begins with an account of how international law functioned in the nineteenth century, and how states employed international law in limiting armaments. With this framework, a legal analysis is provided for exploring the negotiations at the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907, and in the subsequent Anglo-German naval arms race. What emerges is how international law functioned by setting expectations for future behaviour, while raising the political cost of violations. Naval arms control provided a unique opportunity for legal regulation, as the lengthy building time and easily verifiable construction enabled inspections by naval attachés, a traditional diplomatic practice. Existing practices of international law provided a workable method of managing arms competition, without the necessity for unworkable projects of world government. Thus failure to resolve the arms race before 1914 must be attributed to other causes besides the lack of legal precedents