Les,
I agree with what you have just written. It's just that you were mistaken with his background. He has mainly been a journalist and has not had very many years experience with automotive work. He has been banned from some 4WD forums and has designed some really dangerous designs.
But I will agree that a lot of his stuff is worth reading. His cable size article is excellent reading and shows the stupidity of the unofficial automotive cable sizing in Australia.
http://www.fridge-and-solar.net/wire.html
I am just trying to say that you cannot take everything that he writes as proven fact.
Phill
I agree with what you have just written. It's just that you were mistaken with his background. He has mainly been a journalist and has not had very many years experience with automotive work. He has been banned from some 4WD forums and has designed some really dangerous designs.
But I will agree that a lot of his stuff is worth reading. His cable size article is excellent reading and shows the stupidity of the unofficial automotive cable sizing in Australia.
http://www.fridge-and-solar.net/wire.html
I am just trying to say that you cannot take everything that he writes as proven fact.
Phill
> Les Harris <leslieharris@optushome.com.au> wrote:
>
> Phill,
>
> Qualifications are very strange things.
>
> The Rolls-Royce V12 engine that powered the Hurricanes and Spitfires
> that saved Britain in the middle of 1940 was a very disappointing engine
> until an unqualified engineer had a close look at it and recommended a
> series of air-flow changes. His suggestions were roundly rejected and
> the engine continued to under-perform. Desperate times call for
> desperate measures. The recommendations were applied and, suddenly, the
> engine belched fire and became a world-beater. It certainly saved
> Britain, despite the defending aircraft being massively outnumbered.
>
> Then there was a funny bloke called Phil Irving, with whom I had the
> pleasure of associating in the years after his association with the
> Brabham years of victory. His engine designs were legendary but he did
> not have a PhD in engineering. And there are similar funny blokes in
> the engineering world. It might be worth mentioning that George Cayley
> was a farmer, but he was the person who established the need for three
> axis control of aircraft.
>
> My qualifications would not get me in the door of any major engineering
> company today. I joined Qantas as a cadet in December 1940 straight out
> of high school, when the only people who did degrees were those who
> wanted to go on to lecture at universities. There was absolutely no
> question of Masters or PhD's. Yet I eventually managed to be the
> engineer in charge of the building of many exciting prototype and
> proof-of-concept vehicles over a long period. I repeat that if I
> presented myself at the door of the same company today, I would not even
> rate a first interview.
>
> And this is true of a lot of fields of endeavour. There are people,
> particularly in the early days of science, who have devoted a lifetime
> to exploring fields of knowledge and building up a bank of hard-won
> information before the rest of the world catches up with the fact that
> we do not know what we do not know.
>
> I do not class myself along with them - they are the pioneers of many
> great advances of human thinking - but make the point that useful
> knowledge is not the province of latter day holders of a master's degree
> in a particular field. I could quote examples that verge on the
> libellous but which are nonetheless sustainable..
>
> Until such time as my knowledge exceeds that of Rivers, I will accept
> his experience as, at the very least, being far superior to my meagre
> knowledge.
>
> Les
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Phill
> To: Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:51 PM
> Subject: [Syncro_T3_Australia] Re: Adjustable Voltage Regulator
>
>
> I recently bought a book called "Motorhome Electrics" by Collyn Rivers
>
> to add to my understanding. It is written in commendable and very
> understandable detail. He is an electrical engineer with extensive
> experience in motor vehicle electrics, particularly campervans and
> including solar arrays.
> >
>
> Les he is not an electrical engineer.
>
>
>
>