"Interesting jobs" drabbles by Richard Hunt

Global Warning

Interesting jobs #2

It was in 1966 that I first noticed it.

I was working on gas analysis, using a Haldane analyser, and measuring the atmospheric air itself.

This was in Cambridge, so I would have expected the published norm.

However, try as I did, sampling in town and in the countryside, I could not get the carbon dioxide levels that Haldane himself had got in the late 19th Century. Mine were always higher.

I reported this and kept on re-measuring.

No change.

Carbon dioxide was well above Haldane’s .03%.

This was when I started thinking about the possible causes.

Human activity.

Boiling the Bridgewater canal

Interesting jobs #1

The Bridgewater runs from Manchester to Liverpool. It is popular with fishermen.

I worked in a factory just south of the canal, where we developed marine gas turbines.

My job was to sample the output gases to allow optimum performance. Heat from the turbines was dissipated by drawing cold water from the canal to a heat exchanger, and returning the warm water to the canal … hence the thriving fish supply.

Today we hit optimum, so we ran the turbines at full power.

The result was boiling water going into the canal. Boiled fish, anyone?

The fishermen were not amused!