TrainsTeapotting

It Has To Be Said  -
Here we are referring to the tea pot that dispenses the cup that cheers, not inebriates, because "Trainspotting" is an excess of drug abuse from one end to the other, and we cherish our SFW classification here.  Bear this in mind - if you ever see the word "Pot" in BOOJUM! then we refer to either an item made out of terra cotta, or the article that tea is brewed in.

Lots of pot pots

     I've already consumed the contents of two teapots today, and these are 2 pint* teapots we're talking about here, none of your wimpy 4 fluid ounce* versions that get served up in the more expensive restaurants.
     Further of trains, or model trains, to be precise.  I work with a colleague we shall dub "Jane", because that's her name, as calling her "10 kilohertz radio signal" would be silly.  Her husband, John, is apparently a noted railway modeller, and she showed me some awe-inspiring photographs of a 1/35 scale rendition of Bradford Railway Station circa 1918.  Typically I cannot find any relevant pictures on teh interwebz (bad interwebz!  naughty interwebz!), so here's a stand-in instead>

Not enlarges, just so you're not entirely sure if it's a model or not ...

     A good many years ago, your humble scribe attended Rochdale Model Railway Group's exhibition at Rochdale College.  Naturally I was the youngest person there.  This is not to sneer, as the displays present were utterly stunning in their technical competence, all the more so since they all had moving parts (those being the trains).  Here's an example from a more recent exhibition.  Art?

Yes, it is a model!

     They also had a plethora of arcane impedimenta present**, including DVDs on the history of various signal boxes up and down the country, and replica number plates for locomotives.  Each to their own, eh?
     Right!  Time to blindfold the motley and chuck it off the Severn Bridge on a bungee cord.

Forward Operating Base Cholmondeley
Note to non-English speakers: it's pronounced "Chumley".  For those unaware due to not reading today's earlier post - which is a serious mistake, as I can track ALL your server activity - Conrad is on holiday in The Mansion alone, bar the presence of Edna, for the next week.  This means he has established a presence in the lounge.  Art?

Laptops, beer and dog.

      This is going to be the landscape for a while.  What you can't see, out of shot behind Edna, are the books piled up on the floor.  Don't worry, by mid-week there'll be enough of them to be visible over a Great Dane, let alone a Border Terrier.
     "But what madness is this?" I hear you query.  "Why have two laptops next to each other?  Unless you seek only to discomfit Edna?"
     Well, no, because that last would get me in trouble.  The idea is that I watch a DVD on the right-hand machine, and then type up The World's Most Boring Hobby notes on the left-hand one.
     Next!
  
I Wonder -
Conrad has mentioned Project Orion several times within the pages (?) of BOOJUM! and will explicate briefly again, in case you didn't read the previous articles.  Concisely put, this was a method of spacecraft propulsion utilising focussed nuclear detonations behind the vessel and it's 'pusher plate'.  Art?

The concept, pictorialised

     It was first suggested by Stanislaw Ulam.
     Here an aside.  Stan is probably one of the most intelligent scientists of the 20th century whom you've never heard of.  His reputation is probably more renowned amongst nuclear weapons designers, since he and Eddy Teller (Hungarian rock  'n' roll atom bomb designer) invented the thermonuclear warhead.
     Anyway - Project Orion was achievable with the technology and designs of 1958, when it was first postulated.  The Partial Test Ban Treaty put an abrupt end to Orion in the mid-Sixties (booh!).
      What Conrad wonders is, would a temporary moratorium on the PTBT allow a modernised version of Orion to put components into orbit, components for a non-Orion drive spacecraft?

This puppy, for example

     It would take forever to loft the components for the above into orbit by conventional rocketry, but an Orion vehicle could put a payload of 1,500 tons* into orbit in a single launch.
     Worth thinking about?

Finally -

Absolutely true!  Technically known as the "Boiling Vessel"

*  None of that metric nonsense here.
**  Translation from Pseud: a lot of odd stuff <courtesy Mister Hand>