FAO Engineers Only

Softus said:

It turns out that my attempted quote was correct, in essence, but a bit distorted.

A brief Google reveals several references to the 'fact' that this was a definition coined by the writer Nevil Shute, which ran as follows:

"An engineer is someone who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for a pound"
-Nevil Shute in "Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer"

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LOL! Differnet sentiment

Or how about this:

"I'm an engineer, I don't get paid to know the answer, I get paid to know how to find the answer..."

isn't that along the lines of the engineers bill for finding a fault
Total bill £10000 - when queried as to why so expensive for a chalk cross on a pipe he produced another itemised bill-

Cost for chalk to mark fault with cross - £0.01p
Knowing where to put the cross - £9999.99p

meldrew's_mate said:

PS I'm not an engineer, I'm a Registered Gas Installer, or fitter, or a heating technician. Proper engineers don't get their hands dirty, and calling gas fitters "engineers" is similar to calling A & E nurses "surgeons"

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I'm impressed. Absolutely correct, although I never expected to Hear it from a Gas Fitter. Theres's nowt wrong with being a fitter/craftsman/technician, they should be capable of doing many things far beyond mere engineers. There is an awful prejudice in this country (and many others) against people who do manual work.

The IMechE did a survey a few years ago, asking people to name a famous engineer. The most frequent nomination was Kevin Webster, the car mechanic in 'Coronation Street'.


In the olde days 'Gentlemen' didn't have to work, they had an income from the peasants/workers on their estates/mines, etc.. Manual work was regarded as brutalising. The working classes were mostly illiterate. Gentlemen could only work in a profession for which they had a 'vocation' e.g., church, medical, architecture, army officer, etc.. Thomas Hardy's short story 'The Son's Veto' gives an idea of how society worked in Victorian times. WW1 and death duties disposed of most of the idle rich families.

One of the most talented Engineers I knew was also one of the best welders. One of the most useless didn't know how to change a wheel on his own car; in fact he didn't know how to open the bonet.

Softus said:

"An engineer is someone who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for a pound"
-Nevil Shute in "Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer"

Click to expand...

And a quote from my hero in the same thread! Oh joy! Slide Rule is a great book. The bit about Shute's work for Barnes Wallis on R100 and the disaster that befell the competing, dreadful R101, is really educational.

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OP - are you sure there's not a loss of pressure (main gas tap not fully open or something)

pilot is fine until the main valve comes on and takes all the pressure away?

just a thought from an engineer

Softus said:

It turns out that my attempted quote was correct, in essence, but a bit distorted.

A brief Google reveals several references to the 'fact' that this was a definition coined by the writer Nevil Shute, which ran as follows:

"An engineer is someone who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for a pound"
-Nevil Shute in "Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer"

Click to expand...

What's a Shilling dad?

e arrgh ...

just don't accept a drink from a stranger in a tavern

meldrew's_mate said:

PS I'm not an engineer, I'm a Registered Gas Installer, or fitter, or a heating technician. Proper engineers don't get their hands dirty, and calling gas fitters "engineers" is similar to calling A & E nurses "surgeons"

Click to expand...

Well said. I am an engineer. What ****es me off is arm waving fitters who think they know better, because the fellas down the caff said so.

Water Systems said:

What p****s me off is arm waving fitters

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I think you should review the way that you refer to sufferers of epilepsy.