There is this picture that I float around from time to time. As you might imagine, there’s a story behind it – one I have not recorded. But that’s what blogs are for, right? So, here it is ...
“If it weren’t for my career in compressor engineering,
I would never have discovered TREACLE SPONGE!”
Engineering, compressors, the Lancashire District in northwest England, and treacle sponge all came together. Not suddenly, by any means. And by “not suddenly,” I mean it is a long story. So, how to start? “It was a dark and stormy night ...” doesn’t really set the stage upon which this story played out; “I was born on ...” probably offers up a little too much room to wander. What did I decide? Read on ...
This is a story first about Chris and Jack. And Jack. That’s Chris on the left, standing next to Jack Hughes. The other Jack, me, is taking the picture. I ended up in front of the offices and factory of Holroyd Machine Tools and Rotors in Milnrow, Rochdale, UK because of screw compressor rotors. And, in particular, the complicated issues of designing and making them. Holroyd was a world class operation in the latter, Trane was learning much about the former. Together, and along with other engineers in our companies, we made tremendous strides on the engineering side of things in both categories.
Holroyd Machine Tools and Rotors, Milnrow, Rochdale, UK
Chris and Jack, with the exception of being very British, were quite different. Chris is brilliant in the theories of problems Holroyd faced when it came to manufacturing rotors and the machines that made the rotors. He invented a remarkable device that measures the clearance between a pair of rotors using light beams – the method in place at the time was for skilled technicians to use feeler gauges. That he could visualize the problem and turn that first into mathematical representations then an actual machine boggles the mind – my mind, at least.
Chris and his invention for measuring the tiny gaps
between two screw compressor rotors
Jack was, as I knew him, brilliant in knowing what to do based on looking and feeling the parts – truly a ‘hands-on’ engineer. He certainly had a working knowledge of, and appreciation for, the theories, but what impressed me was that he could look at a pair of rotors, take a few readings, spin them around together, then tell the operator of the machine that made them what to do so that the next pair was made more closely to the targets. He couldn’t exactly explain how he did it in a way that I could incorporate what he knew in the models I was developing - because he was so practiced that he just KNEW – but his contribution to our work was invaluable.
And Jack was not just hard to understand in this way. He had a deep Lancashire accent and, I believe, a speech issue. I was barely able to speak with him on the phone as I found that I had to be able to look at him when we talked. So, we wrote back and forth, and I was able to make countless trips to Holroyd and spend face-to-face time with him and Chris.
It was on one of those trips ...
We went to lunch one day at the Black Ladd Free House on a windswept hilltop in the moors above Rochdale. It was a spectacularly beautiful / dreary landscape of rolling hills divided into sections by low stone walls, the fields being mostly grass or heather, peppered with stones. The pub itself was (and still is) a wonderful half-timbered structure with uneven floors and, well, everything else an American would expect in a British pub.
The Black Ladd
The view across from the Black Ladd
After we had finished our lunch, the waiter came over and asked if we’d like some sweets (dessert). It sounded like a properly good idea, so he brought us a menu. Jack (the other one) was looking it over when he spotted something that brought him up short. His eyes opened wide and he said, rather loudly and in his best Jack Hughes modified Lancashire accented voice, “Aye – ye gott tre’cle spounge! Ah ha’not ha tre’cle spounge since I’s a wee lad on the farm! I’ll ha the tre’cle spounge!”
When it came my turn to order, I had no choice but to order treacle sponge.
Treacle sponge pudding is a sponge cake cooked with and then smothered in treacle, “any uncrystallized syrup made during the refining of sugar.” The golden syrupy form of treacle is what we had on our puddings. The darker version is more familiarly known as molasses.
So that takes care of the connection between engineering, compressor, and TREACLE SPONGE on the picture. But why did I get the picture?
Another connection my screw compressor focus had to Great Britain was the bi-annual “International Conference on Compressors and Their Systems,” held at City University in London. There was a good connection between City and Holroyd, the latter being a major sponsor of the event. In particular, Holroyd would host some of the social events. I attended and presented papers at every conference since 1999, skipping only 2017, something I missed enough to have returned to participate in the 2019 conference, mostly for the chance to meet with so many people that have become friends over the years.
Conferences were an important part of my work and I attended many. Notable are: farthest afield - St. Petersburg, Russia; the “big three” for me, with a total of 29 visits amongst them - Compressor conferences at Purdue University, City University London, and TU University Dortmund; least distant - the one at our offices in La Crosse.
It is that last one that set things in motion. Our engineering group decided it would be a good idea to have a company-wide conference. We invited people from other sites to come; to present papers; to spend time to share best practices. By any measure, it was a small affair. But it was harder than we imagined, arranging the logistics. Meeting rooms, meals, AV equipment, printing, mailing, etc. All the things needing to be in the right place at the right time. We pulled it off. But it was a lesson.
The conferences in London ended with a very nice evening dinner and reception during which toasts were made to the Queen and recognition given to the organizing committee for doing a fine job, And, they had done so. But I now knew that the WORK was being done by the students “recruited” to help with the arrangements and by the professionals of the events and facilities staffs. The people who knew all of the ins and outs of really big gatherings so well that they were not noticed. So, at one of the early conferences, I asked if I could share a toast. After the organizers were recognized, I stood and offered thanks to the secretaires, the students, the event specialists, the chair and table movers, the wait staff - pretty much all of the those whose efforts I had learned about in preparation for this time.
After that, I had time at the end of every conference dinner. Now this will be hard to accept, I know, but I expanded on what I had offered originally, mostly to recognize the value of the conference itself to the attendees, to encourage them to attend and participate, and to encourage their managers to let them come. One time, I recruited someone I had just met at the conference, Dimitri Zeitsev, by giving him an apple and asking him to just react at the right time, telling him he’d know. He accepted without pause. At the end of the meal, I stood up and held out an apple – Dimitri, as if we had rehearsed this a hundred times, stood up and held out his. I proceeded to have us exchange our apples then shared the quote, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” The purpose, in my view, and real benefit of participating in the conferences.
And so it went over the years. I’d research ideas, usually with a nod towards something British, and offer some thoughts and thanks. One year, I thought I’d look into British inventions for ideas. I found a list with some intriguing entries: the “Puffing Billy,” and the “Grasshopper Escapement” got my attention. But then I spotted something that brought me up short. My eyes opened wide and I said, “Sticky Toffee Pudding” is an actually cited British invention. Treacle sponge is a sticky toffee pudding ...
So I planned a talk and wove in the story of Jack Hughes and his reuniting with treacle sponge at the Black Ladd.
A few conferences later I was on the verge of becoming retired. The evening gathering was held in the magnificent library of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at their offices on 1 Birdcage Walk - my absolute all-time favorite address, by the way. As I was about to sit down at the end of my short talk, Chris and a colleague from Holroyd stopped me then pulled out a wrapped package. No doubt, you know what it was.
The Library at the IMechE Offices in London
I am, admittedly, a saver of things. Too many, no doubt, but I still do it. This one, this picture, is one of the most treasured of all. Because of its connection to many, many stories of a long and important time in my career during which I was privileged to have worked with such a great number of truly amazing people - many more than are mentioned in this ‘short’ version.
And, regrettably, it’s not really a bad likeness.
And, now you know.
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