‘Mind-blowing’ Panama Canal is engineer’s topic
‘ENGINEERS save lives,’ a retired chartered mechanical engineer has said during his visit to the island to speak to the Channel Island Group of Professional Engineers.
Brian Coney, who has worked for several leading engineering companies in the UK, had been invited to come to the island to give a presentation on the Panama Canal. He expressed the importance of engineers in day-to-day life.
‘Thanks to computer-aided design and technology, engineers can visualise and predict a product before it is made, which allows them to create life-saving designs much quicker,’ he said.
‘Dyson was contracted to make ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic and they used the design of a pizza box to be able to make ventilators in just four weeks, and engineers are responsible for creating artificial hips and other joints.’
Mr Coney explained that engineers save lives by taking complex design briefs back to basics – for example to design an artificial heart, the main structure would be to create a simple pump and go from there.
Cigpe became aware of Mr Coney via a talk he gave in the UK on the construction of the Panama Canal.
‘Three years ago my wife and I were on a cruise ship which travelled through the Panama Canal and I just became completely fascinated with it,’ he said.
‘The vessel we were on was 106 feet wide and the lock was 110 feet wide so the captain only had two feet on either side to manoeuvre and the structure of the canal was just incredible.’
Mr Coney compiled his own photos and anecdotes as well as knowledge on the canal to create a talk which he first presented about a year ago.
‘The size of it is completely mind-blowing and the fact that it was created mainly by hand is unbelievable,’ said Mr Coney.
On Wednesday evening, he presented to a room of islanders at Les Cotils, before travelling to Jersey to do the same. Mr Coney and his wife spent the week in Guernsey on holiday prior to the event, and visited local tourist sites.
‘I was amazed by the structure of the tunnels that make up the underground hospital, and the fact that it would have predominantly been excavated using hand tools,’ he said.
