Behind every invention there’s serious work, often a lifetime of time and money invested before a great idea can be realized but the moment it is realized the future and the every-day life of humanity is changed. After research and development new technical solutions improve industry and production – giving competitive advantages to some people over others. Or a technical innovation decides the outcome of battles and helps to end conflicts. The B-29 American bomber and deep-sea oilrigs under the Gulf of Mexico are seemingly unrelated. But they aren’t. They both changed history.
From battles on the
Pacific Ocean to deep-sea oil rigs
On
December 7th, 1941 the United States were attacked by Japan and the USA have
entered World War 2. On the enormous Pacific Ocean the Americans needed an
airplane that could fly over huge distances and could also defend itself. The
solution was the B29 superfortress,
the most advanced bomber of this era. The effective distance of the B29 superfortress was 9380 km. Its
terminal velocity was 587 kph and could carry 9000 kg of bombs. It was also
equipped with a revolutionary device. What made the B29 unique was its fire
control system. As a matter of fact this was the first airplane that had
all of its turrets controlled centrally and automated.
The
fire control system initiates.
Superhuman computational capacity by pressing one button. The importance of the
fire control system of the B29 was that it eliminated the clumsiness of targeting and firing and
made it possible for the gunner to fire multiple weapons simultaneously.
Through
the fire control system the gunner
could follow moving targets taking into account the speed of the wind, altitude
and other ballistic factors and move the weapons as well.
Thanks
to the remote controlled turrets the internals of the B29 could be pressurized so the bomber could ascend over the
effective range or anti-air artillery.
The
mission of the Enola Gay, the B29 that dropped the A-bomb was like that.
They
say that the B29 was the winning
weapon of the Pacific theatre but its effects could be felt many years later.
The revolutionary fire control system
technology contributed to the creation of today’s automated world.
The
operation of this world is highly dependent on dwindling mineral resources.
Primarily oil. The most advanced oil rig, Per
Dido is operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Per Dido produces 100 000 barrels of oil per day. And for that
it is imperative that its technical equipment are able to regulate themselves.
The many automated control systems of
Per Dido make it possible for us to
mine oil and natural gas from the most inaccessible place of the world, from
the bottom of the ocean. 2450 meters deep an underwater system automatically separates
oil from gas and pumps it to the surface.
The
most unique aspect of Per Dido is
the underwater pumping station. The oil is brought to the surface by these
electric underwater pumps. The pumps of Per
Dido are equipped with the most gauges. They are advanced versions of ordinarypumps. They are full of sensors and
systems controlling the oil flow. If the need arises the system automatically accelerates
the oil flow and automatically slows it down if it exceeds the safety limits,
sends an alarm and it is also able to stop it immediately.
But
the list of automated devices of Per
Dido does not end here. Installing, operating and maintaining this
underwater system is serious work. These are handled by automated machines, submarines without a crew. A robot submarine can reach the bottom of
the ocean at 2500 meters altitude in less than 2 hours. This submarine is equipped with advanced
instruments to operate in deep sea and has a sophisticated controlling system
to maintain its own location.
With
the help of its sensors and on-board computer the submarine can remain in one place in the midst of underwater
currents. These automated systems
provide the last link in our story, the last link in the historical inventions
that lead us to produce gas and oil under the sea.
Let’s
recap how we reached this point!
We
started with waterproof cement which
the Romans used to build aqueducts. Cities
got water and with double action pumps they
used it to extinguish fires. Pumps spraying
Greek fire was used to defend
Constantinople, the city that with its classical culture led to the
Renaissance. This era brought us fountains that inspired the experiments
involving vacuum, and those led to
the science behind the steam engine.
This led to the invention of the regulator
by James Watt which led to the fire control system of the B29 and was the forerunner of almost
every modern automated technology.
Our
story however does not end here since newer and newer automated systems are being
developed through automatization. The engineers at the
research and development at General
Motors are developing a completely automatic vehicle. The principle is that
the EMV communicating with other
vehicles would find the optimal route and drive itself.
The inventions of today are merely
steps towards the inventions of the future and these inventions will eventually
reform our world.
Author: Béla Molnár
Tags: invention, invested, research and development, innovation
Be the first to comment!
