Albert and Enoch

Albert and Enoch, my father and grandfather, would have if field day if they were with me now.  They were both inventive engineers and the work I am doing would have been right up their street. 

One of my earliest memories is of my grandfather’s attic workshop.  Indeed, some of the tools in my own workshop began life on his workbench.  Like me, he was the town’s factotum: when not repairing clocks he cleaned windows.  One of his war medals is inscribed: For Work at the Forge.

At the age of twelve I was helping my father build scale models of factory layouts that he devised the Mackintosh toffee and chocolate works.  If there was a way of improving a production line Albert was intent on finding it - and a scale model was his way of getting the idea across to managers and company directors.

Following in his footsteps, I am currently commissioned to re-plan the layout and production lines of Dominica’s leading food and drink manufacturer.  I have made similar studies for processing the country’s agricultural products. 

On these projects Albert and Enoch would have been in their element.  I often sense that they are looking over my shoulder and guiding me to add a conveyor belt or devise a mechanical devise to speed up production. 

Today’s picture shows an interactive scale model that I made a couple of years ago to show how the layout of Dominica’s main agricultural processing plant could be improved.