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Four engineers, past or present, who would you invite to a dinner party?

If there’s one thing I’ve missed during the pandemic lockdown it’s having friends over (or going over to friends’ houses) for dinner. I’m not a particularly brilliant cook but I do like to experiment and as the sign on my kitchen wall says… Many people have eaten here and survived… ?

We always like to play the ‘Dinner Party’ game where everyone chooses four people from a specific profession (Actors, Musicians, Politicians, Cartoon Characters, which of the James Bonds etc) that they would invite to a dinner party and explain why they've chosen that person.

So it got me thinking…

Which four engineers from both past and present (and maybe even from this community) would you choose to invite to your dinner party?

In the spirit of sharing, here’s my four:

Nikola Tesla – I’d like to know if the rivalry between him and Edison was really as bitter as they say.

Elon Musk - Anyone who can make a rocket take off and then land perfectly again is worth having an interesting chat with in my book!
Andy Millar‍ – I’ve never actually met Andy but we’ve had quite a few conversations online. It would be great to finally sit and have a chat in person.
OMS‍ – I think we have a very similar taste in music so no complaints about the Dinner Party playlist there. ?

So... who’s coming to dinner at your house and why?

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0 Alasdair Anderson over 3 years ago

I think I would avoid having engineers from too similar fields and so would avoid Andy's first choice (especially Watt and Trevithick together - I believe that Trevithick used to go into hiding when Watt was around, though that was more to do with avoiding being served with a subpoena, or the 18th Century equivalent, than cowardice). With similar backgrounds the conversation would be focussed on one subject and I would want to hear from engineers with multiple interests.

I think my current choice (and it changes from hour to hour, never mind day to day) would be:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Michael Faraday

Nikola Tesla

Barnes Wallis

I would be particularly interested in the less well known aspects of their lives, such as Barnes Wallis's work on airships, or Michael Faraday's three weeks of intense work in October 1815 with Humphrey Davy inventing the miner's safety lamp.

Alasdair
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0 Alasdair Anderson over 3 years ago

I think I would avoid having engineers from too similar fields and so would avoid Andy's first choice (especially Watt and Trevithick together - I believe that Trevithick used to go into hiding when Watt was around, though that was more to do with avoiding being served with a subpoena, or the 18th Century equivalent, than cowardice). With similar backgrounds the conversation would be focussed on one subject and I would want to hear from engineers with multiple interests.

I think my current choice (and it changes from hour to hour, never mind day to day) would be:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Michael Faraday

Nikola Tesla

Barnes Wallis

I would be particularly interested in the less well known aspects of their lives, such as Barnes Wallis's work on airships, or Michael Faraday's three weeks of intense work in October 1815 with Humphrey Davy inventing the miner's safety lamp.

Alasdair
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Four engineers, past or present, who would you invite to a dinner party?

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