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Lost engineering skills

Arran Cameron

I was recently discussing energy strategy, and it was pointed out that reopening deep coal mines in the UK is easier said than done because the skills and body of knowledge relating to coal mining have now been practically lost. It's all there in books, but the number of people in the UK below retirement age who still possess such skills and knowledge are very few in number, so experienced people will have to be brought in from foreign countries in order to resurrect British deep coal mining.

This made me wonder what other engineering skills have largely been lost in the UK - or even worldwide - over the past few decades?

Are there any endangered niches where no formal training and education still exists, so anybody who wants to learn such skills has to do so via self study or workshop dabbling unless they personally know somebody with the skills?

Are there any areas of engineering where skills and knowledge are being lost because it's too risky (from a career perspective) for young people to devote too much time to learning them?

  • This feels like a symptom of the modern age. When I was younger I took pride in knowing how to do the basics all over the place, under the car bonnet for example, or wiring a plug. These days everyone is discouraged from tinkering, things are sealed, warranties at risk of being voided, and so whole generations have lost the ability or confidence to even be curious.

  • One specific skill that has been largely lost is terminating MICC cable. When I worked for a maintenance contractor, I suspect that I was the only employee able to do this.

    On a more general note, there seems to have been a decline in basic electrical knowledge, as distinct from following regulations. Wiring a conventional two way light switch seems increasingly baffling, and as for switching from more than two locations, forget it.

    There seems to be a general lack of  common sense regarding replacing basic components with slightly different parts. And not high technology or specialist components but generic lamps, ballasts, batteries, and relays. Example- a small central battery emergency lighting unit "could not be repaired" due to a failed relay that was no longer available. This was a common type of heavy duty changeover relay. About £10 from RS.

    I recently met an electrician who believed that fuses do in some way regulate or control the amount of electricity used under normal use. They have fitted one amp fuses to many appliances and are expecting a substantial reduction in consumption.

  • This happens all the time. In the 1970s my great uncle (a train driver all his life)was brought out of retirement to move a steam train the length of the country to get it to the railway museum, he has been dead for about 40 years now, and  I'm quite  sure all the mechanics from that era are also now long gone.

    In plumbing the ability to make decent wiped joints has gone, and in electricity and electronics all sorts of stuff has gone.

    It is not normally a problem - as the delta mask CRT has followed the horn gramophone into the scrap heap, the knowledge on how to set one up remains for a while as a fading memory, and then is lost. I can design valve amplifiers, but there won't be many much younger than my age group who can, and discrete analogue design of any kind is not a strong topic these days but then no one needs it -  as designs move onto silicon and nothing can be repaired economically, we do not need so many people who actually understand it.

    You do get strange inversions -  have been told that due to interest in re-enactments, there are at least as many if not more makers of chain mail now than there were when it was actually needed ;-)

    Mike

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