Sherlock Ohms

Famous investigations into the most diabolical real-world cases in engineering

The Incidence of the Light Bulb Going Off (or In?)

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on November 5, 2009

After being fed specifications in a piecemeal fashion, an engineer figures out how to meet a test spec by thinking inside the box By Radcliffe Cutshaw, Contributing Writer The project was to design a device to segment the upstream band used by cable modems. Cable modems are collision moderated: When two or more modems try to send at the same time, a collision is detected and both wait a random tim ...... Read More

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The instance of the Ruined Radar Relays

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on November 5, 2009

You know you’re in trouble when you start thinking that shooting the designer of a troublesome system is a serious solution By Ken Herrick, Contributing Writer I dredge up this investigative instance from 50 and more years ago. But even in today’s solid-state age I think it pertinent still. I was a field engineer assigned to the U. S. Navy overseas and there had been a continuing p ...... Read More

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Industries: Electronics/Test

The Adventure of the Cranky Gas Chromatograph

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on November 5, 2009

Engineers working on an early multiplexing computer system are flummoxed by spurious results By Richard Rowe, Contributing Writer I was senior chemist for Amoco Chemicals at Texas City in 1969. My primary responsibility was developing analytical procedures, technician training, and troubleshooting for a Styrene Unit startup while bringing an existing unit up to current specifications. One task en ...... Read More

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The Adventure of the Malfunctioning Modem

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on November 4, 2009

An engineer discovers that it’s not always a bug in the software or hardware that is causing all the trouble. And that troubleshooting can be a really grungy job. By Dennis Coburn, Contributing Writer Back when modems were gray plastic boxes that worked at the screaming rate of 300 baud, I was involved in the design and installation of an environmental monitoring system for the US Army Corp ...... Read More

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The Adventure of the "Special" Oil Refinery Product

Posted by Karen Field on October 21, 2009

Warning: Details provided in this case may be NSFW. By Charles R. Picek, Contributing Writer Back in the 1940s, I began my Chemical Engineering career as a Junior Engineer at a Texas oil refinery. My first day on the job, I was given a clipboard and was told to go check the levels on all the tanks in the storage lot (there were 30 or so). The lot was large enough that I could only make the round ...... Read More

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The Instance of the Recalcitrant Religious Instrument

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on October 19, 2009

Divine Intervention or a clever engineer at work? You decide. By Ken Herrick, Contributing Writer Fifty years ago and more I was a Collins Radio Co. field engineer at a former Kamikaze base turned U.S. Navy base in Japan. One day the base Chaplain, rather improbably, called upon me. His Hammond organ was repeatedly failing to turn on; could I help? So I went to the chapel and took a look. Sure ...... Read More

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The Adventure of the Ghostly Images

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on October 19, 2009

Engineers wrestle with a cranky CRT-based imager and a prospective customer is getting antsy By Charles Glorioso, Contributing Writer A Los Angeles-area company I worked for was using an innovative and patented technique to “burn” images on 35mm slide film one pixel at a time when the original IBM PC was announced, and the owners saw an opportunity to greatly reduce the cost of build ...... Read More

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The Adventure of the Arcless Painting

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on October 13, 2009

While investigating how to avoid blowing up paint rooms, an engineer finds an easy solution by studying a plot of results taped to his wall By Radcliffe Cutshaw, Contributing Writer In the early eighties, I was working for a consulting firm doing RF design when I got an assignment to see how a non-arcing electrostatic spray painting system could be built. The contract was with a company that manuf ...... Read More

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The Case of the Gummy Gears

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on October 12, 2009

A failure in a military gear pump underscores why two soft materials should never be rubbed against one another Ken Russell, Contributing Writer Human society uses a variety of pumps. These include reciprocating pumps that raise water and oil from underground, rotary-vane coolant pumps used for automobile engines and gear pumps shown schematically in the figure, above right. Each pu ...... Read More

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The Adventure of the Suicidal IC's

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on October 7, 2009

With ICs jumping off boards and more ready to make a break for it, an engineer helps out a competitor By Bob Cowell, Contributing Writer Around 1982, the new hotshot Silicon Valley company was Silicon Graphics (SGI), rumored to have a killer computer graphics demo. I was still at Carnegie-Mellon University as a grad student, but was working part-time at Three Rivers Computer, an engineering workst ...... Read More

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The Adventure of the Shifty Weights

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on September 30, 2009

A ChemE instructor uses this case to teach students that the answer is to an engineering problem often is literally right in front of you By Marv Havens, Contributing Writer Over forty years ago, I took the Introduction to Chemical Engineering class with Dr Harvey Grice. He had retired from decades with industry and made it his mission to teach us young students the practical side of engineering. ...... Read More

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The Adventure of the Exploding Drives

Posted by Sherlock Ohms on September 28, 2009

A consulting engineer discovers an unusual source is turning power boards to toast By Don Humphrey, Contributing Writer In the late 90’s I was asked by a drives company to investigate why their drives were failing at an automotive plant in Mexico. Drives were failing at the rate of 2 or 3 a week. The drives company suspected power problems. When I arrived on site I was met by a rep from a ...... Read More

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