Engineering & Technology magazine

Costa Concordia lifeboats – an annotated graphic

E&T magazine — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:42:07 +0000

As a final reflection on the Costa Concordia disaster, we thought we’d share this graphic about the kind of maritime escape craft to which pleasure-cruising seafarers may unfortunately find themselves obliged to resort.

Click on the graphic for an expanded view.

Spotlight on escape craft

Apple posts record sales – an annotated graphic

E&T magazine — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:28:45 +0000

Apple does well selling iPhones an’ that shocker! Looks like the world and his wife still craves a new iPhone, as Apple’s quarter profits from October-December went through the iRoof.

E&T has a full facts and figures news story about Apple’s success. In the meantime, here’s a neat graphical digest of the headline stats.

Click on the graphic for an expanded view.

Apple's record profits

Costa Concordia cruise ship – an annotated graphic #4

E&T magazine — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:57:47 +0000

As recovery and investigation continues aboard and surrounding the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship, we look today at the approach taken by the salvage operation.

Dutch salvage experts SMIT plans to use “hot tapping” technology to remove close to 2,500 tonnes of heavy fuel oil from the vessel, along with other oils and lubricants on board. This graphic describes the process.

You may also like to read E&T’s news story on a review of cruise line safety, prompted by the Costa Concordia disaster.

Click on the graphic for an expanded view.

Salvage hot-tapping process

Costa Concordia cruise ship – an annotated graphic #3

E&T magazine — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:33:52 +0000

In the wake (no pun intended) of the Costa Concordia sinking, it has transpired that cruise operator Costa Cruises has had something of a chequered history, its corporate safety record leaving something to be desired. Safety, mostly.

You may also like to read E&T’s news story on a review of cruise line safety, prompted by the Costa Concordia disaster.

Click on the graphic for an expanded view.

Costa Cruises accident history

Costa Concordia cruise ship – an annotated graphic #2

E&T magazine — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:05:14 +0000

In the wake of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, the usual questions, facts and reported hearsay have emerged. Apparently, the captain was navigating by eye, not by the ship’s instruments, and was sailing close to the island as a salute to a former colleague. Most importantly, of course, a number of passengers died as a result of the vessel capsizing.

This graphic details the timeline from the Concordia departing port to it striking the island of Giglio and capsizing. Total elapsed time: three hours.

You may also like to read E&T’s news story on a review of cruise line safety, prompted by the Costa Concordia disaster.

Click on the graphic for an expanded view.

Costa Concordia timeline

Costa Concordia cruise ship – an annotated graphic

E&T magazine — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:11:36 +0000

The Costa Concordia is the largest vessel of its kind to sink, considerably larger than that most famous of sunken ships, the Titanic. This graphic illustrates quite how large it is, with a nifty comparison to the Statue of Liberty. Now, your correspondent has seen the Statue of Liberty up close and I can tell you that she’s no diminutive icon: she a big lady. The Costa Concordia must have been a whopper.

Personally, the concept of cruise ships has never appealed to me much and with this unfortunate business of running aground and capsizing uppermost in our minds at present, it’s become even less attractive a proposition, no matter how many bars, casinos or fitness centres a ship may have on board.

You may also like to read E&T’s news story on a review of cruise line safety, prompted by the Costa Concordia disaster.

Click on the graphic for an expanded view.

Costa Concordia factfile

New BMW 3 Series at the Detroit Motor Show – an annotated graphic

E&T magazine — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:19:57 +0000

Good news for Beamer fans: the all new sixth-generation version of BMW’s 3 Series was announced at the Detroit Motor Show earlier this week. Having sold 12 million of the things since it was introduced in 1975, and accounting for a third of global sales, BMW are naturally keen to continue this trend with the new model.

It will feature technology currently only available in the 5 and 7 series cars.

Click on the graphic for an expanded view.

New BMW 3 Series

Professor Stephen Hawking at 70 – an annotated graphic

E&T magazine — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:36:57 +0000

In honour of Professor Stephen Hawking’s 70th birthday, we thought we’d share this graphic detailing the major events in his life – a brief history of Stephen Hawking, if you will.

You might also like to read this E&T news story, about how Hawking may lose his iconic computerised voice, due to his worsening medical condition.

Click on the graphic for an expanded view.

Stephen Hawking profile

New Fiat Panda – an annotated graphic

E&T magazine — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:55:04 +0000

Fiat’s pre-eminent small car model may be the 500, but the Panda has a long-running place in the Italian car-maker’s history, just like the Polo does for Volkswagen.

The new Fiat Panda launches with a range of powertrain options across several models: two TwinAir 875cc petrol engines, a 1.2 Fire petrol engine and a 1.3 Multijet diesel engine. All Pandas will feature Fiat’s Start&Stop technology, reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Petrol/methane and petrol/LPG bi-fuel engines are planned for the future.

New Fiat Panda

Fracking for shale gas – an annotated graphic

E&T magazine — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:51:37 +0000

What with fracking being all over the news of late – including on E&T’s news pages, as we look at the controversy over the fracking process – it seemed a timely opportunity to share this illustrated graphic on how to frack.

Essentially, it’s a two-stage hydraulic process in order to extract natural gas from prehistoric shalebeds thousands of metres below ground. Enjoy the instructions presented here – but don’t try this at home.

Shale gas fracking

Click on the graphic for an expanded view.