RIP Prof Blair

[satyajitmenon]

Prof Gordon P Blair passed away on October 21st 2010.

He was the author of several books/papers, notably "Design & Simulation of Two Stroke Engines" and "Design & Simulation of Four-Stroke Engines".

(This is in the garage thread cos of his contributions to the automotive industry)

Here are two poems he wrote, that were included in his books.

A Second Mulled Toast

When as a student a long time ago
my books gave no theory glimmers,
why two-strokes ended in second place slow,
and four-strokes were always the winners.

Williams and Craig were heroes enough
whose singles thumped to Tornagrough,
such as black 7R or silver Manx,
on open megas they enthused the cranks.

Wallace and Bannister gave me the start
into an unsteady gas dynamic art,
where lambdas and betas meshed in toil
for thirty years consumed midnight oil.

With the parrot on Bush a mental penny
into slot in brain fell quite uncanny.
Lubrication of grey cells finally gave
an alternative way to follow a wave

That student curiosity is sated today
and many would describe that as winning.
Is this then the end of the way?
No, learning is aye a beginning.

Gordon Blair
July 1994
Design & Simulation of Two Stroke Engines

The Last Mulled Toast

A Grand Prix race is very rough,
the going's fast, the pace is tough.
The four-stroke rules the world of cars,
in bikes it's two-strokes that are the stars.

Now, why is this you'd have to ask?
The rulemakers you can take to task.
For the intake air never needs to question,
"Is this the right bellmouth for my ingestion?"

The designer of both must surely know,
or else his engines will all be slow,
unsteady gas dynamic trapping
by right and left waves overlapping.

To model an engine is algebraic simple.
You sit on the gas like a veritable pimple,
solving the maths the waves to track
from valve to bellmouth in the intake stack.

At the inlet valve you scan induction,
count the air that's passed by suction
and just as the valve would shut the door,
you get a wave to ram home more.

In the exhaust it's furnace hot,
for the modeller 'tis a tropic spot.
Exhaust waves reflect but do the job
of sucking out the burned gas slob.

Some time ago I wrote two tomes
on two-strokes, including poems.
It seemed only fair to tell those with cars
that black-art tuning is best kept for bars.

This book informs the four-stroke tuner
what I wish I knew those decades sooner,
as Brian Steenson following Agostini
with my exhaust on Mick Mooney's Seeley.

The pen's both strokes have now been told.
My writ is run, I'm pensioned old.
While I may be ancient and time is shrinking,
only Dei Voluntas can stop me thinking.

Gordon Blair
1 November 1998
Design & Simulation of Four-Stroke engines

 

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