Foreword
Watch a train lean into a curve, a ship shoulder its way through a heavy sea, an airliner lift off the end of the runway. Everything a moving vehicle does – how it is carried, steered, slowed and shaken – is settled where it touches its surroundings: a small patch of rubber on the road, a steel wheel on a steel rail, a hull in moving water, a wing in moving air.
This book follows those meeting points from the ground up. It asks the questions most of us stop asking as children: why a wheel rolls so easily, how a car holds a bend, why a ship floats the right way up, what keeps an aircraft in the air. And it answers them with the physics, the history and the engineering, in plain words and clear diagrams.
Contents
- General Starts at G.2020 Welcome 11 Sections
- Road Starts at C.2020 A barrel of fireworks 19 Sections
- Rail Starts at R.2020 Steel wheel on steel rail 18 Sections
- Fluid Flow Starts at F.2020 Fluid flow 13 Sections
- Marine Starts at M.2020 Marine craft 20 Sections
- Aerospace Starts at A.2020 Flying machines 14 Sections
In memory of Chris Wright
The Contact Patch is the work of Chris Wright, Emeritus Professor of Transport Management at Middlesex University, London. Originally trained as a civil engineer, he specialised in transport research for fifty years, chairing the Executive Committee of the Universities Transport Study Group, advising the London Assembly on transport policy, and producing over 150 research papers.
This book is the culmination of a lifetime studying, imagining and living transport – a passion project that Chris dedicated himself to right up to the final weeks of his life, before passing away in 2024.
He named his father, Frank Wright, as the inspiration for the site. It was his car the whole family turned out to push-start on cold winter mornings, so that he could get to work on time.
Credits
- Diagrams and text
- Chris Wright
- Web realisation
- Tom Wright
- Original site design
- James Wright
- Photographic images
- Susanna Rosti Rossini
- Paintings and other photography
- Penny Wright, Barry Duffield, Joanna Walpole and Tom Wright
The author is grateful to Chris Abbess and Dr Patricia Wackrill for many helpful discussions that have contributed directly and indirectly to the preparation of this web site; Prof Oliver Carsten, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, for advice on safety matters; John Elliott, Consultant, for encouragement together with constructive suggestions; B Ferne, Transport Research Laboratory; Professor Simon Iwnicki; Malcolm Macdonald, Head of Vehicle Restraint Systems, Transport Research Laboratory; Duncan MacIntyre; Dr C G B Mitchell, formerly Transport Research Laboratory, for helpful pointers to do with bus ride quality; Dave Skirrow, Training and Standards Manager, Stagecoach Supertram, Sheffield for useful discussions and documentary material; James Snowdon, Chief Engineer of Tramtrack Croydon for helpful discussions on tram technology; Richard Woods, Workshop Manager of the Gist depot at Faversham, for explaining the ins and outs of freight vehicle maintenance; and to Linda Thomas and Margaret Wright for their patient and meticulous efforts in proof-reading and correcting material; and the library staff of Middlesex University and Kent County Council for their kindness and help throughout.
Chris expected there to be mistakes in the book, and wanted to hear about them. If you find one, please write to tom@inflatablecookie.com.