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Mic Porter
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A “Tutor’s Perspective”…
Mic Porter - Ergonomist
Some of the key experiences that created my
weltanschauung:
A little history but more polemic and a never again
paradigm…
“Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms”
World’s Fair, Chicago 1936, Strapline.
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Born, Penge, in a London “pea
souper” in early 1953 having
kept my mother waiting all over
Christmas. Gosh, I was so
popular! So, to the Chinese: a
water dragon with elements of
snake!
First recorded,
useful role –
“mending” the
lawn mower –
aged 3½.
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OK, not my mum ↑
but a bit like her!
Mic Porter
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My Dad….
Was born into a family where the breadwinner had
been a milkman until he was injured in an accident
with a horse. He did not work through most of the
1930s and only gained full “unskilled” employment
as a metal machinist when WW2 got going. As with
many of the rural poor the poacher was, and
especially in the ‘30s, the butcher!
My Dad was smart, won a scholarship to “Stamford
School” and then to Keeble College Oxford where
he spent the start of the war “reading” History and
(perhaps) a little fellow traveling. (He would certainly
have been despised by Senator Joseph McCarthy!)
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In those days…
My father not being rich enough to employ an
Oxford washer woman would send home, by rail, a
trunk of dirty washing each Friday. His mum
would wash, dry and iron it ready for return on the
Monday!
War work was compulsory during the vacations
and as an “Oxford man” my Dad was obviously a
leader so, in the summer of 1940, he was put in
charge of a party of 6 building Nissen huts on East
Anglican fighter aerodromes.
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Now a Nissen Hut is
very flexible and, un
assembled, fits onto a
3 ton truck. A good
team could assemble
two a day. Dad
thought he could
help the war effort by sending back the “unneeded”
long struts. When the wind came his huts without the
diagonal bracing “parallelogramed”. Dad was
“promoted” to pea picking where, later, he met Mum!
On graduation (1941) he, with another unfit, Oxford
graduate went to the Foreign Office and was put in
charge of all the world that wasn’t at war! He never
had so much power again!
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More of my dad….
In my early years dad administered for a National
Coal Board research project, run by Jacob
Bronowski that was seeking to commercialize the
conversion of Coal into Oil by the “Lurgi-Ruhrgas”
process.
It didn’t become commercial but later my father
used to comment on how much easier it was to run
research projects before they invented computers
and sought to “count” every little thing. Later
moved to the Head office, working in Personal,
building pit baths or closing pits and redeploying
miners. Of course LEO was “just” about then –
Lyons (tea shops) Electronic Office
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Mustn’t forget Mum (neé Bearn)…
Surrey born, daughter of a very minor “white Russian”
who left c1910 when things were starting to warm up
and an distinguished Civil Servant who died (1944)
while working in the Ministry of Health on the National
Insurance Scheme which under-pinned many of the
post war reforms, NHS, Nationalization etc.
In 1948 she left work on marriage (as Civil Servants
did then). She ran the family, undertook “good
works”; later, took up the university studies that didn’t
happen previously because of WW2. She was
awarded a degree (posthumously) from Cambridge
University. A “Bede’s bright bird”.
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PE Teacher - John Cooper
He could “lap” me and this, as he constantly reminded
me, did not please him. He was fast - I was not, as an
11 year old, nor am I today! John Cooper was, also
disappointed with himself as he failed to win Gold (just
a couple of Silvers) at 1964 Tokyo “still truly amateur”
Olympics; 400M hurdles in 50.1s still seems fast to me!
Cooper died in March 1974 when the Turkish Airlines
DC10 crashed in Ermenonville Forrest (near Paris). An
“accident” with some classic Human Factors aspects,
that later, I found myself studying.
School was generally good; became skilled in stage
lighting, scenery creation & captained the Chess team!.
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Early 60s Gerald May (ex Cornish
Boat-builder) moves in next door.
My dad was not practical! A family legend has
Gerald assembling a dolls-house for my sister early
(am) on Christmas morning in exchange for whisky.
The Mays had come round for drinks – and dad had
shown off the present, apparently expressing how
clever it was, as it assembled (somehow) when you
opened the box. Gerald pointed out it was “flat
packed”, returned for tools and started work pinning
and gluing the house together - finished and left, just
in time to avoid meeting the early morning foraging
party!
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Dinghy Building
Gerald had several of us building dinghies. The plan
was to start on Boxing day, launch at Easter and sell in
October.
At 11 I built a 7ft 11” a GM “own design” pram dinghy
(no need to join the BS1088 ply). Dad was doubtful
but it fitted on the roof of the family Morris 1000! Later
came a “Heron”, “A Graduate” and a “National 12” by
which time I could drive; “the 12” went all over the SE.
For a while I owned “N1111 Frivolous” which came
with Ian Proctors 2nd prototype metal mast (c1952). I
traded it in and the original went into his museum.
Later ducked the girlfriend (since school) into the
Tyne, the dinghy had to go but we married!
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Man lands on Moon – 20th July ’69
[40 years ago]
The computer weighs only
65lb, consumes 70 watts
and has 36Kb of “rope”
memory “squashed” into a
cubic foot.
The Display & Keyboard
(DSKY) as mounted in the
Main Display Console of
the Apollo 13 spacecraft,
Odyssey. LEM design
engineer, Joseph Gavin
(d.3.11.10). is credited
with working out how to
use it to rescue Apollo 13!
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Sussex University [1]
Went intending to be an “Engineer” but quickly
became disillusioned with machines but fascinated by
the people who designed and used them – “A
Engineering with automatic control degree” becomes
“with Psychology & Sociology”.
Got involved in student action, founder of the Tenants
Association (USTA).
Help found a food co-op (still going but now organic)
and a “Real Ale” bar initially supplied with Pin(kins)
travel in various student cars.
Helped devise and organize what we believed to be
the first “rent strike” of the tenants of a University.
USTA becomes as powerful as the SU – an example
of countervailing power theory but problematic!
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An “other” in the landmark case –
Baldry -v- Feintuck and Others.
“application by a member of the students union of
Sussex University […] to restrain the use of union
funds for certain purposes said by the plaintiff to be
foreign to the true purposes of the union. The
payments sought to be restrained are, […] a
contribution of £ 500 towards a charitable organisation
[…] and £800 as a fund for financing what, I think,
might be described as a political campaign of protest
against the Government's policy of ending certain free
milk supplied for school children.”
We lost, but l (and most charities) learnt what is (and is
not) "Ultra vires”. Since 1983 Tony Baldry, barrister,
has been MP (Con.) for Oxford and is still interested in
Human Rights.
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Power cuts – and the downfall of PM,
sailor and conductor Ted Heath.
My Dad had moved to Eastern Electricity in time for
“February, 1972 when the miners […] he’d left behind
went on strike” and Dad, “with accustomed efficiency,
[had] to administer a system of spreading 20 days of
power cuts throughout Eastern Electricity's area.”
[Mike Hyde – funeral address 9/1/92]
This address raised two (unanswered questions) and
a critical recommendation to texts of 40 years ago...
1. Why did the Russian only recruited spies from
Cambridge (and not Oxford) University?
2. “Why a privatised Chief Officer needed a larger
motor car than a nationalised Chief Officer”
3. Read EF Schumacher “on energy” as well as
the more well known “small is beautiful”.
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Optimism…
At Sussex optimism ruled – the Union “struggled to
overthrow…”, Tricky Dickie had been caught with
technology of his own instigation, America was soon
to pull out of Vietnam but there was still a campus
wide “hush” twice a year when the “draft” was
drawn…
Peter Hain (then a Liberal and famed for his
antiapartheid actions in South Africa) and Tariq Ali
(Anglo-Pakistani Marxist (now, left political) activist,
historian) were students among a population little
larger than this School.
Asa Briggs (historian of the Victorians and the BBC),
now Baron Briggs of Lewes. Was “Outed” as to a
previous employment by the question... “17?”
Answer…
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Answer to “17?” is, of course, “R”
Apparently the test to see if the person you were
speaking to was a WW2 code-breaker. (Asa, worked in
Bletchley Park’s “Hut 6” deciphering intercepted Enigma
encrypts from the German Army & Air force.)
“Station X” (BP) was the birthplace the “computer” but
the double standards that encouraged mathematician
Turing reversed when the war ended. Then, like the
Oppenheimer, he lost “clearance” albeit for different
“reasons”. The Turing Test lives and in September 2009
PM Brown apologized for how Alan had been treated!
An then there was Tommy Flowers GPO technical wizz
who created Colossus the first practical computer used
at BP to break the German Lorenz teleprinter codes….
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At Sussex...
Discovered an ability to “lock-up” the university
telephone systems and added, to my obscure
abilities, another obsolete skill - programming in
assembler and Fortran 67 both running under
“George 4” on an ICL1900 series computer. Was
never good at reading punched cards tho’!
Discovered the MRC Shift Work Research group, and
did a project with Peter Colquhoun and discovered
the term for what I had become interested in...
“Ergonomics”!
Become a little man who focused in the “now” but
was used by the those that “ran the revolution”!
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University Accommodation
The plan was to continue to build “Park Houses”
named after other “new Universities” But the “unit of
resource” had dropped. In the mid 60s Basil Spence
build at £1500 per unit to “UGC” norms of 100 square
foot (measured to mid wall) per student. By the early
1970s Kent house was being built by the “in-house”
architect at £750 per unit. The students also didn’t
want more “cell blocks” so we looked about...
And found (Robert) Maguire and (Keith) Murray
commune living architects designers of an award
winning School, University accommodation and
applauded sacred spaces!
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University Accommodation [2]
And most importantly they were willing to start work
without payment or even the prospect of payment!
The rent strike was settled on the employment of
“USTA’s” Architects resulted in “Aston Villas”.
Blocks of 6, 10, 12 flats with common kitchens etc
and the 6s (and some 10s) to be bid for by “pre
bonded” students who wished to live together. The
remaining 10s and all 12s for “new” students who
were expected to form sub-groups. Sociologically
inspired accommodation design; sadly recently
replaced with accommodation of a higher density.
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Sussex University’s “Aston
Villas” (distant middle)
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East Slope Residences
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After Sussex - Loughborough….
A shock this was a quiet market town, little political
activity and so many people trying to “win” at sports.
Some “street cred” came from “driving” the Union’s
Gestetner - at Loughborough they employed staff to
duplicate for the revolution! Another obsolete skill!
Living with eight others in a University flat and
needing a way to make friends so started brewing,
then a little freeze distillation until a full productive still
was created.
In the flat was a Chemical Engineer so batches were
checked for ethanol; we were good, purity confirmed!
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Then contract work and ....
“Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic”.
Since that time, lots of projects and consultancy
plus “a little” teaching!
Continue to study - an OU MBA in the early 1990s
- and then, just for fun courses concerning
“thinking”, “pre-mediaeval technology”, “real world
ethics” and “Forensic Engineering” (? Crazy)!
Involved, as Treasurer, with the Governance of the
Institute for Ergonomics and Human Factors. A
£½M turnover Charity & Business.
Survived (so far for 3½ years) the surgical removal
of multi-site Bowel cancer, radio & chemo therapy!
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Now “Northumbria University”.
Also teaching “systems” for the Open University.
A “T” person who has both “knowledge, skill and
abilities in depth and width!
An individual
deeply interested
in “human activity
systems”, low light
photography and...
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Times change… perhaps…
“Newcastle-upon-Tyne:- Once a station on the
Roman Wall, Pons Aelii, and now an important
manufacturing city noted for coal, armaments, and
both ships and locomotive building.”
The Automobile Association Road Book:
England and Wales 1953
“The human scale and a certain capacity for variety
must be kept alive, and it is the task of the designer
to ensure this though whatever phase of technology
we may pass.”
Ashford F. C. (1955) Designing for Industry - Some Aspects
of the Product Designer's Work. Pitman & Sons: London.
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“Most engineering products can be readily adapted
to suit their originally intended purpose.”
Chris Thornycroft – Engineer
Quoted in the obit, Guardian 1/10/2001
“It is a sin to make an ugly car. The cost of
designing, engineering, and manufacturing are
virtually the same, ugly or beautiful.”
Bill Mitchell
Director then VP of Design (styling)
General Motors 1954-1977
“Funny thing civilization. It promises so much and what it
delivers is mass production of shoddy merchandise and
shoddy people”
Raymond Chandler - Author
November 1940
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“If it can‘t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt,
refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled, or
composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned,
or removed from production.”
Zero Waste Resolution, March, 2005
Berkeley (California)
“As we say at IDEO, ‘fail early to succeed sooner.’”
Tim Brown (2009)
Change by Design (p17)
Harper Business: New York.
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And finally Tony Benn’s five
questions...
“If one meets a powerful person […] ask five
questions:
– what power do you have?
– where did you get it?
– in whose interests do you exercise it?
– to whom are you accountable?
– how can we get rid of you?”
Tony Benn
Commons Hansard
[16 Nov 1998: Column 685] Volume 319
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Some advice from me to you...
• Decide what you are aiming for, work towards it and
some fun along the way
• Keep studying – formally & informally; there is much
to learn before connections are made and dreams
established. (I still do! April ‘10 a 3 hour exam, merit.)
• Dream optimistically, expansively and
serendipitously but plan and act in a pessimistically,
realistically constrained and rigorously repsonsibly.
• It is always best to speak to the people concerned
but failing that; each week write as many letters (or
emails) or commendation as you do of complaint.
• .
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Some advice from me to you [2]…
• “Murphy” was an Engineer, an ignorer of people
factors and thus an “optimist”! If (some say
“when”) the Engineer finishes the “perfect” artifact
it will be people who let her/him down!
• Design for failure, when it comes (as it surely will)
to be gentle for all.
• Take and give advice - there is nothing that
cannot be achieved if you don’t mind who gets the
credit!
• Never end a day during which you have not had
both a giggle and a cuddle.
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Some advice from me to you [3]…
• Embrace the arts – by deep thought, careful planning
and execution they are but an explanation and
transformed reflection of the world. A world you and
have much to learn and understand about.
• If you cannot perform (especially music) yourself
then go to hear it live, unique and original; and go as
often as you can.
• Think global, act local and be true to yourself and
those that respect and/or love you.
• Spend less than you earn and give away the
difference so that others can “make a difference”.
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Perhaps this was not what you
were expecting….
This talk has been extracted from a longer document
in which I attempted to codify and refine the variety of
my life and complexity of thought. I wrote for my
family, friends and myself, as surgery approached but,
thankfully, I have been able to revisit and revise it!
“I will hold my house in the high wood
Within a walk of the sea,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
Shall sit and drink with me.”
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Mic Porter
The South Country
Hilaire Belloc (1870 – 1953)
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“The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it
belongs to the brave.”
Ronald Reagan (Speech writer Peggy Noonan)
Space Shuttle "Challenger" Tragedy Address. 28.1.06
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“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the
unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the
world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on
the unreasonable man”
George Bernard Shaw – celebrating the revolutionary power
of original thought, quoted in the Guardian 2.10.04
“The state of the economy calls for action, bold and
swift, and we will act [….] We will restore science to
its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders [....]
harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our
cars and run our factories. And we will transform our
schools and colleges and universities to meet the
demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all
this we will do.”
Inaugural address of Barack Obama (20.01.2009)
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Thank you! Any questions...
And this is the
restored/reconstructed
Listowel and
Ballybunion
Railway. A
Lartigue (patent)
Monorail that
ran from 1888
until 1924.
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