I was on a Brazilian navy ship. I had been employed to design some noise-reduction measures but, as soon as I was on board, I was hustled down to the main electrical control room by the ship's... 

You know what a 'doomsday prepper' is? No? A doomsday prepper is a modern person who believes that an event will occur that will effectively end civilisation. Communities will be bereft of food,... 

My brother Geoff is not an engineer – he works in information technology but qualified as a zoologist. He believes fervently  in climate change. Recently, he sent me a link to the South African... 

There is plenty to cry about with regard to Zimbabwe. One of the engineers in our office is from Zimbabwe and so I regularly get updates on how things are in that country. By all accounts, there... 

Last week I advised that, at the Data Center Dynamics conference, in San Francisco, in the US, the following was reported: "At this year’s Data Center Dynamics conference, in San Francisco, speaker... 

At the Data Center Dynamics conference in San Francisco, in the US, the following is reported: "At this year’s Data Center Dynamics conference . . . speaker after speaker took to the stage to... 

Often, when I drink too much (oh . . . maybe once ot twice a year) I lapse into the telling of old tales and stories. Let me hasten to add that this happens if I drink too much whiskey or too much... 

The term to 'white ant' implies that somebody or an organisation is to eat the person or the organisation away by internal rot. Like a white ant, something inside an organisation is causing the... 

There is no doubt that there is money in the renewable-energy business. Few businesses have the general public so much in their favour, few have so much positive propaganda over their competition.... 

Everybody wants to do his or her bit to save the environment. Some want to be a bit more public about it and so graduate from recycling their rubbish to owning an electric vehicle (EV). It is the... 

Dear Mr President, Members of Parliament and readers of Engineering News. May I present the new candidate for CEO of State-owned electricity utility Eskom? It is myself, Terence Eric Mackenzie Hoy.... 

Nineteen eighty-four is now 35 years ago. It is also the title of a book by George Orwell, 1984, published 70 years ago. The book begins: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were... 

Once upon a time, there was a ship called the Essex. She was a sailing ship, rigged out as a whaler. Whalers were use to kill whales and recover the whale oil for use in oil lanterns and for other... 

I am tired of hearing about all the soft ways in which we can 'stimulate the economy' and 'create jobs' and reduce inflation. The fact of the matter is that government has comprehensively messed up... 

I have a very tall pine tree on my property in Pinelands, Cape Town. On many past mornings, it has been the roosting place for a pair of Egyptian geese. Now understand – it is not their nesting... 

When Engineering News publishing editor Martin Creamer gave me the go-ahead to write this column, he set down certain topics to be avoided. Politics was one. However, I am allowed to criticise... 

Happily, if I google 'Ramaphosa', I get 12.7-billion hits. If I google 'Mackenzie-Hoy, it is 8.1-million, and if I google 'Alan Mulally, I get 462 000 hits. So, I am more famous than Mulally and... 

This column is for David and Linda Odd. A potential disaster exists in the form of the coming plague of invisible rats, which are responsible for sudden crop failure, power outages, outbreaks of... 

After townships grew all over the areas around Johannesburg from 1950 (and earlier), they remained unelectrified. The authorities who could electrify them (Municipalities and State-owned power... 

In Don Quixote, the book by Cervantes (you know, Don Key Oatie – the one where he is a knight who has a horse called Rocinante, pronounced Ros-sin-antey, and a servant, Sancho, and there a donkey... 

Since we are acoustics engineers and have a website, we often get calls from flakes. A 'flake' is someone who has developed some previously unknown affliction to some noise. They phone me up and... 

Deep in the mainframe of the government computers is data that reflects my real name: Terence Eric Mackenzie, surname – Hoy. Well, at least that is what the government has. Over the years, we have... 

Cape Town has always had an attitude. Some years back, advertising icon Reg Lascaris ran an advertisement that had the tag line 'What is Cape Town Without the C?' (work it out). There was a bit of... 

An extract from a song by Jacques Brel: "The newsreel of our life/I'll play it in reverse / Your pain will fall away / We'll relive yesterday / And start where we began, love . . ." So, yes, we... 

So, State-owned utility Eskom says it spent R140-million in March 2019 on diesel fuel for Ankerlig and Gourikwa gas turbine generation. Assuming that 70% of the diesel was used by Ankerlig, in the... 

Pinin is a protein associated with desmosome,  a structure which helps hold cells together. Farina (in Italian) is a form of milled wheat. On the other hand, Battista is the name of Scrooge Scrooge... 

Concerning the liability of a licensee for damage or injury, Section 26 of the Electricity Regulation Act states: "In any civil proceedings against a licensee arising out of damage or injury caused... 

Load-shedding has become like an opera that has gone on for too long. The overture is over, the arias have been sung and the swan has died quite a few times. The audience is starting to fidget a... 

One cannot not write about State-owned electricity utility Eskom. I would love to, but it reminds me of the time that Alastair Cooke broadcast Letter From America in the UK. In those times, there... 

There are certainly some of you who have never seen a transistor or held one in your hand. Few will have ever made an electronic circuit using transistors. Briefly, a transistor is an electronic... 

During World War 2, it was very important that signals from the various governments involved in the war to the various armies, navies and air forces be kept secret. Signals, or messages, had to be... 

An Internet definition of a smart grid is: "An electricity network based on digital technology that is used to supply electricity to consumers via two-way digital communication. This system allows... 

In September 2108, Patricia de Lille gave a speech in the Cape Town City Hall as part of the opening of a revamped hall, which project had taken nine months. Despite the hall having a reverberation... 

Recently, we (the okes in the office an' me) bought two of a device that is supposed to repel insects. Well, not only. The box (as seen on TV) has a statement that it is an "ultrasonic pest... 

In the cartoon the two guys are talking. One says, I have a design problem. The other guy says, there are no problems, only challenges. One such challenge in any consulting engineering business is... 

As I become older, I regret that there are some inventions, electrical and otherwise, which will not be created in my life time. It would be a tragedy if I did not share the invention ideas with... 

In 'nuclear fission', the nucleus of an atom breaks up into two lighter nuclei. Okay. I will say that again. You get some atoms which are heavier than others, right? Like lead is heavier than iron... 

I am a qualified electrical engineer who holds a university degree and is registered as a professional engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA). I am a member of the South... 

The definition of 'fanaticism' is when you redouble your effort when your aim is forgotten. And in that world of climate change, that area of cosy illusions and comforting half truths, this has... 

"Come on, Terence, " said Harry, "don't you know about the Hannover Fair ?" "In Hannover, Germany?" I said. "Exactly," he answered. 

I read an article that summed up the points made in the speech of our latest Finance Minister, Tito Mobweni. It is a document that is full of this new unit of currency, the 'bn'. Forgive me, I am... 

Many years ago, I had a conversation with a very nice physiotherapist.  The subject got onto electrotherapy, the curing of muscular aliments by the application of electricity. She explained to me...