I was asked to talk at Thinking Digital about our project using 3D scanning and 3D printing and trains. What emerged was something a bit more about the industrial revolution and thinking about the lessons we should learn from it and how we can weave them into the future industrial revolution which will spring from additive manufacturing.

1. Printing trains.
At scales up to 1:1.
Chris Thorpe
Boffin
@jaggeree
Thursday, 30 May 13

2. While friends were fixing
government services, Chris
was playing with toy trains.
Thursday, 30 May 13

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12. To understand the near future
we need to think about the past
and the recent present.
Thursday, 30 May 13

13. Thursday, 30 May 13

14. Robert Stephenson
Works
Thursday, 30 May 13

15. Swan Hunter
Shipyard
Thursday, 30 May 13

16. "There was a deep satisfaction about
making things," he said. "A deep
satisfaction among all of those that had
supplied the services, whether it was the
local bankers with credit; whether it was
the local design firms. When a ship was
launched at [Newcastle firm] Swan Hunter
all the kids at the local school went to see
the thing our fathers had put together and
when we looked down from the cross-
wired fence, tried to find Uncle Mick, Uncle
Jim or your dad, this notion of an
integrated, productive community was
quite astonishing."
Thursday, 30 May 13

17. 48,000 jobs in Tech City, London.
25,000 jobs in Tech in North East.
3000 jobs in Swan Hunter
shipyard at peak.
Thursday, 30 May 13

18. Dan Catt
Thursday, 30 May 13

19. Coal mining.
Thursday, 30 May 13

20. 20 years of the web.
Thursday, 30 May 13

21. That midnight thing
is happening again.
Thursday, 30 May 13

22. 20th century is an
aberration.
Thursday, 30 May 13

23. * Not actual IKB
*
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24. * Actual TimBL
*
Thursday, 30 May 13

25. Fallacy of growth.
Often forced artificially
manufactured growth.
Thursday, 30 May 13

26. Mass media, mass
advertising and
mass manufacturing.
Thursday, 30 May 13

27. We’re fuelling growth by
making future landfill
and making people want it
until the next new hotness
comes along.
Repeat until catastrophe.
Thursday, 30 May 13

28. Six bladed razor.
With a motor.
WTF.
Thursday, 30 May 13

29. Someday soon we’ll have to
mine the landfill for materials
like we used to mine coal.*
*surprise, we already do.
Thursday, 30 May 13

30. And slate.
Thursday, 30 May 13

31. Britain created the industrial
revolution. The slate quarries in
the top left hand corner of Wales
put a roof on it.
Thursday, 30 May 13

32. 1863. Porthmadog. Gwynedd.
Thursday, 30 May 13

33. First world war.
Thursday, 30 May 13

34. Temporary railways
for construction and farming.
Thursday, 30 May 13

35. Argos for
steam trains.
Thursday, 30 May 13

36. Enormity of
the quarries.
Thursday, 30 May 13

37. Local and bespoke
manufacturing.
Thursday, 30 May 13

38. Local and bespoke
manufacturing.
Thursday, 30 May 13

39. Our love of outsourcing
manufacture to the lowest bidder
has put a large number
of intermediaries between the
consumer and the manufacturer.
We need to shorten this distance.
Thursday, 30 May 13

40. The 20th century has stripped
us of our ability to understand
how things are made and how
things are mended.
Thursday, 30 May 13

41. Used with permission. All rights reserved by tedmcavoy
Thursday, 30 May 13

42. Used with permission. Julian Birley
31st July 1965
Thursday, 30 May 13

43. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomfs/4718781767/
Thursday, 30 May 13

44. Used with permission. Julian Birley
21st April 2012
Thursday, 30 May 13

45. Three things
happened last
summer.
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46. Thursday, 30 May 13

47. We made stuff
(and still can).
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48. Chickenpox.
Thursday, 30 May 13

49. 1965 2012
Thursday, 30 May 13

50. From “Quarry Hunslets of North Wales” by Cliff Thomas
Thursday, 30 May 13

51. From “Quarry Hunslets of North Wales” by Cliff Thomas
Thursday, 30 May 13

52. The best desk ever.
Thursday, 30 May 13

53. Robot 1
The Gigapan
Thursday, 30 May 13

54. 508MP composite of 80 images
http://gigapan.com/gigapans/872814a8158c1dd2fc4fc1ca3612d8a8
Thursday, 30 May 13

55. 508MP composite of 80 images
http://gigapan.com/gigapans/872814a8158c1dd2fc4fc1ca3612d8a8
Thursday, 30 May 13

56. 620MP composite of 150 images
http://gigapan.com/gigapans/118753
Thursday, 30 May 13

57. 620MP composite of 150 images
http://gigapan.com/gigapans/118753
Thursday, 30 May 13

58. 36.3MP image
http://gigapan.com/gigapans/872814a8158c1dd2fc4fc1ca3612d8a8
Thursday, 30 May 13

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61. The physical pull request of the
Industrial Revolution,
manifested in the mended items
when they returned to the
factory.
Thursday, 30 May 13

62. I’d love the future world to
include pull requests for
physical products.
Thursday, 30 May 13

63. The working lives of the men
who worked in the quarries are
written large in the condition
of the engine.
Thursday, 30 May 13

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66. This graffiti is evidence of a
boiler swap and records show
that this is an indication of “fast
turn around” maintenence. An
early forerunner of agile and
just in time manufacturing.
Thursday, 30 May 13

67. I think we got enough data.
Over 1000 37MP images in total.
Thursday, 30 May 13

68. Robot 2
The laser scanner
Thursday, 30 May 13

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70. Winifred became
a digital object
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92. Another bit of the future
arrives in a cardboard box.
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104. It’s midnight again.
Thursday, 30 May 13

105. It’s not just about
That London (Tech City).
Thursday, 30 May 13

106. It’s not even about
the web, or the
consumer internet.
It’s not just about
That London (Tech City).
Thursday, 30 May 13

107. No matter how much we in this room
would love it to be, the web, mobile
and consumer internet is not the
panacea for unemployment.
Thursday, 30 May 13

108. Manufacturing could be though.
48,000 jobs in Tech City, London.
25,000 jobs in Tech in North East.
3000 jobs in Swan Hunter
shipyard at peak.
Thursday, 30 May 13

109. Wake up.
Those who were 21 when they lost
their job in manufacturing in 1970
are now 64.
They retire soon.
They’ll die sooner than we think.
Thursday, 30 May 13

110. We have a small window.
Thursday, 30 May 13

111. China is not a long term
solution.
Thursday, 30 May 13

112. Migration of
manufacturing.
Thursday, 30 May 13

113. Peak oil.
Thursday, 30 May 13

114. We’re bringing
engineering back.
Thursday, 30 May 13

115. We’re bringing
engineering back.
Thursday, 30 May 13

116. We’re bringing
engineering back.
Thursday, 30 May 13

117. Thank you
Vijay Paul of DotSan
Digital Surveys
Julian Birley
Alice Taylor and the MakieLab crew
Dean Vipond
Dan Crow
The Bala Lake Railway
The Welsh Slate Museum
The Ffestiniog Railway
Sculpteo
Shapeways
MakerBot
PD Models
Thursday, 30 May 13

118. Thank you
Vijay Paul of DotSan
Digital Surveys
Julian Birley
Alice Taylor and the MakieLab crew
Dean Vipond
Dan Crow
The Bala Lake Railway
The Welsh Slate Museum
The Ffestiniog Railway
Sculpteo
Shapeways
MakerBot
PD Models
My wife and Sam and Tom
Thursday, 30 May 13