My first industrial design to be manufactured was the exterior of a hydro-electric generator - the casing and access doors of several hydro-electric generators that were manufactured by The Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company in Manchester. They were installed inside a mountain at Bersimis, Quebec, in 1955.

I've only recently seen these, for the first time, when I asked Google to look for "bersimis hydroelectric". Previously I'd only seen the drawings and a model of the generator casing as it was not, I think, fully assembled before being was shipped in parts from the Metropolitan-Vickers works in Manchester (later the company was renamed AEI Ltd.).

(photgraphs of model and of perspective drawings to be added later)

The electrical engineer responsible for this generator was Mr C P Holder. It was his decision to entrust the external design of this equipment to the young man called 'appearance design engineer' whom his chief had wished on him!

The design was I think quite an improvement, both visually and ergonomically. Earlier generator housings were semi-open structures which did not have as much all-round access to the upper parts as is possible when the doors of this casing are open. The main parts of the generator (stator, rotor and water turbine) are below floor level.

I am surprised to see that the colour is now fawn - as far as I knew they were originally painted in 'battleship grey'. There is often such a shock when one sees one's design for the first time. But generally I am surprised at how closely these generators concur with my mental picture of them from 50 years ago. And I am grateful to Google for finding the photograph!

(these pages are designed to be read with the window set to two-thirds of the screen width)