Development and Performance Evaluation of Irish Potato Peeling Machine

An Irish potato peeling machine was developed for use at small-scale/household level. Machine performance evaluation was carried out using three locally grown Irish potato varieties namely; Nicola, Bartita and Bawondoya respectively. A 22x3 factorial experiment in completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications was used for evaluation where tuber feed rate, shaft speed and variety were the independent variables and peeling efficiency, tuber flesh loss and machine output capacity were the performance indicators. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed the effects of variety on peeling efficiency and feed rate on output capacity as highly significant (P=.01). Also, the interaction of speed and variety on peeling efficiency and the effect of variety on output capacity was significant (P=.05). The interaction of variety and speed at 480 rpm achieved a maximum mean peeling efficiency of 55.6% for Bawondoya. Similarly, at slightly higher speed of 510 rpm, the maximum mean peeling efficiency of 64.6% was achieved for Bartita. Flesh loss value of 0.84% was the least obtained and this was for Bartita while the highest flesh loss of 1.43% was observed for Nicola. At feed rates of 50 g/sec and 60 g/sec; the minimum and maximum output capacities of 31.3 kg/h and 59.2 kg/h were obtained respectively.

We were the world’s first computer operators

In 1944 I worked at Bletchley Park and lived at nearby Woburn Abbey. My job was to assist the codebreakers by operating one of the Colossus machines. In this chapter I describe how this came to be and what it was like to live and work at Bletchley Park during the last months of the war. In 1944 I was working in London, in a philatelist’s business. One of my friends joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) as a motor transport driver, and I decided to join too. In great trepidation I went to Queen Anne’s Gate and volunteered. I was interviewed immediately and very soon was called to a medical. Not long after, I received a letter telling me to report on 2 August 1944 to a WRNS establishment at Tullichewan Castle near Glasgow. I found out much later that it would have been more usual to report to Mill Hill in London, but there had been a spate of bombing and the powers that be did not wish to take any chances with the new intake, so they sent us up to Scotland. Strangely enough, in the week before I was due to set off on this adventure I met a school friend who was also joining the WRNS and had been asked to report to Tullichewan on the same day. I was pleased to discover that I had a companion to go with. As it turned out, we were to stay together until we were demobbed at the end of December 1946. We travelled to Glasgow and then out to a small station on the edge of Loch Lomond, where we were picked up and taken to Tullichewan WRNS reception camp, a requisitioned castle standing in a large hillside estate. At the bottom of the hill was the Regulating Office, together with a large number of Nissen huts—the sleeping quarters, a mess, the stores hut, and so forth. Opposite the huts was an enormous parade ground, while at the top of the hill was the castle, used by the officers, and another parade ground with the naval flag. Every day a bell sounded at 5 a.m. to get us up, after which we were required to do various menial tasks, such as cleaning out the huts, potato peeling, and blancoing the steps of the castle.