During the 2010 World Cup I happened to be touring Spain and Italy with my family. I was in Spain for a week during the early rounds before anyone had any idea that Spain would emerge as the eventual winner. I watched one of the games at a Spanish family's house (who were personal friends in Barcelona) while we were visiting for dinner. By the time I got to Italy the Italian team was on the verge of elimination and the locals I talked to were quite deflated about that development.
Those of you who are from such nations understand the current World Cup 2014 fervor, and Americans who have traveled abroad are likely to have a better understanding than those that haven't.
The game of football (which Americans insist on calling "soccer", a name which was actually invented by the British - see this NY Times article) is pervasive around the world. Equally pervasive are manmade fluid transfer systems - as a group of World Cup reporters in Brazil were reminded of just yesterday.
According to news reports, a pipe burst in the ceiling area of the media room at Estadio das Dunas stadium in Natal.
Mankind has been moving fluids for millenia. I am reminded of pipe systems I have seen in the Old World of Bath, England from Roman times as well as the New World in Peru's Machu Picchu from 500+ years ago.
Today pipe systems are behind almost everything that happens in modern society. Pumps are the second most common machine in the world. Engineers are the most likely to understand the astonishing breadth of fluid transfer systems in our world which includes:
- Water and natural gas systems that underly modern cities
- Air conditioning (and associated chilled water systems), potable water, and fire suppression systems in public buildings
- A multitude of systems that support power generation
- Oil and gas drilling, transportation, refining and final product delivery
- Transportation equipment such as automobiles, aircraft and powered ships
- Plant water, steam, air and nitrogen within most manufacturing facilities regardless of the product being manufactured
Making fluid transfer systems safer, more reliable and more efficient is the mission of Applied Flow Technology. The reporters in Brazil at that stadium got a soggy reminder of what happens when such systems fail.