Oh Baubles!
Decorating a tree in the winter months has been a very long tradition. It has been used to celebrate Christmas by Christians since mediæval times, spreading from Northern Europe, through Germany. Popularity in the UK was driven by Queen Victoria from 1832 onwards. Fruits, berries, candy canes and biscuits/pastries have all been used to bring cheer over the years. From the mid 1500s glass ornaments from Lauscha began to spread in popularity (Modern examples of the preservation of this art ). These artisan glass globes took much skill and time to create. From 1880 Woolworths started selling Lauscha glass ornaments, by 1910 these were available across the whole of the USA.
Engineering to the Rescue
Consumer demand required mass production techniques. Now millions of these sparkly globes are available very cheaply. These days they are frequently blown or injection moulded plastic. The story of the bauble is a typical demand led example of engineering product development. However, it has also been possible to scale up mass produced glass. Vitbis in Poland produces 200,000 baubles a day!. Some include very intricate hand crafted designs.
Office
The office Christmas may well be a bit different this year. Fears over handling decorations, being unable to disinfect the extra surfaces may well prohibit their use. It may also be, as with 3SL, most staff are still working from home.
For a bit of fun Christmas paper engineering, you may like to download our DIY paper tree, for you own desk at work or home. ( Take a photo and Tweet it @threesl )
And here’s a bit of recycling – What happened to the little boy who ate the shiny streamers off the Christmas tree – He caught tinselitus! (If you want to read about the history of tinsel another Christmas manufacturing story see ‘a tinsel tale ‘ from @festive_UK who manufacture miles of the stuff in Cwmbran.
Happy Christmas
May we take this opportunity to wish you, our wonderful customers, suppliers and distributors, season’s greetings and a peaceful and happy Christmas. We wish you all the best in 2021.
Lookback
Well I don’t think any of us could have predicted 2020 would pan out the way it did. We know it has been tough for everyone and our sympathies go to all those who have lost someone dear.
- New year started with gusto. 3SL gearing up for the next release of Cradle
- Covid hits and 3SL, along with many of our customers learn to cope with a different set of 4 walls.
- 3SL staff work from home implementing the Cradle 7.6
- 3SL offers its first public training courses in the UK swapped to virtual training forums due to the restrictions.
- We take the opportunity to add some refinements to database processing in the CDS (Cradle Database Server).
- We gain JOSCAR accreditation.
- Cradle is once again offered through the latest G-Cloud 12 UK public contracts site.
- Structured Software Systems Limited posts one of its best performances in its 30+ year history
Social Media
We marvelled at how nano layers can shun water with new connectors from @NorthropGrumman
Don’t forget to share your favourite engineering stories with #LoveEngineering
We ‘tried’ to keep quiet about our Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal. We reminded you that #Cradle can be used to perform simple calculations on your item’s data.
And Finally
As you read this December 2020 newsletter, please take a moment to remember the many charities and causes that have struggled over this year, and if you are able, dig into your pockets.