Rankine; My Sort of Engineer

Patrick Corbett

William John Macquorn Rankine
the right man now for thanking.

Not content with thermodynamics
he tuned in to music empirics.

His engine hummed plain song, to go
beside power from his cello.

Listen to cruise content creators,
fake blue pool-side commentators,

when we are facing degeneration.
Oh, for new creative expression,

the cycle of steam expansion worked
well with coal and radioactive heat;

a ranking in degrees and notes 
was off scale to our modern tastes.

       Recycle tora* engineer, 
      ahead for a regeneration, 
    crying out for our “Planet Fear”

*Tora - Japanese for tiger

The Science

The poem was inspired by the induction of Willian JM Rankine into the Institution of Engineers in Scotland Hall of Fame in October 2022. Rankine's name is closely associated with thermodynamics: The Rankine Cycle, ‘heat and work are convertible’, and the Rankine Temperature Scale (equivalent to degrees Kelvin but in Fahrenheit gradations instead of Celsius). Generating power from water through steam and the application of heat is a regenerative process. It is less known, perhaps, that he was also a musician and song writer as well; providing regeneration of the spirit at the same time.

The Poet

Patrick Corbett is a retired Professor of Petroleum Geoengineering. His poetry interests are primarily in geopoetry and geopoetics, and more broadly in the use of poetry as science communication. He is a member of the Edinburgh School of Poets and on the Board of the Scottish Poetry Library. He is Assistant Director of the Scottish Centre of Geopoetics and has published in their journal Stravaig. He edited Earth Lines: Geopoetry and Geopoetics, published by the Edinburgh Geological Society, in 2010. More of Patrick’s work can be found at geopoetrick.co.uk.

Next poem: remyelination by Milena Kozlowska