Ploughing a New Furrow
The plough is the basic farming implement, and Dr Alan Reece of Newcastle University has spent half a lifetime studying how they work. But now he also runs a successful business designing ploughs to work 600 feet down at the bottom of the North Sea, burying oil pipelines and telephone cables. The principles are the same, but the machines tend to be bigger-weighing up to 50 tonnes and standing 15 feet high. Philip Wrixon talks to ALAN REECE about this unusual application of agricultural engineering, and his assault on the academic ivory tower by combining university teaching with running a real engineering business.
Producer KEN POLLOCK BBC Pebble Mill