“Steam engines don't answer back. You can belt them with a hammer and they say nowt.”

—  Fred Dibnah

Unsourced

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Steam engines don't answer back. You can belt them with a hammer and they say nowt." by Fred Dibnah?
Fred Dibnah photo
Fred Dibnah22
English steeplejack and television personality, with a keen… 1938–2004

Related quotes

William McFee photo

“Steam is the friend of man. Steam engines are very human. Their very weaknesses are understandable. Steam engines do not flash back and blow your face in. They do not short-circuit and rive your heart with imponderable electric force. They have arms and legs and warm hearts and veins full of warm vapour. Give us steam every time. You know where you are with steam.”

William McFee (1881–1966) American writer

"A Six-hour Shift : The Log of a Transport Engineer" in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CXIX, No. 4 (April 1917), p. 449

Howard Bloom photo

“Where did the second law of thermodynamics come from? …The steam engine. …The cosmos is not a steam engine.”

Howard Bloom (1943) American publicist and author

Heresy Number Three
The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates (2012)

Samuel Wilberforce photo

“Modern liberalism: a heartless steam engine.”

Samuel Wilberforce (1805–1873) Bishop in the Church of England

Quoted in Arthur Burns, "Wilberforce, Samuel (1805–1873)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004

Fred Dibnah photo

“Steeplejacking's a bit of a spasmodic job, so you can play with your steam engine instead. It's a bit like being very rich.”

Fred Dibnah (1938–2004) English steeplejack and television personality, with a keen interest in mechanical engineering

Unsourced

“The switch from 'steam engines' to 'heat engines' signals the transition from engineering practice to theoretical science.”

Hans Christian von Baeyer (1938) American physicist

Source: Information, The New Language of Science (2003), Chapter 18, Information is Physical, The cost of forgetting, p. 154

Jacques Parizeau photo

“Can you imagine feds saying we don't like your answers.”

Jacques Parizeau (1930–2015) Canadian politician

May 15, 2005 - interview on CTV news with reporter/anchorwoman Lisa LaFlamme, Parizeau said the Clarity Act "meant nothing" and would be ignored. "Can you imagine feds saying we don't like your answers," Parizeau told the interviewer, calling such suggestions a "political stunt."

Bill Bryson photo

“A sign in the yard of a church next door said CHRIST IS THE ANSWER. (The question, of course, is: What do you say when you strike your thumb with a hammer?)”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America (1989)

Lewis Mumford photo

“The clock, not the steam-engine, is the key-machine of the modern industrial age.”

Lewis Mumford book Technics and Civilization

Source: Technics and Civilization (1934), Ch. 1, sct. 2

Frank Chodorov photo

“Private Capitalism makes a steam engine; State Capitalism makes pyramids.”

Frank Chodorov (1887–1966) American libertarian thinker

As quoted in “Frank Chodorov: Champion of Liberty,” Aaron Steelman, FEE, (Foundation for Economic Education), (December 1, 1996) https://fee.org/articles/frank-chodorov-champion-of-liberty/

Sydney Smith photo

“Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Vol. I, ch. 9
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

Related topics