Biography
Born (1941) , raised and still living in Roosendaal, the
Netherlands. Married,
father of two sons and one daughter, also grandpa of five grandchildren; see movie. Retired
from October 2001 at the age of 60.
Technical background
I studied physics at the Technical College in Eindhoven. During 40 years I worked
at the Philips Company in Roosendaal, mainly in the field of the development and
the implementation of physical TL lamp-making processes. With that I cooperated
very closely with the mechanical department where the lamp-making machinery is
designed, based on that new developed processes. In that collective work I picked
up a reasonable knowledge of mechanics, or at least a sufficient feeling
for it, to start my model work at the moment I retired.Before my retirement I never touched a lathe or milling machine.
Present
status Almost the first day of my retirement I set up a
workshop in my inside garage with an EMCO lathe and milling machine. I could
buy up this machinery from an ex colleague,
inclusive a lot of accessories and working tools, so that I could start immediately.
Initially I made only one steam engine and renovated some old antique ones; see the page "Various
other modeling work". But rather soon I switched over to the less complex
but very fascinating hot air engines according to the Stirling and "flame-eating"
(Vacuum Engine) principles from what I designed and make 18 and 9 respectively till now. From 2007 I ventured myself also to 2- and 4-stroke
internal combustion model engines; till now I designed and build 21 of them.
I am a member of the Dutch Association of Model builders (NVM) and I publish regularly
in their monthly magazine "De Modelbouwer". As an appreciation I could
receive two times the so called "Glacius" award in 2004 and 2016 and in 2017 the Oeuvre Award; see the pictures right under. I also published several times in the UK magazine "Model Engineer" and in the US magazine Modelbuilder".
My
working method Almost always I make my own designs, based
on general working principles and ideas, mainly acquired at surfing
on Internet websites in this field. In fact, the underlying physics fascinates
me more than the mechanics as such. A good notion of the working principles can
lead to creative and unique solutions, according to my explicit parole: "simplicity
is the characteristic of the real truth". Another thing is that I always strive for ultimate
simplicity, reliability and friendly behavior of my models, other than for great
performances. Additional a nice looking design, suitable for demonstrations in
domestic environments. So my pursuit
is more aimed at a piece of "technical jewelry" than at a "robust
hooligan".
First I generate some
ideas with rough sketches. After that I make somewhat more detailed drawings of
the most essential parts of the engine. On that basis I start building and add
already doing the rest of the engine components, until an active model arises,
mostly with trial and error.
If the engine is working as I intended and runs reliable I make a complete set of CAD drawing plans afterwards making them free available for interested
colleague model builders. Till now I made 43 of such drawing plans; see the concerning pages or the drawing
plan overview on this website. Drawing plans of a specific model are freely available on request
via e-mail to: jan.ridders@gmail.com