The Space Between a Gas Tap and a Flood Barrier

How a £500+ million problem was solved on a gas cooker in a suburban kitchen

Image by Steve Bidmead from Pixabay

I first encountered this story as a student when I was studying physics back in about 1974. It was during a visit to an exhibition at the Royal Society in London. Among displays of complex scientific achievements, I was intrigued by the way one of Britain's greatest engineering ch…