A slightly frivolous question.
I happened to be tidying up the DVD collection and came across A Year in Provence. A few of the 'one liners' ran through my mind and one which has always perplexed me is that Belgium makes the best CH boilers.
I've never actually seen/heard of a Belgium boiler.
Are any imported into the UK? Is there any truth in this claim?
(I'm not planning to buy one.)
Going back a bit to when the industrial revolution in Europe had matured Belgium had some well known names in industrial production of Locomotives,boilers and similar heavy industrial equipment. One of the well known names was Franco- Belge which as the name implies was part French but due the turmoil of war and economics another company was also set up and became Anglo- Belge due to UK investors. The heavy side has gone over the years but a company bearing the name Franco-Belge has been well known as a supplier of solid fuel stoves and ranges some with boilers and claim the lineage of going back decades though recently it appears they did cease trading for a while till the name was bought again by a new owner. A quick glance at the WWW shows they do oil and gas as fuelled equipment as well but the UK suppliers tend to just stick to the wood burner/multi fuel stove market though I have seen a Franco-Belge Range in the past.
Another Belgium company name that has lingered on in some form is Cockerill which was founded by an Englishman in the early 19th century,the present operation still does boilers but AFAIK their output has always been industrial sized not domestic.
GH
Vaillant headquarters in Remsheid is about 50 km east of Maastricht, but comfortably within Germany.
I read somewhere that in Germany, Junkers are considered to be one of the best boilers. But curiously, they don't seem to market them elsewhere in Europe.
When I looked a few years ago, Junkers boilers could be bought from Germany at very good price.
NT
I?d not realised Vaillant was/is German. Having said that, I can?t say I?ve heard much of them recently.
maybe too many people associate the name with nasty aircraft, like Ju87 &
88.
Probably on a par with asking people to name a famous Belgian - and the only one they can think of is Poirot!
Georges Simenon (yes, he was Belgian- he wrote about a French detective, lived in France (and other places),..... but he was born in Belgium and remained a citizen.)
My favourite is Guy Verhofstadt. Although that will probably make TNP foam again.
And of course Jacques Brel and Adolphe Sax.
Jacky Ickx?
Walschaerts? Inventor of the valve gear most widely used on steam locomotives.
One that a lot of people know of but don?t realise she was born in Belgium was the actress Audrey Hepburn.
GH
Didn't know that. Here's Wikipedia's Inventors and Engineers, no less than three cryptographers.
Leo Hendrik Baekeland ? inventor of bakelite Alfred Belpaire ? steam locomotive engineer Robert Cailliau ? information and control engineer Joan Daemen ? cryptographer (Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Rijndael) Zénobe Gramme ? electrical engineer John Joseph Merlin ? inventor associated with Cox's timepiece; also invented inline skates in 1759 Bart Preneel ? cryptographer Vincent Rijmen ? cryptographer (Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Rijndael) Adolphe Sax ? inventor of the saxophone Arthur Vierendeel ? engineer and inventor of the Vierendeel truss Egide Walschaerts ? steam locomotive engineer and inventor of the Walschaerts valve gear André Waterkeyn ? engineer, best known for creating the Atomium
My first though was Eddy Merckx. Even though I can't spell it...
Andy
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