Bill Fingerburger

The gentleman of the title was implicated by some less informed people as the main reason for the Edinburgh Trams fiasco back in 2009: the man who designed the tram project… – except as any fule kno, he is actually an it: a multinational company.  But this piece of scaffolding board that I picked up from the wood recycling place bears its name. Bilfinger Berger is actually from Paul Bilfinger, who after a few years succeeded founder August Bernatz whose engineering company started in Germany in 1880, and Julius Berger, who started a civil engineering business in 1890. Sundry mergers and acquisitions led by 2001 to the company we know today.

I thought it would be a fun reminder as I approach the workbench each time, and now I'm tempted to circular saw it all off or glue on a veneer having read today about [Grün &] Bilfinger's questionable ethics during WWII.  I have no idea if they were unique in that respect or not.

But progress was made today, drilling holes and hammering in dowels to mate benchtop and benchbase  Yesterday's darkness led to a miscalculation in layout lines that I only discovered today after my first hole ended up 20mm from where it should have been.  It was only a few minutes to correct things, though.