Marmaduke

Don’t fall prey to preconceived notions—investigate all possibilities when searching for an answer to your operations and maintenance problems. “It’s sodium,” pronounced Marnie Surfaceblow, vice

Providing employees with a safe and healthy workplace is paramount. Never dismiss persistent workplace environmental complaints, no matter how “crazy” they may seem. A lone SUV motored through wooded hills

Every power plant requires diligence for safe, efficient, reliable, and economic operation—especially when you mix old and new technologies. Never neglect showing care and respect toward even your “old

A change in fuel can lead to several other changes in a power plant. Change can be good, except when it’s not. Operators and engineers must be alert to both positive and negative effects, and act to remedy

Long-time POWER readers may remember Marmaduke Surfaceblow, a fictional character whose engineering escapades were brilliantly portrayed in hundreds of stories published within POWER magazine’s pages over more than 30 years beginning in 1948. Today, the story continues through Marmy’s granddaughter, Marnie, who is an engineering wiz in her own right. Marmaduke Surfaceblow was a crusty […]

Steadily increasing demands leading to excessive cycling and starts/stops can cause heat rate loss, poor unit performance, and increased plant outages. See as Marnie and Maya demonstrate that even relatively

Marmaduke Surfaceblow was a crusty character, providing POWER magazine readers with imaginative tales of engineering feats, and lending his name to one of our most-coveted awards. He might be fictional, but Marmaduke Surfaceblow became synonymous with POWER magazine, a colorful character with a distinctive way of finding solutions to engineering problems. Author Stephen Elonka introduced […]

Steve Elonka began chronicling the exploits of Marmaduke Surfaceblow—a six-foot-four marine engineer with a steel brush mustache and a foghorn voice—in POWER in 1948, when Marmy raised the wooden mast of the SS Asia Sun with the help of two cobras and a case of Sandpaper Gin. Marmy’s simple solutions to seemingly intractable plant problems remain timeless. This Classic Marmaduke story, published more than 50 years ago, reminds us that an overhaul or startup may not go as planned, but it can still have a happy ending.