# Captain Sankey and his diagram **URL:** \ **Category:** Scuttlebutt\ **Created:** [March 22, 2022, 11:37am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648 "2022-03-22T11:37:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 11:37am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/1 "2022-03-22T11:37:52Z")
> **[Sankey diagram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankey_diagram)** > > Sankey diagrams are a data visualisation technique or flow diagram that emphasizes flow/movement/change from one state to another or one time to another, in which the width of the arrows is proportional to the flow rate of the depicted extensive property. > Sankey diagrams can also visualize the energy accounts, material flow accounts on a regional or national level, and cost breakdowns. The diagrams are often used in the visualization of material flow analysis. > Sankey diagrams emphasize the majo... ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/3X/4/6/46986de2a133276099c60ebf8be580ce244c251b.png) > Sankey diagrams are named after Irish Captain [Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Henry_Phineas_Riall_Sankey), who used this type of [diagram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagram) in 1898 in a classic figure[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankey_diagram#cite_note-2) (see diagram) showing the [energy efficiency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_conversion_efficiency) of a [steam engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_engine). The original charts in black and white displayed just one type of flow (e.g. steam); using colors for different types of flows lets the diagram express additional variables. Not bad for a deckie. ---
**Author:** ![KPChief](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kpchief/32/26_2.png) [@KPChief](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/KPChief)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/2 "2022-03-22T12:35:57Z")
Careful Icarus. I was reading another “deckie” on this very site who said weight = mass. ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 11:14am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/3 "2022-03-29T11:14:20Z")
7 posts were split to a new topic: [Weight and Mass](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/weight-and-mass/62695) ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 1:18pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/4 "2022-03-22T13:18:24Z")
Well, that flight was a short one. Turns out "Captain Sankey: > was an [Irish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_people)-born [engineer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer) and captain in the [Royal Engineers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Engineers), ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 2:06pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/5 "2022-03-22T14:06:57Z")
Here’s my source - _Electrify_ by Saul Griffith ![Sankey](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/3X/d/0/d07be7356f6ca2620063dea1ffe207804a73ea24.png) ---
**Author:** ![KPChief](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kpchief/32/26_2.png) [@KPChief](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/KPChief)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 2:23pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/6 "2022-03-22T14:23:11Z")
That snip of Napoleon’s losses for the invasion of Russia is a well known exemplar of quality data graphic design. See Edward R Tufte’s books. Some time ago I was trying to reimagine what a good work package might look like which led me to Tufte. There are amazing examples of good design that are so old it makes you wonder how we ended up with “chart junk” and death by power point efforts. ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 2:32pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/7 "2022-03-22T14:32:29Z")
From a site listed in the book, this could be the mother of all Sankey diagrams, at least for energy: [http://departmentof.energy/](http://departmentof.energy/) ---
**Author:** ![KPChief](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kpchief/32/26_2.png) [@KPChief](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/KPChief)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/8 "2022-03-22T16:00:45Z")
Ah ha, now I see everything. By time you get to the end weight is no longer a force and has become mass. Because you know it doesn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![Rickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/65b543/32.png) [@Rickster](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Rickster)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2022, 7:15am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/9 "2022-03-23T07:15:42Z")
You Sir, say “Ah ha”. I say to you: “Ha ha” on your clever word-play. ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2022, 11:31am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/captain-sankey-and-his-diagram/62648/10 "2022-03-23T11:31:48Z")
> [@KPChief](#): > > There are amazing examples of good design that are so old it makes you wonder how we ended up with “chart junk” and death by power point efforts. An old story isn’t it? Microsoft with it’s DOS vs Steve Jobs with his Calligraphy class? Or story behind the rewrite of _The Design of Every Day Things_.? > **[Everything is Always Broken, and That’s Okay](https://doctorow.medium.com/everything-is-always-broken-and-thats-okay-dc9bf24a394f)** > > Beyond “competition,” “efficiency” and “innovation,” interop delivers self-determination. > There’s a wonderful parable about this in the form of Donald Norman’s two classic engineering/design books, “[The Design of Everyday Things](https://www.nngroup.com/books/design-everyday-things-revised/)” (1988) and “[Emotional Design](https://www.nngroup.com/books/emotional-design/)” (2003). In the former, Norman established a decades-long engineering ethic of subordinating form to function on the grounds that end-users deserve to have things that work as well as possible, even if that comes at the expense of aesthetics. It’s a hymn to practicality. > > But in the second, after a quarter-century of watching his ideas conquer design/engineering, Norman does an absolute _volte-face_ . Or Pirsig?