THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Wendyf]

I remember them well, most children's shoe shops used them to make sure there was room for growth!

[Big Kev]

I remember them well, most children's shoe shops used them to make sure there was room for growth!

and to make their feet glow in the dark

I believe they were removed due the the impact they had on the staff.

[Stanley]

Yup, it turned out they were too dangerous.

his occurred to me today. We used to play a paper game called Hangman during the sermon when I was on the choir. Here's a LINK which explains it. I see it is now not correct to use the image of a hanged man. In those days that didn't apply because they were still hanging criminals....

[Wendyf]

We played hangman as children and beyond, along with noughts and crosses it was a simple way of keeping children entertained. Battleships came later.

[Stanley]

I'm going to Bancroft today to see it running. Funny sensation seeing everyone regarding the engine as ancient history when it used to be my place of work.....



Stopping the engine at going home time in 1976. Seems like only yesterday. Hard to realise it's 45 years ago!

[Stanley]

Susan in the engine house yesterday. That reinforces yesterday's image, definitely Flatley Drier!

[Stanley]

Looking at what is happening around me I have to conclude that as far as most people are concerned, the Covid pandemic is now relegated to Flatley Drier territory.
OH NO IT ISN'T!

[Whyperion]

I seem to remember that all gas meters were slot meters before WW2. Am I right? Shilling in the slot as I remember.

Half - Crowns for us. As to Army assisting in destroyed buildings in London, I think the police generally got there first.

[Stanley]

This was my mystery object yesterday and Wendy and Gloria soon identified it as the tool that was used for making pegged rugs. The old name 'pegged' gives a clue as to how the older rugs were made, a wooden peg was used to push strips of cut up cloth through a sacking back to make a thick and hard wearing rug, generally used as a hearth rug because in the days of open fires the area adjacent to the fire was where you lived as it was the warmest place.
An old lady once told me that the most highly prized cloth for cutting into strips was an army red coat. If you see red in an old rug it's almost certainly from a 19th century uniform. That's definitely Flatley Drier country.

[Stanley]

Here's a picture of a pedal driven wood turning lathe, exactly the same design but with a more complicated headstock and mechanism was used for metal lathes as well. Note the seat. The fact that you could sit to work the lathe (And the metal turning ones as well) shows how relatively easy they were to power. This was aided by the fact that in both cases they were using very sharp high carbon steel cutters. Modern indexed carbide cutters have an entirely different geometry and are not sharp, they rely on brute force and speed to generate a cut. They would be worse than useless on a lathe like this. I still use high speed steel cutters, one better than high carbon steel, and always sharpen them as though I was on a pedal driven lathe. They take far less power to drive them and give a better finish. This is, in machinist's terms, Flatley Dryer country. Very few remember high carbon steel, I still have some.

[Stanley]

I should have mentioned the bleeding obvious, that the reason why machines were treadle-powered was because there was no mains electricity and no such thing as practical individual motors. In the home, sewing machines also were treadle powered. Looms and spinning wheels in the home were powered in the same way. These treadle looms are still in use in the Hebrides, cloth like Harris Tweed can't qualify for the trade mark unless it is woven on treadle looms.
It was the limitations of the treadle powered industry that stimulated the use of animal, water and eventually steam power transmitted by gears and line shafts to drive the mills. Wind power was only used for grinding corn and some very specialised trades like grinding tobacco for snuff and bark for dye stuffs.
The introduction of the electric motor in the 1920s changed everything. Gradually they took over in homes as well as industry. Treadle power and the other power sources became Flatley Drier country.

[Tizer]

I happened upon this article today...
`Owen Llewellyn describes how the genius of James Watt and the skill of Brixton millers contributed to the production of high-quality flour' LINK

[Stanley]

That's a good article Peter and from the look of the index on the sidebar there are many more on there. Interesting that they use the verb 'tenter'. It seems to be being used in the same way we got steam engine tenters or dogs tenting, in the sense of watching, being vigilant.

[Tripps]

The word tenter continues to be a puzzle. I saw its use in the flour mill diagram, and couldn't reconcile that with the use as a 'tender' or minder of a machine. Then there's 'tentering' with tenterhooks, and I've a vague memory that a part in the Creed 7B teleprinter was called a detent - I wonder if that's connected?

Show me as confused. Little change there then. . . .

[Stanley]

You're right David.Having been 'an engine tenter', the term for mill engineers in Barnoldswick, I tend to that meaning but do see your point. Perhaps it's a homonym like 'bark' or 'swing'. It's our complicated language! Perhaps that's today's example of Flatley Drier Country because it's only old farts like you and I who care about these things and comment.

[Tripps]

I tend to that meaning

That complicates things a bit - another meaning.

[Tizer]

Delving into Collins reveals that tent (camping), tenterhooks, tent (pay attention to e.g. engine, millstones) all relate back to Latin tendere, to stretch, which also accounts for `intend to' and `attend to' which involve stretching out over time. `Tend to that meaning' also has a sense of something done over a period of time.

[Stanley]

I'll buy that etymology Peter but mainly because we have no problem with the different meanings as long as the context is made clear by qualifying the use as in 'engine-tenter'.
'Tenterhooks' is possibly the purest example of the meanings because they relate directly to the Latin 'tendere as they are being used to stretch the cloth to prevent shrinkage while drying and bleaching in the sun.



Tentering blankets at Witney.

[Tizer]

You might remember the cooling towers at Whitebirk on the east side of Blackburn. I was told at school that Whitebirk got its name from the white cloth being hung out to bleach in the fields there. I'm not sure what the `birk' bit meant, though.

[Stanley]

'Birk' is generally thought to refer to Birch Trees so the etymology may be suspect in this case as the Birches themselves look white.... Placename interpretation was never an exact art!

[Stanley]

In the 1940s this was the height of modernity in the small kitchens found in most houses. It's a kitchenette cabinet, everything you needed to cook in miniature.



If you had one of these as well, a folding mangle that converted to a table you had exactly what my mother had in her small kitchen at Norris Avenue during the war.
Definitely Flatley Drier country now.....

[Stanley]

Here's an example of redundancy in a medical procedure. The old methods of dealing with heavy bleeding from a leg wound caused by a shark attack was to compress the wound and apply a tourniquet above it and this is now Flatley Drier country. See THIS report in Perth Now of a new technique which involves pushing the fist hard into the groin at the top of the thigh to close the femoral artery. This is a much more effective way of stopping blood loss, a major cause of death. The University who did the study advise wet suit companies to put an 'X' on the suits at the point where pressure should be applied.

[Big Kev]

I was taught this on various first aid courses several years ago, it wasn't directly related to shark bites then, it's good they're marking the wetsuits. It's not something you'd want to do for any length of time though as you have to use quite a bit of force to restrict the flow and cramp in your hand soon sets in.

[Tizer]

I'll remember that for when I'm next out surfing!

[Big Kev]

I'll remember that for when I'm next out surfing!