THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Tizer]

We have the equivalent here with all the different services digging up and relaying our pavements. When we go for a walk we have to be careful because the tarmac surface changes every couple of yards because it's dug up so many times and relaid badly and with different tarmac. I'm surprised the local councils don't specify a type of tarmac and force the service companies to use only that.

[PanBiker]

In Barlick, something that winds me up every time I walk past it. The road down to the former Cornmill was laid in stone setts along with the Cornmill yard. 10 years ago or so I reckon, the Gas or Water board, (one of the major utilities anyway) put a new pipe right down the middle, more or less the full length of the road. The setts were taken up to dig the trench and piled up in the Cornmill yard at the bottom. They filled the trench and capped it with tarmac so we have a a pile of setts and an uneven tarmac strip down the middle of the road, it's a conservation area as well due to the historical nature of the surroundings.

[Stanley]

Ian, many years ago when I lived in King Street contractors did the same thing substituting tarmac for the stones they had taken out of the gutter. I got on to the planning Officer and they were forced to bring the stones back and relay them. I know the case you mention and it's a disgrace.

[PanBiker]

I am amazed that the setts haven't been nicked.

[Stanley]

"I am amazed that the setts haven't been nicked."
Quite so Ian, they are probably worth more than cast iron scrap. Norman Sutcliffe told me that when they started to demolish Ellenroad Mill. The first job was to carefully lift all the coping stones and lower them directly into big skips. They were sold as oil-free dressed stone before the job started. The days when they were dirt cheap and easily available were long gone. Flatley Dryer country.

[Stanley]

A Ford 8 Van around 1950, also known as the Ford Anglia van. A friend of mine at Sough had one and I borrowed it sometimes if mine was in the garage. It had a side valve engine and only three forward speeds in the gearbox. It was about as simple a vehicle as you could get and they went on forever.
I look at modern all singing and dancing models today with computers controlling everything and wonder if we went wrong somewhere. There was a lot to be said for Flatley Dryer technology.

[Tizer]

We had a 3-speed Anglia car and lived on a steep hill. The only way up was to creep in 1st, it couldn't cope in 2nd. It was soon swapped for a 4-speed car!

[chinatyke]

It was about as simple a vehicle as you could get and they went on forever.
...There was a lot to be said for Flatley Dryer technology.

They went on forever ... Except the bodywork rotted apart. When was the last time you saw a rotten sill on a modern car?

[Stanley]

I don't bother to look at them now China....

[Tizer]

Remember the Vauxhall Victor?

[Stanley]

Not a Victor but I think this was almost identical. I bought this Viva for peanuts because it had a bum engine, put a short engine in and it served me well and Margaret also when I gave it to her. I think the cills had a bit of rust but nowt serious.....

[Stanley]

Can you remember the days when people saved their daily papers and took them to the chip shop where they were used for outer wrappings, greaseproof paper for the immediate wrapping of the fish and chips. I still think that eating fish and chips with salt and vinegar out of newspaper parcels on the way home was the best way to get the full taste.
I always thought that banning the use of newspapers was a bit of overkill as the ink used to print the papers was a quite effective disinfectant and I remember reading a first aid book once that recommended newsprint as being antiseptic material for use in treating patients or childbirth.

[Marilyn]

Newspaper still has a use. I wrap my vegetable scraps in it before putting in the green waste bin. Newspaper is invaluable when packing to move house too! Then, after the move, fold it neatly and still use it to wrap your veg scraps!
I used to use it as insulation under the dogs bed in Winter, when son brought his arthritic dog down for a visit too. A good layer of newspaper helped on the tiled floor ( no central heating here).
But yes...a wonderful wrap for fish and chips.
( it makes a good paper mache too)

[PanBiker]

Can you remember the days when people saved their daily papers and took them to the chip shop where they were used for outer wrappings, greaseproof paper for the immediate wrapping of the fish and chips. I still think that eating fish and chips with salt and vinegar out of newspaper parcels on the way home.

Aye and what did they replace it with? Millions of polystyrene boxes, that was a good idea wasn't it! OK the latest incarnation at a lot of chip shops is a reconstituted paper / cardboard box made no doubt, out of recycled newspapers. Proper Flatley Dryer.

[Tizer]

About 10 years ago a US man started a business making a replacement for polystyrene packaging by using a specially grown fungus and it was, of course, biodegradable. It doesn't seem to have ousted EPS yet!

I've often thought that much of the expanded polystyrene packaging could be replaced with corrugated cardboard made to the required size, shape and thickness. It could be cut using computer control to shape it, e.g to pack a vacuum cleaner in it's box. It could be recycled too. Another approach would be to make small corrugated cardboard shapes to replace those S-shaped `beans' that are poured into packaging boxes.

[PanBiker]

Yes and the air filled linked plastic bags could be replaced with the corn starch variety. They are a one way trip when used for packaging so I reckon the substitute would work just as well.

[Stanley]

Did you see the report that cardboard fibre egg packing became virtually unobtainable for a while and plastic had to be used because so much cardboard was being used for boxes for home delivery.
Can you remember the big rolls of brown paper on the counters of some stores when every purchase was wrapped into a parcel with Brown paper and string.

[Tizer]

When I worked in a Boots dispensary in the 1960s we wrapped all the prescriptions to an official Boots procedure in high quality white paper (correct number of folds and shape etc) then sealed the package with red wax heated over a meths burner. We were proud of our wrapping and often got compliments for it.

[Stanley]

Lovely Peter. That was in the days before some whizz kid from McKinsey's did a time and motion study and decided that such care in presentation wasn't needed as it contributed nothing to the profit margin.
The last people that I saw doing neat parcelling like that was commercial jobbing printers unless you count roping and sheeting loads on wagons. That was a larger form of parcelling up and the best I ever saw consistently was on Riding's wagons who ran out of Longridge to Middlesbrough.

[plaques]

Some years ago we took a holiday in Hong Kong, fascinated by the detailed wooden carvings we bought about a dozen to bring home. The young lady sales assistant took the carvings away and after a few minutes brought back a box not much bigger than a shoe box. I asked if all the carvings were in such a small box. "Oh yes" she said with a big smile looking very pleased she had been asked. Back at our hotel I was very sceptical and unpacked the box. Everything was in there. Two hours later I managed to get them back in. She must have had an IQ of 400+.

[Stanley]

I think it can get to be beyond a skill Ken, it becomes art.

[Tizer]

Lovely Peter. That was in the days before some whizz kid from McKinsey's did a time and motion study and decided that such care in presentation wasn't needed as it contributed nothing to the profit margin.

It's why Mrs Tiz always gives me the Xmas and birthday presents to wrap!

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

Once of a day it was perfectly acceptable to carry bottled milk like this in all weathers. Now it has to be in temperature controlled closed containers. I wonder if this is one reason why milk keeps so much longer?

[Tizer]

Definitely. Another reason is the more rigorous pasteurisation regime. The earlier pasteurisation was only intended to kill pathogens which are more vulnerable than their tougher brothers that live outside cosy animal bodies.