THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

Younger people reading THIS will have difficulty comprehending that it was quite a normal occurrence to hear a news report that someone had been executed by hanging. In that respect it is Flatley Dryer territory but there are still individuals who would welcome its return.

[Stanley]

Listening to the news broadcasts yesterday it would appear that one thing that isn't Flatley Dryer country is the education gap between the north and the south. The NE had a 25% pass rate in higher grades, London and the SE over 50%. Some things never change. And yet we are told the N/S Divide doesn't exist.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS Wikipedia article on crystal detectors. By the time I was born we had the early valve sets with loudspeakers but 'crystal sets' were a recent memory and you could get cheap kits and make your own.



This is what we used to call the 'cat's whisker' and was the way you tuned the set. You put the earphones on and gently adjusted the cat's whisker on the crystal until you found the magic spot that gave you reception. Don't ask me how it worked, I don't know. All I know is that we could make them, they didn't need any batteries or outside power and it was exciting getting the station you were looking for.
Flatley Dryer country now, very few people will ever have seen one let alone made one that worked.

[Stanley]

The Ewbank cleaner was almost universal before WW2. There were electric vacuum cleaners coming on the market in the 1930s but they were few and far between. Funnily enough the Ewbank has survived and 140 years after its invention is still bought and used today. I may have slipped up here, is it Flatley Dryer country?

[chinatyke]

http://www.ewbank.co.uk/
http://www.ewbankglobal.com/

Still going.

[Tizer]

A web page on Ewbank: LINK
I read that the name `Ewbank' came from an area of Blackburn where they had a factory. But I can't remember any part of Blackburn having that name. The company started in Accrington and at least one factory in Blackburn. Another of their web pages says the name came from the area of Accrington where they had a factory (Hyndburn Road).

[Stanley]

Today is definitely Flatley Dryer country!



This is the Wimet Tungsten Carbide tipped tool I shall be using this morning to turn cast iron. It's regarded as obsolete today but in the 1930s was state of the art. When Johnny Pickles had thousands of loom pulleys to make because of slowing looms down for the More Looms System, he got some of the new Wimet tools made in Germany and his son Newton said they were a miracle, they only needed once every few days instead a every quarter of an hour like the cast steel tools they were using.



Wimet are still in business but today have moved on and now make these indexed carbide tools which are once again state of the art. If you have a lathe that is powerful enough you can take enormous cuts. I use them but not as they are designed to be used because my lathe isn't fast enough to take advantage of the characteristics. The only advantage I get is they wear so well.
The old Wimet I shall be using this morning has the advantage that because I can sharpen it on a green grit wheel to the same shape as a High Speed Steel cutter I can get a better finish. Even so, it is Flatley Dryer country compared to modern practice.

[Stanley]

This is Flatley Dryer country. When it was made over 50 years ago, my 11" Harrison was state of the art and one of the best lathes you could buy. It's still a good accurate lathe but where it has fallen behind and is old fashioned is in it;s power and speed. It hasn't enough of either to take full advantage of the modern carbide cutters. This is no great matter to an amateur like me but in a modern production context it is hopelessly old fashioned.
Despite that major disadvantage I love it and wouldn't swap for a modern wonder machine. For one thing it would be too expensive and for another, new lathes don't have the same feel as the old ones. Hard to explain why but it's true.

[Stanley]

At one time all ironmongers stocked this item plus a flat galvanised washer with two tabs to go with it. Very few people would know what it is but in days gone by, instead of spending a fortune on a plastic mop you had a brush stail with one of these on the end. You took a length of soft waste from the mill laid it between the tabs on the washer and after pushing the tabs through the slots in the head, bent them over and you had a new cotton mop.

[Tizer]

i wonder what the Dragon's Den celebrities would make of it today!

[Stanley]

Not a lot because with technology as simple as that there is no room for any significant profit.



And here's the bucket to go with it.

[Stanley]

Can you remember the time when these were the hottest thing in retailing. For a time everyone was giving them but then it was realised that as everyone was giving them they were no longer increasing sales but were a drain on profits. They fizzled out and vanished.

[Tizer]

Then along came `petrol glasses'! I can remember friends telling each other which filling stations were offering the points for the free wine glasses.

[Stanley]

I doubt if there's a kitchen in the country that hasn't a couple of garage glasses in it.
Can you remember when many Australian wines came in carafes instead of bottles? I'll bet a lot of them survived as well.

[Cathy]

Stanley you can still buy those kind of buckets that you mentioned. About $70 for the metal ones, and $18 for the plastic ones.

43B47421-E3C3-436C-BBC7-657F1442A08E.png

0121EDF2-8E5C-4C4B-AAB5-5DFEA124E913.png

[Tizer]

I think we have one of those in our garage somewhere, Cathy, inherited from the previous owner of this house.

Can you remember when many Australian wines came in carafes instead of bottles?

When we were in Liverpool in the early 1970s we used to go to an off-licence on Smithdown Road to get our bottle filled with Aussie wine from a cask.

[chinatyke]

Stanley you can still buy those kind of buckets that you mentioned. About for the metal ones, and $18 for the plastic ones.

$70 for a bucket? Yipes! Hope it is gold plated.

[Stanley]

I have two old and very heavily made galvanised iron buckets. They will last forever!



One of them serves to hold kindling for the stove.

[Stanley]

I was once told that Newfield Edge at the bottom of Folly Lane had a built in vacuum system with outlets in all the main rooms. I was told the vacuum pump was driven by a hot air engine in an outhouse. I know the house had a DC electricity supply for lighting with leccy from the batteries in the cellar at Bancroft after 1920 and until mains arrived. Eughtred Nutter told me he used to go round and collect the money each month.

[Stanley]

I went for a furtle to see if I could find a central vacuum driven by a hot air engine but failed. However I did find this.... Herbert Booth's original portable vacuum cleaner.

[Stanley]

The reason this came to mind as a Flatley Dryer candidate is that yesterday a nice man gave me a set of castings for a Shand Mason steam fire pump and I think this one in Barlick was that make. (LINK)



Here we are, castings and drawings. I have had to put it away, it's a distraction!

[chinatyke]

The reason this came to mind as a Flatley Dryer candidate is that yesterday a nice man gave me a set of castings for a Shand Mason steam fire pump and I think this one in Barlick was that make. (LINK)

Here we are, castings and drawings. I have had to put it away, it's a distraction!

Aren't you the lucky one? Is there a full set of parts or can you obtain or fabricate what is missing?

[Stanley]

I suspect all the parts will be there and a few extra as well, there's at least one part partially made that doesn't look like part of the pump. I have put it on one side.... See Shed Matters.

[Stanley]

This old Milk Marketing Board advertising poster is Flatley Dryer country on several counts. The workmen are dressed in old 'normal' clothing and not ' high-viz' overalls or waterproofs. My dad used to call the thongs tying the trousers below the knee 'bowyangs'. Workmen striking an object with heavy hammers would be illegal now, they would have a machine to do it. Last but not least the MMB no longer exists. See THIS Wikipedia article.
For years I worked under the control of the MMB at West Marton Dairy and I regret it's passing. It served the farmers well. They complained about it while it had control but miss it dreadfully now. It was that rarest of entities, a quango that worked well!

[Stanley]

Tobacco advertising. There is nothing more embedded in Flatley Dryer country than this.