THE FLATLEY DRYER

[PanBiker]

So touching, your concern for me.....

You're welcome, though I say so myself it's good advice.

[Tizer]

Reading the news about the Blackburn mayor attending a party on Dukes Brow triggered memories for me of that area, which led on to remembering `The Tank', the viewpoint just behind Revidge Road from which you could easily see Blackpool Tower. We often went there while visiting the Corporation Park and there was a lovely sweet shop were we bought ice creams or lollies. The tank (a closed reservoir of water) is long gone but it seems like they've put something there to still act as pointer (toposcope?).
This is a July 2020 newspaper article: LINK
This also came up in my google search - Burial mound

[PanBiker]

Tiz, your first link is not a proper URL.

[Stanley]

But your second one is fine and very informative!

[PanBiker]

The site in the second link is looked after by on of our members Sunray10. Some good stuff on there.

[Tizer]

Thanks Ian for flagging up my mistake. It's now corrected.

[Stanley]

David reminded me this morning of this piece of Flatley Dryer country. Richard Bell delivering milk in bulk in Thornton in Craven in the late 19th century. Not so much him ladling it out into the old lady's jug but the fact that in summer he had to deliver twice a day because on a bad day when thunder was about, the milk could go sour in a few hours.

[plaques]

Not so much him ladling it out into the old lady's jug but the fact that in summer he had to deliver twice a day because on a bad day when thunder was about, the milk could go sour in a few hours.

Probably nothing to to with thunder either. Thunder storms are usually associated with very warm still air plus the fact that the best storage was probably an ice cave or buildings with similarly cooing systems something that the small milk farmer never had.
I remember the days before fridges we used to store milk in the coolest place in the house and covered the jug with damp cloth. The idea being that the water evaporation from the cloth would keep the milk cool. All high tech stuff.

[Whyperion]

You've reminded me Ken that we had the Hoover Man call occasionally when I was a lad. New belts and brushes and that sort of thing. The old rubber flex cable was far better than modern plastic ones but not as long lasting. Do you remember the chalk and cotton thread in the core? I still have a very old 1/2" drill that has rubber flex cord and it will stay like that until the cable shows signs of deterioration.

Thanks for letting me know it was chalk, some i fear as asbestos - I have some flex going to electic fires.

On chains and sprockets , how do you know when they are worn out - with the loss of the main uk cycle manufacturers its tricky to get spares - i had some but the bike they fitted got stolen.

[Stanley]

It was always blamed on thunder Ken but you're probably right. I think we all used the wet towel over the jug.



It all started when the cow had been milked. The warm milk was tipped into the tank at the top which had some form of filter incorporated. The flow of milk down over the ribs of the cooler was regulated by the cock on the tank. Cold water was circulated though the cooler and if done properly the milk was very close to the temperature of the water when it dropped into the Kit. If it was evening milk very often the kits would be placed in cold water overnight.



Around 1950 these became very popular. The Blow in churn cooler. These were popular because you could have the milk kit in the byre with a filter on top and pour the warm milk straight into the kit without having to walk to the dairy where the cooler was. When the kit was full you popped the cooler in, connected the cold water to it and turned it on. Because of the design of the nozzles in the hood which discharged the water after it had passed through the cooling loop the head rotated inside the hood and the water ran out through holes in the hood which dropped the water on the shoulder of the kit so the whole of the exterior had a film of cold water running down it.
The problem with these was that they depended on the temperature of the mains water and in summer when cold water was most needed it was at its warmest. There was no advance until refrigeration units could circulate super cooled brine through the coolers. (Or in the case of the Blow coolers, super cool the water that drove them.)
This initial cooling was the point where most could be done to delay souring and it was the weak point. Today with insulated and refrigerated bulk tanks the milk can be rapidly taken down to a very low temperature. That and enhanced Hygiene are why your milk keeps longer in the fridge.

[Stanley]

Talking about milk cooling reminded me of something at West Marton. The cooling there was by ammonia gas compressors and Colin Barritt was in charge of maintenance. I remember two things clearly, One was that he seemed impervious to the ammonia fumes, I can see him still topping up the system from large black cylinders and laughing at me suffering from the fumes.
The other thing I remember is that one of the safety measures in the system, should the compressed ammonia gas freeze and block the passages in the large compressor, was a 'bursting disc' a heavy foil membrane in the system which would burst under excess pressure and allow the compressor to free-wheel. Colin used to replace the bursting discs with the foil cut from the top of a two ounce tin of Nescafe. It was exactly the right size and a bit thicker than the original membrane. Colin said they lasted longer.



This was the type of compressor we had, two of them.

[Tizer]

Ammonia gas is much lighter than air, with a density of about 0.6. When I worked in a Boots dispensary we sold it by re-filling people bottles from a Winchester bottle. The first trick was to hold the Winchester above head level so the vapour went up instead of into your nose. The second trick was to not drop either of the bottles or spill the liquid. Elfin Safety would have a fit today if they saw that being done!

[PanBiker]

Colin used to replace the bursting discs with the foil cut from the top of a two ounce tin of Nescafe. It was exactly the right size and a bit thicker than the original membrane. Colin said they lasted longer.

That's the same as the idiots that put tin foil or nails into ring main plugs in place of a ruptured fuse.

No Elf n Safety there then...

[Big Kev]

I think that's probably why Elfin Safety has become a lot more prominent Ian. Also the Darwin effect would come into play and wipe out the dinosaurs

[chinatyke]

Colin used to replace the bursting discs with the foil cut from the top of a two ounce tin of Nescafe. It was exactly the right size and a bit thicker than the original membrane. Colin said they lasted longer.

That's the same as the idiots that put tin foil or nails into ring main plugs in place of a ruptured fuse.

That's exactly what I thought. Bursting discs are common in chemical works and are precision made and tested.

[Stanley]

In that case the world was full of 'idiots'. Makes you wonder how we survived....

[Tripps]

In that case the world was full of 'idiots'. Makes you wonder how we survived....

Not 'full' but there are plenty enough. I am reminded of the lady who said she wasn't sure what rating fuse to put in the plug but went for the largest 'to be on the safe side'.

[Tizer]

She's probably also one of those who never pulled a plug out because the electricity would leak from the socket.

[Big Kev]

In that case the world was full of 'idiots'. Makes you wonder how we survived....

Just lucky, there are plenty who didn't and unfortunately took a few with them.

[PanBiker]

Well said Kev. Any safety system is there for good reason. If you choose to ignore or circumvent it, you deserve everything you might get.

[Stanley]

The old Albion tanker at Marton in 1968. 30 years old, it had the worst brakes ever, the handbrake was more efficient than the foot brake. The saving grace was that it could only do 32mph. The management said it was safe and had to be driven. In the end the 1968 Transport Act put it off the road. When we tested the brakes with a Tapley Meter everyone expressed surprise the brakes were so bad. That was the world we lived in. Funny thing is we never had an accident with it driving hundreds of miles a day delivering bulk milk to dairies.

[Stanley]

Something that came back to mind when thinking about the old Albino. Like many of the older milk tanks, we had several at Marton and this applied to all railway tank wagons, the lining was a thick layer of blue glass. It always amazed me that the glass didn't shatter as the metal tank flexed. I wonder why it was always blue glass... Could that have been together or more flexible?

[chinatyke]

It was glassed steel or iron like the old vitreous enamelled baths. I suppose you could have it any colour but blue is also widely used in the chemical and food processing industries. It does get damaged and spark testing was the way contact points were found. Someone went inside the vessel holding a HT wand and passed it over the surface. Tantalum plates/washers/screws were used to repair any holes, they cost a fortune. Where the glass was damaged the underlying iron would not be protected and get dissolved by the aggressive reagents. Building up a hole with weld in thick vessel walls was difficult because the heat tended to flake more glass off, requiring an even larger tantalum patch.

[Stanley]

I never knew of any problems with the coating China. It was far thicker than porcelain enamelling on a bath say.

[Tizer]

The railway milk tankers had an internal vitreous enamel coating too.
An interesting little side fact...I've never seen one but there were twin tank versions. It could be two narrow cylnidrical tanks lying side by side the length of the wagon or two short tanks, normal diameter, one behind the other. There were also tanks that looked normal but were split inside into two separate parts. Such twin or divided tanks were to carry separate types of milk on the same wagon, e.g. normal and Channel Islands milk.