THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

Thinking about airborne pollution I can't help remembering the lovely light coloured Bird's Eye Maple plywood that was the roof lining of the old trams. Over the years it went deep brown because of the nicotine produced by the smokers. You saw the same thing in pubs as well.

[Bodger]

Stanley, heres one job you woun't like in the shed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb-sKcH ... CCcBmX6oyQ

[Stanley]

Too right! I wonder what the hourly rate/survival rate was?
Arthur Entwistle once told me about a bloke turning magnesium during the war. He swarf built up on the bed and caught fire, it melted the lathe bed in two!

[Stanley]

As we get closer to New Year I have a very strong memory that even during the war, all the mills and the steam locos on the railway blew their whistles at midnight. In those days the mill 'hooter' was still used to warn workers that starting time was coming!

[Stanley]

We are told that this weekend will be the heaviest spend in the retail industry ever. My mind goes back to Christmases in the past where there were no goods and no money but we still had magic holidays. It would seem that society today is, despite the bad state of the economy, driven by acquisition, consumption and debt. This saddens me. Xmas is now an opportunity to sell and not the more simple but just as enjoyable event it used to be. My fear is for the children in the playground after Xmas who lose out in the annual competition for who got the most presents, the latest brands and the most money spent on them. This is the breeding ground for discontent and contention within families and is not a good augury for attitudes in the future. Are we sowing the seeds for more rioting and looting like the episodes we have seen in the past?

[Tizer]

After Black Friday and Cyber Monday the retailers are egging us on by claiming today is Panic Saturday. It's all driven by advertising and marketing people, but folk seem to be more gullible these days than in the past. The advertisers have brainwashed them. I wonder what George Orwell would have made of it all?

[Stanley]

He's say "I told you so!". Have a look at the video Martha sent me that I put up on Lights in the Sky. The Cathedrals of Choice now have their own organ and choir.....

[Stanley]

It's a lousy wet windy morning but I have no fear, I shall put on my wellies, Barbour and waterproof Gore-tex laggings and come back perfectly dry. I remember the days when I was out all day in this weather and the best protection was a thick donkey jacket or similar. The thicker the better because it soaked up more water. You were lucky if it dried overnight and usually finished up starting the next day with a damp jacket. We forget how cheap waterproof clothing has changed our lives. Although on the down side, outside workers used to be 'rained off' and spent time sheltering on full pay when it was really bad. Those days have gone!

[Stanley]

I went out early for my walk this morning as I realised it wasn't raining. I got a bit of a surprise when, in an almost deserted town centre a large Shearing's coach drew up opposite the bus stop on the Council corner and about twenty people emerged and trooped across the road with their bags. Evidently part of the Xmas holiday routine for them. I suppose I'm imprinted with the days when there was no such thing and even if there was we couldn't afford it..... How times change.

[Stanley]

My mid goes back to Xmas long ago. Xmas Eve was torture! How could we possibly go to sleep and we knew that Father Christmas wouldn't come until we did..... Funny thing is we always dropped off in the end.....

[Tizer]

..We forget how cheap waterproof clothing has changed our lives.

Remember the Pakamac?
http://www.historyworld.co.uk/advert.php?id=1089

[PanBiker]

Kag in a Bag now Tiz, still very handy on occasion.

[Stanley]

Ye3s the Pakamak.... In wet weather the coal chap would make a hood by pushing one half of ta coal bag inside the other lengthways, when it got wet he'd use a dry one....
I've done the same thing when loading dried sugar beet pulp as grit and sugar mixed sifted out of the bags and stuck to you as you sweated. Ahh, the Good Old Days.....!

[Tizer]

And didn't the `coalmen' have jackets with metal studs on the back to protect them from the coal?

[Tripps]

And didn't the `coalmen' have jackets with metal studs on the back to protect them from the coal?

Ours did - and he was called Jack Salt - which for some reason amused me when I was young.

[Stanley]

Yes, they were called back leathers. The horses that pulled the coal wagons (and milk floats as well) got so used to their daily rounds they moved on automatically to the next house. They haven't got a van that can do that yet.....

[Stanley]

That's reminded me of a story I was once told about a coal chap who, when he left the coalyard after loading his for wheeled cart used to pop into the Railway for a quick drink. His horse used to dawdle along the street and wait for him at the end.....

[Stanley]

Wendy posted a pic this morning of traffic in heavy snow about 80 years ago and commented that none of them seemed to be stuck. They were heavy, underpowered and on very narrow tyres, all plus points if you are in snow. Modern cars, plus inexperienced drivers, are about the worst thing you could wish for in heavy snow. One driver loses grip and everyone behind is in trouble. My mind goes back to the late 1970s when I was going up to Lanark market one very snowy morning, there was about 9" in a straight fall on the M6 at Tebay. I had the wagon and trailer, at that time the biggest combination you could have. A four wheeled trailer is brilliant in snow, that's why so many of them were used on the Continent when we were ignoring them. I was tramming along nicely at about 45mph when I realised I was coming up to a very slow moving line of traffic in the slow lane. It seemed a pity to slow down when I was doing so well so I pulled out into the middle lane and floored it. Nobody had been in the middle lane and it was fresh snow, nothing packed down, and we sailed past the queue. David Drinkall in the passenger seat was counting the vehicles we passed but gave up at about 150. Looking in the mirror I could see that we were raising a big rooster tail of fine snow and we must have looked pretty impressive! David said that wagons were pulling out of the queue to follow us but most of them failed because they hadn't got the momentum I had built up. I have never forgotten it and must admit I was very pleased with myself. The point being that if you have a clear road, momentum and the right vehicle, snow that would hamper some is no problem. The draw-bar to the trailer angled down to the hitch point, I had made sure of that when I designed the trailer and so the harder the wagon pulled the more weight was transferred to the driving wheels. This is why articulated vehicles are so bad in these conditions, exactly the opposite occurs, the more they pull, the more weight comes off the driving wheels.
Sorry about that but we used to enjoy snow driving......

[Tizer]

They were heavy, underpowered and on very narrow tyres, all plus points if you are in snow.

When did the inflated tyres come in? The old solid tyres would have worked even better, I guess.
Another major problem now is that many people will abandon their car in the middle of the road instead of at the side, which then means no-one else can get past, even the 4WDs and emergency services.

I drove to Bridgwater yesterday to try and visit my dad and there were still cars in the ditches alongside the road even though we hadn't had any snow...probably due to ice. The ditches are deep here and you can get killed by driving into one. As I got to town, and after driving through two `sleetstorms', I crossed the bridge over the M5 and it was blocked by too many cars and a roadworks. I knew what that meant - Bridgwater would be at a standstill because the M5 traffic always diverts onto the A38 and that goes bang through the middle of the town. Which means very slow moving, or stationary, dense traffic. Unfortunately dad's care home is on the `wrong side' of town and I have to get through the centre, onto the A38 and start out of the other side. Using a few back streets I thought I might manage it...until I got to the main junction where there's no option but to go onto the A38 for the last stretch. Guess what, the traffic lights were out of order! It was impossible, the traffic was stationary so I had to turn around and carefully make my way back through town and head for home.

[Stanley]

Poor Lad! And all that in an age where we have better technology, the advantages of experience and better road engineering. Many years ago I read Illich on the true cost of individual car ownership and the consequences of congested traffic in social terms. His most striking example was of the cost to society of all the time wasted by people waiting to cross the road. If the same cost/benefit analysis was done today I suspect the results would be horrendous but how can you limit society’s freedom to ruin their environment?
I have always said that I saw the Glory Days of road transport and this was before we had modern roads. The reason was quite simple, there was plenty of room for the traffic and in terms of journey times we were efficient. I wonder how today compares in relative terms......

[Stanley]

As we approach another New Year I wonder whether anyone still goes round 'first-footing. Largely a Scottish custom I think but when I was a lad we used to stay up to hear all the loco whistles and mill sirens sound at Midnight even in the middle of the war. Then we would first foot any neighbour where the lights were on. Ideally you needed a dark haired person carrying a lump of coal and a piece of cake. As I had dark hair, from an early age I was that person! I haven't heard of it for years.....

[Stanley]

Early vehicle bulbs were single filament and compared with today's LED lights, as dim as glow worms. The left hand light was fixed on dip and the right hand one had an electro-magnet that tilted the reflector up for full beam. Lucas made conversion units for the old casings so you could have twin filaments and double dip but this didn't happen until the late 1950s for most vehicles.

[Stanley]

During the war, under Black Out regulations, vehicle headlights were fitted with louvred covers which directed any light that escaped down onto the road immediately in front of the vehicle. The bumpers and edges of the wheel arches were painted white to make them more visible in the dark, remember that most vehicles were black then. After the war when the louvres were removed the old pre-war lights looked brilliant in contrast to what drivers had got used to during the war but drivers soon started to look for ways of making them more powerful. The first route was to fit a separate spot or fog light and in those days amber li9ght was believed to give a better view in fog. Another variation was a spotlight connected to the steering in which the reflector swivelled to point into a corner when the steering wheel was moved. Eventually double filament bulbs came in and lighting started to improve.

[Stanley]

It struck me this morning that on the early motors the Construction and Use Regulations only stipulated one 6watt rear light on the off side and no brake lights. The rear lamp doubled as a number plate light as well.
There were no winking lights to signal a turn, hand signals were the norm and eventually mechanical 'trafficators' were invented A yellow illuminated arrow about 9" long mounted on the door pillar that was actuated by and electromagnet. It all seems so primitive now......

[PanBiker]

We had two Morris 1000's when I started work in the TV Trade. One had trafficators and the slightly later model winkers. I remember the left had side trafficator was a little bit lazy and never quite made it to a full 90 degree salute.