Old Tech thread

[Foxbat]

This is the radio my grandfather had, and that I inherited, and is still in the attic somewhere...

View attachment 55176

Close-up of the tuning dial:

View attachment 55177

As I recall, the amber badge in the middle glowed when the set was on. 5 valves, internal aerial, long, medium and short wave, sheer nostalgia. And it was huge (460 x 340 x 220 mm / 18.1 x 13.4 x 8.7 inches)...

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/belcher_westminster_a_5350a535.html?language_id=2

It might be worth a few quid
P.S. If you ever think of getting it restored, valves are still being manufactured. It's mainly for the music business but a lot of valves are pretty generic (EL34s for example).

 

[Foxbat]

Mimeographs are the smell I remember most. The teach would pass out the freshly copied sheets and the first thing everyone did was inhale the smell. I guess we were trying to get some sort of buzz.

This might be where I also recall the smell from.

 

[Vertigo]

This might be where I also recall the smell from.

Mimeographs are the smell I remember most. The teach would pass out the freshly copied sheets and the first thing everyone did was inhale the smell. I guess we were trying to get some sort of buzz.

Wasn't the smell methylayted spirits or some such?

 

[Foxbat]

Wasn't the smell methylayted spirits or some such?

Now that you mention it......could well have been. So long ago. My memory chips are not what they used to be.

 

[CupofJoe]

Now that you mention it......could well have been. So long ago. My memory chips are not what they used to be.

I can remember lighting myself of fire when I overfilled one of these and someone else decided that it was a good time to have a smoke [there was no H&S in the 80s]. Fortunately, the fire was so cool, that I had the time to take off the lab coat I was wearing before I got burned [other than a few singed hairs].

 

[Vertigo]

I can remember lighting myself of fire when I overfilled one of these and someone else decided that it was a good time to have a smoke [there was no H&S in the 80s]. Fortunately, the fire was so cool, that I had the time to take off the lab coat I was wearing before I got burned [other than a few singed hairs].

In the outdoor world there is a kind of cooker called a Trangia which runs off meths. The meths reservoir is also the burner with a perforated top. Physically it can theoretically be filled whilst actually still burning by squirting the meths from the bottle into the top of the tank. But... there are all those naked flames around. A mate of mine tried this once and the flame travelled up the squirting jet and set the whole meths bottle alight.

… he's never tried this again to my knowledge!

 

[Foxbat]

I remember hearing stories about people drinking meths so (idiot teenager that I was) I decided to taste it for myself(didn't swallow).
Don't do it. It really burns your tongue.

 

[CupofJoe]

I remember hearing stories about people drinking meths so (idiot teenager that I was) I decided to taste it for myself(didn't swallow).
Don't do it. It really burns your tongue.

The purple meths you can by from a hardware store has some methanol added to it [that why we call it meths]. Also a taste and a dye added to it to stop you from drinking it. If you can get clear meths or more accurately ethanol alcohol, you can drink it... I don't recommend it but it has been done. It is what I preferred to use when I was fire-breathing. White Spirit made me sick, and as you say Meths tasted awful. Ethanol just tasted like really, really bad vodka.

 

[Foxbat]

I think you're the first fire-breather I've ever come across

Edit: should correct myself and say that you're the first I've had a conversation with (I've obviously seen fire-breathers before in a circus or funfare setting)

There's a fire festival in Scotland (Beltane). You'd fit right in.

Beltane Fire Festival 2019

Celebrate the first signs of summer at Scotland’s largest fire festival with a wild mix of fire, drumming, dance, and acrobatics.

beltane.org

 

[Abernovo]

The purple meths you can by from a hardware store has some methanol added to it [that why we call it meths]. Also a taste and a dye added to it to stop you from drinking it. If you can get clear meths or more accurately ethanol alcohol, you can drink it... I don't recommend it but it has been done. It is what I preferred to use when I was fire-breathing. White Spirit made me sick, and as you say Meths tasted awful. Ethanol just tasted like really, really bad vodka.

I'm sorry, CupofJoe, but that's wrong, and more than a little dangerous, information. Clear meths and ethanol are two very different things.

The purple methylated spirits (meths) is ethanol which has been denatured by having dye and methanol added to it. It tastes vile (accidentally missed a spot when cleaning my hands, then had a mint), and is poisonous in any proper quantity (barring a slight splash on the skin, and transference).

Methanol is highly toxic - the stories you hear about moonshine sending people blind, or killing people, is due to the methanol not being properly separated from ethanol in the distilling process. It used to be called wood alcohol.

Ethanol is toxic, but is (simply put) pure alcohol. Vodka is up to 96% ethanol, with the flavours (either from the raw product, or added) making the difference.

Sorry if I come across too serious, and lecturing, but I work with alcohol, and the differences (and dangers of each) are drummed into us. I suspect you already know this stuff, and it was a typo, but I don't want anyone else reading it getting the wrong idea. Meths and methanol are deadly.

I am, however, in awe of your fire-breathing. Always been tempted to try it.

 

[CupofJoe]

I'm sorry, CupofJoe, but that's wrong, and more than a little dangerous, information. Clear meths and ethanol are two very different things.

The purple methylated spirits (meths) is ethanol which has been denatured by having dye and methanol added to it. It tastes vile (accidentally missed a spot when cleaning my hands, then had a mint), and is poisonous in any proper quantity (barring a slight splash on the skin, and transference).

Methanol is highly toxic - the stories you hear about moonshine sending people blind, or killing people, is due to the methanol not being properly separated from ethanol in the distilling process. It used to be called wood alcohol.

Ethanol is toxic, but is (simply put) pure alcohol. Vodka is up to 96% ethanol, with the flavours (either from the raw product, or added) making the difference.

Sorry if I come across too serious, and lecturing, but I work with alcohol, and the differences (and dangers of each) are drummed into us. I suspect you already know this stuff, and it was a typo, but I don't want anyone else reading it getting the wrong idea. Meths and methanol are deadly.

I am, however, in awe of your fire-breathing. Always been tempted to try it.

I stand corrected. Back in the day, and I'm going back 20+ years, I was told that clear meths and ethanol were the same. I thought that when you took out the methanol [and the dye etc] what you were left with was ethanol...
Maybe fire-breathers [which I don't do anymore] are even more lax with H&S than I thought...
I recommend giving fire-breathing a go if you can find some to teach you... It is not something to be learned off youtube...

 

[Parson]

I recommend giving fire-breathing a go if you can find some to teach you... It is not something to be learned off youtube...

I doubt I've ever believed anything so much with so little corroboration.

 

[Alex The G and T]

I reckon I'll keep my fire breathing fuels in the Jalapeno/Habanero category. With a side of Wasabi.

 

[Foxbat]

I'd try it if I weren't such a coward

 

[Alex The G and T]

@Foxbat 's Projector reminded me that I still possess my Great Grandfather's 8 mm Movie camera. The Great and Terrible predecessor produced boxes and boxes of travelogues with this thing.

My Dad, and his cohorts actually made some ridiculous movies with this contraption in the '60's and 70's . And I made a few, myself; long, long ago.

So, here's the gig: The unexposed film was purchased on a 16 mm roll. Color film had to be loaded and threaded through the machinery, by touch, in absolute darkness.

If the photographer could manage that procedure, he was prepared for ca. 4 minutes of shooting. Thence, back into the closet to flip over the film, re thread it and go capture the next 4 minutes of action.

The processors would split the 16 mm reel into two 3 inch reels of 8mm silent movies.

There was a whole 'nother contraption (which, I guess, my Dad still has) for editing. With the reels on hand cranks, the film threaded through a back-lit magnifier; where the films could be examined frame-by-frame.

Then, for editing, there was a doohicky with a knife blade for to make a clean cut, then the next segment could be clamped in, dabbed with brush-on cement and a blunt-bladed vise-sort-of-thing that would hold the splice in place until the glue set.

The camera operated on a coil spring, like a clock. The winder is the butterfly-looking handle, shown in the pic. Also seen in the pic is the telephoto lens. Not seen, is the external, hand-held light meter required to set up each shot. (Who knows where that got to.)

The viewfinder is built in to the fold-down handle, on top. Visible, kinda, if you look close enough. Tiny round lens at the rear, and a larger square lens at the front end.

Inside, in the second pic, the thing is a glory of very fine, precision machine work.

 

[Pyan]

...The Great and Terrible predecessor produced boxes and boxes of travelogues with this thing.

You learn something new every day... I thought that the "G and T" bit stood for Gin and Tonic...

 

[Alex The G and T]

A common misperception, rising from a shortage of character length in user names when I signed up.

 

[Foxbat]

@Foxbat 's Projector reminded me that I still possess my Great Grandfather's 8 mm Movie camera. The Great and Terrible predecessor produced boxes and boxes of travelogues with this thing.

My Dad, and his cohorts actually made some ridiculous movies with this contraption in the '60's and 70's . And I made a few, myself; long, long ago.

So, here's the gig: The unexposed film was purchased on a 16 mm roll. Color film had to be loaded and threaded through the machinery, by touch, in absolute darkness.

If the photographer could manage that procedure, he was prepared for ca. 4 minutes of shooting. Thence, back into the closet to flip over the film, re thread it and go capture the next 4 minutes of action.

The processors would split the 16 mm reel into two 3 inch reels of 8mm silent movies.

There was a whole 'nother contraption (which, I guess, my Dad still has) for editing. With the reels on hand cranks, the film threaded through a back-lit magnifier; where the films could be examined frame-by-frame.

Then, for editing, there was a doohicky with a knife blade for to make a clean cut, then the next segment could be clamped in, dabbed with brush-on cement and a blunt-bladed vise-sort-of-thing that would hold the splice in place until the glue set.

The camera operated on a coil spring, like a clock. The winder is the butterfly-looking handle, shown in the pic. Also seen in the pic is the telephoto lens. Not seen, is the external, hand-held light meter required to set up each shot. (Who knows where that got to.)

The viewfinder is built in to the fold-down handle, on top. Visible, kinda, if you look close enough. Tiny round lens at the rear, and a larger square lens at the front end.

Inside, in the second pic, the thing is a glory of very fine, precision machine work.


View attachment 55246
View attachment 55247

Jeez! What a palaver! Thank the Lord for digital filming and editing nowadays

 

[CupofJoe]

I think you're the first fire-breather I've ever come across

Edit: should correct myself and say that you're the first I've had a conversation with (I've obviously seen fire-breathers before in a circus or funfare setting)

There's a fire festival in Scotland (Beltane). You'd fit right in.

Beltane Fire Festival 2019

Celebrate the first signs of summer at Scotland’s largest fire festival with a wild mix of fire, drumming, dance, and acrobatics.

beltane.org

That looks great!
Get to any Pagan Beltane festival/rite [usually around 1 May] and you should see lots of fire working. Tis, the season and all.
I never got brave enough to train to do Fire Poi.
There is a clip online of a friend of mine doing this at Avebury but I can't find it. This is close enough...Fire Poi

 

[BigBadBob141]

REF: CupofJoe.
Used to use purple meths to clean the gunge left behind by sticky labels ( the bane of my life among other things ) on book and magazine covers, sometimes it would work, other times it only made things worse, now days I tend to use Mr Sheen!
As for the old thermonic valve radios, when I was young we had one, would put it on before Sunday lunch/dinner for comedy such as "Round The Horne" or "The Clithroe Kid".
It would take about four or five minutes to warm up, worse then the old black & white television!