Old Tech thread

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Pyan said:
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I live two streets away from Thomas Crapper's Blue Plaque. However, there are a number of commonly misunderstood facts about him. It is a pure coincidence that the "vulgar slang words" for a toilet, using the toilet, and for excrement, are the same as his surname. Those words were in use long before he registered his patents. Also, he didn't "invent" the flush toilet, but developed it and made important design improvements, such as a floating ballcock, and the "U" bend (an improvement over the "S" bend.) The reason that his achievements are often overstated comes from a fictional biography published in 1969 by a New Zealand satirist called Wallace Reyburn.
 
That looks very ...safe! I wonder what the two little peg things on the left are for?
 
That would great for breakfast over a campfire!

I expect it is actually for cooking on a Range. Perfectly safe. This makes me feel old, but as a boy, my uncle's parents still used one every day in the late 1960's. (Then their house was compulsory purchased for new road construction and had to move into a modern block of flats.)

beamish-open-air-museum.jpg
 
Well Albert, of The Lion and Albert fame uses cold dripping toast to scare off the ghost of the headsman in Marriott Edgar's sequel,
Albert and the 'Eadsman.

. . .
On the first stroke of twelve, up jumped Albert,
His mouth full of cold, dripping toast,

. . .
The brave little lad stood undaunted
'Til the ghost were within half a pace.
Then taking the toast he were eating,
Slapped it, dripping side down, in his face.


So maybe it was made on cool toaster?
 
Pyan said:
BBC Skelton main shortwave transmitter halls, Sender 61 and Sender 72, c.1975. These pumped out the BBC World Service around the globe, and I'm very proud to say my Dad was an SME (Senior Maintenance Engineer) here until he retired (at 55! Final salary pension!) in 1983.

The first transmitter to go on air in the June of 1943 was OSE 8 (known throughout the BBC as "Ossie Eight") and short for Overseas Station Extension of Daventry number eight.
This station had six 'Senders', numbers 61 to 66 and each of 100 kilowatts power output. All were of Marconi design similar to those at Rampisham and installed so that they could be switched to any of sixteen aerials all beamed on Europe.
The second station OSE 9 followed on the air with six ST & C designed 'Senders'(71A & B to 76A & B). These were different in that they could each transmit a programme on two channels at once if required to do so which in fact was most ofthe time. A slightly more complex aerial system was installed for OSE 9 as most ofthe programmes transmitted from it were destined for parts of the world beyond Europe.

Skelton, Penrith and the World 1943 - 1993
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My grandmother had an old radio that used place names on the dial. One of them was Daventry. Later, I recall driving by the masts there.
 
Pyan said:
That looks very ...safe! I wonder what the two little peg things on the left are for?
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I suspect the electrical connections are below them. I'm pretty sure that's an electrical element at the back (look at the top and you can see the wires). Opening will be the two bits on either side.

A quick google reveals it is indeed electrical but the connection is made on the other side. I suspect they're push buttons for two elements. Here's another picture making it clearer (fascinating!)
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https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/62uyts
 
My grandparents had a toaster, which was not the same design, but I suspect worked the same way.
As the element was in the centre you would open the flaps on each side, with the handles that you're asking about and place a slice of bread on each flap.
Closing the flaps would present one side of each slice to the element.
Once it was cooked to your satisfaction, you would open the flaps again and the bread would slide down onto the flap, cooked side down.
So closing the flaps would present the other side to the element so you could toast that side.
Open the flaps once more to take out the bread, now toasted on both sides.
Repeat as required;
 
Looks like the tool that you use for barbecuing fish, except it's round and not fish-shaped.
 
Vertigo said:
Incidentally in my youth I was renting a place with a Rayburn (range) and these are what we used for toast and I'm sure folk that have ranges still use them!
View attachment 112463
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Those are still in use by various friends with Rayburns. Interesting that these stoves have become a status symbol. My in-laws, who live on a cold and windy hill have one in the kitchen, which keeps the room warm and also heats the water tank. The rest of the house is freezing. Personally I prefer central heating, a fan oven and a responsive gas hob.
 
Dave said:
That would great for breakfast over a campfire!


beamish-open-air-museum.jpg
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When I bought a 70 year old apartment building in the 80s there was an old stove in the basement apartment. Not quite that old but it had to be from the 20s or 1930s. The woman I rented the apartment to liked it.
 
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