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Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 1:59 am
by Sean.Byrne
In the damp UK winter, with windows and door closed, we slept with a paraffin heater going all night. Fire hazard, toxic fumes ... somehow survived. And do you remember the paraffin delivery guy?
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Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 10:05 am
by Vreagh
Who can forget those lethal drip feed heaters. Kids found the gurgling fascinating but they killed many people. Only had to tip one slightly to have paraffin all over the floor and the flame was already there. As you say, we survived (mostly)

Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 1:02 pm
by Sean.Byrne
My Grandmother lived in a working class Victorian 2 story row house on Riddell Street. They were built in the eighteen hundreds before indoor electric lighting. Even after the house was retrofitted with electric lighting she still had an indoor gas lit wall sconce. Gas lamps worked by heating something called a 'mantle' with a gas flame. The mantle then glowed brightly, lighting up the room. Lamps had two chains: one to turn the gas on and the other to turn it off. These chains could also adjust the flow of the gas and hence the brightness of the mantle. It all seems like a health and safety nightmare today.

Non-electric incandescent lamps include the gas-mantle lamp. The mantle is a mesh bag of fabric impregnated with a solution of nitrates of cerium and one or more of the following metals: thorium, beryllium, aluminum, or magnesium

Below are pics of a wall sconce much like Gran had and a mantle that worked like an element and glowed and threw off light. The mantles decayed over a period of time and were sold by the local general grocery store. I remember running errands to buy a new one for Gran.

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Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 1:08 am
by Sean.Byrne
Anyone ever use one of these Ditto machines to make copies? The smell, and the older versions that had a hand crank.

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Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 1:21 am
by kiwi
Panic when the postie arrived on one of these with a message,always seemed to be bad news. :shock:
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GPO telegram messenger bike.

Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:52 pm
by Sean.Byrne
I do not miss these "marvels" of technology. And how was an 8 track cassette a good idea ever?

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Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:56 pm
by Sean.Byrne
I was fascinated with these box cameras as a kid "The Brownie"
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It seemed like a quantum leap forward in
cameras when the Instamatic came out

Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 1:24 am
by Sean.Byrne
Black and White TV anyone?

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Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 1:36 am
by Sean.Byrne
kiwi wrote:Panic when the postie arrived on one of these with a message,always seemed to be bad news. :shock:
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I was in Canada when this happened. Mom tells us her heart sank when one of these guys appeared at the door. She says she just knew something had happened to one of her 6 kids. My brother Tom was serving in the Army in Belfast and had been shot. Fortunately he recovered and went back to Belfast and was injured again. This time by a Molotov cocktail that exploded against his armoured personnel carrier. Recovery took several months of plastic surgery. He was decorated both times, although the best was ahead. Tom was on duty at the Brighton Hotel when the IRA blew it up to try and eliminate Margaret Thatcher. At risk to his life he went into the wreckage several times to haul out survivors. He was awarded an MBE (or OBE I forget).

Re: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 2:05 am
by kiwi
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I believed it, but we only had Margarine.
;)