I used to quite like Worcestershire sauce on scrambled egg, now I prefer a large amount of butter. At home we generally pronounce it " wooster sauce " but then we also pronounce W H Smiths an " wu-hu smiths "
Killer memories 🙂
Back in the day, when we had Industry (meaning Europe and America).
Today?
We order everything on Alibaba 🙁
By any chance, was the Company English Electric?
It fits the description to a T
Hi.
You're right it would fit perfectly, amazing that there were two very similar groups at the time. Actually though it was Hawker Siddeley Power Transformers Ltd. They also had Lister, Petter and some other diesel engine makers, Brush locomotives, and medium transformers, Yorkshire Electric, Crompton Parkinson electric motors, the aero division and a few others in the portfolio.
You're right it would fit perfectly, amazing that there were two very similar groups at the time. Actually though it was Hawker Siddeley Power Transformers Ltd. They also had Lister, Petter and some other diesel engine makers, Brush locomotives, and medium transformers, Yorkshire Electric, Crompton Parkinson electric motors, the aero division and a few others in the portfolio.
It's just a square..
Days passed slowly waiting for my result letter to come from the company, I busied myself with practical project work for my exams. In metalwork and materials classes, I had just about finished a stationary steam engine, the teacher had a book of plans, I just made a bit (or part of) every week. By June it was ready, it had taken about three months of one and a half hours a week. (Rather like though not exactly the same as the one below). Once finished (after pressure testing the boiler), I filled it, lit the burners etc, and waited, and waited, and waited. There was lots of hissing, even more hissing, but nothing else. I walked away dejected. A few days later, the letter came with a request to attend a meeting to sign my indenture papers next week!!! The whole family was ecstatic, though my mother slightly sad to be losing her 'baby' (yes, I was the youngest of three), though standing at 6ft. Feeling as if I could achieve anything, I steamed up the engine again, like before lots of hissing, but nothing else. 🙁 Umm, shame.. Just before giving up, I spun the flywheel on the engine a bit, I won't use the words that I did then, but, off it went, the flywheel racing round and round, steam puffing from holes (and leaks) and me dancing around the room shouting! A few days later my mother and I attended the meeting at the company and signed the required paperwork, the personal director signing for the company. We all got a tour of the plant, my mother getting a bit worried as the place was quite a size and with some very large pieces of equipment. After the tour tea and cakes were given and everyone was very impressed.
Exams came and went, and my start day arrived. Getting the bus at 06:30 for an 8:00 start I was in another world, in those days, (mid 70's) there were lots of factories on the bus route, (even in London) passing massive sweet (candy) factories, shirt factories and toy factories, seeing what seemed like thousands of people streaming off busses, out of stations and into the companies was a real sign of 'things on the move' and industry.
I got to the company on time and changed into my new company overalls. There were about sixteen of us, all young men (that's engineering for you 🙁), all now looking like crash test dummies in our dark blue clothes. Mr Halls, and Mr Powell (the assistant training officer) called us into a small meeting room, there were only eight seats, (a lesson there as the meetings tended to last half an hour or so, and standing still for that time was a bit of a pain), we squeezed in together and listened intently. The first year would be spent in the training school, with college one day a week. We would have various tools and projects to make culminating in a new machine of some sort to be used by a production department. The first project piece was a simple "Square within a square". This was really a marking out, hack-sawing and filing lesson/test, and consisted of two rough cut pieces of steel, one 80mm x 80mm x 5mm thick and one 40mm x 40mm x 5mm thick. Using only hand tools and a pedestal drill the task was to make a square hole in the larger piece, and make the smaller one fit inside, all eight ways with minimal clearance. The final sizes being 75 x 75 and 35 x 35. The final task being to surface grind the 2 large faces after acceptance.
Everybody picked up their two bits of metal, and went off to our respective benches. Some went back into the meeting room where there was a large granite surface table and vernier height gauges, we 'blued' up our pieces (under the guidance of Jack or Charlie) and marked them for cutting, drilled holes in the large piece to pass the hacksaw blade through and started sawing. The noise of sixteen fit young men sawing metal as if their lives depended on it was like the workshop of the dammed! Imagine sixteen sets of nails screeching down a blackboard, then repeat that noise every two seconds and you'll get the idea. IT WAS DEAFENING MADNESS! On occasion Jack would come out of his office and shout at the top of his voice, "Shut up with the 'F'ing noise!" This reduced the din for ten minutes or so, only slowly increasing to pre shout levels. To say that there seemed to be a race to finish first amongst some was an understatement, and soon broken hacksaw blades pinged across the workshop quite regularly. (We were all wearing safety goggles). I decided to take care, but others did not, so that reject squares of metal could be found, that day and for a few months after, on benches, in waste bins in drawers or behind machines, always promoting a laugh and a "I think that was Joe's or Freds or" when they were found. So far I was still OK, but a new friend, Ben, needed another large piece so I tagged along to see the place a bit and learn where I might get my replacement metal from when needed. We went downstairs to the 'Lower Tank Shop' and asked who to see, on seeing the chap operating a small saw we walked toward him ready to ask for some more metal, before we had, and with a gentle smile he said "Square within a square?" sheepishly we said yes, he grinned widely and cut some more metal for Ben which for some reason, he already had near the machine, wishing us good luck when we left. It was that sort of place, like a small village, everybody knew everybody and was only too happy to help.
Fifteen-minute tea break, lunch and afternoon break came and went, 16:30 was home time, it had been a fantastic day. On the bus home I planned the parts of the project I still had to do, laughing to myself about the noise and looking forward to tomorrow.
I was resolute in wanting to take things carefully, so as to not make a mistake and have to start a part again. One guy (Dexter) had finished, and his squares were inspected and measured by Jack. The smaller part should fit the larger in all eight ways with no more than 0.05mm gap. I looked on from my bench, after a few moments, Jack let Dexter know that it had failed by throwing it in the nearest scrap bin for him, (yes really!). He did pat Dex on the back and gave him half an encouraging smile though.
I won't bore you with the replays of such, but suffice it to say, we all got them finished over the next day and a half, and all breathed a sigh of relief as that project was signed off in our log books and etched our clock numbers on them. We looked at each other as it was done, "We were Engineers!"
The steam engine below is similar. The squares were rescued from the workshop somewhere by my joungest a few months ago, prompting my writeup.
Days passed slowly waiting for my result letter to come from the company, I busied myself with practical project work for my exams. In metalwork and materials classes, I had just about finished a stationary steam engine, the teacher had a book of plans, I just made a bit (or part of) every week. By June it was ready, it had taken about three months of one and a half hours a week. (Rather like though not exactly the same as the one below). Once finished (after pressure testing the boiler), I filled it, lit the burners etc, and waited, and waited, and waited. There was lots of hissing, even more hissing, but nothing else. I walked away dejected. A few days later, the letter came with a request to attend a meeting to sign my indenture papers next week!!! The whole family was ecstatic, though my mother slightly sad to be losing her 'baby' (yes, I was the youngest of three), though standing at 6ft. Feeling as if I could achieve anything, I steamed up the engine again, like before lots of hissing, but nothing else. 🙁 Umm, shame.. Just before giving up, I spun the flywheel on the engine a bit, I won't use the words that I did then, but, off it went, the flywheel racing round and round, steam puffing from holes (and leaks) and me dancing around the room shouting! A few days later my mother and I attended the meeting at the company and signed the required paperwork, the personal director signing for the company. We all got a tour of the plant, my mother getting a bit worried as the place was quite a size and with some very large pieces of equipment. After the tour tea and cakes were given and everyone was very impressed.
Exams came and went, and my start day arrived. Getting the bus at 06:30 for an 8:00 start I was in another world, in those days, (mid 70's) there were lots of factories on the bus route, (even in London) passing massive sweet (candy) factories, shirt factories and toy factories, seeing what seemed like thousands of people streaming off busses, out of stations and into the companies was a real sign of 'things on the move' and industry.
I got to the company on time and changed into my new company overalls. There were about sixteen of us, all young men (that's engineering for you 🙁), all now looking like crash test dummies in our dark blue clothes. Mr Halls, and Mr Powell (the assistant training officer) called us into a small meeting room, there were only eight seats, (a lesson there as the meetings tended to last half an hour or so, and standing still for that time was a bit of a pain), we squeezed in together and listened intently. The first year would be spent in the training school, with college one day a week. We would have various tools and projects to make culminating in a new machine of some sort to be used by a production department. The first project piece was a simple "Square within a square". This was really a marking out, hack-sawing and filing lesson/test, and consisted of two rough cut pieces of steel, one 80mm x 80mm x 5mm thick and one 40mm x 40mm x 5mm thick. Using only hand tools and a pedestal drill the task was to make a square hole in the larger piece, and make the smaller one fit inside, all eight ways with minimal clearance. The final sizes being 75 x 75 and 35 x 35. The final task being to surface grind the 2 large faces after acceptance.
Everybody picked up their two bits of metal, and went off to our respective benches. Some went back into the meeting room where there was a large granite surface table and vernier height gauges, we 'blued' up our pieces (under the guidance of Jack or Charlie) and marked them for cutting, drilled holes in the large piece to pass the hacksaw blade through and started sawing. The noise of sixteen fit young men sawing metal as if their lives depended on it was like the workshop of the dammed! Imagine sixteen sets of nails screeching down a blackboard, then repeat that noise every two seconds and you'll get the idea. IT WAS DEAFENING MADNESS! On occasion Jack would come out of his office and shout at the top of his voice, "Shut up with the 'F'ing noise!" This reduced the din for ten minutes or so, only slowly increasing to pre shout levels. To say that there seemed to be a race to finish first amongst some was an understatement, and soon broken hacksaw blades pinged across the workshop quite regularly. (We were all wearing safety goggles). I decided to take care, but others did not, so that reject squares of metal could be found, that day and for a few months after, on benches, in waste bins in drawers or behind machines, always promoting a laugh and a "I think that was Joe's or Freds or" when they were found. So far I was still OK, but a new friend, Ben, needed another large piece so I tagged along to see the place a bit and learn where I might get my replacement metal from when needed. We went downstairs to the 'Lower Tank Shop' and asked who to see, on seeing the chap operating a small saw we walked toward him ready to ask for some more metal, before we had, and with a gentle smile he said "Square within a square?" sheepishly we said yes, he grinned widely and cut some more metal for Ben which for some reason, he already had near the machine, wishing us good luck when we left. It was that sort of place, like a small village, everybody knew everybody and was only too happy to help.
Fifteen-minute tea break, lunch and afternoon break came and went, 16:30 was home time, it had been a fantastic day. On the bus home I planned the parts of the project I still had to do, laughing to myself about the noise and looking forward to tomorrow.
I was resolute in wanting to take things carefully, so as to not make a mistake and have to start a part again. One guy (Dexter) had finished, and his squares were inspected and measured by Jack. The smaller part should fit the larger in all eight ways with no more than 0.05mm gap. I looked on from my bench, after a few moments, Jack let Dexter know that it had failed by throwing it in the nearest scrap bin for him, (yes really!). He did pat Dex on the back and gave him half an encouraging smile though.
I won't bore you with the replays of such, but suffice it to say, we all got them finished over the next day and a half, and all breathed a sigh of relief as that project was signed off in our log books and etched our clock numbers on them. We looked at each other as it was done, "We were Engineers!"
The steam engine below is similar. The squares were rescued from the workshop somewhere by my joungest a few months ago, prompting my writeup.
Attachments
There's another lesson here. A 1-cylinder steam engine (even double-acting) can not self-start. It will jerk, either way, to bottom dead center, and stay there forever.
You need 2 cylinders or 2 crank throws (or both) to make a steam engine self-start. The particular requirement is for a railway engine to be able to pull away from a dead stop without "barring" (a long bar through the hub to pull on to get the piston to a working angle). There are several ways but the classic US steam engine's two cylinders are cranked 90 degrees apart. Not easy to see because as you walk around the engine to look at both sides the railroad staff are yelling about danger.
The same (different lingo) on electric motors. A 1-phase supply will not start an AC motor. A flip may get it going. Either way. While 2-ph and 3-ph systems have advantage in big motor systems, clocks and phonos "fake" a second phase with some kind of reactance or other trick. (I would say washing machines but the washer that just smoked here turned out to be a 3-ph motor with a heap of electronics on top to give vari-speed 3-ph power, with apparently a designed-in expiration date.)
Here some people used capacitors (each gives 120 degrees phase shift) off single phase, or transformers to get the third phase, 2 phase primary, 3 phase secondary.
During power shortages, the local electric company (state owned) would disconnect one of three phases in the daytime, technically not a power cut, but the farmers (who got power at a low or free price) got all three only at night to run their pumps.
So, they did the above, and worked their fields in the day...
There is no need for electronics to get three phases off a single phase, and a triac type drive should work for variable speed...
A repair man was telling me that Samsung washing machine motors, some of them, cannot be rewound, but the company has a trade in program, big discount if you trade in a broken motor and take a new one.
His advice was to buy a machine that had the inlet away from the controller, too many cases where the inlet leaked into the electronics.....
During power shortages, the local electric company (state owned) would disconnect one of three phases in the daytime, technically not a power cut, but the farmers (who got power at a low or free price) got all three only at night to run their pumps.
So, they did the above, and worked their fields in the day...
There is no need for electronics to get three phases off a single phase, and a triac type drive should work for variable speed...
A repair man was telling me that Samsung washing machine motors, some of them, cannot be rewound, but the company has a trade in program, big discount if you trade in a broken motor and take a new one.
His advice was to buy a machine that had the inlet away from the controller, too many cases where the inlet leaked into the electronics.....
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Thanks PRR. They are great points. I had not considered that then, and really didn't think about it even now!
PS, I don't want anybody to think that we were as apprentices treated anything other than very well, Jack the training manager, though quite 'straight' with people was a tireless teacher and support. We became quite close friends and much of my future work 'success' (if that's what one could call it) was based on the foundations laid as an apprentice, and with another fantastic boss I had there for much of my time. It's a great shame to me that youngsters today, don't have that form of training and nurturing.
I just replaced the start cap on one of my AC compressors. Without it, the locked rotor current pops the breaker. Luckily, next day amazon at 25 USD, and I am thankful it wasn't the centrifugal switch in the motor, that would have been over a kilo USD.
Small motors in clocks are typically shaded pole, which delays the magnetic field in part of the pole to give a preferred direction of rotation to the rotor. Way back some clocks didn't use shaded pole, and when plugged in would sometimes go backwards.
My fridge also has a 3 phase drive for it's compressor. I tend to like that better as it doesn't pull locked rotor current at startup, so should be a bit more reliable mechanical wise..
John
Here it was $2 for a 36 MFD / 440VAC cap, single cap only (I forgot the circuit name), cap is between run and start windings IIRC.
1.5 t (18000 BTU), on thermostat, old machine.
Did not start after replacing, so went in again and tightened the push on lugs, that worked.
If it is a start and run cap system, change both caps, and the relay / PTC.
PTC seems more reliable than relay.
1.5 t (18000 BTU), on thermostat, old machine.
Did not start after replacing, so went in again and tightened the push on lugs, that worked.
If it is a start and run cap system, change both caps, and the relay / PTC.
PTC seems more reliable than relay.
Something to lighten the mood
"Zoo" By: Edward D. Hoch
The children were always good during the month of August, especially when it began to get near the twenty-third. It was on this day that the great silver spaceship carrying Professor Hugo's Interplanetary Zoo settled down for its annual six-hour visit to the Chicago area.
Before daybreak the crowds would form, long lines of children and adults both, each one clutching his or her dollar, and waiting with wonderment to see what race of strange creatures the Professor had brought this year.
In the past they had sometimes been treated to three-legged creatures from Venus, or tall, thin men from Mars, or even snake-like horrors from somewhere more distant. This year, as the great round ship settled slowly to earth in the huge tri-city parking area just outside of Chicago, they watched with awe as the sides slowly slid up to reveal the familiar barred cages. In them were some wild breed of nightmare--small, horse-like animals that moved with quick, jerking motions and constantly chattered in a high-pitched tongue. The citizens of Earth clustered around as Professor Hugo's crew quickly collected the waiting dollars, and soon the good Professor himself made an appearance, wearing his many-colored rainbow cape and top hat. "Peoples of Earth,'' he called into his microphone.
The crowd's noise died down and he continued. "Peoples of Earth, this year you see a real treat for your single dollar--the little-known horse-spider people of Kaan--brought to you across a million miles of space at great expense. Gather around, see them, study them, listen to them, tell your friends about them. But hurry! My ship can remain here only six hours!
And the crowds slowly filed by, at once horrified and fascinated by these strange creatures that looked like horses but ran up the walls of their cages like spiders. "This is certainly worth a dollar,'' one man remarked, hurrying away. "I'm going home to get the wife.''
All day long it went like that, until ten thousand people had filed by the barred cages set into the side of the spaceship. Then, as the six-hour limit ran out, Professor Hugo once more took microphone in hand. "We must go now, but we will return next year on this date. And if you enjoyed our zoo this year, phone your friends in other cities about it. We will land in New York tomorrow, and next week on to London, Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. Then on to other worlds!
He waved farewell to them, and as the ship rose from the ground the Earth peoples agreed that this had been the very best Zoo yet. . . .
Some two months and three planets later, the silver ship of Professor Hugo settled at last onto the familiar jagged rocks of Kaan, and the queer horse-spider creatures filed quickly out of their cages. Professor Hugo was there to say a few parting words, and then they scurried away in a hundred different directions, seeking their homes among the rocks.
In one, the she-creature was happy to see the return of her mate and offspring. She babbled a greeting in the strange tongue and hurried to embrace them. "It was a long time you were gone. Was it good?''
And the he-creature nodded. "The little one enjoyed it especially. We visited eight worlds and saw many things.''
The little one ran up the wall of the cave. "On the place called Earth it was the best. The creatures there wear garments over skins, and they walk on two legs.''
"But isn't it dangerous?'' asked the she-creature.
"No,'' her mate answered. "There are bars to protect us from them. We remain right in the ship. Next time you must come with us. It is well worth the nineteen commocs it costs.''
And the little one nodded. "It was the very best Zoo ever. . . .''
A fifteen-year-old Amish boy and his father were in a mall.
They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again.
The boy asked, "What is this Father?"
The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don"t know what it is."
While the boy and his father were watching with amazement, a fat old lady in a wheelchair moved up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened, and the lady rolled between them into a small room.
The walls closed, and the boy and his father watched the small numbers above the walls light up sequentially.
They continued to watch until it reached the last number, and then the numbers began to light in the reverse order.
Finally, the walls opened up again and a gorgeous 24-year-old blonde stepped out.
The father, not taking his eyes off the young woman, said quietly to his son...
"Go get your Mother."
They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again.
The boy asked, "What is this Father?"
The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don"t know what it is."
While the boy and his father were watching with amazement, a fat old lady in a wheelchair moved up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened, and the lady rolled between them into a small room.
The walls closed, and the boy and his father watched the small numbers above the walls light up sequentially.
They continued to watch until it reached the last number, and then the numbers began to light in the reverse order.
Finally, the walls opened up again and a gorgeous 24-year-old blonde stepped out.
The father, not taking his eyes off the young woman, said quietly to his son...
"Go get your Mother."
The Americans call it an "elevator", but the British call it a "lift".
I suppose we're just raised differently.
I suppose we're just raised differently.
What about the "paternoster" or "Personenumlaufaufzüge" – people circulation lift?
I read that Germans are loopy about them!
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Why I like beer more than women.
- I'm allowed to complain about a beer being flat
- When my lips touch another bottle, my old beer doesn't get mad
- When I'm at a bar, I'm always able to pick up a beer
- Beer looks the same in the morning as it did the night before
- Beer is always ready on time, it's never late
- When I want to swap beer, my old beer won't take half my estate
- A world where I could just date beer, would be great!
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