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Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now
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OHP slides were the true predecessor of Power Point presentations on digital projectors. I remember many lectures where handwritten slides were shown, - and even annotated/modified by felt tip pens during the lecture.
Epidiascope was really a viewing device, effectively a predecessor of a video camera and display.
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
Depends on the size of the office location - the last thing you need is everyone ordering their own stationery and expensing it... Far better to run a tightly controlled core list.
dangie
Established Member
That’s reminded me, school logarithm & anti-logarithm tables……. plus all the other trigonometric tables.
Is inhaling the fumes from Friars Balsam from a bowl whilst you have a towel over your head and surrounding the bowl still a thing? Younger readers may be blissfully unaware of the concept. There was a specific name for this type of activity which escapes me for the moment.
Vick’s Vapour Rub in my case, it was even possible to get a plastic tall thin bowl for it, all from memory.
EDIT Apparently VapoRub: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicks_VapoRub
Merle Haggard
Established Member
Perhaps tangentially, regarding using the traditional pencil and paper...
When I worked at 222 one of my colleagues was not perhaps as ready to grasp the advantages of developing technology as the rest of us, and stuck to producing documents on squared paper using a pencil. We suggested that a simple spreadsheet would really make things easier, and showed him how to do it.
The result? He set up a spreadsheet but entered no values. He then printed it out (managing to show the grid-lines) and then....
filled in the boxes by hand in pencil.
I had an IBM engineer once send me an electronic spreadsheet in which he had a column of numbers followed by a sum total, and he’d worked out the sum himself and entered it in the appropriate box. I don’t think he quite got the idea!
At privatisation a certain control office was still producing hand-written train running records for its InterCity services. But, instead of phone calls to get times, controllers looked them up on a TOPS screen!
dangie
Established Member
Flatley Clothes Dryer
www.1900s.org.uk
The Flatley: an early home electric dryer for the laundry
The Flatley dryer: description, use, costs, features, safety, technical information, Flatley brochure and adverts, end of manufacture; A J Flatley entrepreneur
You might all be surprised! You can download the table of prizes >£1000 any month and sort it, I did one recently and got the following, showing that some very small old bonds have given an exceptional return. I have lost the headings, but the last column is (obviously) when bought, the next one the number bought at that time and the 4th in (from either end!) is the total holding
£1,000 | AS442865 | | £1 | Durham | £1 | Mar-57 |
£1,000 | 5DK646796 | | £1 | Gwent Valleys | £1 | Feb-71 |
£1,000 | 1CL935205 | | £3 | Surrey | £3 | Oct-66 |
£1,000 | 4FB525750 | | £5 | Nottingham | £5 | Aug-71 |
£1,000 | 12EL848241 | | £10 | Bromley | £5 | Jan-85 |
£1,000 | 11KN290458 | | £10 | Outer London | £10 | Jan-78 |
£1,000 | 1AS555850 | | £14 | Essex | £1 | Oct-59 |
£5,000 | 6KL622968 | | £15 | Overseas | £10 | Sep-70 |
£1,000 | 4GB649516 | | £20 | Cambridgeshire | £20 | Mar-92 |
£1,000 | 20KF209024 | | £20 | Kirklees | £10 | Sep-85 |
£1,000 | 3GL314630 | | £20 | Northumberland | £20 | Feb-88 |
£10,000 | 6FL352412 | | £21 | Kent | £5 | Jun-75 |
£1,000 | 1CB719333 | | £22 | Cardiff | £3 | Jul-65 |
£50,000 | 5LN702767 | | £22 | Humberside | £20 | Feb-70 |
except that a) the "evidence" about salt is open to question and lots of medics/researchers can't justify it, and b) you are now told officially to eat a balanced diet including all types of fat. The demonisation of animal fat was never justified and has imposed all sorts of costs on society.
Prehistoric means of cleaning rugs and small carpets utilising a "carpet beater" which was rather like a tennis racket in size but with a roundish head which encapsulated a flat mesh of metal wire or other material. The user hung up the rug or carpet over a clothes line in order to whack the dust out of it with said implement.
re Premium bonds, I have just looked and this month's report is equally interesting. Note: sorted by total holding and then prize value this time. (Obviously there are many millions more who haven't won this month - like me!)
£1,000 | AS442865 | | £1 | Durham | £1 | Mar-57 |
£1,000 | 5DK646796 | | £1 | Gwent Valleys | £1 | Feb-71 |
£1,000 | 1CL935205 | | £3 | Surrey | £3 | Oct-66 |
£1,000 | 4FB525750 | | £5 | Nottingham | £5 | Aug-71 |
£1,000 | 12EL848241 | | £10 | Bromley | £5 | Jan-85 |
£1,000 | 11KN290458 | | £10 | Outer London | £10 | Jan-78 |
£1,000 | 1AS555850 | | £14 | Essex | £1 | Oct-59 |
£5,000 | 6KL622968 | | £15 | Overseas | £10 | Sep-70 |
£1,000 | 4GB649516 | | £20 | Cambridgeshire | £20 | Mar-92 |
£1,000 | 20KF209024 | | £20 | Kirklees | £10 | Sep-85 |
£1,000 | 3GL314630 | | £20 | Northumberland | £20 | Feb-88 |
£10,000 | 6FL352412 | | £21 | Kent | £5 | Jun-75 |
£1,000 | 1CB719333 | | £22 | Cardiff | £3 | Jul-65 |
£50,000 | 5LN702767 | | £22 | Humberside | £20 | Feb-70 |
Not yet. I checked them last year and we had won nothing.
that's the sort of luck I have too, but it doesn't alter the fact that some tiny holdings do get worthwhile prizes each month.
317 forever
Established Member
Buying bus tickets with cash now seems historic, as we can usually use contactless now.
Quite apart from some people using tap on tap off, the places where we have to show our ticket to the driver rather than scan it seems to be a historic way of proving we have paid to make that journey.
Even buying rail tickets at a ticket office seems historic, at least when we have no enquiry about connection or appropriate fare for example. (Admittedly we have covered this topic in other threads about fares and ticketing).
Quite apart from some people using tap on tap off, the places where we have to show our ticket to the driver rather than scan it seems to be a historic way of proving we have paid to make that journey.
Even buying rail tickets at a ticket office seems historic, at least when we have no enquiry about connection or appropriate fare for example. (Admittedly we have covered this topic in other threads about fares and ticketing).
What about those top rounded tubes you stuck up your nose? Think that was a Vick's product.
Old-style cash registers where the price of every item being purchased had to be selected and "put through" from the relevant pounds, shillings and pence keys. Older tills had a handle on a wheel on the side of them. "Ker-ching" sound once the transaction was complete as the till drawer opened. Laborious procedures for staff to correct errors, insert new till rolls etc.
D6130
Established Member
I still use them!
Springs Branch
Established Member
When employers who issued uniforms to their employees (often the lower-paid grades e.g. bus conductors or BR buffet stewards) specified kit with a red stripe down each leg of the trousers.
Back in the day my dad explained this was to dissuade them from wearing those trousers outside working hours - but not always successfully. We lived close to a bus depot and you'd often see middle-aged men turning out to the pub in the evening in their 'red stripe' work trousers (although not in their jackets with the reinforced leather cuffs, PSV badge and the like). Presumably they were reasonable quality, hard-wearing items of clothing back then and it beat buying or wearing out your own best pants.
I read in a book on the history of Manchester's bus operations - in the days of severe staff shortages when almost anyone could apply and land a job as a bus conductor - there was a small but persistent problem with less scrupulous, more itinerant characters lurking around the big city getting taken on as a trainee conductor, doing the couple of days training, getting issued with a new uniform and cash float, then disappearing with their new 'suit' and a few bob of beer money - never to be seen again, nor ever to ring a bus bell in anger.
And still in colourful rogue mode - the 1987 BBC TV film Coast to Coast featured the character of Kecks McGuinness, a dodgy BR buffet car attendant based in Liverpool. 'Kecks' is scouse slang for trousers and he reportedly got the nickname for always wearing his BR-issue uniform trousers.
This link has a few rail-related stills from the first episode, but unfortunately no photographic record of Kecks' red-stripe BR pants.
It also shows the bit where a London gangster and his enforcer The Chiropodist supposedly arrive into Lime Street in pursuit of Kecks - on a train hauled by a Peak! Tut tut.
Back in the day my dad explained this was to dissuade them from wearing those trousers outside working hours - but not always successfully. We lived close to a bus depot and you'd often see middle-aged men turning out to the pub in the evening in their 'red stripe' work trousers (although not in their jackets with the reinforced leather cuffs, PSV badge and the like). Presumably they were reasonable quality, hard-wearing items of clothing back then and it beat buying or wearing out your own best pants.
I read in a book on the history of Manchester's bus operations - in the days of severe staff shortages when almost anyone could apply and land a job as a bus conductor - there was a small but persistent problem with less scrupulous, more itinerant characters lurking around the big city getting taken on as a trainee conductor, doing the couple of days training, getting issued with a new uniform and cash float, then disappearing with their new 'suit' and a few bob of beer money - never to be seen again, nor ever to ring a bus bell in anger.
And still in colourful rogue mode - the 1987 BBC TV film Coast to Coast featured the character of Kecks McGuinness, a dodgy BR buffet car attendant based in Liverpool. 'Kecks' is scouse slang for trousers and he reportedly got the nickname for always wearing his BR-issue uniform trousers.
This link has a few rail-related stills from the first episode, but unfortunately no photographic record of Kecks' red-stripe BR pants.
It also shows the bit where a London gangster and his enforcer The Chiropodist supposedly arrive into Lime Street in pursuit of Kecks - on a train hauled by a Peak! Tut tut.
Its one of my favourite movies. The soundtrack is great, but the cost of clearing that meant it never made it to DVD. However it is on Youtube. This bit shows Kecks's trousers:
Its well worth an hour and a half of your time.
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dangie
Established Member
Going back to the 1970’s/1980’s when Rugeley had two power stations and a coal mine (plus others nearby), it was commonplace to see people walking around the town wearing Donkey Jackets with CEGB or NCB stencilled on the back. Also virtually everyone had a pair of overalls with same. It made no difference whether you worked at the power station or pit, someone who did would get them for you.
A little known fact, unless you live in Rugeley, is that Rugeley was where the Donkey Jacket was invented. Rugeley’s claim to fame….. apart from Palmer the Poisoner that is…..
Donkey jacket - Wikipedia
William Palmer (murderer) - Wikipedia
There was someone, who I knew, worked for the property side of British Rail and was known for his dress. He turned up, wearing trousers with a stripe down the side, which were part of formal wear. A colleague told me, that he looked like a musician and people were thinking, where is his trombone.
Springs Branch
Established Member
If I remember correctly from my days with the Bullingdon Club, a black satin stripe is de rigueur for the black dress trousers (a.k.a. tuxedo trousers) which accompany dinner jacket / black tie attire. Next level compared to the red stripe on the bus crew or Travellers Fare issue pants.
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Merle Haggard
Established Member
There was a reason for clothing supplied free to employees having a logo or distinctive stripe; if it didn't, the employee would be taxed on it as a benefit in kind.
Remember in B.R. days an issue with Inland Revenue when there was a batch of clothing that had either no logo, or one that the Revenue considered too small (can't remember which).
Remember in B.R. days an issue with Inland Revenue when there was a batch of clothing that had either no logo, or one that the Revenue considered too small (can't remember which).
What are they called?