THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

They live in a parallel universe when engaged on the phone Tiz! That doesn't surprise me at all.

[Stanley]

The leather school bag used to be standard equipment but I haven't seen one for ages. This was used by my daughter Susan until the 1960s.

[Stanley]

The metal railway bridges were painted with matt grey paint and as a very young lad it used to fascinate me because when the sun shone on it it sparkled. I never forgot it and many years later when I was doing Ellenroad I consulted with a Dulux expert on how to paint the fire escape at the engine house. It was then that I learned about Micaceous Iron Oxide paint which because of the flat nature of the crystals of iron oxide is the most waterproof paint there is. It took 50 years to work that one out!

[Stanley]

Every now and then I have a Janet moment when the loss of a daughter crashes in on me. It happened yesterday but I think I am fairly resilient and good at dealing with it. It got me to thinking that our experiences growing up with death and destruction as constant companions probably hardened us and that may be the source of my strength. Funny stuff isn't it, we don't know at the time how we are being affected.

[Tizer]

It's good to hear you are coping OK. Keep it up.

Micaceous haematite. I remember posting on this a few years ago on OG. Here's the text again...

I learnt recently that at one time, probably around WW1, the Royal Navy painted its warships with grey paint containing micaceous haematite from a mine on Dartmoor. This material had been regarded as a low value by-product contaminating more valuable metal ores and had been thrown on the spoil heaps. It wasn't in use for very long because the mine closed down relatively soon. Most haematite is red iron oxide, Fe2O3, found as a red earthy mass and used as a treatment to prevent iron rusting, as most of us know. However it can occur in other crystal habits and micaceous haematite is a grey, flaky form resembling mica (which is a silicate). Among haematite forms it is unusual in being magnetic. Although the use of Dartmoor micaceous haematite in warship paint didn't continue for long it's interesting to think how much later (1980s?) we became addicted to buying cars coated in `metallic' paint' - which contained true silicate mica. I wonder if micaceous haematite paint had that same metallic effect and our WW1 warships might have had a sparkly appearance!

EDIT: After further research I find that the mines continued for longer than I thought. The Open University Geological Society web site has a page on iron which says: "...But when it comes to paint the mines of the Teign Valley excelled. There were as many as 12 mines working the hematite which was deposited as a very soft, flaky ore from which the British Geological Survey adopted the term 'shining ore'. Mixed in paint the overlapping flakes formed a rust proof layer giving the distinctive colours ‘Battleship Grey’ and ‘GWR Green’. The largest mine was at Great Rock near Hennock which only closed in 1969, making it the last working metal mine in Devon. In places in the mine hematite has washed out of the lodes and formed a solid silver floor in the adits and any underground visitor will emerge covered in glitter. Nearby Kelly mine has been partly restored and is maintained by the Kelly Mine Preservation Society."
https://ougs.org/local_geology/article. ... chcode=swe

An article on Kelly Mine says the anti-corrosive properties were recognised in 1879 and micaceous haematite began to be used in paint for warships and iron bridges and by the GWR. (A 5-page PDF of an article in the Peak District Mining journal is available - put the following into Google: Peter Roberts Kelly Mine the first ten years).

[Stanley]

Thanks Tiz. The older you get the more bodies there are to bury.....
The paint did sparkle in the sun, that's what intrigued me as a lad, it was a matt finish and yet it sparkled. The ICI man told me that the reason it was impervious to water was because the flakes overlapped and lay on top of each other just as you said.

[Tizer]

The ICI man told me that the reason it was impervious to water was because the flakes overlapped and lay on top of each other just as you said.

It sounds rather like how slate tiles protect a roof but there's a closer link than that. Mica flakes are a major component of slate and they are part of the reason slate is so good at waterproofing. Slate forms when sedimentary shale rock is geologically metamorphosed under high pressure. The crystal structure is altered and mica forms in flakes in a plane perpendicular to the compression. The original bedding plane becomes secondary and the slate will now split along the mica flake plane even though it might be at right angles to the original bedding plane. The mica is embedded in quartz which makes the slate hard and resistant to weathering.

[Stanley]

OG is wonderful, I've just remembered that grey slate, the heavy stone slate used in this area before Welsh slate was made available by the railways, also has flecks in it which reflect the sun. Is the reason they split so well caused by mica inclusion as well? The very best slate used to come from North and Southowram over near Bingley. If it's split thicker it is used for flagstones. When the great mill building started in the last half of the 19th century there were't enough flagstone quarries and so the Rossendale quarries developed, they quarried limestone flags but they splitting plane didn't give a good even surface so they finished theirs by planing them with a heavy single point tool. This gave a distinctive ribbed finish that was good for grip as well.

[Stanley]

There was little doubt that in those days us kids were seen as factory fodder. The whole of my primary education was geared to making me numerate and literate. By an accident of fate I got into the Grammar4 School and first became aware of things like universities, the education at the grammar school had one thing in mind, getting you into university and the walls of the Hall had huge boards naming everyone who had achieved academic distinction. When the time came I had 13 'O' level passes and the masters wanted me to go forward into the Sixth Form and then on to university.......

[Tizer]

Is the reason they split so well caused by mica inclusion as well?

Yes, the mica crystals spread laterally under the metamorphic pressure and create what's known as the cleavage plane. This is independent of the direction of the original sedimentary bedding plane which has been disrupted by the compression. So Earth movements may have tipped the rock so the old bedding plane is now pointing in a direction other than horizontal but the cleavage plane will always be perpendicular to the compressive force. Some slate has white crystalline inclusions and this is the mineral andalusite; black crystalline inclusions are cordierite, both very hard minerals.

[Stanley]

Both those names have Spanish echoes and the main source of blue slate now is Spain. It's good slate vbut harder than Welsh or Coniston.
When the decision had to be made about leaving school or staying on my dad gave me the choice and I opted to leave and go farming, god knows where that came from..... I found out later that the reason he let me decide was because his father had blocked a good offer of a better education for him when he was a lad and he'd always regretted not being able to take it. He wasn't going to make the same mistake with me!

[Tizer]

Cordierite is named after the French geologist Louis Cordier (1777–1861). Andalusite is named after Andalusia - but wrongly, as it was discovered in El Cardoso de la Sierra in Guadalajara province (but who cares, andalusite sounds better than cardosoite or guadalajaraite!).

[Stanley]

I was thinking of cordillera, an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges.

[Tizer]

There are some strange and misleading mineral names. One is called pigeonite. It was named in 1900 by Alexander N. Winchell for the type locality of Pigeon Point, Minnesota, USA.

[Stanley]

Tea was sold loose or in 1/4lb paper packets. I can't remember it ever being scarce during the war. The only coffee I remember was Camp Coffee in glass bottles.

[Stanley]

I can remember the day just after the war when we first got a fridge, it was a Hotpoint and worked on the evaporator principle, not a motor and compressor so it didn't make ice but I can remember what a difference it made in the kitchen. The best thing was that even in thundery weather milk didn't go sour in a few hours after delivery. In those days milk retailers used to deliver twice a day in hot weather. It was standard practice to have a sniff at the milk before using it. We got very good at detecting when it had 'gone off'!

[Stanley]

People of my generation had a fairly healthy respect for food and always sniffed it before using it, particularly fish meat and dairy. No such thing as 'best by' dates then and to this day I rely on sight and smell rather than any label. If meat was a bit 'off' this wasn't the end of the world, a wash in vinegar worked wonders and resulted in very tender meat because the first thing that breaks down is the connective tissue. That's why game was always hung until it was described as 'high', in other words it stunk!
This could be taken too far in my opinion by the gentry. Maggots dropping off a carcass were no reason for not using it and cream was often kept for many days before churning into butter as it 'improved the flavour'. I always thought it was a form of depraved appetite!

[Stanley]

Funny how things come to mind. I remembered last night that amongst my war souvenirs was a 'parachute button'. This was the large quick release catch on the junction between the webbing straps at the front of the harness. Once you landed, a quarter turn of the top and a smart blow on it released all the harness and the parachuter could step out of it. It vanished with all the rest of my trophies while I was in the army! By the way I lost my ostrich egg as well which had been brought back by one of mother's relations many years before the war. He travelled a lot and always brought curiosities back with him. She said that at one time in Dukinfield they had a stone from the Great Wall of China! I wonder how many of them were sold to travellers......

[Stanley]

In the days before tinternetwebthingy there used to be weekly magazines full of classified advertisements. Can you remember Exchange and Mart? I've just checked and they still exist as an online site, it used to be required reading every week! Household magazines like Tit Bits (Would they get away with that title today?) had pages of classified ads and at one time so had the local papers. I remember that I used to have a 1930s catalogue sent out by Brown Brothers of Manchester. They sold tools and garage equipment mostly and the catalogue was a large treasure chest that always made interesting reading. Some engineering firms still do this, I have a Cutwell catalogue that is a very useful reference work. In the early days of newspapers the front page was always advertisements. I can remember when the Craven Herald dropped this practice and I think they were one of the last local papers in the country to do this.



1950 magazine.....

[Stanley]

Can anyone remember the United Cattle Products restaurants? Universally known as the UCP and they had branches all over the North of England. Have a look at this LINK to learn more. They were a Manchester firm and made a speciality of using offal from cattle like tripe and cowheel. I remember that for years I thought that 'steak and eel' pie had eels in it.

[Stanley]

Can anyone remember putting Para-dichlorobenzine crystals under carpets for long term moth and insect killing. It's now thought that it may be a carcinogen but is still used. It makes you wonder about babies crawling on the carpets and pets, what was the effect on them? I used to use it but was always suspicious about it......
We poured boiling water into ant's nests and hung up yellow fly-killing strips of plastic which were very effective but have since been banned. We once had a wasp nest in the roof space at Hey Farm and I 'cured' it by blowing a hole in it with my .410 shotgun and discharging an illegal fire extinguisher into the space before shutting the access. It got rid of the wasps but I often wonder about the chemical in the extinguisher! It was poisonous and as I say they had been banned. I have an idea it was also used for dry-cleaning at one time. It makes you wonder how we survived!

[Stanley]

Was that chemical Trichloroethylene? (LINK) I know it was used for degreasing in industry very widely. Nasty stuff, it could make you drunk!
We were exposed to a lot of chemicals like that, very useful but very bad for the user. We used to use some chlorinated grease on any application where it was exposed to water, it clung on far longer. Turned out that like sheep dip, it was very toxic if ingested or absorbed over long periods. I remember once when I was in the garage at West Marton, Wallace and I felt very woozy after smoking in an atmosphere of ether, we had been using it to try to start a recalcitrant diesel engine on a concrete mixer. I learned later that as the vapour passed over the burning tobacco in our cigarettes it made Phosgene gas! No wonder we felt poorly.

[chinatyke]

Was that chemical Trichloroethylene? (LINK) I know it was used for degreasing in industry very widely. Nasty stuff, it could make you drunk!

Different chemical from para-dichlorobenzene (think mothballs and toilet trough deodourisers).
Trike was a narcotic, could put you to sleep for hours after you'd finished work and sat in an easy chair, ask any worker who used it.

[Stanley]

They used it for degreasing at GGA and the bloke who ran the tank regularly fell asleep on the job. Father said he had to go in the end, they suspected he was addicted to it. I wonder what happened to him in the end? Different times......

[Stanley]

I once 'won' some two part specialised paint that was used to coat the walls of the cheese store at Marton when the new factory was being built. Just the thing for the small pantry room behind the scullery at Hey Farm. I had dry lined the walls and set to one day to paint them. It stunk a bit so I closed the door. A while afterwards Vera heard me talking to myself and occasionally bursting into song. When she opened the door to enquire if I was all right it was obvious something was wrong and of course the reason was that the solvent was some sort of hallucinogen! My God, did I have a headache as I recovered from that one. I got the same effect once at REW when I was painting a chimney section inside the shop at Rochdale with aluminium paint and the door closed. Les the Tinsmith opened the door and got me outside. Funny how these things can creep up on you!