WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Sounds fascinating Tiz. I had a furtle and found some interesting stuff but nothing like that. THIS site seemed quite comprehensive but I went off them when I saw that they regard Ball Lightning on the same level as UFOs and said it probably didn't exist. I know they are wrong there, I once watched multiple strikes half a mile North of Long Preston and I can assure you that it does exist!We had a period of very heavy gloom just before 10AM yesterday which was the precursor of rain, big thundery drops, but no thunder....

[Big Kev]

...the offer of a new job, hurrah!

Application submitted April 9th
Telephone interview April 16th
Face to face interview today at midday
Job offer received and accepted 14:00

Result

[PanBiker]

Excellent Kev, same place or a different job entirely? Any nearer home?

[Big Kev]

Similar job, different company. Looking after the software that's behind the 2nd generation (smets2) smart meters.
It's in Chorley so not too bad, 70 mile round trip.

[Stanley]

I had the same thought as Ian, great stuff but how nice it would be to be able to walk to work! I suppose travel is unavoidable these days.....
What grabbed me was having to remember to pee in a bottle first thing for my blood test at 10:00 this morning....

[Stanley]

I've been meaning to do this for a while. This is the back street this morning. My interest is the old wooden back wall of David Hoyle's old joinery shop at the end. The site on Bank Street is being developed and this wall will go shortly. I wonder whether we'll miss its function as a windbreak to East winds.



Here's a pic of the garden fronts a few years ago. Notice the large tree at the end (Which over the intervening years had almost doubled in size).



Now have a look at the pic I did this morning. The tree was on the land being developed and has gone. We now have a splendid view of the far hills to the East but again, we have lost the windbreak. I wonder what effect it will have on us when we have a cold ENE wind, it will blow directly along the street.
Not a biggie but change happens......

[Big Kev]

I had the same thought as Ian, great stuff but how nice it would be to be able to walk to work! I suppose travel is unavoidable these days.....

Walking to work would be an ideal, especially as I'm desk bound most of the day.

[Tizer]

That thunderstorm had a bonus. Magpies had started building a nest in next door's tree which is alongside our fence and that would mean the small birds would be deterred from using our nest boxes. They haven't been back to the nest since the storm.

[Stanley]

"Every cloud has a silver lining". Good, I like seeing them but they are bad neighbours. I once had a pair who had a taste for linseed oil putty! Not good for the windows.
The fact that the young nurse who took my blood yesterday missed with the first vein. I told her not to beat herself up, nurses have always said that I have 'difficult' veins. She went to a finer needle for the second attempt and succeeded. Now I can sit and worry about what the results will be. They are having a bit of a wobble about kidney function. I can do without it. In case you're wondering, I have no indications of anything being wrong and will take some persuading to accept treatment. I have a deep suspicion of tests and diagnosis based on 'average values'.

[Tizer]

Seagulls will pick out the rubber seals on windows too if they can stand on a ledge to get access. We know a holiday cottage in Cornwall where the owners have put a big plastic owl behind the sliding glass doors to frighten off the gulls that have ruined their window seals.

[Stanley]

The glazier who couldn't tell Stork from putty. His windows fell out.... (Don't know where that came from.....
A visit from Susan to catch up on all the latest. Kids are great......

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz has been on an archaeology visit to the Naples and Vesuvius area of Italy and returned full of information and anecdotes. Pliny the Elder sailed to the aid of people affected by the AD79 eruption but died from the sulphuric acid vapour. His nephew Pliny the Younger recorded the events and the death of his uncle. The interesting additional fact is that, due to their different locations, if the wind had been blowing in the opposite direction Pliny the Elder probably would have survived but his nephew would have died and we wouldn't have the detailed records.

Another odd little fact. During the eruption escaping people tied cushions to their heads as protection from the bombardment of lapilli, small pumice balls falling like giant hailstones. Of course, they didn't survive because the pumice fell in such large amounts that they were buried under it.

And this is worth thinking about...the Romans were brilliant at designing and erecting marvellous buildings, roads, viaducts, bridges etc. If they were such good engineers why didn't they invent the windmill? They used a few water mills and dabbled with the odd horizontal mill but it was many centuries before the Persians invented the vertical windmill as we know it.

[Stanley]

Good point Tiz. Come to think I have never seen an example of Roman gearing. The watermills they built that I have seen diagrams of are horizontal wheels with the shaft driving the stones direct. They understood rope drives and pulleys but never seemed to go beyond that. And of course they had slaves to do the 'daily grind'. (It's thought that that is where that phrase originated, three hours hard work daily to make the ground corn for the day)
Later..... I am always banging on about supporting our local retailers and this morning got a good example of the benefits. Last week I was telling Kathy at my butcher's that I'd like a haggis if she could get some but she told me they have no supplier who carries them. This morning she offered me a brace of haggis. She had seen them when shopping at Booth's supermarket and remembered me. You only get service like that at family-owned shops!

[Stanley]

Tiz, thinking about gearing..... The earliest examples of gearing can be found in instrument and clock making. See THIS Wiki article on the Antikythera mechanism which has been dated around the first century BC. This became a lost technology and surfaced again in the 14th century with the first clocks. The next stimulus apart from clock and watch making was when rotative power was first used in mills and later the textile industry. The gears were initially the same as clock gearing, no teeth but pegs in a wheel engaging in 'lantern' pinions made of rods like a rotating cage. From then on we moved into gear tooth design and arrived where we are today.

[Stanley]

A message from the surgery that a message is waiting for me there. God knows why they didn't put the message in the letter! Is it such bad news that it has to be delivered personally by my doctor?
At the same time I got news that a good friend died yesterday.
It never rains but what it pours.....

[Tizer]

God knows why they didn't put the message in the letter! Is it such bad news that it has to be delivered personally by my doctor?

I guess it's routine `patient confidentiality' these days, even to tell you you're OK!

The gears were initially the same as clock gearing, no teeth but pegs in a wheel engaging in 'lantern' pinions made of rods like a rotating cage.

Like this? I was given this model to make at Christmas by my sister-in-law. Based on Leonardo's `ornithopter' drawings. It looks easy to put together but a lot of the rods needed sanding to get them to fit and to engage smoothly. When you turn the handle the pilot's legs flex back and forth and the wings flap.

[Stanley]

Exactly like that Tiz.



Machines like this water frame spinning machine from the late 18th century relied solely on lantern gearing like your model. The technology of cutting small gears, particularly bevels for altering the angle of the drive, had not been mastered. Arkwright was reliant on carpenters, blacksmiths and clock-makers for the construction.
There is surprisingly little information about gears. See THIS for an accurate and concise account. Worth noting that this refers to machine cutting of gears. Making gears by casting the teeth came in earlier (Let 18th century) in large sizes like water mills and steam engines but they were very crude. See THIS description of the invention and first uses. The crown wheel on the primary drive of the water frame is an example of these early gears.

[Stanley]

Help!! I have a party of about 20 coming to Barlick on a Sunday in July and they need a recommendation for a good place in the town to have a pub lunch. Any suggestions?

[Big Kev]

The Fountain do a good Sunday lunch as does McCulloughs on Rainhall Rd. If you fancy venturing a little bit further I would highly recommend the RR Leisure club, you'll need to book well in advance though.

[Big Kev]

This made me feel old, Starsky and Hutch with Huggie Bear

[Stanley]

Thanks Kev, I've passed the message on....
I've been watching THIS case since it first hit the news. I was reminded of it as I watched Panorama last night. Very disturbing when the justice system fails to protect as it should......

[Stanley]

Not a lot actually apart from the fact that real, important and believable news is so thin on the ground. I get the feeling there is a form of censorship at work. Have Brexit negotiations ended?

[Bodger]

Interesting 15 mins. of engineering in the 1930s. http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/an ... 0s-349880/

[Tizer]

`Air Force Once and other White House typos' LINK

[Stanley]

Bodge, by coincidence I watched a couple of films on Sulzer in the inter war years on Youtube only a couple of days ago.
Tiz, some lovely examples of the value of editing before sending messages. It reinforces my contention that simple incompetence is one of the worst faults in modern life.
What grabs me is the fact that today I can vote against the Tories and I shall solve the mystery of my kidneys!