Yen's stories

[yen_powell]

On another forum I am on they were talking about nuclear energy and I remembered something from my youth and posted this:-

In 1983 I went on a spectroscope course somewhere in south west London with a very posh bloke who insisted we call him Baz. Suit, spotted bow tie, biscuit crumbs and a full china tea set. Mad, but a lovely bloke.

After a few days of staring at spectrums and being tested on what could be worked out from them I was talking about a previous course I had done where one of my fellow pupils worked at Windscale and who had talked about how they kept changing the name whenever the publicity got bad.

Baz said he had been involved with the nuclear industry in the 50s or 60s. He had been asked to find a way to identify an alloy when it was in the form of a tube set into concrete but without cutting a piece off which would have been difficult and would have meant rebuilding the whole thing. These tubes were the roughly the same size as scaffold tubes and there was a suspicion that the contractor may have tried to cut costs!!

He made a rod with an electrode on the end, put it down inside the tube and arced it till a residue formed, then brought it back up and arced the residue itself on the carbon wheel of the main spectroscope and in this way identified the alloy.

I asked him what it was made of and he said he wasn't allowed to say. Then as he walked away to get out the tea pot and cups he said over his shoulder, "They had to rebuild it of course, frightful shouting match going on as I was leaving!"

[Pedro]

4 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

On another forum I am on they were talking about nuclear energy and I remembered something from my youth and posted this:-

In 1983 I went on a spectroscope course somewhere in south west London with a very posh bloke who insisted we call him Baz. Suit, spotted bow tie, biscuit crumbs and a full china tea set. Mad, but a lovely bloke.

After a few days of staring at spectrums and being tested on what could be worked out from them I was talking about a previous course I had done where one of my fellow pupils worked at Windscale and who had talked about how they kept changing the name whenever the publicity got bad.

Baz said he had been involved with the nuclear industry in the 50s or 60s. He had been asked to find a way to identify an alloy when it was in the form of a tube set into concrete but without cutting a piece off which would have been difficult and would have meant rebuilding the whole thing. These tubes were the roughly the same size as scaffold tubes and there was a suspicion that the contractor may have tried to cut costs!!

He made a rod with an electrode on the end, put it down inside the tube and arced it till a residue formed, then brought it back up and arced the residue itself on the carbon wheel of the main spectroscope and in this way identified the alloy.

I asked him what it was made of and he said he wasn't allowed to say. Then as he walked away to get out the tea pot and cups he said over his shoulder, "They had to rebuild it of course, frightful shouting match going on as I was leaving!"

You should make a thread for your past conversations’ stories!

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

3 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

On another forum I am on they were talking about nuclear energy and I remembered something from my youth and posted this:-

In 1983 I went on a spectroscope course somewhere in south west London with a very posh bloke who insisted we call him Baz. Suit, spotted bow tie, biscuit crumbs and a full china tea set. Mad, but a lovely bloke.

After a few days of staring at spectrums and being tested on what could be worked out from them I was talking about a previous course I had done where one of my fellow pupils worked at Windscale and who had talked about how they kept changing the name whenever the publicity got bad.

Baz said he had been involved with the nuclear industry in the 50s or 60s. He had been asked to find a way to identify an alloy when it was in the form of a tube set into concrete but without cutting a piece off which would have been difficult and would have meant rebuilding the whole thing. These tubes were the roughly the same size as scaffold tubes and there was a suspicion that the contractor may have tried to cut costs!!

He made a rod with an electrode on the end, put it down inside the tube and arced it till a residue formed, then brought it back up and arced the residue itself on the carbon wheel of the main spectroscope and in this way identified the alloy.

I asked him what it was made of and he said he wasn't allowed to say. Then as he walked away to get out the tea pot and cups he said over his shoulder, "They had to rebuild it of course, frightful shouting match going on as I was leaving!"

Another fine upstanding British tradesman doing a bodgitnscarper no doubt

[MooN]

3 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Another fine upstanding British tradesman doing a bodgitnscarper no doubt

Ah, "Bodgit and Scarper" I remember years ago replacing a through hull fitting on a boat in the water and when the company director asked how it went, my oppo replied point at himself and I, " Bodgit and Scarper" boatfitters to the gentry!  I nearly wet myself, never having heard the phrase before...  still makes me giggle now.

[XTreme]

22 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

On another forum I am on they were talking about nuclear energy and I remembered something from my youth and posted this:-

In 1983 I went on a spectroscope course somewhere in south west London with a very posh bloke who insisted we call him Baz. Suit, spotted bow tie, biscuit crumbs and a full china tea set. Mad, but a lovely bloke.

After a few days of staring at spectrums and being tested on what could be worked out from them I was talking about a previous course I had done where one of my fellow pupils worked at Windscale and who had talked about how they kept changing the name whenever the publicity got bad.

Baz said he had been involved with the nuclear industry in the 50s or 60s. He had been asked to find a way to identify an alloy when it was in the form of a tube set into concrete but without cutting a piece off which would have been difficult and would have meant rebuilding the whole thing. These tubes were the roughly the same size as scaffold tubes and there was a suspicion that the contractor may have tried to cut costs!!

He made a rod with an electrode on the end, put it down inside the tube and arced it till a residue formed, then brought it back up and arced the residue itself on the carbon wheel of the main spectroscope and in this way identified the alloy.

I asked him what it was made of and he said he wasn't allowed to say. Then as he walked away to get out the tea pot and cups he said over his shoulder, "They had to rebuild it of course, frightful shouting match going on as I was leaving!"

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

2 hours ago, MooN said:

Ah, "Bodgit and Scarper" I remember years ago replacing a through hull fitting on a boat in the water and when the company director asked how it went, my oppo replied point at himself and I, " Bodgit and Scarper" boatfitters to the gentry!  I nearly wet myself, never having heard the phrase before...  still makes me giggle now.

First time I heard it it really made me laugh too, so much so that when some of us were treated to a brief visit from animation company that lent all their equipment for us to make a film I used it.

 I co-wrote the story line about a nuclear power station that was badly built blowing up and the then government all cramming in a van with Bodgit n Scarper written on the side before closing themselves in a shelter and leaving everyone else outside.

It was shown at the London film festival amongst others and went down pretty well that these 12 year old kids had made this short. So well that we were made to take it to private schools and show the privileged that pleb school kids did this thing.

Unfortunately I hadn’t particularly disguised the politicians faces, just cut them out of the newspaper with a very unflattering outline (Id given Norman Tebbit a particularly sinister cut ) so they always went the same way- everyone was friendly and pleasant and we were welcomed with tea and cake then the very short film was shown and silence would descend before we left under scowling eyes

In our own way we’d had to bodge it and scarper

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

35 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

On another forum I am on they were talking about nuclear energy and I remembered something from my youth and posted this:-

In 1983 I went on a spectroscope course somewhere in south west London with a very posh bloke who insisted we call him Baz. Suit, spotted bow tie, biscuit crumbs and a full china tea set. Mad, but a lovely bloke.

After a few days of staring at spectrums and being tested on what could be worked out from them I was talking about a previous course I had done where one of my fellow pupils worked at Windscale and who had talked about how they kept changing the name whenever the publicity got bad.

Baz said he had been involved with the nuclear industry in the 50s or 60s. He had been asked to find a way to identify an alloy when it was in the form of a tube set into concrete but without cutting a piece off which would have been difficult and would have meant rebuilding the whole thing. These tubes were the roughly the same size as scaffold tubes and there was a suspicion that the contractor may have tried to cut costs!!

He made a rod with an electrode on the end, put it down inside the tube and arced it till a residue formed, then brought it back up and arced the residue itself on the carbon wheel of the main spectroscope and in this way identified the alloy.

I asked him what it was made of and he said he wasn't allowed to say. Then as he walked away to get out the tea pot and cups he said over his shoulder, "They had to rebuild it of course, frightful shouting match going on as I was leaving!"

Umm did they check the alloy used at other sites?

[yen_powell]

6 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Umm did they check the alloy used at other sites?

No idea, I never saw old Baz again after that. he'll be pushing up the daisies now I suspect, taken his secrets to the grave.

The reason I used the spectroscope back then was I worked in a scrap yard in Barking as a sorter. We would identify and separate metals/alloys, mostly using a spectroscope on a trolley, or a smaller hand held version, sometimes with acid from a squeezy bottle (good on a windy day) or just by sparking stuff against a grinding wheel. There were only three of us in the south of England I was told when I started work on a youth opportunity scheme on peasant's wages. All done by computer and X-rays now I hear.

I once fund a 40 gallon drum with some metal ingots in it, it was wedged up the back of a very big yard with a very old stock number on it. I brought one back with me and tested it on my spectroscope and didn't recognise any of the lines. Usually you navigated using a horizontally split screen, the bottom screen was the spectrum of a piece of pure iron, the top screen was whatever you were checking. You learnt the iron pattern of glowing lines and knew what other elements were by their position in relation to the iron spectrum. Comparing the brightness of lines on top with the bottom picture would give you an idea of an element's percentage in the mix. You could identify specific grades of stainless steels just by their molybdenum content for instance after first checking the iron/nickel/chrome ratios. No two titanium alloys have the same elements in them, so with those you just had to see what was there/not there.

None of the lines I saw matched anything I knew on this strange ingot so I had to go back to basics. Find a good strong line and take a reading off of the spectroscope's dial (the image was so wide you turned a wheel to move it left and right). Each spectroscope had a matching book which made allowances for the lens differences. It told you what the angstrom reading was for any number on the dial. You could look this up in another book. Turned out it was a piece of depleted Uranium!

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

4 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

No idea, I never saw old Baz again after that. he'll be pushing up the daisies now I suspect, taken his secrets to the grave.

The reason I used the spectroscope back then was I worked in a scrap yard in Barking as a sorter. We would identify and separate metals/alloys, mostly using a spectroscope on a trolley, or a smaller hand held version, sometimes with acid from a squeezy bottle (good on a windy day) or just by sparking stuff against a grinding wheel. There were only three of us in the south of England I was told when I started work on a youth opportunity scheme on peasant's wages. All done by computer and X-rays now I hear.

I once fund a 40 gallon drum with some metal ingots in it, it was wedged up the back of a very big yard with a very old stock number on it. I brought one back with me and tested it on my spectroscope and didn't recognise any of the lines. Usually you navigated using a horizontally split screen, the bottom screen was the spectrum of a piece of pure iron, the top screen was whatever you were checking. You learnt the iron pattern of glowing lines and knew what other elements were by their position in relation to the iron spectrum. Comparing the brightness of lines on top with the bottom picture would give you an idea of an element's percentage in the mix. You could identify specific grades of stainless steels just by their molybdenum content for instance after first checking the iron/nickel/chrome ratios. No two titanium alloys have the same elements in them, so with those you just had to see what was there/not there.

None of the lines I saw matched anything I knew on this strange ingot so I had to go back to basics. Find a good strong line and take a reading off of the spectroscope's dial (the image was so wide you turned a wheel to move it left and right). Each spectroscope had a matching book which made allowances for the lens differences. It told you what the angstrom reading was for any number on the dial. You could look this up in another book. Turned out it was a piece of depleted Uranium!

How depleted?  

Great post. Enjoyed that a lot. Anything I read that causes my finger to point in the air while my tiny brain processes the words is always good

I’m most surprised given how much human biology Ive had to study and that a lack of molybdenum can cause (amongst other things) lens dislocation and I didnt know about it.

I’m guessing its rare or given its properties it would be more commonly used?

Is the “youth opportunity scheme” the same as the ‘youth training scheme’?

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

@yen_powell I dont know what your area of expertise is so ignore this if it means bugger all to you but a while back I was hearing lots of amazing things about Graphene. There was even a Nobel prize awarded for work into it. This marvellous super strong plastic was destined to transform a lot of things and yet it seemed to just disappear off the radar?

[XTreme]

1 minute ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

I dont know what your area of expertise is

[Pedro]

23 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

No idea, I never saw old Baz again after that. he'll be pushing up the daisies now I suspect, taken his secrets to the grave.

The reason I used the spectroscope back then was I worked in a scrap yard in Barking as a sorter. We would identify and separate metals/alloys, mostly using a spectroscope on a trolley, or a smaller hand held version, sometimes with acid from a squeezy bottle (good on a windy day) or just by sparking stuff against a grinding wheel. There were only three of us in the south of England I was told when I started work on a youth opportunity scheme on peasant's wages. All done by computer and X-rays now I hear.

I once fund a 40 gallon drum with some metal ingots in it, it was wedged up the back of a very big yard with a very old stock number on it. I brought one back with me and tested it on my spectroscope and didn't recognise any of the lines. Usually you navigated using a horizontally split screen, the bottom screen was the spectrum of a piece of pure iron, the top screen was whatever you were checking. You learnt the iron pattern of glowing lines and knew what other elements were by their position in relation to the iron spectrum. Comparing the brightness of lines on top with the bottom picture would give you an idea of an element's percentage in the mix. You could identify specific grades of stainless steels just by their molybdenum content for instance after first checking the iron/nickel/chrome ratios. No two titanium alloys have the same elements in them, so with those you just had to see what was there/not there.

None of the lines I saw matched anything I knew on this strange ingot so I had to go back to basics. Find a good strong line and take a reading off of the spectroscope's dial (the image was so wide you turned a wheel to move it left and right). Each spectroscope had a matching book which made allowances for the lens differences. It told you what the angstrom reading was for any number on the dial. You could look this up in another book. Turned out it was a piece of depleted Uranium!

THIS SHIT IS WORTHY OF A BOOK!

Or it’s own thread!

[skyrider]

14 minutes ago, Pedro said:

THIS SHIT IS WORTHY OF A BOOK!

Or it’s own thread!

not wrong

[Pedro]

Something about one of Yen´s stories from today's posts reminded me of this friend I have from college called Lobato, he is like a real life Seinfeld mixed with The Three Stooges and Indiana Jones. Amongst several stories, he was on the subway heading to visit the World Trade Center while it was being flown into and collapsing, very much to his surprise as he and another friend emerged from the subway to a big frenzy and a very dusty NYC, before being questioned by the FBI for a few hours.

Now, the story I recall is usually told by another friend who was also involved and goes something like:

When The Rolling Stones visited Portugal in 2006 they arrived in Lisbon's airport and had a gig in Porto, to take place in FCPorto's stadium. One of my college friends got the job of taking care of the band, involving picking them up in Lisbon and bringing them up north in vans, including all their personal stuff and gear, get food or "other stuff" they needed and basically keep them happy. Now Lobato was in charge of driving one of the vans and fetching random stuff, which he did for a few days using his contacts in Porto.

Prior to the first concert, he was just sitting down having a sandwich mid afternoon and this random older dude sits by him also having a snack and they strike a conversation that eventually goes like: "so, do you enjoy the Stones?"

to which Lobato answers "not really, they are very impressive in their old age, you know, for old people ... to still be performing, but their music doesn't do anything for me, I'm more into reggae and that kind of stuff"... after a little the older dude walked off, to not be seen again, until a couple of hours later as they were watching the band walk on stage Lobato asks another the guy in charge of the gig: "hey, what's that guy doing on stage?", he promptly shut up when the old dude picked up his sticks and sat down behind the drums:

 

Lobato's words after: "he was wearing fucking CORDUROY PANTS!!! ... and had such a small dressing room I thought he was the band's tailor" 

 

 

There you go @yen_powell, post your content where it won´t get lost amongst inane drivel.

[XTreme]

And I've moved Yen's posts in here!

[yen_powell]

1 hour ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

@yen_powell I dont know what your area of expertise is so ignore this if it means bugger all to you but a while back I was hearing lots of amazing things about Graphene. There was even a Nobel prize awarded for work into it. This marvellous super strong plastic was destined to transform a lot of things and yet it seemed to just disappear off the radar?

I have no areas of expertise except those specified by Pete.

 

I remember the talk about graphene. I might be mixing it up with another wonder material, but weren't they going to coat food in it so it didn't go off, or put it on paintwork so dirt would not stick to it?

[yen_powell]

1 hour ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

How depleted?  

Great post. Enjoyed that a lot. Anything I read that causes my finger to point in the air while my tiny brain processes the words is always good

I’m most surprised given how much human biology Ive had to study and that a lack of molybdenum can cause (amongst other things) lens dislocation and I didnt know about it.

I’m guessing its rare or given its properties it would be more commonly used?

Is the “youth opportunity scheme” the same as the ‘youth training scheme’?

I reckon it was the same thing. It was one step up from the YOP scheme in that I got £39 a week instead of £25. At the end of the year they gave me a permanent job, still on very low wages mind, but a bit more than they paid the labourers.

After about 3 years working there (I was about 20) I got called in one Monday morning by the owner, a bloke called Reg Simmonds who always reminded me of Michael Caine, a very nice man. I had forgotten to lock up the petrol saws we used to cut samples of bigger stuff on the Friday and they had been stolen, so I thought I was in for a telling off. But in fact he asked me if I would be interested in taking voluntary redundancy. He was quite upset about it, it was a small firm and he had never made anyone redundant before. I asked if I could leave on Wednesday which took him aback a bit. He said okay, if that was what I wanted I could. As I was leaving I turned and asked why he had asked me? "You looked the unhappiest." he said.

When I left I got a small amount of redundancy, plus all my holiday money, plus a £100 from Reg and a £100 from his wife Deirdre. I went back to visit occasionally and the Irish yard foreman kept giving me bank notes, telling me Deirdre had left it for me. Reg sold the firm and did other stuff, especially involving the arts. He did tell me once that when he grew up in the east end of London he wanted to be a writer, but had to go out and earn money to help his family instead. I googled and found a picture of him, see below. He passed away from cancer in about 2012 I heard. The lady with him is his daughter who sometimes worked in the office of the yard during her school holidays, she's a film producer now. Another time I will tell the story of me making my magnesium bomb and him nearly catching me with the thing flaring up like mad and how I covered it up.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

19 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

I have no areas of expertise except those specified by Pete.

 

I remember the talk about graphene. I might be mixing it up with another wonder material, but weren't they going to coat food in it so it didn't go off, or put it on paintwork so dirt would not stick to it?

Electrics and automotive were the applications I remember but they seemed to think it would be useful for pretty much everything and yet Ive seen it nowhere  

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

6 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

I reckon it was the same thing. It was one step up from the YOP scheme in that I got £39 a week instead of £25. At the end of the year they gave me a permanent job, still on very low wages mind, but a bit more than they paid the labourers.

After about 3 years working there (I was about 20) I got called in one Monday morning by the owner, a bloke called Reg Simmonds who always reminded me of Michael Caine, a very nice man. I had forgotten to lock up the petrol saws we used to cut samples of bigger stuff on the Friday and they had been stolen, so I thought I was in for a telling off. But in fact he asked me if I would be interested in taking voluntary redundancy. He was quite upset about it, it was a small firm and he had never made anyone redundant before. I asked if I could leave on Wednesday which took him aback a bit. He said okay, if that was what I wanted I could. As I was leaving I turned and asked why he had asked me? "You looked the unhappiest." he said.

When I left I got a small amount of redundancy, plus all my holiday money, plus a £100 from Reg and a £100 from his wife Deirdre. I went back to visit occasionally and the Irish yard foreman kept giving me bank notes, telling me Deirdre had left it for me. Reg sold the firm and did other stuff, especially involving the arts. He did tell me once that when he grew up in the east end of London he wanted to be a writer, but had to go out and earn money to help his family instead. I googled and found a picture of him, see below. He passed away from cancer in about 2012 I heard. The lady with him is his daughter who sometimes worked in the office of the yard during her school holidays, she's a film producer now. Another time I will tell the story of me making my magnesium bomb and him nearly catching me with the thing flaring up like mad and how I covered it up.

I’m pretty sure that’s Doc from back to the future!

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

7 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

I reckon it was the same thing. It was one step up from the YOP scheme in that I got £39 a week instead of £25. At the end of the year they gave me a permanent job, still on very low wages mind, but a bit more than they paid the labourers.

After about 3 years working there (I was about 20) I got called in one Monday morning by the owner, a bloke called Reg Simmonds who always reminded me of Michael Caine, a very nice man. I had forgotten to lock up the petrol saws we used to cut samples of bigger stuff on the Friday and they had been stolen, so I thought I was in for a telling off. But in fact he asked me if I would be interested in taking voluntary redundancy. He was quite upset about it, it was a small firm and he had never made anyone redundant before. I asked if I could leave on Wednesday which took him aback a bit. He said okay, if that was what I wanted I could. As I was leaving I turned and asked why he had asked me? "You looked the unhappiest." he said.

When I left I got a small amount of redundancy, plus all my holiday money, plus a £100 from Reg and a £100 from his wife Deirdre. I went back to visit occasionally and the Irish yard foreman kept giving me bank notes, telling me Deirdre had left it for me. Reg sold the firm and did other stuff, especially involving the arts. He did tell me once that when he grew up in the east end of London he wanted to be a writer, but had to go out and earn money to help his family instead. I googled and found a picture of him, see below. He passed away from cancer in about 2012 I heard. The lady with him is his daughter who sometimes worked in the office of the yard during her school holidays, she's a film producer now. Another time I will tell the story of me making my magnesium bomb and him nearly catching me with the thing flaring up like mad and how I covered it up.

Why Wednesday?

[yen_powell]

5 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Why Wednesday?

Can't remember, might have been something going on I wanted to be at. I didn't tell anyone at home I had no job for about 2 weeks, just went out on my bike in the morning and rode around for the day.

[yen_powell]

Trying to go for a walk or a pedal every day if I can, sick of keep having to go up a trouser size every few years.

Today was riding into the bitter wind day, can't believe it was summer only last week. I ended up in the town centre where there were some poor people wandering about, saw this out of the corner of my eye. I don't think it was a real frog, but it might have been a real Yamaha.

 

[yen_powell]

I cut back across a recreation ground. Every time I go that way I stop to look at this small tree. It always looks like it has hair to me. Today it was windy so the hair was blowing about like David Coverdale trying to do his sexy look whilst a fan is doing 400mph right into his face.

[XTreme]

11 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

Trying to go for a walk or a pedal every day if I can, sick of keep having to go up a trouser size every few years.

Today was riding into the bitter wind day, can't believe it was summer only last week. I ended up in the town centre where there were some poor people wandering about, saw this out of the corner of my eye. I don't think it was a real frog, but it might have been a real Yamaha.

 

FS1E in a Motoring School window!? 

[yen_powell]

9 minutes ago, XTreme said:

FS1E in a Motoring School window!? 

They do motorcycle training as well. When I moved up this way I resigned from my part time instructor's job, telling the owners that I didn't think I would want to ride down on Saturday and Sunday and spend all day on a bike after doing 500 miles of commuting during the week. They said that was silly, they did it, coming in to Hornchurch from Maldon every day. I pointed out that that they got the profits, I got minimum wage.

I did drop in on a training school near my new location and they offered me a job, but I couldn't stomach the thought of it any more.

I also paid Benson's a visit. Their yard opened out onto an unfenced quay side in Colchester. All new riders would have gone straight into the drink if they forgot to turn right as the left the exit.