Very OT: Question for the Brits amoungst us

? I don't unerstand that. Britain's supply is 240v.

...

There were, on appliances which needed them!

Oh no! We couldn't be trusted to do that!!!

Now we still have to replace a blown fuse but it's nothing like as exciting as it used to be :-)

Mary

Yes, that's what I suspected.

The US military taking overMenwith Hill caused a lot of resentment which could be transferred to the personnel, sadly.

Mary

It's a large, wide copper cylinder with a lid on top and either a grate for a solid fuel fire or a gas ring underneath, to heat the water. They were permanent fixtures and often surrounded by a brick wall. They're not seen nowadays.

They were used for washing clothes. The water was boiled, soap was grated into it, the clothes were immersed and agitated by a dolly (a long handed wooden device with a circle of wood and three or four shorter pegs at the bottom, it was pounded up and down and round and round, it was very hard work). For badly stained items (workmen's collars etc) the rubbing board was used. The stained item was rubbed with soap on the corrugated glass or metal surface of the rubbing board. All the water was drawn out of the copper by a tap (faucet) into a bucket and emptied down the drain. The clothes were put through a wringer if you had one, otherwise wrung by hand. The copper was re-filled and re-heated and the clothes rinsed. The process continued until the rinsing was completed.

Washing took all day.

Mary

mel = honey :-) I used to eat the whole (very small) flowers, fragrant and sweet.

We have chickens so they produce the main fertiliser although there are other wild birds in abundance, especially wood pigeon and collar doves. I only wash veg if there's obvious dirt on them - such as on root vegetables.

But in the ng I was told, very severely, that ANYTHING which comes from the ground - even peas in their pods, would have been infected by botulism spores and had to be washed, cooked or preserved properly.

I think that's over the top, you can't sterilise a lettuce leaf without ruining it.

Anyway, I'm still alive and very healthy and was born pre-war.

Mary

They are very handy. I have wool in several. My DIL has almost a wall full of them in her basement, holding out-of-season clothes, toys, Christmas decorations, camping gear. Everything is labeled, and should there be a water problem, nothing gets wet.

Higs, Katherine

Do you have problems with water?

Mary

Not often, but there are sometimes mini-floods, and water gets into the basement. This takes care of it, with no worries.

Higs, Katherne

I guess it pays to live in "the new world". I'm 62 y/o and we have always had just one type of "power point" (not called that here). Ooops, let me back that up a little. We used to have plugs with 2 prongs. Now most come with 3 - the third is a "ground" prong to prevent getting a shock. And, of course, the power point has to have 3 holes for the 3 prongs.

Our small appliances that plug into the wall pretty much all have the 3 prong plug. The large ones like the stove and clothes dryer have a very large plug which fits into a special wall receptacle and are of higher voltage. Go here to see a picture of a plug for a dryer.

types of appliances work in North America (Canada & the U.S.) and Ihave no idea if they would work in Mexico. Shelagh

Oh, I meant in the fuse-box for the whole house. Like when the toaster and the microwave are on at the same time and suddenly all the lights in the kitchen go off. :)

Exciting, yes. The fuses were in a closet under the stairs so when the lights blew out at night, it was a major pain to get out that little card with three gauges of wire ...

We were annoyed to find that the only bathroom outlet in our H'gate houses were special ones for electric shavers; you weren't allowed to plug your hair-dryer in, thanks to the UK nanny masters.

Yes, like our 2-prong vs. 3-prong outlets in the U.S. We bought a

50-yr-old house several years ago and have been upgrading the wiring to all 3-prong with ground-fault interrupters in all the outlets.

Heh heh...yes, my husband does a lot that is supposed to be done by a licensed electrician, but it's easier to get away with here; you can do your own work if you have a licensed guy inspect it -- it's not so much legal problems in the U.S. as it is a question of what your homeowner's insurance requires. Our favorite electrician is very easy-going about these things.

It was nearly all civilian then and the military didn't wear uniforms. One of the stupidest decisions ever was our chief of station deciding to suck up to his superior and require uniforms. Talk about waving a red flag to the protesters!

I'm glad I got out before then. But I did rather enjoy the presence of the peace camp as it took me back to my college days under the Nixon administration. I like to see people exercising their constitutional rights.

I sure do miss a lot about Yorkshire, though, especially the incredible exchange rate of 25 years ago! ;) Again, thanks for the trip down memory lane, Mary. DH & I still jump out of our seats with excitement when we're watching a movie and suddenly there's Brimham Rocks (very picturesque) or Ripley Castle or some other familiar feature.

Copper's an excellent conductor of heat, that's why they were made of copper.

Oh, I see, it's a different species (related to beans, it looks like from the botanical name) from what we call sweet clover, which is oxalis, and you nibble the leaves, which are very tart (thanks to the oxalic acid). Now I'm hungry for some honeysuckle nectar... ;)

Ah, I see. Sadly, we (the Fishers) don't have a basement and anyway we live on a hill.

Mary

I suppose that's because when the house was wired there was no such thing as a microwave :-)

No, I loved doing it. My mother taught me when I was about four and I always wanted the lights to go out so that I could do it. We kept a paraffin lamp to hand for the occasion.

Mary

Same here - except that they're call pins, not prongs. And shaver sockets still only have two holes, never could understand that. Most appliances are earthed anyway so don't need the third pin.

Our old two and three pin plugs were round, the 'modern' ones are rectangular.

I don't know about paying to live in the 'new world', it's not all perfect :-)

Mary

It's still like that. And we have to have cord pulls for electrical appliances like lights, extractor fans and showers.

Bah!

Ah - so your standardistion is changing too :-)

...

Oh we don't have to have inspection - because no-one knows what we've done.

At least, at the moment they don't. But when HIPS comes in (Home Information Packs) when you sell a house you have to have all the documentation about when everything was fitted, installed, whatever. If it wasn't installed by a qualified (that is, officially qualified) installer you'll be in trouble.

Hrumph.

Mary