Author Topic: Cruelty to Apprentices and Drills for Square Holes  (Read 23306 times)

Offline Will_D

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Re: Cruelty to Apprentices and Drills for Square Holes
« Reply #25 on: January 09, 2016, 01:28:10 PM »
Will,

Avros and ICL.

Which AVRO? Woodford or Chadderton?

Woodford is (was) about 5m from me and ICL the same distance in the opposite direction. I know people who have worked at both.

The AVRO Heritage Museum has just opened at Woodford. I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the museum on the day the Vulcan gave its last fly-past.

Phil.
Hi Phil,

Avro's (1973 to 1977) was in Chadderton, but as I worked on the Woodford DO's time sheets system I used to get across town now and again. Of course the best time was the day before the airshow! Used to blag a ride on the worksd mini-bus to Woodford, have a quick meeting and then watch the Battle of Britain flight flying in and also the foreign teams who didn't know the field doing their rehersalls. And for this I got paid!

ICL (aka Buttlins with computers) was in West Gorton (home of ICL mainframes) from 1977 to 1991!

Btw: My ML7 came out of Woodford (legit I am assured !!)

There was one upstairs gallery in Chadd that had a line of Super 7s but was not part of the training school!
Engineer and Chemist to the NHC.ie
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Offline awemawson

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Re: Cruelty to Apprentices and Drills for Square Holes
« Reply #26 on: January 09, 2016, 01:45:42 PM »
"ICL (aka Buttlins with computers) was in West Gorton (home of ICL mainframes) from 1977 to 1991!"

And prior to that it was Ferranti West Gorton - the early ICL machines were a different physical construction of the logic of Ferranti Argus machines.

The ICL 1900 shares the same function set and op code format  (XFMN)as the Argus 500
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline philf

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Re: Cruelty to Apprentices and Drills for Square Holes
« Reply #27 on: January 09, 2016, 02:15:34 PM »

And prior to that it was Ferranti West Gorton - the early ICL machines were a different physical construction of the logic of Ferranti Argus machines.


Ferranti - another huge local company that all but disappeared. Just Googling I see that Sebastian de Ferranti died in October 2015:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11939157/Sebastian-de-Ferranti-businessman-obituary.html

Other big local companies either gone or almost gone: Cravens, Avro's, Simon Carves, Mirrlees, Fairey's.

All these took on large numbers of apprentices to be subjected to untold cruelty!

I did a student apprenticeship and I wasn't treated too badly. (Or, if I was, I was too thick to realise!)

Phil.
Phil Fern
Location: Marple, Cheshire

Offline philf

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Re: Cruelty to Apprentices and Drills for Square Holes
« Reply #28 on: May 13, 2016, 03:35:54 PM »
A bucket of sparks or some sky hooks were the order of the day.....

John,

An old post I know but I was at Trafford Park, Manchester the other day and look what they've got...



A mythical Sky Hook.

Phil.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2017, 01:08:30 PM by philf »
Phil Fern
Location: Marple, Cheshire

RobWilson

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Re: Cruelty to Apprentices and Drills for Square Holes
« Reply #29 on: May 13, 2016, 06:00:19 PM »
Thats a canny sky hook Phil  :lol: :lol: :lol:

Rob

Offline texta

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Re: Cruelty to Apprentices and Drills for Square Holes
« Reply #30 on: May 13, 2016, 07:24:04 PM »
One I remember- Boy was sent for a pint of pigeons milk and given a shilling. One hour later he came back empty -handed. Said  " they had no pigeons milk so I bought you an ice-cream, it started melting so I had to eat it. "  True story, Tyneside aprox 1960

tyneside hey ,where i grew up for a while , my old man did his marine engineer time at smiths docks .the old man had tons of stories from the ship yard , like dropping candle wax from high up and yelling lookout below with everyone ducking for cover thinking it was snot .

Offline A WELLWISHER

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Re: Cruelty to Apprentices and Drills for Square Holes
« Reply #31 on: January 04, 2017, 05:11:31 AM »
Hi guys, I know this topic is little used now however I thought I would add my few pence worth, when I started my apprenticeship as a turner in 1960, a slightly less enlightened era than today, all the time honoured pranks were in play, tins of sparks for the grinder, balls of Whitworth thread etc, there were also local variations such as sending the hapless youth to enquire of the young ladies in the typing pool if they had any vices (swearing, spitting & drunkeness) to name but a few, in the days when I could still blush I could not believe some of the industrial language that  poured from their ruby red lips, causing me to create the concept of a person with the face of an Angel & the mouth of an Italian Truck Driver! Another wizard wheeze was stitching a someones overalls to a nearby weldmesh fence using the florists wire supplied for attaching parcel labels to individual items. Eventually & sadly, by the time we turned 18 the combined forces of money, girls & motorbikes turned us away from such youthful pursuits, however this original grounding enabled me to produce some spectacular ripostes to the efforts of those who were not highly trained pranksters throughout the remaining 54 years of my working life, realistic snakes exploding out of innocuous looking tins of sweets, nuts or even barrier cream always a favourite. However I must end now with my own slam dunk, useful things to do with Engineers Blue, yes I know that some (boring) people use it scraping flat surfaces & checking the fit of taper gauges but as machines acquire ever more push buttons & overcentre latches the are begging to be adorned with it, the pinnacle however is to get some on a rag or paper towel & firmly draw it along the full length of the victims work bootlaces, has been known to take days to track down the source, happy days, in fact retirement seems positively tranquil in comparison. Cheers A.Wellwisher (my Secret Identity for all those years)