The Greatest Mechanical invention

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by Graham Meek on 14/10/2012 10:30:27:

Posted by Steve Garnett on 13/10/2012 21:27:14:

Typewriter. Okay, it ultimately gave way to the keyboard, on which you lot are typing all this crap instead of doing something useful…!

Well Steve,

No one twisted your arm to participate, I have always considered the average Model Engineer to have a great depth of interest, I so far have not been proved wrong…………..

Gray,

Hi Gray,

Spot on, see my posting at the end of P4.

Best regards

Terry

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by John Stevenson on 14/10/2012 10:36:08:

Most Victorian inventions.

If it wasn't for the Victorians we would be in the shìt – literally as they designed and build most of our sewerage systems in this country and some are of immense proportions.

John S.

Hi John

Again I agree as i said in my post above, flush toilets and the sewer drainage system are a huge machine which quietly benefitsd us all.

Here is a quote from the 1841 Crown Comission report into child labour in the Black Country which reported that there were few, if any, individual "privies" and described the toilet arrangements as below, for more see here:

"The working classes of Coseley, for the most part, as I am informed, and certainly the great majority in Lower Gornal, are in the habit of fixing a perch (about the size and length of a clothes prop) horizontally across one corner of their little strip of yard or dreary garden. Sometimes several families combine and carry a perch to the corner of a neighbouring field, which act of undue possession being sure to be very soon imitated by others, a disturbance is apt to ensue, if not a fight, the parties being so utterly ignorant and debased as not to be conscious in the slightest degree of the degradation implied in the whole proceeding."

There had been many deaths in the area from Cholera as well as severe outbreaks of Scarlet fever and God knows what else, not to mention the stench.

I vote for the humble lavatory (and drainage system)

Best regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 14/10/2012 11:46:16

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Graham Meek on 14/10/2012 10:30:27:

Posted by Steve Garnett on 13/10/2012 21:27:14:

Typewriter. Okay, it ultimately gave way to the keyboard, on which you lot are typing all this crap instead of doing something useful…!

Well Steve,

No one twisted your arm to participate, I have always considered the average Model Engineer to have a great depth of interest, I so far have not been proved wrong.

If you want to talk about something else, then please by all means start another thread, if it encompasses my knowledge base I will participate, but please do not riddicule others for their point of view.

Gray,

Oh for heaven's sake it's a JOKE!

Don't you lot get jokes?

Mind you, that said, then if none of you do, then I have learned something from this thread…

Edited By Steve Garnett on 14/10/2012 16:41:21

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Yep Steve

I get jokes – in fact jokes for me make pleasant pastures amongst life's stresses. Trouble is they need to be (at least a bit) funny and I guess your post came across more as a bit frustrated and annoyed that folk should be posting about such insignificant, Non-ME things. This is the problem with this method of communication – we can't see the smile on your face or the tongue in your cheek!

N

Edited By NJH on 14/10/2012 16:51:29

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Okay, it's too subtle…? I'll have to find a 'joke' light from somewhere then!

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi Steve,

Not subtle, just not funny .

I love a joke and try add a bit of humour into my postings, but things don't always come across on the screen as they do in conversation. Smileys were introduced to try and inject that nuance that one gets in face to face conversation, pity they are so overused and abused.

Best regards

Terry

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Terryd on 14/10/2012 17:13:51:

Hi Steve,

Not subtle, just not funny .

I think you'll find that jokes are a bit like beauty – it rather depends upon the eye of the beholder…

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Well I'm laughing at you lot bickering amongst yoursleves

Oscar Wilde could have written a play on these lines. The Importance of Posting Earnest? Perhaps we should give the award to the smiley?

Neil;

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Clive,

Before the riotated stick, came teh stick frubbed back and fiorth in a groove in another piece of wood – which has the advantage it creates its own supply of fine shavings. I know someone who can raise fire this way.

Neil

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Graham Meek on 14/10/2012 17:56:19:

Well Steve,

I do not consider calling someones point of view "Crap" it is not a word I would use, but then I would be the first to admit my standards belong more in the Victorian era, some would say that's where I belong too.

Well yes – if you don't consider it to be in the slightest bit funny, then yes I suppose you might just conceivably take offense. BTW, I think that the word originates from a contraction of the Victorian surname of one of the suppliers of some flushing modifications to one of the greatest non-mechanical inventions ever…

Edited By Steve Garnett on 14/10/2012 18:29:06

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Stub Mandrel on 14/10/2012 18:01:57:

Well I'm laughing at you lot bickering amongst yoursleves

I'm glad it's not wasted on you, Neil!

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Crap is from the Dutch for 'chaff'; Thomas Crapper was just another excellent example of nominative determinism.

Neil

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

It was 'Crapper 'who invented the toilet and manufactured them ? In fact a lot of the Victorian sewers are now crumbling and having to be remade. Big pumping engines were used to expidite the flow of the sewage. There is a big Gas engine in Chatham behind the Pentagon building, I have been to see it and they ran it for us to see.

Neil, I was referreing to the firemaking kit with a bow string wrapped around the stick and being rotated to make embers.More like a machine. Rubbing two sticks together is hard work !

Clive

[magpieParticipant @magpie]

You could allways raise steam by telling jokes on this forum.

Cheers Derek

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Graham Meek on 14/10/2012 20:37:59:

I think you will find Thomas Crapper made improvements to the flushing toilet that was invented by John Harrington 1596 nearly 300 years before if my memory serves me correct. A bit like James watt improving the steam engine really.

Quite – hence my reference to modifications…

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I think Crapper sticks in my mind as its so appropriate, strange how names seen to match the act !

Clive

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by Steve Garnett on 14/10/2012 17:44:58:

Posted by Terryd on 14/10/2012 17:13:51:

Hi Steve,

Not subtle, just not funny .

I think you'll find that jokes are a bit like beauty – it rather depends upon the eye of the behold

No,

They are either funny or not depending on your culture, Yours was not funny. But in your culture it may have been. FWIW the word 'Crap' is derived from the Old English 'Crappe' meaning leftovers or rubbish (hence Chaff) and has nothing to do with the unfortunately named Thomas Crapper. See the OED or any good etymological dictionary and expand your mind.

Regards

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Terryd on 14/10/2012 22:27:38:

See the OED or any good etymological dictionary and expand your mind.

Regards

Wot's butterflies got to do with anything ?

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

The company still trades after all these years :

**LINK**

Lots of delightful products and a history section .

The Romans had flushing toilets . What was invented later was the system for flushing toilets with a measured amount of water and then automatically shutting off .

The full modern toilet system also needed the separate invention of the U or P trap to prevent back flow of foul odours and sewer gas .

Some confusion in historical accounts on this subject because of the invention , at around the same time , of the quite succesful hopper fed earth box toilet .

In Swansea , in the road outside the main GWR station there was wonderful Victorian 'under the road' public toilet . Access via ornamental ironwork Paris metro style fenced areas with archways – one entry each side of the road and big lamp on each arch . Underneath and lit both by electricity and glass filled roadway grills was a big long room with all the usual facilities and all walled with white tiles apart from an ornamental green band near the roof . Came complete with an attendant who kept everything including miles of polished copper pipework immaculate . Best bit was the stand up toilets – immaculate in white porcelain and each proudly emblazoned ' Royal Doulton Vitreous China ' – complete with coat of arms . Sadly long gone but one very similar still existed in Cardiff when I last went there a few years ago .

Michael Williams

Edited By MICHAEL WILLIAMS on 14/10/2012 23:12:04

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi John

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time

Entomology (from Greek ἔντομος, entomos, "that which is cut in pieces or engraved/segmented", hence "insect"; and -λογία, -logia^[1]) is the scientific study of insects

(Both Wikipedia)

No lepidopterae in my tummy

Regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 14/10/2012 23:12:38

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Terryd on 14/10/2012 22:27:38:
No.

They are either funny or not depending on your culture, Yours was not funny. But in your culture it may have been.

Well in that case, it would be yes – because that's exactly what I said – in the eye of the beholder. Please try reading and understanding what I wrote – or does the subtlety of that evade you too? And anyway, what you wrote is a clearly a non sequitur...

What I should have said about Crap re Crapper is that it's reasonably clear that the term in common usage possibly owes as much to American servicemen as it does to any ancient usage.

And I don't think it's my mind that needs expanding, thank you.

Regards, Steve

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Guys

Maybe you would be better  to continue this discussion via PMs ?

 

Edited By NJH on 14/10/2012 23:31:59

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

The one thing I like about threads such as this, the true spirit of man (and some in particular) creeps out now and again!

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by NJH on 14/10/2012 23:25:30:

Guys

Maybe you would be better to continue this discussion via PMs ?

I think it would be sensibly terminated at this point.

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

This thread should continue for people that want it.

You don't have to read it and it appears to be doing no one any harm.

regards David

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