“The Unique”

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

I must admit it's a long time since I heard, or used 'dollar' or 'half-a-dollar' in connection with UK money, eg 5/- & 2/6 (five shillings (or 5 bob) & two shillings and sixpence (more likely 2 and 6!). What I can say is that in my youth and well into my 20's these terms were indeed common currency. I suspect they dropped out of use with the coming of decimal currency. But then, we also had a 10 bob note, to say nothing of pricing of some goods being in guineas (21 shillings or £1.05 in todays terminology). And £5 notes were large white things, about the size of an A5 sheet of paper.

Stop it! This reminiscing is absolutely no good – I'll be talking about "sit-up-and-beg" Fords next!

Peter G. Shaw

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Dave (sod), sounds like some quarters of the country move forward before the rest.

Regards Nick.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by Peter G. Shaw on 16/09/2020 10:45:52:

I must admit it's a long time since I heard, or used 'dollar' or 'half-a-dollar' in connection with UK money, eg 5/- & 2/6 (five shillings (or 5 bob) & two shillings and sixpence (more likely 2 and 6!). What I can say is that in my youth and well into my 20's these terms were indeed common currency. I suspect they dropped out of use with the coming of decimal currency. But then, we also had a 10 bob note, to say nothing of pricing of some goods being in guineas (21 shillings or £1.05 in todays terminology). And £5 notes were large white things, about the size of an A5 sheet of paper.

Stop it! This reminiscing is absolutely no good – I'll be talking about "sit-up-and-beg" Fords next!

Peter G. Shaw

Hi Peter, or tin baths in front of the fire.

Regards Nick.

[MeunierParticipant @meunier]

Posted by Peter G. Shaw on 16/09/2020 10:45:52:

…./ I'll be talking about "sit-up-and-beg" Fords next!

Peter G. Shaw

That might prove to be a 'Popular' subject Peter

DaveD

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

To talk about out of production Fords, you will need an "Escort"!

We are showing our age.

After you with the Zimmer frame (there may be some useable Ali tube in there )

Howard

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Howard, talk about the Escort, I learnt to drive and passed my test (first time) in 1972/3 in one. Never had one of my own though, I didn't/don't like Ford cars.

Regards Nick.

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Strangely, I think my parents & grandparents (living next door) were amongst the lucky ones as we both had indoor toilets & bathrooms along with fireback boilers. In both houses these were additions well after the houses were built. So tinbaths were, for me, something unknown.

And yet, the terrace houses at the other side of us had outside dry toilets until updated, and no bathroom so I presume they used a tin bath. Also, my other grandparents had an outside toilet, and paraffin lamps for lighting. Bathroom? Don't remember, but I suspect not. Incidently, that house had two bedrooms, one for the grandparents, and the other – eventually – for their five girls, whilst there two boys had an alcove at the top of the stairs. Apparently at one stage, that grandmother had five children under five! I wonder how today's snowflakes would cope with that lot.

My uncle had a Ford Pop, whilst my parents first car was the old Prefect – sidevalve, 3 speed, cable brakes, 6v system, vacuum wipers etc.

And for what it's worth, I haven't got a zimmer frame!

Peter G. Shaw

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by Peter G. Shaw on 16/09/2020 19:41:48:

And yet, the terrace houses at the other side of us had outside dry toilets

Many years ago & I am talking about many, we went to some relations in Norham on the Scottish borders. Their house backed onto the Tweed & is still there to this day.I had to go to the toilet, which was a dry one, with grass in it. The story goes (I was a very young essex lad) that I was heard to say to my mum " There is no lock on the door". On hearing this, my mother's aunt is said to have replied, " Why should he worry? We have lived here 50 years & never had a bucket of s..t nicked yet"

 

Sorry mods— but I have never forgotten the story & have no idea if it is true or not, but the dry toilet comment prompted me to repeat it– put me on 7 days punishment !!!

 

 

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 16/09/2020 20:22:03

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Sam,

I like it!

Peter G. Shaw

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

In 1804, a British five-shilling piece, or crown, was sometimes called "dollar". It was an overstruck Spanish eight Real coin (the famous "piece of eight", the original of which was known as a Spanish dollar. Large numbers of these eight-real coins were captured during the  Napolionic Wars, hence their re-use by the Bank of England. They remained in use until 1811.During World War 2 when the U.S. dollar was (approximately) valued at five shillings, the half crown (2s 6d) acquired the nickname "half dollar" in the UK.

Seems it originated in the loot capured off the Spanish. Curtisy of Wikipedia.

regards Martin

Edited By Martin Kyte on 16/09/2020 20:44:08

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

S.O.D's explanation of the dollar(Thaler) history could also include the British using one particular version – the Maria Theresa Thaler as a 'trusted' currency. In Aden in the 50s and before and since, the MT Thaler was the primary unit of currency with the 'locals' and they all had to carry the same date 186… something? Local Levee garrisons were paid in them and the 'cash convoys' were heavyweight boxes!I cannot now remember the equivalent exchange rate.

I left UK ,for a 3 year overseas tour, just as decimal coinage was being introduced. As a result, I have never completely come to terms with PENCE, and still find myself doing mental conversions into £.s.d. Pounds, (proper ones!) shillings and pence and farthings, halfpennies, threepenny bits (brass and silver), florins, halfcrowns, ten bob notes,all still seem perfectly natural.

rgds

Bill

[Robert ButlerParticipant @robertbutler92161]

4 dollars to the pound sterling in 1940's?? Robert Butler

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Well, you learn summat new everyday on here!

I do admit I had never heard the crown (coin) called a "dollar", nor ever read it called that, so it can't have that universal.

What I do recall of "going decimal" was the instant rip-off where shopkeepers simply replaced the "d" with "p", multiplying the cost of small items by 2.4.

Also, most people soon stopped using the word "penny" (except – given the topics above – to "spend" one) and called it "pence" even in the singular. The "new" prefix faded away as we became accustomed to it.

The "guinea" is still used in livestock auctions, it would seem – apparently as an old tradition that gave the extra "bob" to the auctioneer, though of course the "New Guinea" when not an island is one-pound-and-five-nuppence.

I think I can still remember how to carry out Compound Arithmetic for proper measurements and currency; to calculate the cost of, say 3cwt 2qrs of coal at £17/6 a ton (or however much it was in the early-1960s when I was taught the method). Note the careful use of taught in that last clause – but don't ask me if it's an object or subject clause 'cos I forget how to identify them!

++++

One set of my grandparents lived in a Victorian terraced estate – for them as know Nottingham, Hyson Green as was – but theirs was among the better ones, with a tiny front yard between pavement and front door. The loo was a proper w.c. but in a brick outhouse (!) just beyond the back gate of a small yard that gave enough room to grow a few plants. Since the khasis were in a path serving several homes, reached by a passage though the terrace, it's possible they were earth closets when first built.

T'other grandparents were grander, as their 1920s-30s semi over in Arnold had an indoor w.c.. It was in a small lobby between the back door and the fair-sized kitchen / living-room – well-appointed with both a range and one of these new-fangled gas-stoves. Front room? Oh yes, but one keeps one's front room for best, and I never discovered when "best" was! (In the Hyson Green home the front room was equally for best but also the route from front door past the cellar door to the back room – I forget what we called the latter, parlour I think – stairs and scullery.

A native of Leeds told me his parents' first home was in a similar terrace with brick outhouse, but instead of a chain to pull the loo was flushed by a "flop-jack" – a device borrowed from old-time metal-ore mining, comprising a small tank on bearings, filled with water until it over-balanced and sent several gallons of water drain-wards in a rush. The flop-jack, below the loo floor, was filled from the roof down-spout. Consequently, he explained, in hot dry weather the whiff of drains was noticeable; while in very wet weather the foul miasmas were replaced by continual crashing, splashing and rushing noises as a dozens of flop-jacks discharged all out of synch with each other, and banged back down on their rests. (I don't know if the scullery sink also drained to the flop-jack.)

+++

Just looked back to see what we had been talking about. The Unique test-indicator. Oh yes!

Well, Nottingham was an industrial town so no doubt the Unique was by no means unique there. I do not know when it was invented, but if far back enough my Grandad Kay, the Arnold one, might have been familiar with it. He was a lace-designer; meaning he designed not the art-work itself but the lace-looms' cams and control mechanisms that generated the patterns. A previous Kay established himself as cycle-manufacturer under his name in the city, so may well have used if not the Unique then perhaps something like it!

I have just looked… yes, though I forget how I came by it, mine is indeed a Unique !

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Nigel, I think the "Unique" was really a name, maybe it was the first of its type as opposed to a dial gauge which were more expensive and the cheapest ones being a little over £3.00 in my Buck & Hickman catalogue of 1964. The Verdict "junior" was a similar product and was 4 Shillings dearer (20p) than the "Unique" at the same time.

 

Although our family was of "working class" we must have been lucky to live in a house with an outside flushing loo i.e. could only be accessed buy going outside as it was in a lean-to, although the coal hole and pantry were all part of the same lean-to, but were accessed from the scullery indoors. We also had an indoors flushing loo and bathroom in one, but from what I can remember being told, the water was heated by a fire with a back-boiler which I can't remember, but was either not working or was very inefficient, hence the use of a tin bath, but I was only a toddler at the time, but I can remember a new Coke burning stove designed for heating water being installed in the kitchen which meant we could have proper baths. The Coke stove was also brilliant for doing toast with the front door open and exposing the vertical grate holding up the red hot burning Coke, happy days.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 17/09/2020 08:31:19

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

My grandparents never used the gas fired copper in the kitchen/scullery. Water was heated by the back boiler behind the range in the dining room. This was replaced by a normal fireplace with tiled surround, but was as ineffective as the range in heating water, but lacked the oven by its side, which had been used to keep dishes warm.

The sitting room was only rarely used, because the fire in there had to lit and tended.

Ah! The days before central heating, TV and power points in each room, when three speed gear meant a De Luxe bike!

Howard

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Nicholas –

I was playing with the trade-name "Unique" and word "unique" there, but thank you for showing us the advertisement for the similar "Verdict".

13/6 would have been quite pricey in 1964, but it's odd to note that the magnetic stand cost an economical 4/- more. You'd think it would have been the other way round. Perhaps it was the magnet that was the expensive item, and was more likely bought than made by Verdict.

The "Unique" has not a rod-clamp but a flat clamp-plate held by two screws with knurled nuts; amenable to, say, gripping a piece of square bar held in a lathe tool-post. The primary differences between them though, are in the style and disposition of the plunger.

[Mark EasingwoodParticipant @markeasingwood33578]

Me Dad, who was born in East Yorkshire, but worked in various parts of the UK, including the Midlands, and London, often called 5 bob, or 25p, an "Oxford Scholar", or a "Dollar".

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

I've got a Verdict. It's small so it can get into places the dial gauges have difficulty with. It's simple, very simple in that there isn't much inside it. Probably it's biggest failing is that the graduations are only about 1mm apart which does make for slightly awkward reading if trying to accurately measure very small changes. But as a general purpose test indicator where sub-micron readings are not required, it's ok.

I like it.

Peter G. Shaw

[Author]

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