RMweb Gold franciswilliamwebb Posted June 9 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 9 3 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said: I spy a certain twinkle in her eye and a broad smile. But is it from experience or expectation? Indeed, she should have kept a straight face. She's her own worst enema 😉 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 Nearby pizzeria with interesting cooking method. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Radford Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 Not quite a sign, but interesting. Anyone come across a professional slug? 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Nick C Posted June 10 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 10 2 hours ago, Bill Radford said: Anyone come across a professional slug? They're more commonly known as 'politicians'... 1 3 2 4 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithMacdonald Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 An old classic.... 2 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Hroth Posted June 10 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 10 Joseph Swan invented the light bulb, he was from Sunderland... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan And the vacuum powered device that Ford used to move windscreen wiper blades were more erratic than described above, and would cease to function when most required! 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold franciswilliamwebb Posted June 10 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 10 23 minutes ago, Hroth said: Joseph Swan invented the light bulb, he was from Sunderland... Yes, I can certain see the motive there😉 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Johnster Posted June 10 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 10 (edited) 52 minutes ago, Hroth said: Joseph Swan invented the light bulb, he was from Sunderland... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan And the vacuum powered device that Ford used to move windscreen wiper blades were more erratic than described above, and would cease to function when most required! My first car, a Ford 100E Popular with a go faster stripe that didn't work, had vacuum windscreen wipers, which were fun if you were going up a steep hill in the rain (we have some of both in South Wales) but not dangerous, the speed would be too low to cause any damage. They would then go bonkers when you were coming down the other side on the overrun. I believe some diesel locomotives had a similar system. I recall in about 1972 coming down from Gloucester with a 45 and vacuum tanks, riding in the front with the driver, on a wet night, and the wipers, both sides, were noticeably feebly as we climbed from Alphington to Tutshill, power shut off at Wye Valley Jc, at which point the wipers started going a bit nuts. As we ran out on to the Wye bridge, the driver's wiper parted company with it's arm and was last seen spinning off into the river 70-odd feet below. I had to call the signals for him as far as Severn Tunnel, where he failed the loco. Tunnel sent a fitter over with a spare arm and blade. You could control the speed of the wipers with an air valve knob, but when I say 'control', it is in the loosest possible definition of the word! Edited June 10 by The Johnster 9 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Hroth Posted June 10 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 10 1 hour ago, franciswilliamwebb said: Yes, I can certain see the motive there😉 That's a bit unkind... 🙃 @The Johnster I've mentioned elsewhere recently that my dad had a Ford Pilot, slightly more upmarket than a 100e, but still fitted with vacuum windscreen wipers. I can vouch for their uphill efficiency. Whoever designed rhe misbegotten devices must have lived on the flat... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Dunsignalling Posted June 10 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 10 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Hroth said: That's a bit unkind... 🙃 @The Johnster I've mentioned elsewhere recently that my dad had a Ford Pilot, slightly more upmarket than a 100e, but still fitted with vacuum windscreen wipers. I can vouch for their uphill efficiency. Whoever designed rhe misbegotten devices must have lived on the flat... Vile contraptions, but they only work properly going downhill with the throttle shut. The more right foot you gave the car, the slower the wipers got. I remember them being entirely motionless with Dad gunning his 100E Squire up over Hembury Fort (mostly in second gear) until he lifted off for the bends half way up, when they went berserk for a few seconds.... Ford persisted with vaccy wipers (and three speed gearboxes) up to and including the Mk.II Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac range. Very stylish, but give me a Mk.III Z-Car any day... My first car was a 103E Pop, and the first thing I did to it was fit a Land Rover electric wiper motor. The transition from the side-valve jobs to the 105E Anglia represented a far greater advance IMHO than the Escort's replacement of it. The only real omission was front disc brakes and they were optional extras on entry level Escorts, anyway. John Edited June 10 by Dunsignalling 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 1 hour ago, The Johnster said: … I believe some diesel locomotives had a similar system … As did some buses - Lodekka FS , for example. (I don’t know if they had a vacuum system or pneumatic, but they were driven by air pressure.) I heard a bus company mechanic describing a call out to a terminus where a driver had failed an FS with the wipers not working, in heavy rain. The mechanic got into the cab, started the engine and noted a small bore rubber tube hanging down, with an open end, and a sound of rushing air. He stuck the open end back on the open end of the narrow metal pipe above it, the wipers started to move and he left, commenting in colourful terms about the intelligence of the driver. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Johnster Posted June 10 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 10 There was a period in my life when I was newly-married, working in Cardiff, and commuting to Abertillery where we had a fixerupper terraced cottage in a mk2 1500 Cortina Automatic (fairly rare beast, but not rare enough...). This thing had windsreen washers operated manually by a foot pump, a perfectly satisfactory if archaic system. Now, along my commuting route home, at the M4 jc.28 roundabout where the A467 leaves the A48, Gwent Constabulary used to park up under the M/way bridge out of the rain looking for likely specimens, and using it to train up the cadets. And, in all fairness, this Cortina was scruffy enough to qualify as a likely specimen on sight... So I was flagged down fairly frequently, and became on nodding terms with some of the sergeants who supervised the fun. And my windscreen washer nozzles had rusted up and could not be cleared, so I simply removed the plastic tubing and stuck it up through the little grille just in front of the washers. It worked fine; you'd press the foot pump, just to the left of where the clutch would have been on a manual xmission, and two bodies of water shot up and splattered themselves over your windscreen, which was just what you wanted them to do. One evening, flagged down again under the M/way, constable stands back with his arms folded like they do, sarge in the jam sandwich car, and the cadet, all bright and shiny and eager, out to impress, here we go... 'Is this your car, sir...', and so on, tyres, lights, exhaust, handbrake (check the handbrake, you'll get him on that, they never use them on automatics), the usual, and he was about to finish up when constable suggests checking my windscreen washers. So, I gave him a burst, but of course as the car wasn't moving at the time, what actually happened was that two gobbets of water shot about a foot straight up into the air, and then fell directly back down again. 'Do that again' says the constable, then 'Hey, sarge, come an' 'ave a look at this'.... After about 20 minutes I've got three Gwent Traffic Motorway Patrol units and the original training unit gathered around, all amused and entertained by the vertically aligned spurts of water. One poor cop bent over to look at the mechanics or should it be hydraulics and, on a nod from his colleages, I gave him one in the eye. When I eventually drained the bottle, they good-naturedly refilled it for me, and the general agreement was that, while the car looked like a condemned shed, it was in fact street legal, including the windscreen washer arrangement. 3 1 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 31 minutes ago, The Johnster said: There was a period in my life..... What a great tale!! 👍 I detect Volume 2 of "Johnster's Confessions" in the making.... 🤣🤣🤣 1 7 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithMacdonald Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 8 hours ago, Hroth said: And the vacuum powered device that Ford used to move windscreen wiper blades were more erratic than described above, and would cease to function when most required Were they, by chance, designed by the same person that sold the idea of the Atmospheric Railway to Brunel? 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium kevinlms Posted June 11 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 11 14 hours ago, Hroth said: J And the vacuum powered device that Ford used to move windscreen wiper blades were more erratic than described above, and would cease to function when most required! In theory, a great idea, because the power source was free, however it was obviously useless! Not that I'm old enough to have ever seen one! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stray Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 11 hours ago, The Johnster said: This thing had windsreen washers operated manually by a foot pump Mrs Stray's first Ford Fiesta ( mid 1980s) had the same. Never got stopped by the police though. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyPenguin Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 I had a 100E van with the dreaded vacuum powered wipers. I ftted a vacuum tank from a "de-luxe" saloon car which improved matters. In the end I modified the wipers with electic ones from something else (can't remember what except it was not a Ford). 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted June 11 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 11 2 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said: I had a 100E van with the dreaded vacuum powered wipers. I ftted a vacuum tank from a "de-luxe" saloon car which improved matters. In the end I modified the wipers with electric ones from something else (can't remember what except it was not a Ford). The favourite for an electric wiper conversion for a 100E was the wipers from a Morris Minor. For the earlier Fords with 6 volt electrics Volkswagen was the usual choice. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatB Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 1 hour ago, PhilJ W said: The favourite for an electric wiper conversion for a 100E was the wipers from a Morris Minor. For the earlier Fords with 6 volt electrics Volkswagen was the usual choice. Makes sense. From memory, from my Beetle phase, the wiper mechanism was both simple and pretty much self-contained, so would be relatively easy to fit into something else. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hodgson Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 Vacuum powered wipers? I've been in cars where the wipers were manually powered (by the front seat passenger if you've got one). They are still available .... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305040823505 Then there's this - worked from the back seat! https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=790466641401259 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derekl Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 When I drove buses in Johannesburg South Africa in the early 1970s I recall some had air powered wipers, presumably from the brake supply (also used for the gearbox, which had a small selector lever switching the air supply). The (electric) trolley buses also had air powered wipers, as I recall. My now rather vague recollection is that they were quite effective, although generally only needed for an hour or so in the late summer afternoon. The buses had signs, but I don't suppose they were whacky, unless one regards "No spitting - Moeni spoeg nie) as whacky. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Hroth Posted June 11 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 11 2 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said: Vacuum powered wipers? I've been in cars where the wipers were manually powered (by the front seat passenger if you've got one). They are still available .... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305040823505 Then there's this - worked from the back seat! https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=790466641401259 They were the original windscreen wipers. Posh cars were fitted with two, with a linking bar so the passenger didn't have to lean over towards the driver to operate them! Dunno about the "back seat" one, I don't follow facebook links! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post KeithMacdonald Posted June 11 Popular Post Share Posted June 11 1 3 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted June 11 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 11 50 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said: Thats because they haven't taxed it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Hroth Posted June 11 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 11 38 minutes ago, PhilJ W said: Thats because they haven't taxed it. The Romans did, piss was essential for bleaching their togas... 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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