Member postings for Mike

I had a problem about a month ago when I acquired a new printer. Found I couldn't print some previously-saved documents, primarily in MS Publisher. It seems that some software running under Windows 10 automatically looks for the printer you used last time you printed the document, and when it can't find it, nothing happens............

Lead-free fishing weights are also made of tin or bismuth. If tungsten putty is the way to go, there's a good selection on Amazon, and it's not too expensive.

And just to add to the many uses of pee, back in the black powder and mercuric primer days I gather it was rated by the US Cavalry as an emergency rifle barrel cleaner. I also recall reading somewhere that it was used for the early production of phosphorous, and the Romans used it for washing clothes. My grandad maintained it made rhubarb grow............

Also, thank you, gentlemen, for the reason for quenching silver steel in brine. Back in the early 1970s an old engineer told be to do it, and I've done so ever since, without knowing why.

So far it seems to be all about electric cars. What about the haulage industry - not a lot seems to be said about electric trucks.

When the moaners show film of pollution coming from coal-burning power stations, they invariably show clouds of harmless steam coming from cooling towers. The BBC is the worst offender. But Russell is right - you can't see CO2.

Neil, I take your point. As an aside, you mention low carbon, low pollution sources as wind, nuclear and solar. What's happened to hydro electricity, which has been with us here in Scotland for many years? Without resorting to Google I can't tell you when the last hydro dam was built, but it must have been a long time ago. Hydro seems to be almost a dirty word now, so does anyone know why? I remember, maybe about 15 years ago, when there was a major problem with a power station in the north of England, the Scottish Hydro Board fed enough power into the grid to keep the city of Newcastle going for, I think, two months.

Edited By Mike on 08/11/2017 11:03:46

Vintagengineer, I like your cartoon. It's not that electric cars are cleaner than petrol or diesel, but a reflection on the fact that we are never presented with the full facts.

Dave, you might ask why people build beautifully-machined and well-presented steam engines, when they are nothing better than an inefficient relic of a bygone age. It's because they are wonderful things to own and admire - just like precision mechanical watches. And like you, if I won the lottery.............

I've never treated myself to a "posh" watch, for fear of damaging it while in the workshop or out fishing or shooting. However, I do have my father's Tissot Seamaster I inherited when he died in 1974. I've read that Tissot watches were made in the Omega factory when it was bought in the late 1960s, and the mechanisms were pretty much the same. Since '74 I used the watch for about 20 years, then retired it to spend most of its time gathering dust in a drawer. But last Sunday, when I tried to subtract the hour on my cheap Accurist, there was a nasty noise inside it and it ceased to function. I brought the old Tissot out of retirement, and it's kept absolutely perfect time. It seems that even moderately good quality is a wise investment.

This was a quite common modification to Anschutz .22 match rifles in the 1980s, and yes, it did look odd to see someone lift the bolt to lock it. Eventually they got around to producing "mirror image" actions.

Yes, Martin - firearms manufacturers have always seemed slow in producing rifles and shotguns for left-handers. If you fire a right-handed auto shotgun off your left shoulder, you get a hot spent cartridge case in your face when you pull the trigger. If you try that trick with some military rifles, you get smacked in the eye by the bolt handle. During WW2 a pal of my dad's got held to ridicule for suggesting the formation of a left-handed regiment, with left-handed rifles and other weapons.

There is, or at least was, a left-handed rifle club, and I can recall seeing them shoot at Bisley in the 1980s. And one of our leading competitive rifle shots, Barry Dagger, was left handed. But then, Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein were also left-handed.

I never could write left-handed, but I was ambidextrous with most tools - and thank goodness for that, because five years ago a stroke took away most of the strength in my right hand. When you think about it, most of the important controls on a lathe have to be used with the left hand. Like Ian, I never could use a long gun left-handed, but I could shoot a pistol with either hand. My dad was at one time a keen cricketer, and he used to bat left-handed and bowl right-handed - he always said because he was taught to bat by a left-handed coach. A medical professional who treated me for right-side tennis elbow told me to fish left-handed until I recovered, and it was not as difficult as I had anticipated.

Mick: Don't forget cyclists, line dancers, country walkers, bunny huggers, kids on skateboards. people who watch TV soaps, people who watch Strictly Come Dancing, ..... I could go on for ever! I'll met I have far more unfounded prejudices than you!

Danny, this reminds me of my mother's reaction when I bought by first computer. "It's lovely, dear, but what exactly does it do?" She never did understand the reply I gave her: "Well, mother, what do you want it to do?."

There seems to be a trend in the media nowadays to take the p*** out of any activity they don't understand, and one of the worst offenders is the BBC. And, yes, I am offended. When I trained as a journalist in the 1960s I was told that, if there was any activity I didn't understand, then I should speak to someone who did. On the other tack, I can still do mental arithmetic - in £/s/d. Proper money!

Agreed, Martin. It seems that the population density of England is over 1,000 per square mile. Where I live in Scotland the population density per square mile is around 100. OK, I'm lucky in that I'm semi-retired and, with modern communications I could do my job from anywhere in the world I chose. But then, I'm sure lots of jobs could be done from home if employers allowed it. Sorry, I've got a bit off the subject here, but at least we have relatively clean air to breathe.

I was in South-western France a few weeks ago, in a house in a village overlooking the Gironde, and we could see a nuclear power station from the balcony. Our host told us there was a plan for everyone in the locality to be issued with iodine tablets in the event of a leak. Makes you think...

I think ChrisH makes an important point when he says that many of the anti-everything brigade don't live in a real world, but still want their goodies. In this part of Scotland there's always a chorus of protest when yet another wind farm is proposed, but you try telling them that without the development totally clean power sources they might one day have to do without TV, Broadband, the washing machine and the dishwasher and you get laughed at. There are even objections to the offshore windfarm on the Beatrice field, the cables from which come ashore in my home village, and even more moaning about a big offshore farm off Fraserburgh. People just will not accept that you can't have everything.........

I see that somebody refers to me as a "plonker" because I dared to bring shipping into the argument. Never mind - as a journalist I have been called much worse names than that! All I was trying to say was that it is a global problem and is not confined to the health of people living in cities.

As an aside, in the 1960s I lived in a very rural part of Africa where the air was clean. On my return I found that all of Europe smelled of diesel. And I mean all - nor just the cities.

We seem to be obsessed by the damage done to the atmosphere by diesel cars. We never seem to get the true figures, which would include trucks, vans, buses and shipping - or is it me looking in the wrong place? Trawlers in the part of Britain where I live often have fuel capacities of over 30,000 litres. But that's burned at sea, where we don't see it so it doesn't matter, does it? And how much diesel does a big tanker burn on an average voyage? Sorry, I'm just getting cynical again.......