The Engineer

The probably have contemporary Yellow Pages at Nottinghamshire Archives

The one with a disability was Jack Redfern - He was a bit scary to us kids but as you say he only wanted his fags lighting.

I see the commemorative stone is still there - wonder whether it will be dug out and repatriated with the clock next year?

I've not been intu Vic centre since we took the clock away. Has there been any official notice of where it will go when it comes back?

Update I've been at Hut E all day. I needed to figure out the shaft and bearing arrangement for the cobweb wheel (that's what we're calling the big water wheel now because it was meant to look like a cobweb). You might have noticed that the wheel was supported by a box just behind it, within which were two bearings. Anyone mechanically minded could tell you that this was bad design as the two bearings were too close to each other. Turns out that Emett didn't build it like that - it got changed sometime in the last 40 years. We want to get it back to original so that bearing box will be c

Mick, That's right - the back boiler isn't designed to take high pressure so is fed from a header tank (it's a vented system). However, the water passing through the back boiler is "primary" and will flow through a heat exchanger (coiled tube) in your copper tank to pass the heat to the water that comes out of hot taps ("secondary" circuit) then back to the boiler. There's likely to be some arrangement of pump and diverter valve as well if you have CH. The header tank for the primary circuit / back boiler is usually a small "feed and expansion" variety. Have a look at your copper tank - p

See blog at http://rowlandemett.blogspot.co.uk/ plenty of commentary and great photos Check out the Rowland Emett Society website (www.rowlandemett.com) Also there's a Facebook page run by Enigma1st

Here's the wheel with its wooden rim.

Mick, Removal of the tanks depends how they are connected. You say two tanks - are they similar size? If so they could be one for hot and one for cold - alternatively they could be combined (maybe a double size tank was not available or there was a need to spread the weight - 1kg per litre). In UK, "traditional" (meaning old) systems connect cold water "mains" to toilets, electric shower and all cold taps (bath tap might be exception - see below). Hot water systems that employ a storage tank (usually a lagged copper cylinder in the airing cupboard) often has parts that cannot withstand ma

Update: Was at the Time Fountain bunker yesterday from 11:45am to around 6:30pm. I stripped out the rest of the bits from the control box (mainly the mechanism that lifts the petals). The box assembly is almost ready to go to the soda blasters. I built a wooden rim for the big cobweb water wheel, to minimise damage to its water catchers when it is in transit (one or two had gotten bent during its move from Nottingham). I curved three lengths of CLS by cutting deep slots at 50mm pitch, then cut 18 off 200mm noggins to go between the rim and the wheel. It was a bit tricky to assemble this

The rest of the parts were transported to a secret location yesterday. I went there in the evening to meet the group and start to divvi up who will do what. I brought the control panel, the mechanical plate (with the clockwork on it), two of the motors and a gearbox back with me. There is a gearbox (worm and wheel type) that drives the petals with a bung on the side that says "oil level". This wouldn't have been accessible in-situ. Thought I'd better check the level....... are you ahead of me?.........dry as a bone. Luckily it only runs for around seven seconds eight times an hour so I t

Have been playing that MovieTone clip a lot, trying to estimate the rotational speed of the water wheel. This is because I need to decide how fast to make it run when I specify a new motor/gearbox/drive-shaft. I have a figure now but can someone else try to estimate rotational speed and see what they come up with? Answer as x seconds per rev or RPM. Of course we don't know whether MovieTone has been reliably copied via TeleCine, so speed could be a bit out anyway. If it helps, there are 18 water catchers and there's a section around 1:36 where over half a revolution can be observed.

Just found another video. This is Rowland Emett at the official opening, mini-curtains and all. http://www.movietone.com/N_POPUP_Player.cfm?action=playVideo&assetno=105041

YouTube: nine hours of work compressed to about a minute! I'm the one in the white hat (except for when it got too hot, in which case I'm the baldy man). " "

Yesterday I took some of the parts to show other members of the Rowland Emett Society. Several of them are members of a pre-war Austin Seven club, so are well versed in applying skills to old mechanical things. I've said I will manage any electrical aspects and sort out the drive needed for the water wheel. The deadline is to have it up and running in Birmingham by 12th May, where it will live until September.

Update: Yesterday's work started at 6.30pm. I used my pickaxe to lift the slate slabs from around the clock's legs. The Intu engineers started to dig into the concrete with a 110V SDS chisel but it was hard going. Another Intu engineer used a cherry picker to remove the remaining petals. There was one that simply wouldn't budge so it was left attached. One of the contractors doing other work on the site pitched up with a bigger electric chisel so we had a go with that on the concrete. It was still not very fruitful - the concrete semed particularly hard. We then took five and browsed s

Update: I got to the Vic Centre around 5.30pm yesterday. Intu management and PR people were there around 6pm. BBC Radio Nottingham were covering it and I think Evening Post too. Apparently Central TV had said they'd be there but something else must have come up. We had to wait until 7pm for the public to leave before the Intu engineers could bring two cherry pickers to the area. Tim from the Emett Society set up a couple of video cameras upstairs on the balcony. Intu staff brought a stack of pallets and rolls of bubble wrap. The Intu engineers started from the top, removing the three p

Have visited again this morning to get some more dimensions. Don't think I got papped this time! There is no enclosure up yet but we are still scheduled to start dismantling on Monday after the shops close. BTW, I hear the elephants will be removed today.

Cliff Ton, That is indeed me. You should have come down to say hello!

Update: I have recently seen some photographs from the private collection of Rowland Emett's family and it is obvious that quite a few frame tubes and other bits have been removed at some point. The mechanical arrangement supporting the main water wheel is also not as per original. Some of you may also remember that there was a ring of water spouts around the base of the middle feature - one photograph shows the spouts and associated pipework. I'll enquire about permission to publish the photographs. When we take the clock away in February, we will assess the potential to restore it as mu

A comedy great; Roger made Trig a household name. Outstanding acting skill to remain pan-faced while delivering the funniest lines in the script. I'll bet other cast members creased up, causing several retakes. At least Roger's contribution to comedy and drama were captured on film and tape for posterity.

Just to clarify, the management DO want to keep the clock - it will be coming back. They understand its importance and historical links to the shopping centre and to the City. In regard of the money thrown into the basin, it is periodically collected and has been donated to various charities over the years. There has been an estimated £250,000 pitched in over the last forty years! None of this money goes towards upkeep, maintenance, renovation, etc. of the clock, nor does it go to the Council. The Engineer

Bear in mind that it was generally Christenings rather than births that were recorded because parish records are church-based events. I have some families that seemed to wait until there were three or four children and then get them all Christened on the same day (do you suppose it was chargeable with a bulk discount?) If you are searching local events, the library (Angel Row) and the archives (down by the canal) both have microfiche records that you can view (and print if necessary). Familysearch is the IGI (International Genealogy Index) compiled by Mormons and free to use. It's a useful

Breaking news........... The basin was emptied today so that we could look around and size up the job. It's not known whether the legs are concreted in so a part of the slab-work will need to be broken up to find out. The dismantling of the clock will commence on Monday 10-February so we decided that isn't worth filling the basin with water again. A solid barrier will be erected around the clock soon and used to display information about plans for the area. The Engineer

The exhibition in Birmingham is temporarily bringing together several works by Emett. I have no reason to suspect that 'our' clock won't be back next year.