Boys' Toys - Models & Gee Dees


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banjo, the chemist's wife (I think!) you referred to, tested me on my First Aid badge for Girl Guides.  I remember going upstairs in the shop and she asked me various questions.  I passed!  

 

Pleased I missed your bomb-making in the brickyard!  

 

And what do you use a catapult for nowadays?

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Amazing what could be bought from the chemists in the 40's and 50's. As well as the usual salt petre etc. you could get photographers flash powder - whoooo!  Think I mentioned the big explosion we cau

Richard was encouraged in his explosive pursuits by his great uncle, also named Richard. A major in the Army and a weapons instructor. As a child, this maniac made a 'cannon' from a length of Victoria

Katyjay,we called some marbles "Glass allies",always managed to lose mine to the scruffy kid down the road,why were scruffy kids good at marbles,conkers,whip and top etc

 

Rog

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3 hours ago, MargieH said:

banjo, the chemist's wife (I think!) you referred to, tested me on my First Aid badge for Girl Guides.  I remember going upstairs in the shop and she asked me various questions.  I passed!  

 

Pleased I missed your bomb-making in the brickyard!  

 

And what do you use a catapult for nowadays?

Margie

Nothing serious, mainly to scare away 28 parrots (that's what they are called 28's here in W Australia ) that tend to roost in trees near us and drive me crazy with their raucous cries at 4-30 am in a morning !

A quick shot with some loose fine gravel soon moves them on to annoy somebody else.

 

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Someone mentioned Gadders and Glallies - in our street we called catapults both names.  Here's one I just happen to have in my little museum of 20th Century tat.  As it happens this is one of my original gadders from the 1960s..  I've no idea how I managed to hang on to it through two divorces! 

 

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Blimey Compo,there's a name from the past,Milbro (Millard Brothers) made loads of stuff for us boy's,fishing tackle,air guns,everything for the budding adventurer,thanks for the reminder

 

Rog

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On 19/11/2016 at 11:06 AM, Compo said:

Some of the things we did should, by rights, have killed us.  We made banger guns and fired Roman Candles at each other, cycled all over without a care, climbed trees without safety ropes, swam in the river, carried large sheath knives, you name it - we've done it at some point.

 

Same here compo.  I'm not going to publish the finer details for obvious reasons, but we used to make all the usual banger guns etc.  Progressed onto making little 'cannons' using the banger fuse and the powder charge separately loading with wadding and a missile just like a miniature cannon.

 

Then the were the 'Ahem..' chemical devices' with which we managed to.separate the doors from an abandoned vehicle and demolish assorted items.  (Well away from public gaze I should add.  We were daft, but we weren't malicious.)

 

My usual supplier was the old herbalist shop in Basford. (Lincoln St?)

 

We also had much fun with 'Nitrogen Tri Iodide'. which is extremely unstable if allowed to dry out, but remarkably easy to make.  It's perhaps just as well that the ingredients were too expensive to allow us to make more than an ounce or so...  :)

 

Col

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Compo # 29 clearly shows the position for the thumb, which as I mentioned above could result in extreme pain at the very least if you got it wrong.

 

Margie, #26

 

I recall someone telling me years ago that Anglers still use catapults for launching 'ground bait' out to wherever they want it when fishing. 

Another chap, who claimed to have a Firearms Dealer's Licence and was rather fond of bringing massive hand guns such as assorted 'Magnums' into work and showing them off on night shift, casually announced that he had used a catapult with ball bearings for 'shot' to kill ducks. I think the chap had some sort of problem.

 

Col

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Amazing what could be bought from the chemists in the 40's and 50's. As well as the usual salt petre etc. you could get photographers flash powder - whoooo!  Think I mentioned the big explosion we caused in my pals bake garden on Lake St. The plan was to blow a gooseberry bush up. A hole was dug to on side and under the bush and loaded with gump (it's what we called it). To concentrate the explosion under the bush we plugged the hole with and old brass paraffin heater. Needless to say, the bush remained in place but the brass heater blew sky high. It just vanished! Then there was a loud crash on next doors roof that removed a few slates. Luckily all adults were out at work and another mystery went unsolved :wacko:

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When working at Plessey in Beeston we made a hydrogen filled (home-made hydrogen) aluminium foil balloon and launched it outside the works.  The plan was to start a UFO rumour but nothing came of it.  Another project was a cannon.  This device was made from a large chunk of brass with a hole bored down one end. A tough hole was drilled and the whole thing loaded with a ball bearing and home-made gunpowder. A gun carriage was built from various bits of steel and wire and it was nicely mounted ready for use. It was only fired once....the ball passing through one side of a steel cabinet and out the other! FECK!

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It's amazing what you could do at Plessey. One Saturday morning whilst working in Pollards Palace (M Block) in the mid 60's, several of us managed to get one chaps Mini into the lift, get it in the Lab Workshop and give it a full service. 

Another time, whilst our executive was abroad on holiday, he left his car on site. Four of us 'borrowed' it for a weekend and went to Inverness !  He never noticed !

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Just on a more simple level - when at Pipewood camp every July, the Cow Parsley was maturing and there were unripe Elderberries and Rowan berries in abundance. Natures peashooter and ammo! ;) Cut the straightest stalks of the cow parsley for the selected ammo calibre :wacko: 

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On ‎18‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 8:56 PM, Compo said:

1950s Spud guns were made of a cast metal and fired spud pellets for a respectable distance. A spud gun fight was a must during the long summer holidays.

 

 

 

 

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being poor we improvised with a bike pump and hawthorn berries rammed into the outlet. They used to shoot like bullets and sting a fair bit if you got hit on bare skin..................

 

 

 

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Fly2 #36: I once had a white bike. I cycled into Plessey one Friday morning and caught the bus home in the evening. The following Friday I went to work on the bus and came home on a nice newly painted and stove enamelled 'Plessey Blue' bike, courtesy of  someone who owed me a favour. :)  

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I had cans of Red Lead paint which we ceased using, and I had my old Land Rover wheels sprayed Plessey cream. Good old days.

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Plessey sounds a lot like the NCB area workshops at Bestwood. I had a mate who worked there some years back and I am sure that on nights more time was spent on personal projects than owt else. If you ever see the Napoleonic Wars re-enactment people two of their cannon came from there.

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My first electric train set (Hornby three rail) contained this model loco.  I gradually built it up over many years into a fairly big layout.  Myself and a couple of mates spent many hours at GeeDee's and Beecroft's model shops drooling over the accessories that we would buy if we had a hundred pounds - a small fortune in those days   The photo is  from a calendar and it is the original that is out of focus - not mine.:)

 

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In the 1970s I spent much time touring the second hand shops around Arkwright Street, St Anne's and any other I could find.  I bought as much Scalextric stuff as I could get my hands on.  In the end I had a track that filled the entire ground floor of the house and lots of cars to run on it.....then came the divorce and it was gonethumbsdown

 

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When do us old un's stop having toys? My last toy was a Toyota Mk3 Hilux pick up truck with BIG tyres on. Had it for 8 years and would still have it but it was nicked 3 years ago. Running a sensible X Trail at the mo but it is quite boring. I'd love another pick up truck with even BIGGER tyres on :rolleyes:

 

...always wanted a tractor...still time tho'.....

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My neighbour in Orkney had a grey Fergie.  He used it for towing his boat down to the quayside for sea fishing.  I often got to drive it up or down to the sea.  I remember my tractor driving test in the Falkland Islands. I did very well around the town in a big Ford (model forgotten) tractor but when it came to reversing the trailer between two small lakes in the peat bogs I had to take a few goes at it before I got it right.  Afterwards, the instructor/examiner said that he thought I did well and that he may not have done much better in the bogs.

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Did anyone have  Throwing Arrows ? home made with a piece of thin branch about 16 inch long , slits in the end for the flights (made from Corn Flake Box), a notch three parts down the shaft and a piece of string  half hitched to catapult it skyward.We would find lost throwing arras in the winter when all the grass had died off

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